("Chain") Binding Efreeti and "The Wish Economy" [D&D 3.5]

[Neurosis]

Greetings fellow Denners. Assume for the purpose of this thread that I have hopelessly missed, and stand no chance of catching up to, the past 14 or so years of message board discussion among power gamers, optimizers, and other super-users that would give me a knowledge base on this particular topic. This assumption, as it turns out, is not far from the truth in this case. I've been gaming since before 2000 but the first time I posted on a gaming message board was sometime around 2010-2012.

So today I was reading through the magic items in the Dungeon Master's Guide as I sometimes do when I'm bored (I always chuckle when I read the first line of description for Darkskull; anyone else?) and Candle of Invocation got me thinking about (Lesser) Planar Binding and Gate and Genies and all that jazz and I feel really infuriatingly close to actually getting how it might theoretically work (if the DM doesn't strongly feel that it shouldn't) but I'm not quite there.

Maybe I'm overthinking the procedure, it wouldn't be the first time.

Can someone explain to me, in baby steps, from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge on the topic, how exactly this whole "breaking the game D&D over your goddamn knee once you have access to (lesser) planar binding and/or a candle of invocation works? Start there and work your way up to what exactly the "Wish Economy" means. Go slow and don't leave anything out. Save any discussion of the Tomes for the very emd last, I'm more interested in how things work in vanilla D&D.

(Un)fortunately I basically never get to PC and (un)fortunately when I get to GM for more than one or two people it's seldom D&D we're playing and (un)fortunately 80% of the time when I do DM D&D it's only for my girlfriend who (un)fortunately is not what anyone would describe as a power-gamer, although to her credit she certainly tries. if you're reading this, honey.

While all of this makes it almost a purely theoretical/hypothetical question, I am still most interested in how I would address this issue, as a player, as a game designer, and as a DM.

Caveat: I have searched the Den for related keywords. While there are many discussions of the Wish Economy and/or Chain Binding, all of them seem to begin from certain agreed-upon assumptions I don't completely understand and breeze quickly from that to discussions that leave me scratching my head in bafflement.

[ubernoob]

//

[Neurosis]

Ok, so let's start with step one. Meet a Noble Djinn. Because it's not exactly like there's one hanging 'round at the corner pub.

* If I have a Candle of Invocation, I can use its Gate Ability to get a Noble Djinni and force it to do what I say.
* Otherwise, I have to cast Planar Binding, not Lesser Planar Binding. This requires one to be an 11th Level Wizard that knows the Planar Binding spell. This method is much less foolproof as the Noble Djinn does get a saving throw or two and may try to go medieval on my ass if he makes it.

Any other back doors into the loop? Scrolls and such?

This first one is fairly easy for a GM to shut down, IMHO, without resorting to douchebaggotry/heavy-handedness. Candles of Invocation can only be created by 17th Level Goddamn Wizards. Candles of Invocation that can net you a noble djinn can only be created by 17th Level Goddamn Wizards that happen to be chaotic goddamn good. So these are not things you're going to find sold in shops or just lying around, being, as they are, the gateway to real ultimate power for just about anyone with 4 or more HD.

This second one is harder to shut down without flagrantly changing the rules of the game. People are going to become 11th Level Wizards at some point, no getting around that. But at least there's an element of risk and unreliability involved.

***Now, The Loop Itself***

Wish 1. You wish for an inherent bonus to a stat.
Wish 2. You wish for 25,000 GP.
Wish 3. You wish for the noble djinn to planar bind another noble djinn for you.

Now before the loop propagates further my question is....a) how EXACTLY would you word Wish 3 and b) doesn't the second noble djinn get a saving throw or two and there's the potential that the entire chain breaks down?

Random Query: It says in the monster manual that only 1% of the djinni population are noble djinni. What is the size of the djinni population?

[ubernoob]

//

[DSMatticus]

Djinni inhabit the plane of fire, which is infinite. 1% of infinity is infinity.

To be fair, an infinite space need not necessarily contain an infinite number of everything it contains. The elemental plane of fire probably has an infinite amount of fire, but could totally have a finite number of djinn or noble djinn.

[Neurosis]

You just cast it again the next day. Since the result is an infinite loop, you only have to succeed once.

Well you also have to not be murdered by Noble Djinni and their friends if the Noble Djinni busts loose. XD

Although Noble Djinni are probably a much safer choice than Efreeti...which are explicitly incredibly vindictive bastards.

