Wishing suggestions:
Top contenders:
Items: amulet of life saving if pre-Khelavaster; red dragon scale mails especially if pre-ToEF; pairs of (guarantees plurality) seven league boots; scrolls of chaos resistance
Skills: Concentration for magic; Find Weakness for melee
Weapons: phase daggers (if no penetrating weapons are found); in general weapons are not a wise thing to use a wish on, there are plenty available in the game
Details:
Wishes can yield any skill except for Alertness (which, when wished for, increases Perception) and Healing (which, when wished for, heals the PC). Stats can also be wished for - although, wishing for 'learning' yields potions of learning - wish for 'knowledge' to increase Learning directly. Appearance has to be wished for as 'beauty' and Perception as 'alertness'. The size of the stat increase depends on the stat: 7 points of Willpower is possible, the Strength bonus is usually around 3 and as high as 5 - which makes it more worthwhile to wish for potions of strength instead.
A "manual of bridge building" can be wished for and the PC is able to learn the skill by reading it. Wishing for "manuals of bridge building" results in the strange flux message then Nothing Happens.
If the PC wants to increase Learning, wishing for crystals of knowledge is better than wishing for potions of learning since blessed CoK's increase Learning by 1d2, you get three with one wish, and you can bless multiple CoK's with one potion of holy water, whereas you get two potions of learning, both of which take a potion of holy water to bless. With any decent kind of luck, the CoKs should bring at least 4, 5 or even 6 extra points to Learning. However, CoKs will only raise Learning to 25.
Wishing for the plural form of certain items results in a message:
A voice in your mind booms...
"*ONE* SHALL BE ENOUGH!"
Your equipment feels heavier.
Items in this category include amulets of life saving, girdles of giant strength and potions of gain attributes. Certain other items can only be obtained two at a time. Examples include potions of -stat-.
Fish can only be wished for in its raw form, as "piece of fish meat" or "pieces of fish meat". Wishing for fried fish gives regular fish instead.
Wishing for speed:
Stephen White has studied this in some detail and posted the following to RGRA on March 7th, 2002:
"First I will mention that during the following testing I was careful to look out for things like base modification of speed due to burden or hunger status - I was always not even burdened, and always of no specific hunger status, i.e. not satiated or hungry, just normal.
"OK, I just tested this out. I wished for "potions of boost speed" 10 times. I got only two potions twice, three potions six times, and four potions twice, so we can assume the average is three per wish.
"I blessed them all, and drank them one at a time, allowing my speed to return to normal between each one. The lowest speed boost given was 21 points, which occured three times. The highest was 47, acheived just once. The average overall was 30.8 speed points from one blessed potion.
"This gives an overall total (assuming three potions from an average wish, and average gain from each) of 92.4 points.
"Then I tried wishing for "speed" directly, 12 times. I let my speed return to normal after each, and took account of the permanent increase of 1 point left over after the boost wears off. The minimum boost I received was 150 points, the maximum was 248 points. The overall average was 214.2 points.
"So, this is pretty conclusive - it's best to wish for "speed" directly. It's possible to gain more by using potions, if you get 4 from your wish, and a decent gain from each, compared to a quite unlucky wish for "speed", but in general wishing for speed directly is almost guaranteed to give the bigger increase."
The original context of the thread was in regard to techniques useful when fighting Andor Drakon. High speed is also useful when fighting Srraxxarrakex, the emperor moloch, or other monsters the PC just doesn't want to be hit by.
