The Use of Wish
This handbook is a primer on the art of wishcraft, using the spell wish to achieve mighty effects.
What can wish do?As per the SRD, Wish can do any of the following:
o 5000 XP for a 5th level spell? Nooooooooooo.
How Can We Use This Power?
At this point we enter the realm of DM fiat. The DM will grant one of three effects:
1: Exactly what we wanted: This is the best option for us, as it gives us what we want, sadly, unless we are very inglorious about the effects of our wish, it is also the least likely.
2: A literal granting of the wish: For most DMs this is the most likely situation we as players will have to deal with if we attempt to abuse wish. It will be the focus of our guide. In a properly worded wish, this will be identical to possibility 1.
3: A partial fulfillment of the wish: This is the worst possible effect. The wish simply will not do what we want. This option is less likely than possibility 2, unless we seriously overreach ourselves. As players it will be our goal to avoid this possibility.
Wording is EverythingAs noted above, the most likely circumstance we will experience is a literal interpretation of the Wish. As the saying goes: be careful what you wish for. The bulk of this guide will be devoted to the construction of a wish that provides a function literal interpretation. Throughout, we will be using a fairly standard wish: I wish I had one million gold pieces.
To avoid a negative effect (yes, a failure is a negative effect, the spell costs 5000 XP) we must first establish the parameters of the spell: Where, When, What, and How.
Where:I wish that I had one million gold pieces in my possession, located in the basement of my tower.
I wish for one million gold pieces to be created in the basement of my tower.When:I wish for one million gold pieces to be created in the basement of my tower ten seconds after the completed speaking of this spell.What:This is a surprisingly easy parameter to detail, it is mostly important to be exact and unambiguous in what we want to occur, and to realize exactly what we want to occur. For example, in our above wish, in game terms, we want to obtain 1,000,000 GP. However, by stating gold pieces, we open ourselves up to ambiguity. A piece could be the size of a pinhead. So a closer statement would be that we want 1,000,000 gold coins. Once again, we run into the troubling question how big is a coin? So a less ambiguous version of what we want is 10 tons of gold minted as coins. If your DM is a dick however, you might end up with two 5 ton coins. So an even better approximation of what we want is 10 tons of gold minted as solid 1 inch wide, 1/10 inch high cylinders.
Example rewording:
I wish for 10 tons of gold, minted as solid 1 inch wide, 1/10 inch high cylinders, to be created in the basement of my tower ten seconds after the completed speaking of this spell
How:I wish for 10 tons of pure gold, as per my understanding of the quantity ton and the quality gold, minted as solid 1 inch wide, 1/10 inch high cylinders, as per my understanding of the quantities cylinder and inch, to be created in the basement of my tower ten seconds, as per my understanding of the quantity seconds, after the completed speaking of this spell, as per my understanding of completed speaking.