Or a ring of 3 wishes and use that to wish for a ring of infinite wishes.

I could have sworn the rules explicitly forbade straight up wishing for more wishes. Looking at the DMG, I guess not.

The easiest way for the DM to shut this down is to just say "No." The rules say what they say, but in reality people play with DMs and players. Generally speaking the DM reserves the right to say "Ok, that's cool and all, but fuck off. I'm not rewriting the magic item rules right now. We'll do infinite wishes in a later game where I've figured out how to make infinite wealth not be a problem."

Yes and that's actually totally fine by me as a way to avoid "RAWtardation".

But generally speaking as a GM I like to find justifications in either the game's rules or its setting for something not to work a certain way, rather than just use my power from on-high to declare it doesn't.

Like for instance..."you can't just buy a candle of invocation because no one would ever sell something like that in a store, so that shortcut doesn't exist" or "once 30,000 years ago, infinite Efreeti from the plane of fire invaded the material plane and genocided literally all arcane spellcasters for their hubris in chain-binding outsiders, and since then the few wizards that have survived have kept the planar binding spell a carefully guarded secret from those who might abuse it" or "ok, you tried to bind a noble djinni today and it made its save; it's not going to just wait around for you to try again tomorrow, it's going to mobilize its forces to stop you...or find a useful human first level commoner to wish that you didn't know the planar binding spell and could never learn it, in exchange for two normal goddamn wishes" or whatever.

(And I get that for some people this kind of song and dance is actually more frustrating than a DM just saying "no because no", but I for one actually prefer some kind of logic or rationale or justification behind rulings, as a PC or a DM, rather than just flat application of Rule 0.)

But I mean yes, I am also fine with "no" as an answer, both as a GM and a player, when it's appropriate. Like for instance...

Or a ring of 3 wishes and use that to wish for a ring of infinite wishes.

I think a DM would be on good standing to respond to that one with "lol nope". I mean that one isn't even remotely clever.

Excellent question. IIRC, Djinni inhabit the plane of fire, which is infinite. 1% of infinity is infinity.

LOL. Amazing. It's like a vast city called Retardopolis.

In all seriousness...infinite ROOM for djinni doesn't necessarily imply infinite djinni. : P

[Neurosis]

Djinni inhabit the plane of fire, which is infinite. 1% of infinity is infinity.

To be fair, an infinite space need not necessarily contain an infinite number of everything it contains. The elemental plane of fire probably has an infinite amount of fire, but could totally have a finite number of djinn or noble djinn.

Beat me to it.

[Wiseman]

Djinni inhabit the plane of fire, which is infinite. 1% of infinity is infinity.

To be fair, an infinite space need not necessarily contain an infinite number of everything it contains. The elemental plane of fire probably has an infinite amount of fire, but could totally have a finite number of djinn or noble djinn.

Djinn inhabit the plane of air, efreet inhabit the plane of fire. Not that it, you know, makes a difference.

[Kaelik]

Ok, so let's start with step one. Meet a Noble Djinn. Because it's not exactly like there's one hanging 'round at the corner pub.

No, Step one is to bring a Noble Djinni to you in a way that forces them to do what you want. Or an Efreeti.

You can do that with Planar Binding, or you can do that with a Candle of Invocation. Candle activates much earlier, because it so easy to get one.

This method is much less foolproof as the Noble Djinn does get a saving throw or two and may try to go medieval on my ass if he makes it.

Doesn't actually matter, because you just use all your spells slots for a day that you aren't doing anything else to do this, and you use Dimensional Anchor, so he can't attack you. You can just do it until you succeed.

Any other back doors into the loop? Scrolls and such?

Scrolls too, but Since Scrolls of Gate or Planar Binding both are harder to succeed with than Candle's, and not significantly more plentiful, not really a big deal.

This first one is fairly easy for a GM to shut down, IMHO, without resorting to douchebaggotry/heavy-handedness. Candles of Invocation can only be created by 17th Level Goddamn Wizards. Candles of Invocation that can net you a noble djinn can only be created by 17th Level Goddamn Wizards that happen to be chaotic goddamn good. So these are not things you're going to find sold in shops or just lying around, being, as they are, the gateway to real ultimate power for just about anyone with 4 or more HD.

