Wishing for magical items in Pathfinder


Advice


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

In D&D v3.5, a player could have his character cast wish to create a magical item. Doing so cost nothing more than some XP and the wish spell's material component cost, as shown below:

D&D 3.5's wish spell description:
Wish
Universal
Level:
Sor/Wiz 9
Components: V, XP
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: See text
Target, Effect, or Area: See text
Duration: See text
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: Yes

Wish is the mightiest spell a wizard or sorcerer can cast. By simply speaking aloud, you can alter reality to better suit you.

Even wish, however, has its limits.

A wish can produce any one of the following effects.


  • Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 8th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
  • Duplicate any other spell of 6th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
  • Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 7th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
  • Duplicate any other spell of 5th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
  • Undo the harmful effects of many other spells, such as geas/quest or insanity.
  • Create a nonmagical item of up to 25,000 gp in value.
  • Create a magic item, or add to the powers of an existing magic item.
  • Grant a creature a +1 inherent bonus to an ability score. Two to five wish spells cast in immediate succession can grant a creature a +2 to +5 inherent bonus to an ability score (two wishes for a +2 inherent bonus, three for a +3 inherent bonus, and so on). Inherent bonuses are instantaneous, so they cannot be dispelled. Note: An inherent bonus may not exceed +5 for a single ability score, and inherent bonuses to a particular ability score do not stack, so only the best one applies.
  • Remove injuries and afflictions. A single wish can aid one creature per caster level, and all subjects are cured of the same kind of affliction. For example, you could heal all the damage you and your companions have taken, or remove all poison effects from everyone in the party, but not do both with the same wish. A wish can never restore the experience point loss from casting a spell or the level or Constitution loss from being raised from the dead.
  • Revive the dead. A wish can bring a dead creature back to life by duplicating a resurrection spell. A wish can revive a dead creature whose body has been destroyed, but the task takes two wishes, one to recreate the body and another to infuse the body with life again. A wish cannot prevent a character who was brought back to life from losing an experience level.
  • Transport travelers. A wish can lift one creature per caster level from anywhere on any plane and place those creatures anywhere else on any plane regardless of local conditions. An unwilling target gets a Will save to negate the effect, and spell resistance (if any) applies.
  • Undo misfortune. A wish can undo a single recent event. The wish forces a reroll of any roll made within the last round (including your last turn). Reality reshapes itself to accommodate the new result. For example, a wish could undo an opponent’s successful save, a foe’s successful critical hit (either the attack roll or the critical roll), a friend’s failed save, and so on. The reroll, however, may be as bad as or worse than the original roll. An unwilling target gets a Will save to negate the effect, and spell resistance (if any) applies.

You may try to use a wish to produce greater effects than these, but doing so is dangerous. (The wish may pervert your intent into a literal but undesirable fulfillment or only a partial fulfillment.)

Duplicated spells allow saves and spell resistance as normal (but save DCs are for 9th-level spells).

Material Component
When a wish duplicates a spell with a material component that costs more than 10,000 gp, you must provide that component.

XP Cost
The minimum XP cost for casting wish is 5,000 XP. When a wish duplicates a spell that has an XP cost, you must pay 5,000 XP or that cost, whichever is more. When a wish creates or improves a magic item, you must pay twice the normal XP cost for crafting or improving the item, plus an additional 5,000 XP.

However, in Pathfinder, the option to create (or even to improve) a magic item was removed from the spell's list of standard options (as shown below) and no spell or option anywhere in the game can reduce a character's XP total.

Pathfinder's wish spell description:

WISH
School
universal; Level sorcerer/wizard 9
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (diamond worth 25,000 gp)
Range see text
Target, Effect, Area see text
Duration see text
Saving Throw none, see text; Spell Resistance yes

Wish is the mightiest spell a wizard or sorcerer can cast. By simply speaking aloud, you can alter reality to better suit you. Even wish, however, has its limits. A wish can produce any one of the following effects.


