Wish (PH)	Best Wishes!	Wishing Makes It So	The Lowdown on Wishes (AD&D)	-
Dragon	-	Spells	-	Dragon

 

The General Principles of Wishes

I:Wishes are 9th-level M-U spells and are limited in power accordingly;
Limited Wishes are 7th-level spells which are even more limited.

II: Wishes cannot change what has already happened,
but they can be used to alter or negate the result of some prior happening.

III: Wishes cannot directly affect that which will happen,
except in the sense that everything that will happen is a direct result of what is and has been happening.

IV: Wishes are bound by the laws under which they themselves are brought about and used.

V: Wishes have no authority and no power over the abstract, the insubstantial, or the non-concrete.

VI: Wishes will always act in the simplest manner possible while abiding by the wording of the Wish itself.

VII: Wishes are general-purpose spells,
and as such may be used voluntarily in a number of ways,
with varying chances for success.

VIII: Wishes will rarely achieve more than one end, and never more than two.

IX: Wishes will fulfill, to the limits of their power,
not only the desired end but the means by which that end is brought about.

X: Wishes are impartial, objective and consistent.

The Wish and Limited Wish spells are an important part of the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS™ game,
and sooner or later every player and DM will be confronted with the question of how to make a Wish or how to fulfill one.

The PH describes these
spells in the vaguest of terms — a neces-
sary condition, because any attempt to
define the Wish concept naturally in-
volves limiting the scope and power of
the Wish to the characteristics described
by the definition.

It is up to individual DMs and players
to define and interpret the Wish && Limited Wish in
such a way that the USE of
those spells in a campaign does not have
an unfair || inappropriate effect on play.

The ten General Principles of Wishes,
presented and explained in the text
which follows, represent one possible
way of establishing “ground rules” for
the use of Wish spells which can be used
to the benefit of DM and players alike.

The General Principles below do not
narrow the power and scope of a Wish to
the point where a DM can quote a Gen-
eral Principle as a self-explanatory result
of a Wish. The intent of the Principles is
to encompass broad concepts which are
relatively easy to apply in any specific
case which might arise. The stricture set
down by a certain Principle may help to
determine whether a Wish has any effect
at all in a certain situation, or, if it is
effective, what degree of success is at-
tained by the wisher in achieving the de-
sired end by the desired means. Usually,
a Principle will be no help at all in deter-
mining exactly how a Wish ought to be
worded or exactly how it ought to be
fulfilled.

The Principles are meant to apply to
Wish and Limited Wish spells, wishes
acquired from rings, scrolls, swords, rel-
ics and artifacts, and wishes obtained
from efreet and noble djinn. They do not
(necessarily) pertain to “wishes” grant-
ed by devils, demons or gods, which are
actually forms of Divine (or demoniac or
diabolic) Intervention.

Wishes vs. Divine Intervention

A Wish or Limited Wish is simply a
magic spell of a specific level which can
be used as a general-purpose method to
achieve some desired result. Any Wish is
limited in power and bound by the laws
of the universe in which it is employed.
By contrast, Divine Intervention is an
action of a deity or god, just as diabolic
and demoniac interventions are actions
of devils and demons respectively. While
these three types of beings are also
bound by laws which govern their envi-
ronments, their power in their own realms
and in those realms not specially desig-
nated as belonging to another similar be-
ing is nearly unlimited. An act of inter-
vention can actually change that which
has already occurred, or can directly and
definitively alter the course of future
events — things which a Wish cannot
accomplish.

The General Principles of Wishes are
not designed to apply to intervention by
a deity, demon or devil. The granting of
favors by such beings cannot be gov-
erned by any general rules, since each
instance of intervention may produce
drastically different results depending
upon the preference or the inclination of
the deity at that certain time.

THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES
OF WISHES

I
WISHES ARE 9TH-LEVEL MAGIC
SPELLS AND ARE LIMITED IN POWER
ACCORDINGLY; LIMITED WISHES
ARE 7TH-LEVEL SPELLS WHICH ARE
EVEN MORE LIMITED.

There is no such thing in the AD&D™
rules as a 10th-level spell, or any form of
magical energy which is more potent
than a 9th-level spell. If a Wish was un-
limited in power, it would be theoretical-
ly possible for it to have the energy of a
10th-level spell — but then the Wish spell
itself would have to be considered a
10th-level spell, and that is a contradic-
tion. Using the same reasoning, a Limit-
ed Wish is limited in scope and power to
what can be accomplished with the
energy of a 7th-level spell. In addition to
these general limitations, there are spe-
cific instances cited in the AD&D rules
where the use of a Wish is impossible or
ineffective.