The DM can shut anything down ever by just saying "Fuck you, No." But since there are actual rules about how prevalent items are, he would have to not follow the rules to make Candle's of Invocation 100% available in any Metropolis. So you can just go to the city and buy as many as you can afford.

But at least there's an element of risk and unreliability involved.

No there isn't, you make a circle, you cast Dimensional Anchor, you cast as many as six Planar Bindings per day every day until one succeeds, then you wish for 2 things you want and one candle of invocation (Technically you only have like 11 successive days to cast charisma buffs and beat it in a Cha check, but you succeed 99.9% of the time). Since the Candle is Gate, now you don't even have to use precautions.

***Now, The Loop Itself***

Wish 1. You wish for an inherent bonus to a stat.
Wish 2. You wish for 25,000 GP.
Wish 3. You wish for the noble djinn to planar bind another noble djinn for you.

No, you Wish for magic items. So for example, you wish for a +4000 Belt of Magnificence. This items gives you a +400 to all stats. Which breaks the game basically by itself by giving bonuses to saves, hp, ac, to hit, and damage. Also skills, for all that matters.

Now before the loop propagates further my question is....a) how EXACTLY would you word Wish 3 and b) doesn't the second noble djinn get a saving throw or two and there's the potential that the entire chain breaks down?

No, because you Wish for a Candle of Invocation, so you can Gate in more shit. Or you Wish for a Scroll of Gate and use your new +2000 to UMD to auto succeed on the use of the scroll.[/url]

[Kaelik]

But generally speaking as a GM I like to find justifications in either the game's rules or its setting for something not to work a certain way, rather than just use my power from on-high to declare it doesn't.

Like for instance..."you can't just buy a candle of invocation because no one would ever sell something like that in a store, so that shortcut doesn't exist" or "once 30,000 years ago, infinite Efreeti from the plane of fire invaded the material plane and genocided literally all arcane spellcasters for their hubris in chain-binding outsiders, and since then the few wizards that have survived have kept the planar binding spell a carefully guarded secret from those who might abuse it" or "ok, you tried to bind a noble djinni today and it made its save; it's not going to just wait around for you to try again tomorrow, it's going to mobilize its forces to stop you...or find a useful human first level commoner to wish that you didn't know the planar binding spell and could never learn it, in exchange for two normal goddamn wishes" or whatever.

Okay but see, here is the problem with that. When you try to use in world justifications it implies to the player that if your in world justification is wrong, and you totally can do it, that you will let them. So when it turns out that your justification is wrong, you fall back on increasingly bad justifications and your player keeps poking holes in them, and it ends with the player feeling like you lied to them when you inevitably have to say lol/no anyway.

If you say "but nobody sells you a candle" and they point to the rules for item availability, and then you still say no one sells them a candle, and then they use Planar Binding, and the monster fails it's save on the first try and they wish for a Candle and you then say, but now Candle's don't exist, they feel like you are lying to them. And when you have a super Djinn army attack them, or take away the spell Planar binding as punishment, they wonder why you took away their character or one of their characters abilities for doing something you didn't ever ask them not to do.

So grow up, be a big boy, and just tell your players that you are changing the rules to block all wishes, because that way you won't be punishing them for something they didn't do wrong.

[Cyberzombie]

Did they ever fix this in Pathfinder?

[Kaelik]

Did they ever fix this in Pathfinder?

I think what happened was:

1) Frank pointed out that Wish was broken and needed fixing, and showed them the Tome/3e Fix.

2) They got really pissy and everyone on the forum including actual Pathfinder designers said it didn't matter because reasons.

3) Long after Frank was gone and mostly stopped paying attention they specifically changed the wording or Wish to be exactly like 3e/Tome and pretended this was their brilliant solution and not something they said wasn't an issue in beta.

[Username17]

Did they ever fix this in Pathfinder?

Not exactly. Wish in Pathfinder doesn't have a specific line describing what if any permanent things you can wish for. It still has the line about how you can wish for "other stuff" or "greater effects" (which might be dangerous, apparently), but there are no longer specific guidelines as to what the fuck you can wish for as regards getting actual stuff. You can still wish for spell effects, and fabricate, wall of stone, and even true creation are all within the level limit, so it's not like you can't make valuable stuff. It's just that there are no guidelines and you have to argue with the DM that any particular item you want to wish for is not a "greater effect" than true creating 20 cubic feet of whatever the fuck you want.

Random Query: It says in the monster manual that only 1% of the djinni population are noble djinni. What is the size of the djinni population?