  • Duplicate any sorcerer/wizard spell of 8th level or lower, provided the spell does not belong to one of your opposition schools.
  • Duplicate any non-sorcerer/wizard spell of 7th level or lower, provided the spell does not belong to one of your opposition schools.
  • Duplicate any sorcerer/wizard spell of 7th level or lower, even if it belongs to one of your opposition schools.
  • Duplicate any non-sorcerer/wizard spell of 6th level or lower, even if it belongs to one of your opposition schools.
  • Undo the harmful effects of many other spells, such as geas/quest or insanity.
  • Grant a creature a +1 inherent bonus to an ability score. Two to five wish spells cast in immediate succession can grant a creature a +2 to +5 inherent bonus to an ability score (two wishes for a +2 inherent bonus, three wishes for a +3 inherent bonus, and so on). Inherent bonuses are instantaneous, so they cannot be dispelled. Note: An inherent bonus may not exceed +5 for a single ability score, and inherent bonuses to a particular ability score do not stack, so only the best one applies.
  • Remove injuries and afflictions. A single wish can aid one creature per caster level, and all subjects are cured of the same kind of affliction. For example, you could heal all the damage you and your companions have taken, or remove all poison effects from everyone in the party, but not do both with the same wish.
  • Revive the dead. A wish can bring a dead creature back to life by duplicating a resurrection spell. A wish can revive a dead creature whose body has been destroyed, but the task takes two wishes: one to recreate the body and another to infuse the body with life again. A wish cannot prevent a character who was brought back to life from gaining a permanent negative level.
  • Transport travelers. A wish can lift one creature per caster level from anywhere on any plane and place those creatures anywhere else on any plane regardless of local conditions. An unwilling target gets a Will save to negate the effect, and spell resistance (if any) applies.
  • Undo misfortune. A wish can undo a single recent event. The wish forces a reroll of any roll made within the last round (including your last turn). Reality reshapes itself to accommodate the new result. For example, a wish could undo an opponent's successful save, a foe's successful critical hit (either the attack roll or the critical roll), a friend's failed save, and so on. The reroll, however, may be as bad as or worse than the original roll. An unwilling target gets a Will save to negate the effect, and spell resistance (if any) applies.

You may try to use a wish to produce greater effects than these, but doing so is dangerous. (The wish may pervert your intent into a literal but undesirable fulfillment or only a partial fulfillment, at the GM's discretion.)

Duplicated spells allow saves and spell resistance as normal (but save DCs are for 9th-level spells).

When a wish duplicates a spell with a material component that costs more than 10,000 gp, you must provide that component (in addition to the 25,000 gp diamond component for this spell).

So how does one best adjudicate the spell in Pathdfinder when his player uses it to with for a magical item (or to improve an existing item)?


I'd say that players doing that are using the "greater effects" clause make a judgment call and decide if they're being too greedy. If they provide the material components, or most of it, then I'd probably let them just use the spell as an expensive time-saver, but if they wanted a +5 Vorpal sword for just that wish... maybe cursed, maybe the survivors of a would-be jabberwock slayers are hiring people to track the sword down.

tl;dr: Judgment call on how much if at all to pervert the wish based on how greedy they're being.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Thanks for the advice James, but I probably should have been more clear on this from the start: I know this is a wish thread, but let us please assume for a moment that the player is not a greedy asshat asking for too much and that the GM is not a control freak looking to screw the player.

Now, with those assumptions in mind, what is your advice for adjudicating the spell in this scenario?


Most players with access to Wish have the ability to craft, so the additional cost can easily be "paying full price". I'd let them pay the full cost of Wish and get any non-obscure magical item up to that value. ("Obscure" meaning it's coming from an AP or module, since those are more likely to have issues from what I've found.) I'd have the spell produce duplicates of the item if it's half the cost of Wish or less, getting as close to 25k as possible without going over.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I agree with QuidEst. Any standard, replicable magic item that costs 25,000 gold or less should be able to be wished for with no worries. Unique, rare, custom, or cursed magical items are in the "risky red zone" of wishing, as are items over 25,000 gold.