In the following table, the game's direct response is [in square brackets].
| Wish for | Result |
|---|---|
| corruption | corruptor |
| death | unnatural aging (76 years reproducibly with one human PC, this may be race and age dependent) |
| invisibility | rings of invisibility |
| babes | ["We are feeling lonely, aren't we?"] |
| crumpled scroll | blank scroll |
| friends | [A telepathic voice sounds in your head: "Thou shalt have a friend!". A -foo- appears!] A tame animal pet or a companion. |
| immortality | ["Funny, very funny."] |
| moloch armor | eternium plate mail |
| money or gold | [Suddenly gold pieces rain down upon you!]About 43,000 gold pieces (experience dependent) |
| sheep | The parser interprets this as a wish for a banshee. Be prepared. |
| Thomas Biskup | [A voice booms... "*Thou shalt not mock the Creator*!"] |
| Underwater creatures when not in water | [A tiny red herring appears for a few seconds...] |
| Underwater creatures when in water | [For some seconds a ghostly figure seems to appear, but then it dissipates once more.] |
| wands of wishing, rings of djinni summoning, spellbooks of Wish, wishes, etc | Wishing for wands of wishing results in a wand of wonder; rings of djinni summoning results in brass rings, spellbooks of Wish results in spellbooks of Calm Monster; wishes results in [Nothing Happens.] |
| Emperor Moloch | [A voice in your head whispers hateful words... "*You'll have to come!*" "Maybe my friends can get you moving!" Suddenly several figures appear out of nowhere!"] The several (about 20 - 25) figures are hostile greater molochs. |
| Quickling Bard | [A voice in your head giggles... "Nahfriendthiswayyouwontfindmeyoullhavetobemorepatient!" "Meetsomecompanionsofmineinthemeantime!" Suddenly several figures appear out of nowhere!] The several figures are all hostile quickling lords, which are considered summoned and therefore cannot be sacrificed. |
| Glod | [A strange little dwarf appears.] Described as "Glod, the small dwarf."Digs. |
| Scrolls of Omnipotence | Scrolls of power |
| PC's name, Kranach, Ancient Chaos Wyrm, Snake From Beyond, Master Summoner, Yulgash, Ancient Stone Beast, Chaos Archmage, Nuurag-Vaarn, Ancient blue wyrm, Sharad-Waador, Filk, Assassin Prince, Keriax, sheriff, crime lord, Hotzenplotz, Grunge, Munge, Gaab'Baay, Hawkslayer, water dragon, baby water dragon, great water dragon, Blup, Shyssiryxius, healer, Jharod, mad carpenter, Yrrigs, black druid, Keethrax, master necromancer, Nonnak, Griff Bloodax, undead dwarven chaos berserker, mad doctor, nefarious doctor, Kranf Niest, ogre guardian, arena master, Waldenbrook, Garth, Rynt, Guth'Alak, priest, Munxip, Thrundarr, Mad Minstrel, Kherab, dwarven artificer, MaLaKaI, Fistanarius, cat lord | [Nothing Happens.] |
| raider lord, old barbarian, ratling guardian, dwarven mystic,cute dog | [Suddenly a -foo- appears!] |
| ratling trader or trader | A ratling trader, usually stocked. |
| shopkeeper | [You hear a voice in your mind... "Boys, get him/her!"] Thugs are summoned. |
Wishing for a raider lord and killing him before Tywat Pare assigns the quest results in no reward from Tywat Pare, other than the 300 gold pieces for the corpse. Furthermore, he will not assign the quest. If the PC gets the quest, wishes for a raider lord and kills him, Tywat Pare acknowledges the kill and gives the usual reward.
Interestingly, wished-for ratling guardians are as immobile as those in the HMV and respond with the same message about guarding the city when 'C'hatted with.
Wished-for ancient karmic wyrms are similarly confused. They are immobile, think they are Sharad-Waador and ask the PC to "Stand on the stairs... then we'll talk."
A wished-for dwarven mystic always responds with the "Ye art doomed!" message and then disappears when 'C'hatted with. The PC is not in fact doomed. See section 2.5.4.
If the PC has received the puppy quest from the tiny girl, wishing for a cute dog and delivering it to her satisfies the quest requirement. If the PC has not received the quest, wishing for a cute dog may well result in one that is hostile. This causes an amusing scenario, to say the least, in Terinyo.