The Wishing Imp and time travel

[High Priest Mikhal]

The Imp does have an intelligence score however; so it's maliciousness has limits; exactly like that of a DM; if a player is smarter than the Imp he can beat it.

The imp has no limit to its maliciousness. But you're right that its intelligence does. I'm reminded of the final scene of the first Wishmaster movie where the heroine undoes everything the djinni has done by wishing the key event that lead to its freedom never happened. It still leaves the possibility that others will find the imp, or the imp may still twist that wish, but a DM would have to be especially cruel to do the latter.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

The imp's intelligence is listed as 11-12 "very", which is a very 2e way of saying it. (There's only one of them, so is it 11 or 12? does it vary from day to day? and how can that be "very" intelligent when average is 10.5, and most PC parties have someone with 18+? (or at least 16+ in the 2e days))

If I were converting it to a more modern system (has it ever been? I don't see it in Denizens, and Mistipedia doesn't have a more recent source than the original RLMCIII) I'd put it up a bit higher, maybe 16?

but in any case, it's still a creature with its own volition. I don't see anything in the description that says it's compelled to grant wishes. If it can't find a way to twist the wish because it's been outsmarted, it might decide not to bother granting it at all. All it seems to get out of granting wishes is the perverse glee of seeing them backfire. If it can't have that, why play along?

[Algaris]

The Wishing Imp is detailed in the 3.5E Ravenloft Dungeon Master's Guide.

I'm really liking all of the suggestions, thank you. I'm consolidating my thoughts and will post more later (ideally when I'm not at work).

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

The Wishing Imp is detailed in the 3.5E Ravenloft Dungeon Master's Guide.

Ah yes, will have to update Mistipedia. (the RLDMG never made it into the RL Catalogue...) Looks like it went from creature to cursed artifact. Int is still 12, but Wis is 17 and Cha is 16, if those have any bearing on outsmarting lawyers. On the one hand, magic items tend to do what they are made to do, but on the other, this one is intelligent and malevolent, not to mention an artifact, so I could still see it going rogue and refusing to grant a wish that's too ironclad to twist. (even to the point of playing "dumb" and claiming the wish is too complicated to understand.)

[Five]

From the Player's Handbook (3xE):

"Intelligence determines how well your character learns and reasons."

"Wisdom describes a character’s willpower, common sense, perception, and intuition."

Those two things defined, I don't see the Intelligence of the wisher versus the Intelligence of the Wishing Imp (or any two mental opponents for that matter) as the only determining factors in deciding who can "outsmart" the other. Throw in emotional and physical states (ie stress), circumstantial factors (ie greed, desperation) and the waters become even muddier.

Plus, there's other factors, such as booksmart versus streetsmart, for example, which boils down to IMO, applicable intelligence.

The battlefield determines the conditions for when and where to apply intelligence, wisdom, or both at the same time. And in this case, I'd either up the intelligence of the imp for story flavour (if I believed in Int vs Int), or I'd do multiple checks (if I could do so without bogging the tabletime/encounter), or just lump in a stacked check (Int + Wis total opposition roll, or a Int+Wis+Cha) for simplicity. All assuming I don't have the player on board with a side/character arc.

All of that beside the fact that wishes get distorted in RL. Which makes this an interesting topic. Is it a battle of wills, or, something much more simpler? A wish that becomes distorted. How can a DM "pressure play" a player into wishing on the fly? To not have them meta a wish? etc etc

Just some thoughts...

[Five]

When the command word is uttered. The party (as is our current set up [at the time the wish is made]) are to return back to 24 hours into the past. It’s a get out of jail card to save us from death or a bad situation.

This obviously means go back and be alive, and can possibly meet ourselves in the past to warn us of what is to come if we want to.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can suitably twist the wish to make the consequences very real (not just inconvenient) but not enough to stop the owner from making another wish (who might feel he could fix things with just one more wish).

Getting back to the original purpose of this thread...

What if the wish did as specified, but the players/characters find themselves repeating that 24 hour period moment to moment?

1) The command word was uttered.
2) The party went back 24 hours in the past.
3) They escaped death, or, that bad situation (which is character intent, not part of the stated wish, as far as I can tell by your post).

Nothing says the situation won't repeat itself. Hell, you could even trap themselves for a bit in this time loop if you really wanted. Only a few successful rolls (your choice) will lead them to total recall (they didn't wish for knowledge of the 24 hours after the 24 back in time!), and from there they will need to re-word another wish, and the imp gets its high by making the character more and more dependant on it/its wishes...

Edit 1: Looking back I saw that Gonzoron already put this out there. So, uhm, nevermind. What he said! haha

Edit 2:

Grant the character their wish. As it's effectively a contingency spell, use that to your advantage by its limitation within the imp's ability to grant wishes. Err, that is to say, if that is the character's daily wish and a TPK/near TPK doesn't happen within that 24 hour period (mark the hours and minutes the wish was made too!) then wouldn't that mean the character would have to make that same wish every day for it to be counted as a daily wish, regardless of whether or not the wish (situational dodge/time travel) is activated? Here the wish is the creation of the contingency parameters, with no clearly defined activation or expiration date ("From this day forth", "For as long as I live...", etc) . I'd default to imp's interpretation ("I assumed you meant...", "You didn't say...", "That was Monday. Today is Sunday...") should/when the PCs survive the disastrous encounter. And if that daily re-wish is indeed the case, then have the imp grow more and more impatient with the character (it feeds off of its "owner's" need to use its wish-granting ability and isn't getting its "fix"), becoming more and more active/intrusive/annoying with its telepathy (ie: suggesting/teasing outs to any given situation, etc). Its BATNA? To become a possession for somebody more dependant on it. And to throw a spin on that play, don't tell the player the difference. They might think their contingency wish is still active, when in fact it was a "day gone by" wish...!

If the command word is defined as the wish's parameters, then ignore all of the above. Groundhog Day the PCs! And in that case, I'd try to create a situation where the character accidentally says the command word for a funky ole trip back in time...heh

And, as a last thought (for now): what if the TPK/near TPK happens on the same day and after another wish was granted...?

[nothri]

If the Imp is feeling like a bastard, he can also become incredibly anal about the trgger word. Was it said at the exact volume and cadence as the Imp originally heard it? Were all the other noises that the Imp heard included in the second pronouncement? Well, sorry boys, but you specified a specific noise to enact your wish and you damn well better provide that precise noise to let the magic do its thing. Every nuance matters.

[nothri]

Also, depending on the wording, you can have the party stay right in the same dire situation but allow their memories to regress 24 hours so that they suddenly have no comprehension of how they got there or why they are in danger.