The Planar Handbook says that there are 500,000 free citizens in the City of Brass. Supposedly 40% of them are Efreet, and a majority of all Efreet in the multiverse live in the City of Brass. So there are less than four hundred thousand Efreet anywhere. There are supposed to be "about half" as many Efreeti as there are Djinn. So upper limit would be a bit over eight hundred thousand and the lower limit would be about half a million.

The Noble Djinn population is therefore somewhere between five and nine thousand.

-Username17

[Neurosis]

No, you Wish for magic items. So for example, you wish for a +4000 Belt of Magnificence. This items gives you a +400 to all stats. Which breaks the game basically by itself by giving bonuses to saves, hp, ac, to hit, and damage. Also skills, for all that matters.

Okay but see, here is the problem with that. The Wish spell in the PHB provides a limited but impressive list of things that Wish can explicitly do. For everything more powerful than that, it heavily implies that you should screw the players over based on the wording of the wish.

For instance, in the above (ludicrous) example, the player receives a +4000 Belt of Magnificence which adds +4,000 to their Magnificence stat which isn't a stat in the game of D&D and does absolutely fuckall. This is not so much a punishment as following the damn rules.

Okay but see, here is the problem with that. When you try to use in world justifications it implies to the player that if your in world justification is wrong, and you totally can do it, that you will let them. So when it turns out that your justification is wrong, you fall back on increasingly bad justifications and your player keeps poking holes in them, and it ends with the player feeling like you lied to them when you inevitably have to say lol/no anyway.

Never been a problem with any of the dozens of players I've encountered in my 15+ years of gaming. Of course for the most part none of them have heard of ridiculously insanely broken shit like this infinite wish loop.

If you say "but nobody sells you a candle" and they point to the rules for item availability, and then you still say no one sells them a candle, and then they use Planar Binding, and the monster fails it's save on the first try and they wish for a Candle and you then say, but now Candle's don't exist, they feel like you are lying to them. And when you have a super Djinn army attack them, or take away the spell Planar binding as punishment, they wonder why you took away their character or one of their characters abilities for doing something you didn't ever ask them not to do.

Well here's the thing about my GMing style that you do not understand because we have never played together.

*If* the monster fails its save and *if* they wish for a Candle of Invocation, I would say they get one, because they do exist, it's just no one's selling them, and I do actually have the ability to be internally consistent with my own simulated reality.

So anyway at that point they've got the wish loop and can start mining it for power (which takes a non-zero amount of time) and the efreeti army is coming for them and the whole plane they inhabit and there's a hell of an adventure hook but also quite a difficulty spike so I hope they've used their infinite wishes wisely.

But I would also seriously hope anyone who's not a particularly immature 12 year old can understand the difference between a semi-logical consequence of fantasy actions in a fantasy world and a mean-spirited punishment designed specifically to shit in their bloody cheerios. If not, they need to fucking grow up.

...just tell your players that you are changing the rules to block all wishes, because that way you won't be punishing them for something they didn't do wrong.

Well to state the hopefully obvious I've got no problem with wishes in finite numbers, with reasonable limitations like those spelled out under the spell description in the PHB. It's the "infinite" part that I'd spell out I'm houseruling away, if anything... if anyone I played with had ever known it was an option in the RAW, anyway.

Even being aware of it, it seems like a bit of a "nuclear option" anyway, the kind of thing a reasonable table would have a gentleman's agreement not to do.

(A lot of people who don't participate in the online messageboard aspect of the tabletop community assume the RAW isn't as full of glaring loopholes as it actually is.)

Anyway I like there to be an in-universe reason for these things as well as a metagame reason. If the out-of-game reason it doesn't work is "it breaks the game of D&D", sure, and there's no problem being up front about that, but if someone wants to know the in-game reason it doesn't work, I like to think that's a valid question with a valid answer too.

[Neurosis]

The Planar Handbook says that there are 500,000 free citizens in the City of Brass. Supposedly 40% of them are Efreet, and a majority of all Efreet in the multiverse live in the City of Brass. So there are less than four hundred thousand Efreet anywhere. There are supposed to be "about half" as many Efreeti as there are Djinn. So upper limit would be a bit over eight hundred thousand and the lower limit would be about half a million.

The Noble Djinn population is therefore somewhere between five and nine thousand.