II
WISHES CANNOT CHANGE WHAT
HAS ALREADY HAPPENED, BUT THEY
CAN BE USED TO ALTER OR NEGATE
THE RESULT OF SOME PRIOR
HAPPENING.

If, for example, someone has been dis-
integrated, nothing short of divine inter-
vention can change that fact: he has
been disintegrated. The result of this oc-
currence, however, can be nullified by a
Wish which causes the body of the victim
to be reintegrated (see Principle VIII).

III
WISHES CANNOT DIRECTLY AF-
FECT THAT WHICH WILL HAPPEN,
EXCEPT IN THE SENSE THAT EVERY-
THING THAT WILL HAPPEN IS A DI-
RECT RESULT OF WHAT IS AND HAS
BEEN HAPPENING.

A Wish has no real power to affect any-
thing except at the precise moment it is
uttered (see Principle II). Therefore, a
Wish for a specific occurrence or situa-
tion to come about in the future — but
not at the time the Wish is actually made
— would have the effect of placing the
wisher in circumstances at the present
time that would most possibly bring
about the desired end after the passage
of the intervening time, but would not
and could not constitute a guarantee
that the desired event will happen.

IV
WISHES ARE BOUND BY THE LAWS
UNDER WHICH THEY THEMSELVES
ARE BROUGHT ABOUT AND USED.

In most AD&D universes, this will mean
that a Wish cannot make something out
of nothing or vice versa. For the creation
of food, water, soft goods and other such
items, raw materials (carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen, nitrogen) are usually availa-
ble in abundance. However, the creation
of a certain amount of iron, copper, gold,
platinum, or other valuable materials is
much more difficult because of the rela-
tive scarcity of such items. In any event,
the creation of a quantity of material
which is greater in mass than the spell-
caster or wisher will be considered much
more complex and energy-draining than
the alternative of teleporting the wisher
to the desired substance or vice versa
(see Principle VI). For purposes of this
determination, all magical items and all
living beings (with the exception of the
character using the Wish) are consider-
ed to be of infinite mass; that is, the crea-
tion of such items by a Wish is essentially
impossible, since the energy of a Wish is
not also infinite.

V
WISHES HAVE NO AUTHORITY AND
NO POWER OVER THE ABSTRACT,
THE INSUBSTANTIAL, OR THE NON-
CONCRETE.
In particular, a Wish cannot grant ow-
nership, titles, or other stations which
require an authority to confer them upon
someone else. Nor can they remove
such titles and privileges, either from the
wisher or others. If a Wish deals wholly
or primarily with abstract, intangible
considerations, there can be no certain-
ty that the Wish will achieve the desired
end; at best, the Wish will put the wisher
into circumstances which have the great-
est possibility of achieving that end (see
Principle III).

VI
WISHES WILL ALWAYS ACT IN THE
SIMPLEST MANNER POSSIBLE WHILE
ABIDING BY THE WORDING OF THE
WISH ITSELF.

If a desired end may be accomplished
with a lower-level spell than the wisher
had in mind, for instance, and the means
to achieve that end was not fully speci-
fied in the Wish, then the lower-level
spell will be used. In general, the more
mass or energy involved in the fulfill-
ment of a Wish, the more complex the
undertaking will be. “Creation” (see Prin-
ciple IV) of a substance or material is
more difficult than molecular rearran-
gement which might accomplish the
same purpose. Molecular rearrangement
is more difficult than destruction, des-
truction is more difficult than the tele-
portation of something, and teleporta-
tion is more difficult than simple en-
lightenment or knowledge given to the
wisher.

VII
WISHES ARE GENERAL-PURPOSE
SPELLS, AND AS SUCH MAY BE USED
VOLUNTARILY IN A NUMBER OF
WAYS, WITH VARYING CHANCES FOR
SUCCESS.

To employ this principle properly, it is
necessary to determine at what level of
power the magic operates to cause the
fulfillment of a particular wish. If the me-
thod involves the magic of a known spell,
the level of the magic is easily deter-
mined from the rules; new spells or other
types of magic will have to be compared
to existing spells and magic by the DM
before determining the level of magic in-
volved. Chances for success (complete
fulfillment of the wish) depend upon the
type of Wish (magic-user or clerical) and
the level of magic involved, according to
the following chart:

                                          Wish                                  Limited Wish

Spell  level	M-U	Cleric	M-U	Cleric
1-4	100	100	100	100
5	100	100	100	75
6	100	90	80	50
7	100	75	50	-
8	90	-	-	-
9	75	-	-	-

Often, but not always, when a spell
level lower than the Wish itself is used to
achieve the desired end, the manifesta-
tion of the magic will be similar to the
spell in question but in an improved form
(for instance, teleportation with no
chance for error) because of the extra
power of the Wish spell itself above and
beyond the energy needed to make the
wish come true. Spells which are “im-
proved” in this manner are generally
those of levels where the chance for suc-
cess is 100%.

