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In terms of RAW what should happen if a player with the deck of many things drew the wish card or cast wish, and then wished to only ever draw specific cards from the deck, or to the only ever draw the good cards?

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    \$\begingroup\$ It's worth noting that if you are going to do these kinds of shenanigans on the Deck, divinations are far more reliable. Augury is second level. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 24, 2020 at 0:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Studoku And it's a ritual so you can just spam it and not even burn spell slots. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 24, 2020 at 0:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ @guildsbounty The stacking fail chance stops that but at the very least cast it once per day for "What if I draw 1,2,3... cards" until you get Woe. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 24, 2020 at 0:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ I seem to recall someone picking the Vizier card as their first pick and asking the question "what card should I pick next?" Whether that's a valid use of that card or not has always been unclear to me. (The GM, however was very generous at that moment...) \$\endgroup\$ Nov 24, 2020 at 20:35

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From the text of Wish (emphasis mine)

You might be able to achieve something beyond the scope of the above examples. State your wish to the DM as precisely as possible. The DM 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.

Best case scenario is that the GM will simply rule that the wish fails. Worst case scenario, the GM is feeling creative.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I could easily see myself going "Ok, you only ever draw the good cards," then simply making sure they manifest in the most twisted way possible (You draw the Gem card...those bits of treasure are from the hoard of an ancient red dragon, and he has spells on the items that just appeared in front of you that mark you as the thief and give him a constant ping on your location. You find out when a massively PO'd Dragon shows up three days later) or you only draw the good cards, and the bad ones just fly out of the deck and take effect. Moral of the story: don't taunt the DM with Wish. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 24, 2020 at 0:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yep, Wish is the one spell where the DM can do pretty much whatever and its fully within the spell description \$\endgroup\$
    – Hobbamok
    Nov 24, 2020 at 8:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ The simplest way to punish 'I wish to only draw good cards from this deck from now on' is to have the deck stolen immediately; they'll never draw a bad card from it again! \$\endgroup\$ Nov 24, 2020 at 10:04
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    \$\begingroup\$ This just becomes wish-lawyering then, in which your players will try to make airtight wishes like a lawyer drawing up a contract. Though I guess any use of Wish has this problem. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ryan_L
    Nov 24, 2020 at 18:14
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    \$\begingroup\$ "This spell might simply fail" is the counter to any wish longer than a sentence and/or drafted by a legal team. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 24, 2020 at 21:42

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