Fascinating...so isn't it theoretically possible, with a nigh-infinite number of material planes each containing significant numbers of powerful arcane spellcasters...that many, most, or all of the available Noble Djinn could be perpetually tied up in wish-granting, rather like an outrageously busy phone sex hotline?

That you might just get the magical equivalent of a busy signal because other wizards in other realities already trying this trick?

[ubernoob]

//

[Neurosis]

See that's an important distinction. +6 to everything does not actually break the game, it's just a huge (but quantifiable) boost in power. +4,000 to everything does in fact cause the game engine to break down in fucking flames.

[ubernoob]

//

[Ice9]

You don't need multiple Efreeti/Djinni, you just need a single Wish that's a SLA or Supernatural Ability (Shapechange->Zodar is another popular method, and has the advantage that you're making the Wish yourself, so you don't have to worry about the creature 'misunderstanding' you).

Then you have NI (nigh-infinite, technically not infinite) Wishes. If you want to do this in a purely core-only way with no custom magic items, you can simply:
1) Candle of Invocation -> Noble Djinn.
2) Wish for a scroll with 100 wishes on it, each of which has a googleplex worth of XP on it.
3) Each of those wishes can itself create another scroll of 100 wishes, with somewhat less XP on each one.

While you eventually run out, it's an "after the lifetime of the universe" type of situation. And of course, you can always recharge the whole thing with another creature-produced Wish. Also, because Time Stop, you can go straight from "guy with a candle of invocation" to "pseudo-god with armies of minions and demiplanes" in a few rounds.


TL;DR - if you get one single wish from a non-spell source, you have infinite everything and shatter the game into little pieces. Unless there are house-rules stating otherwise.

[DSMatticus]

Pathfinder wish can create neither mundane wealth nor magic items under any circumstances except the DM fiat clause or through emulating other spells. Additionally, it has a material component cost of 25k plus the material component cost of any spell it emulates if that cost is over 10k (no experience component, because those aren't things in Pathfinder). Which means you are seriously expected to pay:

• 25k to turn a ninth-level spell slot into an 8th or maybe 7th level spell at cast time.
• 25k to undo one of the effects that requires a wish to undo.
• 125k to get a +5 inherent bonus to a single stat.
• 25k to either heal all damage or remove one condition/effect on a bunch of people.
• 25k to resurrect someone. Resurrection itself costs 10k. Also you still get your negative level.
• 50k to resurrect someone without any remains. Also you still get your negative level.
• 25k to cast a very accurate teleport/planeshift on a bunch of people.
• 25k to make someone reroll a roll from last round.

Pathfinder spell-likes still do not have a material component, and wishes can be used to get more creatures who will grant more wishes, which means you don't actually pay for wishes if you have sufficient downtime. As Frank pointed out, true creation exists, which means you can generate infinite real mundane wealth through the power of wish. You can buy all the things in any store your DM puts in front of you. You can also make magic items for free (wish covers expenses, Pathfinder does not have experience costs) if you have the requisite item creation feats, though the downtime on this can be fuckoff huge.

[Ice9]

PF Wish is one way to solve the issue - you can "only" get infinite mundane wealth from a Wish, meaning that your Singularity happens a hell of a lot slower (crafting time, and PF Genesis only lets you go to 2x time rate; you can't create scrolls of hypothetical Simulacra either).

I'm not sure it's an ideal solution, because you still get infinite gold and not being able to wish for something like a healing potion is kind of dumb.

[Grek]

You can, however, Wish for a Gate to bring you a Lantern Archon, and have it nip down to the store and buy you one with your infinite gold.

[NineInchNall]

* Otherwise, I have to cast Planar Binding, not Lesser Planar Binding. This requires one to be an 11th Level Wizard that knows the Planar Binding spell. This method is much less foolproof as the Noble Djinn does get a saving throw or two and may try to go medieval on my ass if he makes it.

What the fuck are you talking about? The djinni doesn't even appear unless it fails the save. Otherwise it's still on its home plane, and if it's lucky it feels a tingle or something.

[Kaelik]

Okay but see, here is the problem with that. The Wish spell in the PHB provides a limited but impressive list of things that Wish can explicitly do. For everything more powerful than that, it heavily implies that you should screw the players over based on the wording of the wish.

For instance, in the above (ludicrous) example, the player receives a +4000 Belt of Magnificence which adds +4,000 to their Magnificence stat which isn't a stat in the game of D&D and does absolutely fuckall. This is not so much a punishment as following the damn rules.