VIII
WISHES RARELY WILL ACHIEVE
MORE THAN ONE END, AND NEVER
MORE THAN TWO.

All spells are formulated to achieve a
specific purpose, whether it be to neu-
tralize poison in some creature, charm a
hostile group of opponents, or restore
life in an individual. It is not beyond the
power of a Wish to reintegrate a charac-
ter and even restore life to his body (con-
stitution check applicable); even though
those are two distinctly separate acts,
they both contribute to the fulfill-
ment of a specific purpose. In contrast, it
would not be possible for a single Wish
to teleport a group of characters out of
the middle of a melee to a place of safety,
accompanied by all the opponents’ trea-
sure (which, at the time of the Wish, is
still in the possession of the opponents).
In any case except the most simply
worded wishes, the DM will have to
weigh the Wish in terms of how many
ends it is designed to achieve. For ex-
ample, how many dead characters can a
Wish bring back to life all at once? The
answer varies: If the deaths were all due
to a single incident such as a cave-in, or
if they all occurred within the same short
period of time during melee, a Wish
would probably be permitted to save all
the victims, since only the effect of one
short span of time is being altered, and in
that respect only one end is being
achieved. On the other hand, if half of a
group of characters died in a cave-in and
the other half in a run-in with an umber
hulk, only one group of victims would be
able, to be brought back to life with a
single Wish — altering one occurrence,
not two, and achieving only one end in-
stead of two distinctly different pur-
poses.

IX
WISHES WILL FULFILL, TO THE LIM-
ITS OF THEIR POWER, NOT ONLY THE
DESIRED END BUT THE MEANS BY
WHICH THAT END IS BROUGHT
ABOUT.

The wording of this Principle implies
that a Wish spell has reasoning power of
64

its own which enables it to make a
“choice” between various methods of
achieving a desired end, and perhaps
even distort or depart from the wording
of the wish. This is NOT so!
A good example of the improper dis-
tortion of a Wish is the character who
wishes for a demon to serve him as a
slave — and gets sent to the Abyss to
pick one out. Some DMs consider this a
fair interpretation, claiming that it does
not violate the wording of the wish. While
this may be technically true (depending
upon the actual wording), such action is
in violation of the nature of a Wish.
It has been pointed out in earlier Prin-
ciples that a Wish may be fulfilled in one
of several different ways. In all cases, the
Wish will be fulfilled in such a way that
the end result is achieved as desired, and
in the manner which it could reasonably
be expected to be achieved. One of the
biggest advantages of a Wish is its flexi-
bility, but this is only an advantage as
long as the DM and the players all use
common sense and fairness in the word-
ing and fulfillment of a desire.

X
WISHES ARE IMPARTIAL, OBJEC-
TIVE AND CONSISTENT.

If a Wish works in a certain way in a
certain situation, it should always work
in the same manner in identical situa-
tions in the future — as long as the set of
circumstances directly involved in the
Wish is the same.
Sometimes it may be a matter of inter-
pretation whether the conditions for a
Wish are identical to the conditions that
existed at a previous time when an earli-
er Wish was used. In any event, if the
general conditions are the same and the
Wish is worded identically to or general-
ly the same as a previous Wish, the
means of achieving an end and that end
itself must be generally the same as they
were for the first Wish.
If a DM is properly consistent in this
fashion, it may become possible for
players to “predict” the effects or the
outcome of making a certain Wish at a
certain time. Players should be permit-
ted to have this knowledge and to be able
to trust in it once they have figured out
this “law of nature.” Players should also
be aware that the nature of a Wish makes
it impossible to predict any outcome
with certainty. The word “consistency”
in the Principle stated above applies
more to the approach and the motives of
the DM (who grants the wish) than it
does to the actual result of the Wish.
In no case should the DM’s personal
feelings for a player or a character have
any influence on whether a Wish is
granted or how it is put into effect. Petty
emotions are neither impartial, objective
nor consistent, and have no place in the
implementation of a Wish or in any other
aspect of an AD&D adventure.

WISHING Makes it so
By Roger E. Moore
 

Dragon 49

-

Wish

-

Dragon

“I wish that our party was immediately
and safely teleported home to Silver
Mountain Castle, with all our equipment
and treasure.”

With these words, we found ourselves
suddenly transported from the gray stone
treasure vault of the dead demon prince
to the high, friendly halls of our citadel,
the stains of battle on our faces and
weapons and a wealth of riches at our
feet. We were all battered and exhausted,
but as one we cried victory to the
oaken rafters and the heavens above. We
had conquered!

"And now for the experience points,"
said Mark, the game master for the night.

