In previous editions of D&D you knew that your PC reached the pinnacle of power when he could cast the wish spell. Wish always represented the most powerful and complicated spell in the PHB no matter which version of D&D you were playing. As if to make wish even more desirable, there existed limited wish – a spell that’s only purpose was to give you a diluted taste of the real thing. Now we have 4e D&D and I can’t find wish anywhere. What happened to the wish spell?
As a player I always wanted the wish spell. It was so powerful that it’s only real limit was your imagination. It was a way to use magic to accomplish whatever it was you needed to do when none of the other spell in the game could do it. I remember playing an entire campaign just to help the Wizard get his hands on a wish spell. A Wizard with wish eclipsed all other PCs, even a Paladin with a holy avenger.
As a DM wish was both a bane and a boon. As soon as a PC got his hands on the wish spell you had to be ready for anything. And I mean anything. Players can be unpredictable at the best of time, but when they’ve got the ability to cast wish their actions are no longer limited in any way. The saving grace for DMs was that a wish could be manipulated and twisted in order to subvert the PC’s intended outcome. It’s a mean and underhanded thing to do if you’re a DM, but the PCs have to realize that when they’ve got that kind of power at their fingertips the DM is going to try and balance the scales.
Now we have 4e D&D and wish has disappeared. I suppose it’s not really fair to give Wizards something as limitless as wish and deny the other classes something equally powerful. One of the significant changes between 3e and 4e was the attempt to level the playing filed among the classes. What could you possible give a Fighter that is on par with a wish spell? Anything you think of will only be silly, overwhelming and still not nearly as versatile as wish.
When we had wish in D&D it existed in other places than a Wizard’s spell book. There were items that could grant wishes. A ring of wishes, a luck blade, and the moon card from the deck of many things are just a few examples that come immediately to mind. None of these items exist with their wish granting capabilities in 4e D&D.
Even monsters like the djinns, inspired by myth and legend, and known for having the ability to grant wishes no longer have that power in 4e. They’re still powerful and dangerous opponents, but they won’t be granting PCs wishes any more.
Wish is gone. Is this a good thing? Was it too powerful for PCs in the first place? With every new edition of D&D we got more and more guidelines in the PHB about what a wish could do. In essence the game’s creators tried to define the boundaries of its power. But the very nature of a wish carries with it an unlimited potential, regardless of “suggested uses” listed in the rule book. I think wish needed to be removed to keep the playing field (somewhat) level, but the image of the Wizard as the most powerful character has definitely taken a serious hit because of it.
What do you think? Did you even notice that wish was gone? Should wish be introduced to 4e D&D? How would you keep things balanced with this kind of power available to only one class?
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1 2 3 Next »People in your groups actually made wishes? On purpose?
Our group was terrified of anything that granted us wishes. No matter how carefully they were worded, they always came back to hurt us. We'd usually try to wish for something incredibly simple, just to avoid catastrophe.
If they did put Wish in 4e, I'm 100% certain it would be a level 30 Ritual. So any class could have it.
If I were to put wish back into my 4e campaign, I would do it either as a plot device, or as a Divine Boon, as per DMG2.
As Swordgleam noted, wishes should almost always be a double edged sword with plot implications later in the game.
.-= Phaezen´s last blog ..World Wide D&D Game Day: Dungeon Masters Guide 2 =-.
Wish should be something, in my opinion, that players cannot get to use consistently. It should not be a spell or a ritual. Like Phaezen said, a plot device or Divine Boon would work. As for wishes in previous editions, I agree with Swordgleam and take it one step further – whenever I found an artifact, I tossed it in a river. Deck of Many Things? Threw it into a well. Back in older editions, it was not worth it being screwed over by that crap.
In my Spirits of Eden campaign setting, there is a Spirit called a Hoitoki. In its monster block, it has the ability to grant a single wish once per day. But it must grant it voluntarily. It's a very rare monster and it is much sought after, and it makes for a cool plot, especially if someone is competing with the PCs to get that creature and wish for something terrible (Hoitoki wishes don't have very many limits.)
.-= Wyatt´s last blog ..10 Things You Must Know About The Spirits of Eden =-.
I'm in agreement with Wyatt and Phaezen -- a Wish effect ought not to be at a player's beck and call, but rather a unique opportunity granted by something uniquely powerful.
I personally think that wishes ought to have a certain karmic consideration attached to them. A selfish wish acquired from an unsavory creature or ritual, or a magic item that makes wishes just too easy (e.g. the classic Monkey's Paw) will certainly have negative consequences the players couldn't have foreseen (very much in line with early D&D wish effects.) However, a wish earned from some good-aligned power or item, and used for something other than personal gain -- to protect a city, help defeat a demon, whatever -- ought to not only have the wished-for effect, but good side effects.
I like your strategy, Wyatt. Our half-orc fighter stumbled across the Deck once... that ended very poorly. I think that's where our terror of wishes originated.
I agree with everyone above: wishing should be something rare and special. It seems a wish is a prime candidate to embed in an artifact.
Another way to limit the power of wishing is to limit its scope. Maybe the Abyssal Tooth Dagger artifact only grants wishes to harm people. Gorbert's Cooking Spoon only grants wishes to make food better. The Djinn of Commerce can only grant wishes that give you money.
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I'll agree with wishes being rare... but I HATE (yes, in all caps) the whole BS about screwing people over who are making wishes. I just hate people being pedantic, and using the wordings of wishes to screw people over is pedantry in the highest form, IMO. I pretty much always go for what I view as the spirit of a wish, as opposed to the letter.
If you want to have limitations on the wish, sure. The effect has to be one time, or permanent, or can only effect you, or whatever seems appropriate for the circumstances... but if you are handing out wishes to the players, they should probably not be a means for you to bitch slap them for being a little sloppy on their wording. Unless that's the whole point of handing it out...
From a mechanical standpoint, it seems like functionality similar to the classic 'Wish/Miracle' spell would be better suited to an epic destiny. Build an entire epic destiny (which would, I suppose, have any divine or arcane class as a prerequisite) around the concept of open-ended power, with similar limitations to its 3.5 incarnations. That way, a character can get their wish, and it will replace the other OMGHAX powers they get at high levels.
Like you, I miss the wish spell. Now, I'm mainly a GM, not a player, and I've never had a character come close to attaining the wish spell through any means. However, as a GM, I've had a handful of characters reach this pinnacle of power. It was quite a bit of fun watching the players twitch and writhe as they pulled out their "lawyer hats" to come up with a wish that couldn't be warped and twisted. In the end, I usually gave the player what they wished for without much recrimination or ill-effect... unless they just went way overboard with their wish.
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I'll see your epic destiny, cynicaloptimist, and raise you one too. I think Wish would be a great epic destiny in and of itself; Let that be the ultimate goal your PC strives for, the acquisition of a single, unrestricted wish spell. Essentially you're working toward the chance to permanently change the entire world (or even the entire cosmos) for better or for worse. This way it doesn't affect the game in any way, because it only comes into play at the game's end.