Wishes & Perversions - Post Yours

[seasong]

I always use the "conservation of energy" rule when dealing with Wishes. (Except when malicious efreeti are involved - that's different.) This was in an old Dragon way back when...

Basically, think of the Wish as an entity - especially appropriate when using supernatural agencies - who wants to accomplish your stated goal in the most efficient manner possible. So he won't use a 9th level spell effect when a 6th level will do.

I like!

I steal!

Mwuhahahaha!

 

[Zander]

"I wish I had a +5 sword."

"Okay. All of reality had been altered, and for as long as your character can remember he has been in possession of a mighty +5 sword. You and your companions clearly remember many past adventures where the +5 sword figured prominently. Remember that lich you killed in the Haunted Moors? Beheaded by your +5 sword. The Half-Dragin Monks in the Spire of Jade? Yep---that +5 sword wasted them too. Your +5 sword has been woven into the tapestry of your character's life and has crossed into legend like Excalibur, Stormbringer or Mjollnir.

Whoops, it vanishes in a puff of smoke.

You had a +5 sword."

Your interpretation is incorrect. If the player had said "I wish I had had a +5 sword", then it would have been fair to have assumed he didn't have it any longer. As stated, there's no reason he shouldn't have it.

Besides, the wish is not said in character. "+5" has no meaning in that context in most game worlds. So the character wouldn't have stated it exactly like the player quoted above anyway.

 

[Savage Wombat]

RE: I had a +5 sword...

To quote from the aforementioned Dragon magazine...

"The subjunctive case is dying in the English language; why should an efreeti honor it?"

Grammatical correctness should be critical when dealing with beings that pervert wishes.

 

[Zappo]

Brooks: "I wish the wagon wheel never broke."

Wait, so they never got into the fight, and thus the cleric never had to cast the Wish.

But if he didn't cast the Wish, what prevented the wheel from breaking?

*head explodes*

 

[The_Gneech]

This thread illustrates why I, as a player, always refuse any wishes offered to me unless I really trust the DM. This always shocks the other players and DM ("What do you wish for?" -- "No thanks. I don't want the wish"), but I see no need to waste time playing semantics with the DM only to have him screw me anyway.

Nharwell Johnson is right! When the DM says, "I shall grant you a wish!" and then gets a look of evil glee on his face, my instinctive response is, "I wish to have a DM who doesn't like to jerk around his players."

-The Gneech

 

[Bryan Vining]

When I read the title of this thread I thought it was about something else. A pity that it's just D&D

Anyway, I personally don't get off on perverting wishes. However, if a player insists on making a wish that is just ridiculous, I will oblige. But, I don't have a favorite per se. I just do what seems appropriate.

 

[seasong]

Nharwell Johnson is right! When the DM says, "I shall grant you a wish!" and then gets a look of evil glee on his face, my instinctive response is, "I wish to have a DM who doesn't like to jerk around his players."

Agreed. If I'm just looking to jerk the players around, there are far, far more subtle ways of doing it than giving them a wish and then perverting it.

Somewhere on these boards (a while back) I saw the example of a longsword which does an additional +1d6 damage... if you take 1 hp of damage yourself. Glee!

An NPC necromancer in my long-ago Europ campaign once enchanted a suit of armor to absorb some ridiculous number of hit points (like 1,000 hit points or something). While wearing it, you were invincible... until it ran out, and recharged using your soul. The player wasn't sure how many hit points it had left, but he kept using it.