Ok so I am mastering Descent into the avernus and, after learning that the sword transformation changes your personality, the neutral-evil fighter used a Wish (Granted by an archdevil for his 11th soul) to say: "I wish that the sword would attune to me but the transformation must not affect my personality and psyche"
Sooooo, what do you think I should do? I was thinking about having him grow black feathered wings and flaming red eyes but then the sword would disattune immediately (Cuz its sentient ya know) and continuously send him feelings of guilt (Emotions should be the way the sword communicates if I remember well)
Wish is a very playgroup specific spell, where some playgroups would be okay with the DM twisting a Wish as far as possible, up to and including player destruction, and others getting upset at that prospect. How far are you looking to push this Wish and what do you feel your party/player’s tolerance is going to be?
I'd probably allow this, as I don't really care for items like this that permanently rewrite a character's alignment and personality. It'd be one thing for say, a cursed item that corrupts a party member that the rest of the party could potentially free them from or something, but not a fan of 'your character is not X. Forever. Hope you like playing X now.'
However, this is a sentient sword. So I would have it resist someone who tries to use it for evil. I wouldn't let an evil player wield a heavenly sentient artifact and just have that artifact go along with being used for evil purposes. Either the fighter would have to adapt to the sword through character development to find common ground, or they would need to find another sword, or find some way to bend the artifact to their will. Which would not be easy, being a divine artifact.
Well, for gameplay purposes the campaign is just about over anyway. So it's really about the narrative, about what should happen to the character. If you're going for a normal D&D tone where the heroes live happily ever after then just let the Wish work.
I guess he's evil, so the attunement isn't supposed to work. But you can always change stuff if you want.
Maybe he'd be up for like, a personality split? Where he gains a good-aligned half that's positioned against his evil side? Could have one angel wing and one devil wing? It's cliche but I mean, it's cliche for a reason right? Lol.
you have multiple problems here. There is no way the Sword of Zariel would consider an evil character worthy. That is a separate issue from the sword transforming him.
You could easily twist the wish so it doesn't work, but that can easily anger players. Instead I would just tell him "No, this won't work the way you want it to, choose a Wish use from those that are listed in the spell description or save it for later"
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.
Also, the fighter will be Strength 3 for a while, which he probably didn't realize.
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.
If he has access to a wish spell he could just wish for a really cool sword out of nowhere without attunement complications rather than trying to force this one to work. Unless it's an evil thing where he really wants to bend this sword to his will specifically for evil's sake or something.
If he has access to a wish spell he could just wish for a really cool sword out of nowhere without attunement complications rather than trying to force this one to work. Unless it's an evil thing where he really wants to bend this sword to his will specifically for evil's sake or something.
Yeah, that's pretty much it...He just wants to do the evil guy thing...
The way the original wish is phrased it also kind of sounds like they're trying to push for two wishes at the same time.
Wishing for it to attune to them against its wishes.
And removing the mental effects of said attunement.
I'm not sure if I would personally allow it to affect it. Wish is a very powerful spell, but it's not a literal 'do anything' spell, giving leeway for the DM to not only subvert the original intent by following the letter but not spirit of the wish, but also to simply say the wish does not work and nothing happens. Given that antimagic field does not affect artifacts as an 8th level spell, I would probably extend that to wish as a ninth level spell, and say the artifact cannot be twisted by the wish spell. If I did allow the wish to go through, I would have the sword constantly fighting back against the fighter, potentially withholding some of its abilities or making the fighter have to make frequent cha checks to overpower the will of the sword. Or allow the forced attunement but have the sword able to break the attunement.
If this were a lesser sentient weapon it'd be another story. But an artifact I think would be outside the scope of this.
But ultimately you can make whatever ruling you think suits your game and table. And if this is say, at the end of the campaign before the party goes off into the sunset and the character is retired, or if the campaign is going to go on and the character continuing on with the sword in future sessions could also be a big factor.
