Wish: Everything You Want in a Spell

Usable By: Sorcerer, Wizard

Spell Level: 9

School: Conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V

Wish is the mightiest spell a mortal creature can cast. By simply speaking aloud, you can alter the very foundations of reality in accord with your desires. The basic use of this spell is to duplicate any other spell of 8th level or lower. You don’t need to meet any requirements in that spell, including costly components. The spell simply takes effect. Alternatively, you can create one of the following effects of your choice:

You create one object of up to 25,000 gp in value that isn’t a magic item. The object can be no more than 300 feet in any dimension, and it appears in an unoccupied space you can see on the ground.
You allow up to twenty creatures that you can see to regain all hit points, and you end all effects on them described in the greater restoration spell.
You grant up to ten creatures that you can see resistance to a damage type you choose.
You grant up to ten creatures you can see immunity to a single spell or other magical effect for 8 hours. For instance, you could make yourself and all your companions immune to a lich’s life drain attack.
You undo a single recent event by forcing 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 spell could undo an opponent’s successful save, a foe’s critical hit, or a friend’s failed save. You can force the reroll to be made with advantage or disadvantage, and you can choose whether to use the reroll or the original roll.

You might be able to achieve something beyond the scope of the above examples. State your wish to the GM as precisely as possible. The GM has great latitude in ruling what occurs in such an instance; the greater the wish, the greater the likelihood that something goes wrong. This spell might simply fail, the effect you desire might only be partly achieved, or you might suffer some unforeseen consequence as a result of how you worded the wish. For example, wishing that a villain were dead might propel you forward in time to a period when that villain is no longer alive, effectively removing you from the game. Similarly, wishing for a legendary magic item or artifact might instantly transport you to the presence of the item’s current owner.

The stress of casting this spell to produce any effect other than duplicating another spell weakens you. After enduring that stress, each time you cast a spell until you finish a long rest, you take 1d10 necrotic damage per level of that spell. This damage can’t be reduced or prevented in any way. In addition, your Strength drops to 3, if it isn’t 3 or lower already, for 2d4 days. For each of those days that you spend resting and doing nothing more than light activity, your remaining recovery time decreases by 2 days. Finally, there is a 33 percent chance that you are unable to cast wish ever again if you suffer this stress.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

It can be hard to verbalize how absolutely game breaking Wish is; you really have to see it to believe it. If ever you’re in a heated debate over who’d win in a fight between two characters and one of them has access to Wish, know that whoever has Wish almost certainly can win that fight with a single round. Wish is one of the reasons late game power fantasies for the martial classes can feel so much worse than the full casters. Wish gives you the power to do anything you set your mind to, and that’s after the suite of game breaking features it has as a baseline.

To start, Wish can be every spell that ever has and will be printed that is 8th level or lower with no material costs, and only as a single action. Want Simulacrum? Why spend 12 hours when Wish can do it as an action? You can cast Hallow (24 hour cast), Awaken (8 hour cast), Reincarnate (1 hour cast), Clone (1 hour cast), and Planar Ally (10 minute cast), just to name a few, as a single action. Preparing Wish doubles as functionally preparing EVERY 8th level or lower spell in the game, and it often is casting them faster and cheaper than casting them normally.

This could be all Wish could do and it would still be among the best spells in the game, if not the best. To add to this nutty established base, it gets a long list of varying power features, each with its own niche that can break an encounter in half. The best one by far is the ability to reverse time and redo something that just happened with a reroll. There will be moments in end game fights where one critical pass or fail can shape the entire encounter. With Wish, you can pick to redo those moments when you absolutely need to. It literally offers a means of going back in time and redoing something you didn’t like.

Beyond the things it can always do, you can also just ask the DM for whatever you want and attempt to bend time and space to your will. This is what takes it from being broken to being unable to be bested, save a lower level version of this effect. Wish can be a solution to any problem, it can be something that changes the world forever in a way nothing else can.

The downsides are comparably minimal for what you’re getting. Using it as functionally preparing every other spell in the game in your 9th level slot will always be good, and if you don’t ever need the other effects, don’t bother with them. If you do find yourself craving to rewrite time and try again at the campaign's climax or try to ask the DM for something crazy like taking the group back in time, the worst bit that will occur is the 33% chance you’ll never be able to cast Wish again. Sure, this is a bummer, but there are plenty of other solid 9th level spells out there.

Wish is the kind of spell that will change how the game is played from there on out. If you have the opportunity to mess around with it, you will not be disappointed. The spell is everything people say it is and more; give it a shot if you get the chance.

5e Spells

Wish: Everything You Want in a Spell