I am a DM. Recently, one of my players—who plays an immortal race—successfully defeated and captured an Archmage. They are now forcing the Archmage to cast Wish on behalf of their human friend (who is currently 24 years old) to extend his youth and ensure they can stay together indefinitely."
"The player intends to have the Archmage repeatedly cast Wish to grant the friend as much lifespan as the spell possibly can. However, I’m unsure how to officially rule this. Are there any official WotC precedents or rulings regarding using Wish for immortality or life extension in this manner?
"Restore Youth" isn't a listed effect of Wish so it falls under GM's judgement. Personally, since it only effects one creature and has no actual in-game effects, I'd say that a single Wish ought to be sufficient to greatly extend the character's lifespan. Among other things, most of the named human wizard characters in D&D that are capable of casting Wish are also centuries older than normal human lifespan would allow.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The players chose to use Dominate Person to control the archmage, preventing him from saying anything he shouldn’t.
That might work once. Assuming he even has the spell prepared and hasn't already used his 9th level slot. You're not going to hold him through a long rest, though.
I am a DM. Recently, one of my players—who plays an immortal race—successfully defeated and captured an Archmage. They are now forcing the Archmage to cast Wish on behalf of their human friend (who is currently 24 years old) to extend his youth and ensure they can stay together indefinitely."
"The player intends to have the Archmage repeatedly cast Wish to grant the friend as much lifespan as the spell possibly can. However, I’m unsure how to officially rule this. Are there any official WotC precedents or rulings regarding using Wish for immortality or life extension in this manner?
The player plans to burn through the Archmage's Wish capacity...milking the NPC for every last Wish until the 33% failure chance finally kicks in.
You don't need wish to restore youth; just use clone.
"Restore Youth" isn't a listed effect of Wish so it falls under GM's judgement. Personally, since it only effects one creature and has no actual in-game effects, I'd say that a single Wish ought to be sufficient to greatly extend the character's lifespan. Among other things, most of the named human wizard characters in D&D that are capable of casting Wish are also centuries older than normal human lifespan would allow.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I would note that any plan that starts with "we're going to force the archmage to cast wish" seems... fraught with danger.
I wish your whole party to the plane of carceri
Or if not danger, it just won’t work. If I’m the wizard in question, I use it to cast teleport and get out of there.
In this world, most of the technologies related to immortality and extending lifespan have been lost. That's why players choose the Wish Spell.
The players chose to use Dominate Person to control the archmage, preventing him from saying anything he shouldn’t.
In the end, I ruled:
“Uh… yes. Your friend has gained many years of youth, but exactly how many will only become clear over a long period of time.”
I have no idea how that even happened, what scenario would the party be able to capture a archmage but not be capable of using wish themselves?
That might work once. Assuming he even has the spell prepared and hasn't already used his 9th level slot. You're not going to hold him through a long rest, though.
They had a rather unreliable beholder ally, and used its antimagic cone to capture the archmage.
I believe the issue is not with the wish spell, but that a powerful npc is unable to roll initiative and attempt escape.
If the archmage can cast wish, they can cast any wish, and only a successful counterspell can stop it.
If the players cast dominate person, the archmage cant possibly fail every saving throw
If the beholder is unreliable, then they should actually be ubreliable.