Heightened Wish?

Rules 3rd Edition D&D or Pathfinder
1

What are everyone’s thoughts about a heightened wish spell?

Could you now duplicate 9th level spells? 10 level / epic spells? Grant epic templates?

Thanks, Rob.

2

Heightened as in the 3.5e metamagic feat? (which increases the spell’s save DC, and wouldn’t do that)

Or as in 5e’s "Casting a Spell at a Higher Level”? (Which says "Some spells, such as magic missile and cure wounds, have more powerful effects when cast at a higher level, as detailed in a spell’s description.” and Wish has no such details, but it IS wish, and the sky’s the limit…).

Or do you mean something else?

3

As in the 3.5e heightened metamagic feat…

Rob.

4

Then all that’d do (Rules As Written), is increase the saving throw DC if you replicated another spell with the wish.

You can do nearly anything if you gain access to Epic slots, though… (limited only by your lvl and/or ranks in the appropriate Knowledge skill). Various epic “spells” can accomplish the things you mentioned above.

5

Heightened wish would not change the basic parameters of the spell. I wrote out an epic version of the wish spell that changes it a bit.

Epic Wish
Conjuration (Creation)
Spellcraft DC: 50
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Target, Effect, or Area: As wish spell
Duration: As wish spell
Saving Throw: As wish spell
Spell Resistance: Yes
To Develop: 450,000 gp, 9 days, 18,000 XP. Seed: Conjure (DC 21). Factors: duplicate wish 9th-level arcane spell (+29 DC).
Description:
“Epic Wish” is the pinnacle of spellcasting, a formidable conjuration spell that allows wizards and sorcerers to reshape reality to their will, extending even beyond the formidable power of a standard wish.
An “Epic Wish” can produce any one of the following effects:
• Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 9th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
• Duplicate any other spell of 7th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
• Duplicate any wizard or sorcerer spell of 8th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
• Duplicate any other spell of 6th level or lower even if it’s of a prohibited school.
• Other effects as the standard wish spell. Besides what is explicitly detailed, epic wish does not provide for more powerful effects than the standard wish spell.
XP Cost for Casting:
The minimum XP cost for casting an “Epic Wish” is 5,000 XP. When an “Epic Wish” duplicates a spell that has an XP cost, you must pay 5,000 XP or the spell’s cost, whichever is higher. When used to create or improve a magic item, the XP cost is the standard crafting cost plus an additional 5,000 XP, foregoing the doubling of the XP cost typical of a standard wish spell.
Duplicated spells allow saves and spell resistance as normal (but save DCs are for 10th-level spells).
No Material Component Required:
An “Epic Wish” requires no material component, regardless of the cost or nature of the spell being duplicated.

6

Where did you get the factor duplicate wish 9th level spell from?

1 Like
7

Probably the Epic Level Handbook?

8

Here is my attempt to create a epic wish spell…Let me know what you think…

:glowing_star: Greater Wish

Universal
Spellcraft DC: 101
Components: V
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: See text
Target, Effect, or Area: See text
Duration: See text
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: Yes
To Develop: 909,000 gp; 18,180 XP; 91 days. Seeds: conjure (DC 27). Factors: duplicate a 9th-level spell effect (+18 DC), extend to all arcane and divine spells (+6 DC), remove XP cost of standard wish (+50 DC). No mitigating factors.

Greater Wish is the mightiest spell a wizard can cast. By simply speaking aloud, you can alter reality to better suit you. Even greater wish, however, has its limits.

A greater wish can produce any one of the following effects:

  • Duplicate any arcane or divine spell of 9th level or lower, regardless of school or class list.
  • 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 greater wish spells cast in immediate succession can grant a creature a +2 to +5 inherent bonus to an ability score (two greater 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 greater 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 greater wish. A greater 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 greater wish can bring a dead creature back to life by duplicating a resurrection spell. A greater wish can revive a dead creature whose body has been destroyed, but the task takes two greater wishes, one to recreate the body and another to infuse the body with life again. A greater wish cannot prevent a character who was brought back to life from losing an experience level.
  • Transport travelers. A greater 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 greater wish can undo a single recent event. The greater 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 greater 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 greater wish to produce greater effects than these, but doing so is dangerous. Such a greater wish gives the DM the opportunity to fulfill your request without fulfilling it completely. (The greater wish may pervert your intent into a literal but undesirable fulfillment or only a partial fulfillment.) For example, wishing for a staff of the magi might get you instantly transported to the presence of the staff’s current owner. Wishing to be immortal could get you imprisoned in a hidden extradimensional space (as by an imprisonment spell), where you could “live” indefinitely.

Duplicated spells allow saves and spell resistance as normal (but save DCs are for 10th-level spells).

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

XP Cost: None. Greater wish does not require an XP cost, even when duplicating spells with an XP cost or creating magical items.

9

It’s an ad hoc factor, which are allowable As a rule of thumb and depending on the power of the end result, assign an ad hoc factor of spell level (in this case 9) + 10 (low powered) or 15 (medium powered) or 20.(high powered). In this case I went with 29.

10

Is removing XP costs from a wish spell only worth +50 as a factor?

11

Yes. Looking at hellball it has a -4 to dc for a 400 xp burn. So I just reversed that cost. Increased the dc by 1 for every 100 xp cost. So +50 for 5000 xp cost reduction.

Rob.

1 Like
12

You can burn XP for that decreasing DC, but reducing XP expenditure for higher DC has a much higher impact. The DC should reflect its in game impact.

13

Do you have an example in mind? I am open to the increase in dc. But I would like to see it first. I can then start to add mitigating factors to the spell.

1 Like
14

Well, you decide what the DC should be for 25,000 gp worth of stuff for each casting of your XP free wish. You decide the DC first, a DC which is congruent with the in-game effects, then assign an ad hoc factor.

15

So what do you think a good dc would be for a “Free Wish”? I thinking of adding backlash dmg of 10d6 to 20d6 to the caster. so there is room for a higher dc…

1 Like
16

Its really up to you. You just have to consider that within the setting, other characters likely have the XP free wish as well.

17

Fair enough. But look at DS as an example. How many people have the preserver/avangion metamorphosis epic spell? Avangions are known to exist within certain groups that would be interested in seeing more Avangions. But there are very few in canon. Even if every epic cast knew Greater Wish existed and developed their own version. You’re still taking about a handful of casters. Another example is does every 20th level cast have wish? Most likely do. But how many 20th level casters are there in a setting. Not many. Wish itself is still a rare spell and people know of it.

1 Like
18

The Greater Wish doesn’t require an avangion or dragon advanced being to cast it. If it makes sense in your setting, just go with it. It just means that 21st level+ casters are no longer resource constrained.