D&D General Wishing Away The Adventure

[Ancalagon]

There's little that can be done if a player insists on being a jerk. And running away at the start of any trouble, when the rest of the party is in danger, is the PLAYER being a jerk, regardless of what he says his character would do.

And why do the other PCs let an untrustworthy coward be in the party?

"I'm sorry, this isn't working out. Here's your share of the party treasury. get out"

 

[Ancalagon]

Inspired by the High Level Adventures thread, but focused on a particular thing.

There seems to be a concern that high level PCs, or even lower level ones in possession of a wish, would use a wish to just not go on the adventure. If the quest is that they retrieve the Sword of Awesome from the Tomb of Badness, they will just wish the sword into their hand. Or otherwise use powerful magic to circumvent play.

Has anyone ever actually done this, or seen it in play? Is it a valid concern? Why would players choose to avoid playing?

that's the fundamental challenge of high level play for a GM. Not that the fighter does 200 damage/round. Rather, the numerous in-game ways casters can avoid, solve or bypass in-game challenges with magic.

And why wouldn't the high level PCs do this? If the adventure is dangerous and important, why not take the shortcut and guarantee the win? It's sound roleplaying.

 

[Mort]

He's not a regular player. He's a guy we play with sporadically maybe twice a year these days.
A good friend whose gaming style is not the most fun - but great to grab a drink and chat with. If that makes sense.

I had a similar friend in college. Great to do anything with (dinner, drinks, sports, movies and tv) EXCEPT game. But he really loved to game and tried to make that the go-to activity. Problem was, he was an absolute nightmare to game with, turned from a fun loving easy going guy to a controlling, name calling, selfish jerk (transformation was almost eerie). We just stopped inviting him, and never brought up gaming around him. And when he brought it up, took turns changing the subject.

 

[Seramus]

And the second wish they make fails because they're immune to any and all effects of any wish spell.

I think the intent is the world can change, but the wizard does not.

But it would be hilarious if a bunch of wizardz gets forced into an alternate dimension every time someone else casts wish, and they have to plane shift back to figure out who the fark did it and why!

 

[Tonguez]

Why do they need the sword? - is getting it the whole adventure or is there more? If more, then all good move on to that (and any other consequences of leaving the lair full of bad guys intact)

That said Wish is a spell that needs to be deleted and made Djinni only. The adventure then is locating a Djinni and convincing it to comply

 

[overgeeked]

Has anyone ever actually done this, or seen it in play? Is it a valid concern?

Yes, it's just a thing gamers do. Even in less obvious and extreme examples. It happens all the time. Pick any encounter ending spell, not just a wish. It's the same thing. They do this because gamers want to win, generally speaking. They don't want to be challenged, generally speaking. Whatever is the shortest distance between the PCs and achieving the PCs' goals, they'll take. Regardless of how boring that path is. Is the easiest way to defeat an enemy the wish spell, they'll use it. Is the easiest way to defeat an enemy the forcecage spell, they'll use it. Banishment, yep. Story, drama, conflict...none of it seems to matter. Efficiency is king...no matter how boring that makes the game.

Why would players choose to avoid playing?

Gamers do it literally all the time. It's the same problem with gamers not making characters who fit the game's premise. In D&D making a character who's not an adventurer, for example. The game is monster fighting, so why would you make a character who can't, won't, or doesn't want to fight monsters? Because the gamer doesn't want to play the game. Likewise with Call of Cthulhu and gamers who make characters who run away from the horror and mystery instead of towards it. Because the gamer doesn't want to play the game.

 

[Distracted DM]

I've never seen it. Then again I rarely see wish used in 5E other than to replicate other spells.

Actually, the end of my 2yr Night Below game ended with two Wishes.
A character had just gotten Wish, and the party was about to assault the Sunken City to reach the Big Boss(es). The player asked if everyone was on board with him Wishing them to the objective instead of them fighting through the city and down the tower levels.

I reasoned that it was basically mimicking a lower-level spell: Teleport Without Error.
Let it rip.

The players found their characters in the big boss room, with multiple big bosses. Uh-oh.

Initiative was rolled, and the players asked if everyone was cool with them basically suicide mini-nuking the room; the characters used a second Wish to set off every spell-gem in a Helm of Brilliance at once as their individual spells.
Lots of dice and saves were rolled.

Everyone except the Rogue died, but they saved their land from the terrible threat and we did a wrap-up.

So they didn't use Wish to avoid the adventure, but to creatively shortcut.

I've had other uses of Wish, always to diminish or shortcut around issues; but never to avoid the adventure. I guess I've been lucky that very few, if any, players at my tables have wanted to NOT play D&D?

A couple players didn't want their characters to die, so they retired them. But they made new characters that jumped straight into adventure.

Edit: I had really hoped one of the Prismatic Sprays from the helm would send folk to different planes, that's happened in other games and that would've been another interesting outcome... But no such luck.
Well, things ended as well as they could have this way

 

[Reynard]

Why do they need the sword? - is getting it the whole adventure or is there more? If more, then all good move on to that (and any other consequences of leaving the lair full of bad guys intact)

That said Wish is a spell that needs to be deleted and made Djinni only. The adventure then is locating a Djinni and convincing it to comply

It was just an example. In reality, when I run adventures that roughly conform to the "get mcguffin to defeat bbeg" trope, I leave it to the PCs to figure out how to acquire it. If they want to burn their one wish they got from an earlier adventure to summon it, fine. Now you don't have it for the battle with the bbeg.

Like I said, this thread was more about asking if this was actually a problem, or just a argument people make against high level play.

 

[Mort]

And why do the other PCs let an untrustworthy coward be in the party?

"I'm sorry, this isn't working out. Here's your share of the party treasury. get out"

Same reason as ever, the PLAYERS didn't want to boot the offending player.

This kind of problem is a player issue not an in game PC
Issue.

 

[TwoSix]

It was just an example. In reality, when I run adventures that roughly conform to the "get mcguffin to defeat bbeg" trope, I leave it to the PCs to figure out how to acquire it. If they want to burn their one wish they got from an earlier adventure to summon it, fine. Now you don't have it for the battle with the bbeg.

Like I said, this thread was more about asking if this was actually a problem, or just a argument people make against high level play.

I think it's a problem if and only if you rely on a ton of crafted set pieces and a lot of detailed prep as your normal DMing procedure. In my own DMing, I'm a full-on improviser, so high-level shenanigans don't change my flow.