D&D 5E I wish for more wishes.

[Rune]

Well, actually, just a different Wish spell.

See, I like the flavor of this one and the mechanical limitation is a good start for reigning it in, but it does nothing to prevent a wizard from spamming the spell during extended periods of downtime (effectively wishing for more wishes).

I propose that casting the Wish spell should strip a wizard of all spell-casting ability except for cantrips and whatever spell slots s/he would have at first level. These spell slots could be regained gradually by earning enough XP to equal the levels at which new slots were gained, starting from level 1.

The wizard would not actually have lost any levels, and any XP gained would count toward the next real level, even while it is being used to earn back the lost spell slots. Also, knowledge of spells would not be diminished--only spell slots.

Obviously, any attempt to word the Wish spell in such a way as to negate this penalty would have to be twisted as malevolently as possible by the DM.

Is it harsh? Yes. But, it's also Wish.

 

[Sekhmet]

I can't imagine anyone wanting to cast Wish under those rules.

 

[Sunseeker]

Yeah...um...NO.

What exactly is the problem here? The current "Wish" spell explicitly states it can duplicate 8th level spells or lower, Wish is a 9th-level spell. So by RAW "Wish" cannot be used to gain more Wishes. In addition, the spell gives the DM incredible leverage on what you can do beyond the RAW, and in those cases, is enabled to exact extreme penalties for attempting to break the game.(Assuming your DM has a quad.)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Well I am not 100% sure I agree with the op, wish does scare me.

So imagin the scean bein: we have enemy scouts about 3-4 days out, and a huge army on there heels... Every day I can wish for a magic item... And have 4-5 items by the time we get there...

 

[Rune]

I can't imagine anyone wanting to cast Wish under those rules.

That's kind of the point. Wish is a game-changer. A wizard has to really want or need to cast it to make it worthwhile. But just knowing the spell gives the Wizard power.

Yeah...um...NO.

What exactly is the problem here? The current "Wish" spell explicitly states it can duplicate 8th level spells or lower, Wish is a 9th-level spell. So by RAW "Wish" cannot be used to gain more Wishes. In addition, the spell gives the DM incredible leverage on what you can do beyond the RAW, and in those cases, is enabled to exact extreme penalties for attempting to break the game.(Assuming your DM has a quad.)

My point is that being able to cast the spell daily during long periods of downtime without any relevant cost is effectively the same as wishing for more wishes. Also, the spell is capable of much more than simply duplicating an 8th level spell. When cast once a day during long periods of down-time, it can grant the user an amount of money and/or magic items limited only by the amount of down-time he has (as partially alluded to by GMforPowergamers). For the longer-lived races, this might as well be an infinite number.

Furthermore, the only actual limit on the spell by RAW is the DM's discretion. A fair DM will only twist the wording of a spell that is being used abusively. I, as a fair DM, would be far more likely to grant leeway to a powerful wish with the proposed consequence than without it.

(And, by the way, since the effects aren't permanent, they aren't as harsh as the XP cost 3.X had, even though it might take quite a while to be rid of them completely.)

 

[Gadget]

This idea is very intriguing from a story and world building perspective, but I don't see any but the most role-playing-story-oriented groups every using it. Might as well label it "NPC only" in the spell description. And you know, on further reflection I'm probably okay with that. So what if some spells are there for flavor and Role Playing only?

 

[Greenfield]

Want to limit the big spells? Have them cost CON points in a way that can't be recovered by magic. They return over time (i.e I'm not talking about permanent stat loss.)

So casting that Wish is possible, but it will probably set the character up for a week of bed-rest. Multiple castings could be fatal.

 

[RangerWickett]

Wish: This spell can do just about anything. After the character casts it, he cannot safely cast it again until he has gained a level. If he casts it a second time in the same level, he has a 50% chance of losing access to the spell. If he casts it a third time in the same level, he automatically loses access to the spell. He cannot ever learn to cast wish again.

 

[Rune]

This idea is very intriguing from a story and world building perspective, but I don't see any but the most role-playing-story-oriented groups every using it. Might as well label it "NPC only" in the spell description. And you know, on further reflection I'm probably okay with that. So what if some spells are there for flavor and Role Playing only?

Yeah. You're probably right about that. And that seems like a feature to me, not a bug.

Want to limit the big spells? Have them cost CON points in a way that can't be recovered by magic. They return over time (i.e I'm not talking about permanent stat loss.)

So casting that Wish is possible, but it will probably set the character up for a week of bed-rest. Multiple castings could be fatal.

This is very similar to the limitation that Wish already has in this packet. And it suffers from the same problem--namely, that the only limiting factor is time. Given enough time, the wizard can cast an indefinite amount of wish spells.

My proposal was designed with another goal in mind--to force the wizard to actually live with the cost of casting it by requiring actual adventuring to overcome it.

Wish: This spell can do just about anything. After the character casts it, he cannot safely cast it again until he has gained a level. If he casts it a second time in the same level, he has a 50% chance of losing access to the spell. If he casts it a third time in the same level, he automatically loses access to the spell. He cannot ever learn to cast wish again.

I like this; it's simple. Though I would probably just skip the intermediate step and put a 50% chance of permanently losing the Wish spell on the second casting within a level.

 

[Greenfield]

I'll be honest: I'm satisfied with the EXP cost used in 3.5. It puts a hard limit on when, how often and how many Wish spells a caster can cast.

True, it put an odd constraint in place with the limitation that you couldn't cast if you didn't have 5k Exp above the level limit,but that can be waived: Just take away the limitation that says you can't lose a level from Exp expenditures. So if you really, really really need that spell, it's there, but it;s going to hurt!