We hastily pulled sheets of scratch
paper from our character folders and
began jotting down the numbers Mark
called out to us. After calculating our
new experience levels, we found my
High Priest, Fritz's Wizard, Cindy's Fighter
and Al's Paladin had each gained a
new level, and everyone else was close
to doing the same. Another half hour was
spent in dividing up the loot, and we
came away with new swords, axes, maces,
wands, armor, and gold and gems. It
was the best treasure we'd ever won, and
we'd for it the entire evening. It
had been close, but we'd played hard
and well, without regard to time. I finished
the last few notes on my High Priest
character and glanced at my watch. I
was stunned to see that it was nearly
11.45; it fell like such a short time since
we'd started. Time really does fly when
you're having fun, I remember thinking.

To cap off the evening, Carol and Bill
went into the kitchen and came back
with some bottles of wine they said
they’d been saving for “special events”
like this one. They passed out glasses to
all of us (even to Al, who never drank)
and filled them up with the bright liquid.

“A toast!” commanded Mark, and he
stood up from behind his paper-cluttered
desk. Everyone put their notebooks and
pencils and dice aside and stood, too.
We arranged ourselves in an oval with
Mark at one end and Al, the party leader,
at the other.

“A toast!” commanded Mark, and he
stood up from behind his paper-cluttered
desk. Everyone put their notebooks and
pencils and dice aside and stood, too.
We arranged ourselves in an oval with
Mark at one end and Al, the party leader,
at the other.

“To the ones who dare and win,” said
Mark simply. The glasses rang together
between us, and we drank. The wine
kindled a warm feeling inside me, and it
grew as I became aware of the bond that
our fantasies had built between us.

In our everyday lives we were just ordinary people. I worked in a church library, Fritz was a physics student, Carol
and Bill were into real estate, Rhonda
taught botany at a high school, Mark was
a scout troop leader, Cindy was doing
political campaign work and Al was in.
law school. We had good lives, but we’d
sometimes tell each other we wished we
had something more. There was an element missing in the daily schedules we
setup, and it was the sense that we were
accomplishing something. I think we all
found what we were missing when we
rode our steeds out into the lands of roleplaying and dreams. We were proud of
being alive, and proud of what we did. It
kept us going through the rest of the
week.

When we finished the toast we sat
down again and began to talk about the
adventure that evening, the adventures
we’d shared on weekends before, and
anything else we could think of. There
were laughter and smiles, the wine flowed more freely, and we had long and
ridiculous discussions on whether there
were any witches alive today, what the
Loch Ness monster was, UFO’s, faith
healers, and magic in general. It was
about then that Bill went into the bedroom and came out with his collection of
magic rings.

His great-grandmother had owned the
rings, he said, sitting down with a dark
wooden box in his lap that had a thin
layer of dust on top. She was reputed to
have been a witch in the Appalachian
Mountains in the late 1800’s, and she
claimed to have had the power to stop
machinery with a glance and cause men
to do her bidding. Most of us smiled at
that, but Carol went back to the bedroom and found a photo album that had a
picture of Bill’s great-grandmother. It
was an old brown-and-white shot, faded
and brittle, that showed an old woman
standing beside a backwoods cabin
porch. She held a cane in her left hand
but didn’t appear to be leaning on it. I
had a feeling that she must have been a
pretty spry old lady in her later years; her
face was lined and worn but even the
aged photo revealed lively, dark eyes
and a half-smile on her lips.

The rings had been her pride and joy.
Bill opened the box after cleaning off the
outside, and the sight drew a chorus of
“oohs” from us all. Light flashed from
rings of gold and silver, adorned with
elaborate carvings and set with diamonds, rubies, and topaz. Though they
looked somewhat baroque and the stones
were not particularly large, they were
very impressive. Rhonda reached for a
ring with two emeralds in it, looking
questioningly at Bill. He invited us to
pick them out and have closer looks, and
soon we each had a ring and were trying
them on. A game began, sparked by
Fritz, in which we tried to guess what
magical properties our rings had. The
wine was taking effect, and we shrieked
with laughter at the antics that went on.

I remember with fuzzy clarity standing
by Mark’s desk, looking at the ring I had
chosen to wear. Unlike the other rings,
mine was a plain gold band with some
illegible script on the inside. I tried unsuccessfully to read the inscription in
the faint light, and I decided the writing
was in some language other than English. Otherwise, the band was a simple
thing, but it fit my hand comfortably and
I was happy with it. On impulse I held my
hand aloft, fist clenched and ring high,
and said, “I hereby summon forth from
this device an elemental of water!”