The Belt of Magnificence is an item that gives +6 to all stats. The +4000 version is just using the Epic Handbook progression for larger stat boost items. It costs and ungodly amount of money, but that doesn't matter, because you are getting it for free.

And as others have pointed out, Creating a magical item, of literally any kind, is one of the listed non fuck you effects. See what I mean, now are you going to tell me that if your players wished for this item you would actually give it to them?

Never been a problem with any of the dozens of players I've encountered in my 15+ years of gaming.

Lots of people say that, but you actually have no way of knowing that is true. Lots of things piss me off, but I don't make a big deal about them. If you didn't let me have my +400 belt, I wouldn't actually be upset, but if you implied that I could get it, and then said no, it would piss me off. But since I didn't expect the actual item it wouldn't be worth making a big deal about, just that I would think less of your dming.

it's just no one's selling them, and I do actually have the ability to be internally consistent with my own simulated reality.

Except that now that person has rings of infinite wishes and +4000 to stat items. And you can't play that game, and hell, probably, even if that one player does want to play that game, the other players probably don't want to play that game.

So anyway at that point they've got the wish loop and can start mining it for power (which takes a non-zero amount of time) and the efreeti army is coming for them and the whole plane they inhabit and there's a hell of an adventure hook but also quite a difficulty spike so I hope they've used their infinite wishes wisely.

No, that isn't how it works. First of all, the wish loop using Candle's of Invocation takes like 6 rounds to reach maximum potential. Like, the round that the first Efreeti returns to tell his friends about granting wishes, another Efreeti will be granting him another candle of invocation and he will already have used 12 wishes to get whatever magic items he wants.

Secondly, and this goes back to the other problem with your attempt to use internal consistency to defeat wish loops, it doesn't make any sense for them to attack you with an army. First off, anyone who has started a wish loop can probably kill every Efreeti in existence that isn't also abusing wish loops. Secondly, the idea that they would risk a large number of deaths just because they don't want to spend some time granting wishes that they can't use themselves and they get back tomorrow. Much less that they would bring war instantly against any Wizard casting Planar Binding, because again, Planar Binding is an obvious spell, and Efreeti are obvious creatures, so they would have to successively murder nearly every Wizard in existence.

But I would also seriously hope anyone who's not a particularly immature 12 year old can understand the difference between a semi-logical consequence of fantasy actions in a fantasy world and a mean-spirited punishment designed specifically to shit in their bloody cheerios. If not, they need to fucking grow up.

No see, here is the thing, you are shitting in their cheerios. You are going way out of the way to make up complete nonsense justifications for the war of all Efreeti against one Wizard because otherwise he breaks the game. But the same logic that results in an Efreeti warband also results in every Dragon Hunter instantly being murdered by 100 Dragons, or all the PCs being murdered by the BBEG teleport ambushing them with 5 Gated Solars. But you don't do that, because if they keep acting in a way that doesn't break the game, you don't stretch this terrible argument for army murder.

Well to state the hopefully obvious I've got no problem with wishes in finite numbers, with reasonable limitations like those spelled out under the spell description in the PHB. It's the "infinite" part that I'd spell out I'm houseruling away, if anything... if anyone I played with had ever known it was an option in the RAW, anyway.

Okay see, here is the thing. We have on this forum, houserules that change how wish works so that infinite wishes aren't even a problem. We have those. Also, I generically state that Candle's of Invocation do not exist in my world.

If you want a setting that is consistent with the rules, you don't pretend that nothing in the rules stops X but the setting does in ways that are obviously pathetically forced to ensure that things end up the way you want.

You just change the rules to make it so that the setting is consistent with the rules.

Anyway I like there to be an in-universe reason for these things as well as a metagame reason. If the out-of-game reason it doesn't work is "it breaks the game of D&D", sure, and there's no problem being up front about that, but if someone wants to know the in-game reason it doesn't work, I like to think that's a valid question with a valid answer too.

And the only valid answer is, "because I changed the rules." Because Efreeti armies are not a valid answer. Because the Efreeti can not wage war on everyone and anyone who uses them to wish for a Ring of infinite Wishes, and it wouldn't even make sense to do so. You are literally attacking someone who is 1) more powerful than you, 2) will probably never bother you again, 3) might even respect or like you, or act to protect you in the future.

[Dr_Noface]

Just say all djinn wear dimensional shackles.