D&D 5E Wish - the Free Magic Item Factory

[Falling Icicle]

The Wish spell allows a wizard (or druid) to create an object worth up to 25,000gp or one common, uncommon or rare magical item each time it is cast, for free. There's no expensive material component or other cost, except for being unable to cast spells the rest of the day and being weak for a few days. For someone with a lot of downtime (especially wizards in a secure tower somewhere), that drawback is of little to no concern. A high level wizard or druid could conjure a 25,000gp item or a magic item every single day, day after day, for free!

This is so game-breaking that I'm surprised there haven't been more people talking about this. In the middle of an adventure, the drawback for casting Wish is crippling. But during downtime, it's no real drawback at all. I think this is totally backwards. There either needs to be a significant cost to creating wealth or magic items with this spell, or they need to be temporary creations. Being able to conjure a rare magic item that lasts for 24 hours would still be a powerful ability, but wouldn't risk breaking the game by turning wizards and druids into free magic item factories.

Also, do they not realize just how much 25,000gp is in this edition? It's like they copy/pasted that from the 3.x books and forgot that even artifacts in this edition can potentially be purchased for 10,000gp (assuming they're for sale, of course). Forget about wishing for magic items that are worth a mere 500-2,000gp. Create a 25,000gp pile of gold bars every day instead. You'll be worth more than the GDP of the entire planet in no time!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Shoot, where do you think all those magic items that adventurers find in dungeons come from? They've been wished into existence by mad wizard magic item-factories, of course!

 

[Gargoyle]

Yeah, the permanent magic item or 25k gold needs to go away. They still seem to be trying to design the wish spell to be a catch all for all wishes in the game, and it appears they haven't given this one much thought.

There should also be a difference between the wish cast by Asmodeus or a pit fiend can cast once per year and the wish that a wizard can cast once per day. But I like that they can just reference the wish spell from the monster description and be done with it, so more work needs to be done on the wish spell description. I feel like there should be a ritual version that is more powerful but requires some difficult, expensive, or "impossible" components, and perhaps a real ability score penalty rather than reducing a wizard's Strength (although I do like that if you're going for just flavor and not a balance thing). Then you could have that "yearly" wish be the ritual version cast with restrictions for monsters as you see fit (djinn can only grant three wishes to others, Asmodeus can cast one wish per year but it is cast a ritual, with no increased cast time, components or penalties). This approach would allow the game to still reference the wish spell for all types of wishes, yet still have some semblance of balance.

Unlike most spells, I'm also ok with the description for wish being long and covering some corner cases. For one, it's a high level spell, so it won't slow down most games. Two, it's always been a little special. Three, it can be a fun read; stuff like a variant such as a the "malicious wish" that evil creatures sometimes give that cause whatever you wish for to turn out in the most horrible way possible can give some inspiration, or just be entertaining and should probably be included.

 

[Philousk]

Maybe the spell should be rewritten to Special Section. Something like: In a period of convalescence, when your strength is reduced to 3, you can not cast Wish again. In addition, each time the spell is cast, you will suffer premature aging of 2d12 months.


Well, it is still not ideal since the effects of aging is not yet in the playtest and this would benefit spellcasters non human as the druids with their ability Evergreen, but it is certainly an avenue of thinking.

 

[Stormonu]

I'll agree that 25K w/ a 24 hour life and 2,500 as a permanent item is much less ripe for abuse.

But we're also talking about a spell that's only available at 17th level. How many wizards do you really think will reach this level, and once they do, spend their time casting this spell? "Yeah, I made 18th level so I can fatigue myself making magic items so expensive no one can hope to buy them. And I'm not into risking life and limb these days. Hmmm, I think I'll just make the gold instead."

 

[ForeverSlayer]

You do realize that there will be a DM sitting on the other side of a screen who can easily so no way.

 

[Gargoyle]

You do realize that there will be a DM sitting on the other side of a screen who can easily so no way.

You could say this about any poorly written rule. While true, it doesn't mean it couldn't be written better to reduce the burden on the DM and make it a better game for everyone.

 

[Li Shenron]

You do realize that there will be a DM sitting on the other side of a screen who can easily so no way.

I am not sure about that. If the spell explicitly says you can do that, and we assume it's fine because anyway all sane DMs would disallow it, then why is the spell even saying it at all? Players are going to point out the spell description and ask the DM why didn't she ban the spell (or that use) beforehand then?

I think this use of Wish is very unfair in some campaigns but not every campaign actually... if you don't allow characters to sell & buy stuff (especially magic items) any time they want, having a 25k jewel every day will make you outrageously rich but still might not make you any more powerful, if you cannot easily convert it into useful equipment (i.e. magic items) or into an army that can do the quests for you.

I am more concerned about the use of Wish that everybody seems to be fine with: replicating other spells. Personally I think this is very bad, it means the Wizard (and same with Cleric's Miracle) will probably have access to every single type of magical effect, even if they have to be lower level, potentially able to cover every situation. Furthermore, it can grind the game to a halt sometimes.

I just posted in another thread that a previous DM of mine had the harshest house rule about Wish in 3e: every spell with an XP cost could not be cast again for a number of days equal to that XP cost (which itself was not applied), which means ~13.5 years between two Wishes. Now that is a rule that makes you really think twice before casting Wish!

Actually, the XP cost itself was a reasonable rule against Wish abuse (shame that Miracle didn't have the same cost!), but if you mention XP costs you get hundreds of enraged gamers...

 

[Ahnehnois]

I think it's fair to say that Wish is not a spell that you should simply be able to cast without cost or penalty each day, regardless of what effect you use it for.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Wish is one of those spells that a wizard should cast only a few time in their entire life. Many methods of making wish dangerous have been proposed, and I like them, but the simplest solution is automatic aging. If casting the spell causes the wizard to age ten years, he'll be very reluctant to cast it, from both the character and player perspectives (once the effects of aging are added to the packet).