Everyone turned to look at me, and
Mark cracked, “We’d be better off with a
beer elemental.” The gang doubled over
at that one. I didn’t laugh, though, being
interested in the way the ring seemed to
shine when the light wasn’t on it. Another thought occurred to me, and unseen
by the group (who was watching Mark
act like a beer elemental) I tried something else. I raised my fist again and said,
quietly and mostly to myself, “I wish that
our wineglasses were full again.” It was
the only other thing I could imagine the
ring would do; if it was a wish ring, then
we’d at least get something useful from
it.

Behind me the conversation had turned back to the Loch Ness monster when I
heard Carol’s voice ring out, “I told you I
didn’t want any more wine.” Her voice
had a touch of peevishness to it and was
sharper than usual. I turned around and
saw her giving Bill a direct and somewhat angry look. She held a full wineglass. I checked around the room and
saw that everyone else had a full wineglass, too; Al stared at his as if he wasn’t
sure it was really there.

It hit me about then, the coincidence
did, and I laughed aloud with glee. There
had been some tension in the air before
then, as everyone was afraid Carol and
Bill might be getting ready to have a

fight. The tension evaporated and now
everyone watched me as if they thought
I’d lost my marbles. I didn’t care. Fate
had just dealt me a perfect joke and it
took a while to calm down and explain
what had happened. There was more
laughter then (with just a touch of relief).
Al, however, wasn’t laughing. He stared
at his glass as if it held a live rattlesnake,
and sat it down on the table in front of
him. He didn’t drink anything more the
rest of the night.

“Ben,” he said, eyeing the brimming
wineglass. “I saw my glass fill up with
wine out of nowhere. I know it was
empty, too, because I’d just finished it
off.”

Everyone (including me) ridiculed him
for a few minutes. Then Rhonda reached
over for her glass, paused, and announced that she remembered it had only
been half full when she’d last seen it. At
that point we took an informal poll and
found no one else but Carol had noticed
anything unusual about their glasses.
After some talk, we decided to give the
ring a second try. I took it off while we
debated on what kind of thing we could
wish for. With our experience in fantasy
gaming in using rings of wishes, and
knowing how screwed up the wish could
become if it was interpreted literally or
the meaning was distorted somehow, we
were highly reluctant at first to wish anything upon ourselves personally. We
were still being affected by the drinks,
though, and our imaginations were
aflame with the possibility of actually
discovering something new (even if we
weren’t sure what it was we were uncovering). After a half hour of debate, Rhonda pushed through a motion that we
should make a wish about the weather.

Cindy pulled the curtains apart in the
living room where we sat, and we looked
out into the night. Everything appeared
rather unreal and insubstantial in the
darkness; even the porch light and the
small streetlight at the end of the driveway seemed to be part of another world,
stark and alien. The air was quiet and
still, much as you might expect at 2:00 on
a weekend morning. Carol opened the
windows and we heard the bleat of a car
horn down the block, a dog barking several houses away, a cricket chirping
under the windowsill.

The ring was given to Mark because he
had the most experience at being a game
referee (when he wasn’t a Ranger) and
he knew the most about misinterpreting
wishes. We crowded around the windows and whispered nervously to one
another. Mark and Al (who was the least
drunk of us all) wrote down the wish on a
piece of notebook paper and passed it
around for each of us to read and okay.
There were clauses, simply stated, protecting us from any “backlash” or unintended results. Briefly, the wish was for
there to be rain in our neighborhood tonight. Several people went outside and
reported that there were some scattered
clouds overhead, but nothing to indicate
the weather predictions of no rain were
wrong. Mark announced that the wish
was ready, and we watched as he read
the wish for real. When he finished he put
the paper down (removing the ring as
well) and joined us at the windows.

Nothing seemed any different right
away. After a couple of minutes we began to fidget, and Rhonda giggled nervously when she said she hoped her car
windows were rolled up. Bill and Carol
went back into the kitchen for more wine
and the rest of us were chatting and moving back to our seats when Fritz jerked
away from the windows and shouted,
“Hey, quiet! Listen!”
There was dead silence except for
some noises from the kitchen. “What’s
up?” asked Al.

Fritz held his head against the edge of
the open window as if listening for something. “I heard thunder,” he said quietly.
He raised his head to look out the window — and suddenly light flooded into
the room — brilliant, electric light that
was there and gone in a moment. I felt a
terror in that moment that I’d never
thought it possible to feel. Almost at
once there was a boom as thunder crackled and roared around us. I dropped my
drink, and so did Cindy and Mark. Carol
shrieked briefly from the kitchen

There came the sound of droplets
striking the leaves of the tree outside,
and we rushed to the windows as one
person. Rain reflected in the lights of the
porch and driveway lamp, and it grew in
intensity until it was a deep, drumming
roar on the roof and walls, a real summer
cloudburst. Rain, sheets of blinding, driving rain.
We went mad. Mark screamed in a voice that rose above the sound of storm
and group alike, “It’s a real wish ring! A
wish ring!” We screamed and shouted
with him. Tears rolled down my face. My
hands shook and my skin seemed to
burn as if aflame. Everyone raved and
hugged one another, in triumph and in
fear. I felt like I was about to take off for a
new world.
Outside, the lightning flashed again,
and the thunder rolled.

