EDIT: Also, that wish setup smacks of 'you put your hand in the statue's mouth, SPHERE OF ANNIHILATION HAHAHAHAH'. I mean, it's wish, it's supposed to be like that, it's a gygaxian sacred cow, but extending that philosophy to other things (see; deciding reach + chain doesn't work, not because you don't think it's balanced/don't want that in your game/whatever, but because of a random use of a random word that you then decided was rulestext in such a way that screws your players, see; worrying about what's behind your target to the extent that you have a random table of where a ray goes if you miss + probably arrows or whatever) is directly the path of the 'read my mind about what is allowed and isn't allowed' DM, which I personally think is a fucking terrible way to go about creating a versimilitudinous world or game setting.
Well,
1. He went to a professional who said it wouldn't work. He wanted to try it anyways.
2. The players range from 27th to just reaching 30th right now. They want to mess around with reality for the fun of it, they take their chances.
3. I don't use random words. I use all words. As written. As a lawyer would view those words. Which is what I've done for over a decade. Once the rule is defined, I stick with it until:
A) WoTC corrects it in an errata
B) I receive proof that I'm wrong in another book. (Later printing overrides previous)
C) Case law: Show me an NPC with a chained Ray or a reach+chain touch spell in a Single WotC Published RPG Book.
Not a single player could find ONE example of a chained Ray or Reach+Touch spell actually used in play in any adventure anywhere.
But I will tell you what. If someone who is reading this goes, "HEY! I know of just the thing!" and pulls out Elminster from some what the fuck and he is merely DESCRIBED as using chain with a ray in a Actual. Gaming. Suppliment. I will bring it up with the players and discuss changing it.
You show me Blackstaff with reach/chained vampiric touch, then you got a done deal.
Heck, show me a chained acid splash from Pork The Goblin Wizard.
However, do not claim my methodology is 'random'. You may not like my law class style, but it's as lawful and organized as any system any other DM has put forth.
Let me explain something:
1. If it isn't written, it doesn't exist.
2. If it's written, almost every word exists in the dictionary. Look them up.
3. If a word is redefined in a document, it only applies to that document going forward.
4. A body of work is considered a single document. (ie WotC published books)
5. Punctuation kills. (ie Let's go clubbing, Baby Seals. Let's go clubbing baby seals.)
6. 'And' and 'Or' are not interchangeable.
7. There is the spirit of something, and what is actually written. I cannot read spirit. I must go with written. Spirit is decided in the part that isn't written by a judge. Then he writes it down.
8. Examples in writing are valid, if provided by the original author, or the organization that approved that author.
9. When two forms of writing contradict, whatever was written last, wins. (ie. I love bunnies. I hate bunnies. Guess what, you hate bunnies. You don't love and hate bunnies, you just hate bunnies)
10. Corrections are only retroactive up to the point where the original error was printed.
You may disagree with my conclusions, but do not mock my process. So tell me, do YOU have a process the Players can read already written down, or is it just in YOUR head?