Jackass Genie: Difference between revisions

** It's important to note that the above-mentioned "free-form" version of the ''wish'' spell came from the old ''AD&D 2nd Edition'' rules. In D&D 3.0 and 3.5, ''wish'' and ''miracle'' spells have a set of specific game-mechanical effects that they're explicitly allowed to accomplish with no penalty. Additionally, the spell description also says that the DM should let wishes of a similar power level [[Benevolent Genie|work the way the player wants them to]]—and because ''wish'' is, canonically, ''the'' most powerful spell a wizard can cast,<ref>At least, it's the most powerful spell a Level 20 wizard can cast.</ref> it ought to be capable of doing some pretty impressive things. It's only if the players go overboard that the DM is supposed to stop it, either by playing Jackass Genie with their phrasing or, if that isn't possible, by simply having the power of the spell be over-stretched and fail to get the job done. (The 3.0 Player's Guide has an example of the latter: a wizard wishing that everyone in the land consider him their rightful king ends up with everybody simply realising that the wizard tried and failed to magically control their minds.)

*** The ''D&D Rules Cyclopedia'' version of the ''wish'' spell recommended that not only should wishes be carefully worded to avoid poor interpretations, but that if the wish is carefully-worded but unbalanced the DM should go ''out of his way'' to come up with a negative interpretation. The given example, "I wish to immediately and permanently gain the gaze attack power of a basilisk while retaining all my current treasure and class features," was given an example result of the character growing a second, basilisk head.

** And 4th Edition has done away with ''wish'' altogether, at least as a spell that players can cast. It remains in the form of a ritual available only to pit fiends (the highest-ranking type of devil, short of the archdevils) that allows them to grant a mortal's wish once every 99 years... but if you're going to trust the outcome of your wish to a freakin' ''pit fiend'', you deserve whatever you get.

** ''Dungeons & Dragons'' also has actual genies, though only the "noble" ones (about 1% of them) can actually grant wishes. The description of noble efreeti (the evil type of genies that come from the Elemental Plane of Fire) specifically says, "Whenever possible, an efreeti will twist the words of a wish to bring pain and destruction upon the wisher."

* This is how the Djinn function in ''[[In Nomine]]''. The [[Evil Counterpart|demonic counterparts]] to the Cherubim ([[Guardian Angel]]s), a Djinn suffers [[Karma Meter|Dissonance]] if he actually harms the person he's attuned to ... ''unless'' he can claim he's "giving them what they asked for".

* This is something that you always have to be careful of when buying something at a Goblin Market in ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]''. Market Law says that all products and services must work as advertised, but [[Aint No Rule]] that says the merchant has to fully disclose all negative qualities and side-effects of a purchase.

== Video Games ==