* * *

We talked together for most of the rest
of the night. The storm passed about
4:00, and it was about then that we made
the final decision on disposition of the
ring.

Tradition dictated that without exception rings of wishes had but three wishes
in them. We had apparently used two of
them, though we had no idea if any had
been used before. We wanted to decide
what to do with the last wish, and pages
and pages of notes were written to this
end. All ideas were rejected but one.
It was Al, I think, who came up with the
idea that we finally used. He got up and
spoke passionately for several minutes
about our fantasy game, how he felt
about it, and how he felt about the real
world. He wanted our game to become
reality. We thought about our own lives,
how we lived as real people and how we
lived as our fantasy characters. I imagined a world of dragons and magic, knights
and damsels, warlords, witches, kings
and queens. We drank a little more wine,
talked it over, wrote up the wish and
made it. It took an hour to work it all out
and I can’t remember how it was phrased.
It was a grand wish, though. We asked to
become our player characters, our own
personal fantasy images of ourselves.
The real world had become less dear to
us than that world of imagination we traveled, in which we did deeds that made
reality pale in comparison. We were
more alive in our dreams than now, and
our dreams were what we wanted.

After it was done we sat up in the living
room and waited. Seconds, minutes, and
finally hours passed. By the time the sun
was about to come up, we had drifted off
to sleep, exhausted from the strain and
stress.

We awoke sometime just before noon.
Everything was just the same.
* * *

“A strange dream, if that was what it
was,” said Al. He leaned on the windowsill and looked out at the trees stirring in
the wind. The sun was bright and high,
and the warmth of summer was carried
past him into the room to the rest of us.

“It might have been from the exhaustion. We strained ourselves last evening
and we could have imagined the whole
thing.” I took another small sip from my
wineglass, but only a small one. My head
throbbed from our overindulgence of the
night before and I didn’t plan to court
another hangover.

Fritz snorted at my statement. “All of
us had the same dream, if a dream it was.
Eight people rarely share the same twists
of imagination.” Carol, Bill, and Mark
nodded in agreement. Cindy and Rhonda looked skeptical but didn’t add anything to the talk.

“Dream or not, it’s past time we were
up,” finished Al, turning away from the
window. “We’d best be on our way downstairs.” He reached down and picked up
his sword and scabbard and fastened it
to his belt. The women stood and arranged their gowns, and the sun flashed in
the gems sewn along the hems and collars, sending rays of rainbow light across
the room. Mark led the way out through
the arched stone doorway, retrieving his
bow from behind the oaken door as he
left. Everyone filed out in silence until
only Al and I were left. I suspected his
reasons for waiting back would concern
me, and I wasn’t wrong.

He was a bit slow in getting to the
point, but it came. “I, uh, seem to have,
uh, overindulged in drink, Father Ben,
and I, uh, feel I may ..... need to do penitence for it. Paladins aren’t supposed to
get, uh, drunk...” His voice trailed off as I
waved my hand in dismissal.

“Yesterday you slew a Demon Prince.
The pressure was tremendous on us all,
and we were in sore need of release. I
really don’t recall that you drank all that
much, anyway. I don’t feel major penitence would be justified, but a prayer or
two might stir your soul for the better.” I
clapped him on the back and smiled. He
glanced up briefly and began to smile,
too.

As we turned to go he grunted and
held up his hand. The light from the window in the tower where we stood gleamed off a plain gold ring on his right hand,
and he stared at it without recognition
for a few moments. Then he removed the
ring and offered it to me.
“Here you go, Father. My wish ring. We
used the last one yesterday to teleport
out of the demon’s lair.” The band dropped into my upturned palm, and Al
walked out to follow the rest.

I rolled the ring around in my fingers
as I walked over to the window ledge. It
looked like the same one I’d seen in my
dream last night, and I felt the deja vu
rise and pass as I tried to read the lettering on the inside. I could not, of course.
Magical runes cannot be read by any but
wizards, like Fritz. I thought of Fritz and
his musty gray robes, and imagined him
stalking toward his laboratory in the
dungeon below the castle. My mind wandered, and I imagined the rest of the
group: Cindy would be on her way to her
weapons room, Carol would check in at
the Thieves’ Guild and then join Bill to
watch him practice casting new illusion
spells, Mark would do some scouting in
the forests for new game (Rangers always have the wanderlust), and Rhonda
would return to the woods as well, as
Druids are wont to do. Al and I would go
down to the village and work at the
Church for the rest of the day, preparing
for the services of thanksgiving on the
morrow. We would scatter, as we always
did after every adventure, but every week
we would join each other again and go
out into the world on a new quest. It was
our lifeblood, to dare the unknown, and
we never refused it.

