Wishin' is fo' suckahs...

[Shadowdweller]

As has been said:

Perverting even a simple wish is something any 10 year old can do.

...but it takes a REAL DM to maintain Wish as a powerful 9th level spell with a huge xp cost without unbalancing the game.

Something perhaps like this:

I wish everybody in that encampment would fall asleep for the next 2 hours.

So everyone gets a save vs a 9th level spell...with any elves being automatically immune. Leaving at least a good 5% awake (nat 20 rolls) to wake everyone else up while the death is occurring.

 

[Caeleddin]

Werk - I have yet to choose Wish for a 9th level spell. Only time I would consider it is if I want to raise my stats by 5.


Bob - ROFLMAO! Yes. That would get really ugly.

 

[Jack Simth]

I wish that all of the opposing armies possesions appeard 40 foot above them.

They all get DC 15 reflex saves to avoid (1d2)d6 bludgeoning damage, their possessions take 4d6 falling damage. Now you have half of a very annoyed army after you (1/4 made their saves, a good chunk of the remainder survived the damage) that are naked and have damaged equipment. They will be after you again with a short delay.

I wiash the opposing army were on the plane of fire.

A high-radius plane shift puts the opposing army, and a large chunk of surrounding land (just enough radius to include you, as well) on the plane of fire.

I wish the opposing army did not have arms.

Each and every opposing soldier is polymorphed into a different armless monster of higher CR than the origninal soldier.

I wish I had a lawyer.

You have a lawyer. However, he works for himself, first and foremost, so when you ask him what you should wish for, he has you make 25,000 gp, and charges you 100,000 gp for the consultation.

And by the way, he's rich, and can afford very expensive collections agents. Congrats; you are down 75,000 gp and 10,000 exp.

Wish for a 25,000 gp gold statue, sell it, and then hire an army of your own.

 

[blargney the second]

So everyone gets a save vs a 9th level spell...with any elves being automatically immune. Leaving at least a good 5% awake (nat 20 rolls) to wake everyone else up while the death is occurring.

Addendum to wishing the army asleep: cast it during the night so no-one has any reason to wake up the other soldiers.

 

[boredgremlin]

I like the 'i wish the army was interested in something else' idea. very subtle.

It does say that the wish may pervert your intent, seems to me that the opinion of most people is that the wish will always pervert your intent. Is this based on experience or are you just saying what could happen worst case? I'm not looking for worst case, but more how you would play it or have seen it played. (I've never seen a Wish used for anything beyond those things listed in the spell description.)

So aside from the DM, um..., unfairly disadvantaging the caster, what is the draw-back of the spell? In the Ur Priest example, he got wish 3x/day...seems like he could eventually get it right and/or seriously twist a game.

Lol the wish is allways twisted for 3 reasons.
1) if it isnt then casters who can use it are actually gods. Capable of twisting the world however they want. Which must be discouraged.
2) Ever read the monkeys paw? Wish is given out for that same reason. Its a tease, a fun story thing. The players know it will twist on them and probably turn out bad. But its just sooooo tempting to try that they do it anyway. And then the DM gets to have some fun.
3) and finally cultural. Have you ever seen a single movie or TV show where someone got wishes and it turned out to be a good thing? This sort of real world expectation should be maintained.

 

[green slime]

I feel that in general DMs are too scared to be gernerous with wish, and that is what causes so many to be overcautious. On the other hand, there is no lack of overeager players who would just love to get away with rediculous things.

I guess the "easiest" way to adjudicate these things is to look at spell effects of a similar level, and/or upscale lower level spells.

Unsupported Wall of Iron? Yeah sure. Probably doesn't cover the whole area though....
True Mass Heightened Sleep Effect (or similar)? Sure! Uncertain if it affects all (dependoing on the size of the army (Will save) and someone is bound to wake up before everyone is slaughtered....
Mass Domination/Suggestion? Again, of course!

Remember the character has just blown away a huge chunk of XP and cursing or crippling an army should be within the realm of the Archmage, at that cost.

As a DM, I warn wizards about to make real stupid wishes, because, I feel that they should be aware of the limitations of the magic, and have superior Intelligence anyway. On the other hand, imbecile fighters get EXACTLY want they asked for....

 

[Whimsical]

As a DM, I warn wizards about to make real stupid wishes, because, I feel that they should be aware of the limitations of the magic, and have superior Intelligence anyway. On the other hand, imbecile fighters get EXACTLY want they asked for....

You mean like: "I wish to have the sword Stormbringer in my hand!"?

 

[Caeleddin]

Yes. And so is the hand of your God, which the spell ripped off to bring Stormbringer to you. Opps!

 

[nameless]

I feel a little bit ashamed of all you DMs who insist on perverting the wish into utter uselessness. It's the most powerful ability a mortal can use, and it costs 5000 xp to even attempt. Unless the caster is really, really foolish, it's only fair to have the spell provide an advantage.

Given the way that wishes will always be twisted to fit the letter of the word, it seems like a better idea to just wish for what you want instead of phrasing some unique and bizarre effect. "I wish that my army was powerful enough to defeat the enemy army today." Maybe it'll polymorph your entire army into trolls, maybe it will cause all of the enemies' swords to rust or their horses to run away. Since the DM is adjudicating anyways, just let him give you the bonus he sees fit. If he's reasonable, it will be in line with a spell more powerful than shapechange or meteor swarm, which should be a pretty big effect.

 

[Goolpsy]

The wish is reeally overpowered, and that is, why its dealt with in several books, (kind of like time stop)
Wishing the entire army to sleep = dublicate a high dc sleep spell... (thats within the discribtion)

But how can people get mad/sad/annoyed over DM's making fun of wishes?
I would probably even pervert a wish within the discription...
"I wish 15000 gold" and a dragon mgiht be summoned together with his treasure..
or something like that...

Back to perverting the sleeping army ^^
all in that camp could have nightmares summoning some nightmare creature.. (from monsters of Farûn i think) and the greater version, because its so many soldier 'with bad dreams'. So instead of fighting a human army, you'll have to fight a nightmare/incorporal army...

anyway... Wish is overpowered even for its XP cost... most of the people getting annoyed by it getting perveted are probably those editing their fighter to have 50 strenght... or rolling 5 on 1d20.. while saying "18, did i hit? Great looks like i get my critical afterall"