What is the best way to compose/express a resurrection wish in D&D? [closed]

Question

In the name of Greater Good, my Lawful Good character sacrificed an Avoral Guardinal. This happened in Occipitus (layer 507 of the Abyss), which he now controls as its Demon Lord. My character has gained the power to make a wish (in game terms, cast the wish Spell) and is going to use it to bring this Avoral back and atone for his action.

I know wishes are tricky, so how should I conduct the wish so that it doesnt have unexpected negative results in this case? (Loss of levels or Constitution are not that much of a problem, but side effects like loss of memory or identity, or inability to flee the plane for any reason, would be.)

After Yaztromo's suggestion I talked to my DM who said that it's ok to use the wish spell and that it will probably work for this particular Outsider if cast on Occipitus and is phrased correctly. DM also said that he is following AD&D rules for wishes.

Any ideas as to how to avoid messing up?

Answer 1

This depends a lot on your DM. Personally, for example, at every resurrection, besides experience levels/Constitution temporary and permanent losses, I always give a phobia related to the kind of death the character died and I don't allow wishes to grant a phobia-free resurrection.

This is not strictly part of the rules (whatever expansion you're playing), but it's part of DM discretion, so you may want to have a chat with your DM.

In general, wishing a character back to life is an acceptable wish (as you may know, wishes that are too "bold" may be negated or backfire on you) and you should have a look at the spells of the expansion you are playing (whatever spell for whatever class) to see if there is a variant of resurrection spell that can match more closely what you are looking for. This probably will help your wording and (more important) the acceptance from your DM as an "appropriate" wish.

Answer 2

From the SRD:

A wish can produce any one of the following effects.

Revive the dead. A wish can bring a dead creature back to life by duplicating a resurrection spell. A wish can revive a dead creature whose body has been destroyed, but the task takes two wishes, one to recreate the body and another to infuse the body with life again. A wish cannot prevent a character who was brought back to life from losing an experience level.

You may try to use a wish to produce greater effects than these, but doing so is dangerous. (The wish may pervert your intent into a literal but undesirable fulfillment or only a partial fulfillment.)

Typically, the Resurrection spell that Wish is emulating doesn't work to resurrect an Outsider like an Avoral, but the Outsider template says:

It takes a different magical effect, such as limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection to restore it to life.

Basically, you don't need to worry, by RAW. A wish to bring something back to life follows any additional resurrection rules that your DM sets, as Yaztromo notes, but by RAW the Avoral will come back with full HP, and no extra disadvantages. He'll be able to leave the plane normally, and he'll have no memory loss.

Simply saying "I wish (Avoral's name) back to life." is a good wish. In 3.5, it's only the really powerful wishes that get messed with. In any case, you should talk to your DM to find out if there are any house rules on Wish or Resurrection first.

Answer 3

Depending on the conditions that he died under something like "I wish for [npc] to be restored to how he was 5 minutes before I killed him." might work well, since he was probably fine at that point and adding or removing anything from him would violate the wish.