-
 

With one last glance at the ring, I
flipped it out of the window, and saw it
glimmer and fall toward the moat below.
We would have no further use for an
empty wish ring. Then I turned and went
down to find Al.

THE LOWDOWN ON WISHES
by Kevin Thompson

 

-	-	-	-	-
Dungeons & Dragons	Dragon magazine	-	Spells	The Dragon #19

“Well, this chamber looks safe enough. Alright, you guys take the
elves and check the room for secret panels and passageways, while I check
this door over here. Hmmmmmm, it just leads to an ordinary closet. Did
you guys find anything? Yeah? One of the tiles on the floor is loose, eh?
Well, don’t just stand there, pry it up. Wait! What’s that noise?”

At that moment, in bursts a dozen trolls with two-handed axes. “Oh
no, trolls! O Daghdha! We haven’t got any more oil left!! O Nuada! O
Cuchulain! Oh Mama!! —Go get ‘em! Fight em! Smash 'em! Hurt 'em!
Mess 'em up!”

The battle ensues, and the trolls are all killed. For the moment,
anyway.

“Whew! But loo — they're already beginning to regenerate! Well,
since we can’t burn them, lets try to lock them in that closet until we're
through here. Lug them in. Hurry. Now let‘s pry up that tile. . . it's giving.
. . here it comes! Yes, it's hollow underneath! There's something here. . . a
ring. And there's an inscription here in Elven. Let's see. . . Yes!! Wishes!!!
Three wishes!!! Oh joy! Oh bliss! Now I can get that barge I always
wanted on the Denubian. You know what, I can wish for gallons of oil to
burn those trolls! Or better yet, I can even wish for a balrog slave! He can
burn them, and still serve me forever! I’ll be unbeatable!!”

If you were the Dungeon Master of this game and they made that
wish, what would you do? If you were very lenient, you just might give
them what they asked for. On the other hand, if you were the type of DM
who liked to “keep things moving”, you could send him TEN ANGRY
balrogs to make things hot. Yea, verrily, a furnace!

Most DM’s want to be fair about wishes but don’t want Playercharacters
to take undue advantage. So they kill them. (It’s only natural)
Well, because of this, I’ve developed a background to help judge which
wishes should be granted totally, dropped entirely, or partially granted in
one form or another. (For the more sadistic of our fold, don’t worry! This
doesn’t mean you can’t kill them any more, just that you’ll have a logical
reason for doing it.)

The first thing to consider is how these wishes came to be. To start
from the beginning, it is common knowledge that wizardry is every bit as
much a science as physics and chemistry (to which it is closely related).
Through various gestures, utterances and chemicals, wizards are able to
tap the free, natural, invisible forces that give power and substance to
their spells. It’s no more mysterious to them than it is to us when we plug
in the toaster. We’re tapping another natural, invisible force. (It’s just not
free.) Those wizards of much learning and wisdom (hence, wizards) were
able to develop for themselves an all-purpose spell that could do many
diversified things. These are called WISHES. (Actually, what they
created was a WISH SPELL-WS - it’s the use of a WS that is called a
WISH. A DM’s gotta know things like that!)

Next, the wizards created objects that could enable the person with
little or no experience in sorcery to accomplish the feats of high level
sorcerers. These were rings, staves, and even things less conventional
where a WS had been transferred to them from the wizard himself. What
a breakthrough! Keep in mind, though, that the WS couldn’t possibly be
any more powerful than the wizard who created it. Less so, in fact, as
some of the power is lost in the transference. There is usually a relation
between the ability of the WS to grant a more difficult wish (the WS
strength) and the object that is endowed with it. Why bother to put a weak
spell in an object that will last forever? Who would put a powerful spell in
something that is easily destroyed? Of course, there are always
exceptions, but usually a weak wish spell would be in something flimsy,
like a ring or a piece of apparel. The stronger an object is, like a sword or
armour or a stone orb, the stronger the WS in it probably is. This also
applies to objects that are more gawky or cumbersome, as a staff or a
drum or a sofa. You tend to protect it more because it’s always on your
mind (and frequently on your back!). The strongest WS’s are likely to be
in something immobile and virtually indestructable. Unfortunatley, there
aren’t too many of those around. The main exception to these rules are
ancient artifacts. They tend to be more powerful than their modern day
counterparts, but there are usually problems that go along with them, like
the possessor changing alignment, shrinking an inch with every use, or
dying (which can be kind of depressing).

