Wishing well

The wishing well would be a general dungeon feature, similar to a fountain (indeed, one might even be allowed to drink from it) but considerably rarer. Upon activating or otherwise interacting with the wishing well, the player would be prompted to type out what he or she “wishes for”, in a manner similar to using the ‘Ctrl + F’ function.

Once the player enters and confirms his or her wish, the wishing well states what requirement must be fulfilled before the wish is granted, in a manner similar to the entry fee for a treasure trove or a ziggurat.

While the payment would ostensibly be providing the well one or more items, it could in theory be anything (slay a certain unique, gain a certain rune, etc.) Once the items are provided, the player can bring up the bucket (or whatever flavor text seems fitting) and obtain the wished for item.

Important: with more basic and general requests the well functions similar to a scroll of acquirement, with more specific or high-level wishes, it functions more like a treasure trove. For example, wishing for “armor” could generate just about anything with minimal or no payment. Requesting “plate armor” would come with a moderate payment, and requesting “+5 plate armor of protection” might easily come with a very substantial cost.

The cost-adjusting function of a wishing well would assure “meaningful decisions” when it came to player use. Not picky enough and you’ll waste your “wish” on garbage, too greedy and you’ll never be able to obtain it. Indeed, the player should be able to wish for runes or even the orb of zot, but be faced with astronomical requirements.

Although this idea is conceived as a supplemental dungeon feature for item acquirement, in a world where shops don’t take special orders, it’s not meant to replace any other feature, simply add to the panoply of fun ways to obtain items generally.

As such, the item costs need not necessarily be tied to shop prices, but shop prices are a good estimate of what might be required.

Given its rarity, the wishing well could easily be something found within other substantial dungeon features (fortresses and the like) guarded by particularly powerful monsters or uniques. Since it’s not an item (can’t be moved) and likely must be journeyed to at least twice, it would be a good candidate to be guarded by statues.

I'm pretty sure that aquirement was added in a conscious effort not to have wishes. They come with the “ascension kit” problem, where everybody has the same equipment because they can wish for the very best, and are spoilers, particularly if you can wish for unrandarts. Reaver 09-22-2013

I feel you on that, but remember that these are fully intended to be conditional wishes, meaning that if you wish for one of the best “ascension kit” items, you'd have to somehow pay the steep cost to actually acquire it. The very essence of using the wishing well practically would lie in moderation - not too mundane of an item but not too godly either. — LordKristopf 2013-09-30 02:01

How steep is too steep? People still manage to afford very expensive randarts even with prices in the tens of thousands. And there's no way the devs would include a way to wish for runes or the Orb, no matter what the price was. At best, the closest thing to a wishing well that I can see happening is a feature that lets you pay money for the opportunity to get the effects of a scroll of acquirement – in other words, a custom shop that sells only scrolls of acquirement. If you want anything more specific, just type &% — nicolae 2013-10-01 11:34