Ok so I am mastering Descent into the avernus and, after learning that the sword transformation changes your personality, the neutral-evil fighter used a Wish (Granted by an archdevil for his 11th soul) to say: "I wish that the sword would attune to me but the transformation must not affect my personality and psyche"
Sooooo, what do you think I should do? I was thinking about having him grow black feathered wings and flaming red eyes but then the sword would disattune immediately (Cuz its sentient ya know) and continuously send him feelings of guilt (Emotions should be the way the sword communicates if I remember well)
Wish is a very playgroup specific spell, where some playgroups would be okay with the DM twisting a Wish as far as possible, up to and including player destruction, and others getting upset at that prospect. How far are you looking to push this Wish and what do you feel your party/player’s tolerance is going to be?
I'd probably allow this, as I don't really care for items like this that permanently rewrite a character's alignment and personality. It'd be one thing for say, a cursed item that corrupts a party member that the rest of the party could potentially free them from or something, but not a fan of 'your character is not X. Forever. Hope you like playing X now.'
However, this is a sentient sword. So I would have it resist someone who tries to use it for evil. I wouldn't let an evil player wield a heavenly sentient artifact and just have that artifact go along with being used for evil purposes. Either the fighter would have to adapt to the sword through character development to find common ground, or they would need to find another sword, or find some way to bend the artifact to their will. Which would not be easy, being a divine artifact.
Well, for gameplay purposes the campaign is just about over anyway. So it's really about the narrative, about what should happen to the character. If you're going for a normal D&D tone where the heroes live happily ever after then just let the Wish work.
I guess he's evil, so the attunement isn't supposed to work. But you can always change stuff if you want.
Maybe he'd be up for like, a personality split? Where he gains a good-aligned half that's positioned against his evil side? Could have one angel wing and one devil wing? It's cliche but I mean, it's cliche for a reason right? Lol.
"must not affect my personality and psyche"
He left out behavior. That's where I would use consequences of trying to 'dupe' a sentient, holy, lawful sword.
you have multiple problems here. There is no way the Sword of Zariel would consider an evil character worthy. That is a separate issue from the sword transforming him.
You could easily twist the wish so it doesn't work, but that can easily anger players. Instead I would just tell him "No, this won't work the way you want it to, choose a Wish use from those that are listed in the spell description or save it for later"
Also, the fighter will be Strength 3 for a while, which he probably didn't realize.
Site Info: Wizard's ToS | Fan Content Policy | Forum Rules | Physical Books | Content Not Working | Contact Support
How To: Homebrew Rules | Create Homebrew | Snippet Codes | Tool Tips (Custom) | Rollables (Generator)
My Homebrew: Races | Subclasses | Backgrounds | Feats | Spells | Magic Items
Other: Beyond20 | Page References | Other Guides | Entitlements | Dice Randomization | Images Fix | FAQ
Yeah, he knows the sword wouldn't attune to him normally, thats why he tried to force the sword to attune through wish....
Also Wishes cast by devils don't cause stress as norma wishes do (Written in the devil deal paragraph)
Thx everyone for answers and suggestion, you have been very helpful 😄
If he has access to a wish spell he could just wish for a really cool sword out of nowhere without attunement complications rather than trying to force this one to work. Unless it's an evil thing where he really wants to bend this sword to his will specifically for evil's sake or something.
Yeah, that's pretty much it...He just wants to do the evil guy thing...
The way the original wish is phrased it also kind of sounds like they're trying to push for two wishes at the same time.
Wishing for it to attune to them against its wishes.
And removing the mental effects of said attunement.
I'm not sure if I would personally allow it to affect it. Wish is a very powerful spell, but it's not a literal 'do anything' spell, giving leeway for the DM to not only subvert the original intent by following the letter but not spirit of the wish, but also to simply say the wish does not work and nothing happens. Given that antimagic field does not affect artifacts as an 8th level spell, I would probably extend that to wish as a ninth level spell, and say the artifact cannot be twisted by the wish spell. If I did allow the wish to go through, I would have the sword constantly fighting back against the fighter, potentially withholding some of its abilities or making the fighter have to make frequent cha checks to overpower the will of the sword. Or allow the forced attunement but have the sword able to break the attunement.
If this were a lesser sentient weapon it'd be another story. But an artifact I think would be outside the scope of this.
But ultimately you can make whatever ruling you think suits your game and table. And if this is say, at the end of the campaign before the party goes off into the sunset and the character is retired, or if the campaign is going to go on and the character continuing on with the sword in future sessions could also be a big factor.