Just as there are matters to help determine the strength of a WS,
there are also problems in determining the effectiveness of the wish.
Foremost of these is the alignment of the WS compared to that of the
possessor of the object. A lawful Wizard would generally empower an
object with a lawful or neutral WS. A chaotic wizard would empower an
object with a neutral or chaotic WS. A neutral wizard would just
empower an object with a neutral WS. As you can see, the odds are
stacked in favor of a neutral Wish Spell. This is because there is more
versatility in neutral than in lawful or chaotic WS’s. A lawful WS only
fully grants those wishes within its power that encourage leadership,
justice, loyalty, heroism, generosity, and creativity. It strives to have you
struggle against the chaotic. A chaotic WS only fully grants those wishes
within its power that promote tyranny, deceit, greed, laziness,
mercilessness, and cleverness in struggles against ANYONE. It is for the
DM to decide, without consulting any of the players, what the motive
behind the wish is. Take into account what they say they’re going to do
with whatever they’ve wished for, but don’t be fooled by a hoax! If you
don’t believe that the players actual motives suit the listing above, crack
down on them!!! (Please excuse me for yelling; I get so excited!) The way
to get those bozos (bozettes; the bozettes are often sneakier than the
bozos) is to twist their wish right around, making things a little more. . .
er, difficult. If the players give you any flack, just say, “Lookit here,
buddy (or buddess), I play the gods in this game. You gonna argue with
the gods? We’ll stike you down! We don’t have to take none of this.” If
that doesn’t work, you can always blame it on the dice.

It goes without saying that there are no “morals” to live up to in the
neutral WS’s. Consequently, wishes are rarely ever twisted around to
make things worse for the wisher. Keep in mind, however, that you can
include a WS that only and always twists wishes, or even a type that
creates a can of fruit cocktail no matter what the wish is! Such fun. My oh
my (yours oh yours!)!

Another important matter in determining the effectiveness of a wish
is, of course, the thing wished for. I’ve divided the various types of wishes
into four classifications, the easiest wishes being in Class I, etc. Here goes!

— CLASS I — This WS grants any wishes for purely physical objects.
Therefore, you could wish for a sword or a tank or any other non-magical
object. In addition, you could wish for occurrances, such as the roof
caving in at a certain place, starting a wind (not tornado strength, but
strong enough to knock unsuspecting foes off their feet), or even a timestop.
After all, time is purely physical, too.

— CLASS II — This WS can create living, non-magical beings, relatively
weak magical equipment (none concerning more wishes), and any magicuser
spells up to and including Level 5.

— CLASS III — This WS can create living, magic-oriented beings, but
only the weakest of these types will be able to be made into slaves. It can
also create moderately strong magical equipment, and can accomplish
ANY magic-user spell, and any cleric spell up to and including Level 4.

— CLASS IV — It is rare to find this WS outside of an artifact. This is the
most powerful type. It can do almost anything, except granting more
wishes in any way, shape or form, and the actual creation of another
artifact. (Of course, even a Class I WS could LEAD them to an already
existing artifact!) These are all very general classifications and can be
interpreted any way the DM sees as fair for the adventure. The DM can
and should break down the classifications into sub-classes for his own
purposes. (Note: Never tell any players outright what class or sub-class
the WS is; let them find out for themselves!)

Still another point to consider in determining how effective the wish
will be is how the player started the wish. A powerful wish can be all
fouled up by wishing in a too complicated or too simple or too long or too
short statement. If the player is getting too long-winded, it’s easier to twist
or misinterpret his words. If too short, there may not be enough
information. However, if the player asks for something relatively simple
using the terms in D&D, he shouldn’t have many problems. WS’s have
some understanding power, although not too much.

DM’s will be at their most inventiveness when attempting to grant a
wish in some form when the WS is not powerful enough to fully grant the
wish. F’rinstance, if a player asks for a Mirror of Life Trapping and has
only a Class I WS, the DM could give him a little mirror attached to a
sealed off fishbowl, occupied. If he asks for a balrog slave and he has only
a Class II WS, you could send him to the Abyss. Let him get his own
balrog slave. (You can be sure we’ll never see him again.) But you needn’t
always be tricky. You can just drop his wish entirely if you can’t grant it.
Of course, he still uses up that wish.

Well, that’s about it. I’ve just presented a basic outline. For some of
you, this will make handling wishes easier. For others, it may be a little
confusing. Remember, you don’t have to obey this word for word. Get the
feel of these ideas and you won’t even have to refer to this article very
often. The feel of the rules is the most important thing. Wishes should be
great news, but yet a harrowing experience. Handle them well!