The advice would completely depend on how much power you want Wish to have, and how you want wish resolution to work.

Personally, I prefer Wish only doing things that would be reasonable as a hyperspecialized 9th level spell that requires thousands of gp worth of material components. On that basis, if what the player wants is reasonable and the wording of their wish isn't too egregious, they get what they want. If what they want is in excess of a highly specialized 9th level spell, the Wish produces an effect which is reasonable for a 9th level spell and which technically fulfills the wording of the wish (but not necessarily what the player desires). If the wish is airtight enough, the wish will outright disregard select parts of the wording to reach 9th level spell power.

Based on that, what is reasonable for a 9th level spell that spits out a magic item? Wish costs 25kgp, so it certainly shouldn't be more than that. Maybe half of that, or 10kgp just to have a nice round number? Perhaps multiple wishes can build up a more expensive item?

Anyway, that's my 0.02c. You might envision wish being different - I don't particularly like the troperiffic style screwy Wishes when they are being made by professionals who habitually display a reasonable degree of risk aversion, so my advice is colored by that.


Instead of using a wish to call up a magic item, if you should try Lesser Planar Binding to call up a Mercane.
It's a lower level spell, and you can bargain for the item you want for less than the 25000gp a wish would cost you. I know there is no way to know if it has the item you are looking for. But it is a Good bet that if it dose not, it knows one of its kind who dose. Your GM can make this an ongoing plot device.


I'd go along with KestralZ and QuidEst as well. If they're wishing for a common (in the book/craftable/not customized) magic item item within 25,000 gp. then it's probably safe to do it.

If the item is what you consider rare or there's only at most 2 or 3 in the region, then you go into 'GM Plot mode'. That could fall into the 'Item appears but it's stolen,' theme. It could also be in the form of a map that appears leading to a dungeon or hoard that contains the item (or yes, the treasure vault of a legitimate owner).

This would also be the case for magic items of unusual combinations or specifically customized focus that a normal crafter couldn't do themselves (like a robe of useful items with 16 Gem patches) ) I might allow custom items of up to half the 25,000 gp. mark (like trying to get a ring of feather fall with fire resistance or something) but otherwise, I'd definitely say it falls into 'greater than normal effect' to basically create or craft an item with the spell, which you pointed out has specifically and expressly been altered to not allow it in normal power usage.


It does not seem unreasonable for a 9th level spell to bypass crafting time requirements, I'd allow them to wish for a magic item with a value equal to the 25k with an option to add further material components for greater value magic items.


KestrelZ wrote:
I agree with QuidEst. Any standard, replicable magic item that costs 25,000 gold or less should be able to be wished for with no worries. Unique, rare, custom, or cursed magical items are in the "risky red zone" of wishing, as are items over 25,000 gold.

This is how I handle it.

Anything with less that 25,000gp value is fine (so long as you aren't wishing for a Unique item). Anything else treads into the "bad stuff may happen or the spell may not work" zone.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

What if they wanted to add 25,000gp worth of upgrades to an existing item (that may or may not be worth more than 25,000gp in its own right)?


If it's actually only worth 25,000 gp then I'd probably allow it, but I wouldn't count it as "crafted" so you would be paying full price for the effective upgrade.

As long as the value received via this wish doesn't end up being more than 25,000 gp I think it's fine.

So I would let you wish a non-magical mundane weapon into a +3 weapon with a single wish. If you cast it again on the same weapon I would allow you to go all the way to +5 (assuming you cast it back to back).

But basically all you've done is spent money and cast wish to instantly get something as opposed to having to seek it out and acquire it. And I'm fine with that.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / Wishing for magical items in Pathfinder All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Advice