Dungeons and Dragons Lore : Genie (Djinni)

The djinn and efreet appeared in first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the original Monster Manual (1977) The word "genie" was not yet used to classify them, although it is mentioned under each race's entry that they are each other's enemies. The dao, the jann and the marid first appeared in Dragon #66 (October 1982).
Because they have powerful supernatural or magical abilities, genies are sometimes called upon or summoned by spellcasters to grant wishes or perform services for them. The Djinni is a Genie from the Elemental plane of Air.
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[@theHedgex1]

Boy: I wish I had 4 wishes. Genie: Your wish is granted. You have 3 wishes left. Boy: .......

[@jbkesselman]

I wish I had 5 wishes.

[@alivecoy]

@@jbkesselman you had 5 wishes 2 down 3 to go

[@theHedgex1]

@Trevor Grant i'll have to check it out ^^

[@couragew6260]

I once had a fun role playing idea. If a PC in particular learns to cast Wish, then you’ll find yourself being hunted by a lot of genies who plan to enslave you for your power because them having a slave who can cast wish is just another way for them to increase their reputation, even forcing you to make wishes for them that they couldn’t otherwise make for themselves

[@TheIdealofGreed]

I have to wonder - how did you stop your players from going "I use wish to kill this genie and his/her servants"?

[@HBHaga]

The last time I used a djinni in a D&D game he simply showed up outside of Amn, made a big show of it, and promised to grant a wish to anyone who could get to his magical bell and ring it three times. He said nothing about the ensuing rains of anvils, illusion mazes, conjured monsters, or storms of wind and lightning of course. All while the djinn sat back and clapped his hands laughing like a kid on his birthday. Three days of this and two people actually managed it. Nobody died but there was a big run on healing potions after that.

[@adreabrooks11]

Stories like this are the very reason I roleplay.

[@krispalermo8133]

@@adreabrooks11 Years ago at my last game shop we had a game going on and the DM eight year old daughter wanted to play and all the older 20's+ thirty year olds looked at each other as to how to get her into the game. So I had my 9th-level mage pull out a scroll of Lesser Planar Binding and called a fire genie. The spell was not strong enough to call and adult fire genie so we got an 8hd child instead. So every time someone at the table said, " I Wish .. " The DM's little girl screwed them over the same way her mother run games. It was a blast.

[@adreabrooks11]

@@krispalermo8133 That's aw2esome! It always makes one proud, when the young'uns take up the torch. :)

[@kaikai9533]

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS!!!! itty bitty living space

[@That80sGuy1972]

Awesome. Bound genies are bolstered (or forced to be better?) to do what is commanded of them until the last one is to give their freedom. Shaharazad - the stories of 1000 Arabian nights, did much to set the rules of genies.

[@jonas1483]

Looooool

[@zmishiymishi5349]

I bet every wishes granting genie have their file cabinets somewhere on Mechanus. This could actually be a good plane to contact for technical support

[@AJPickett]

Heh! Oh I am going to use that

[@michaelkelligan7931]

In 1st and 2nd edition only genie nobles had the ability to grant wishes.....on another note my earth elementalist "soyald" loved to travel the plane of air by simply choosing a down direction and away he went,he'd literally spend days doing this and when he was no longer amused he'd slowly come to a stop and use Trimias Catologue of Outer Planir Artifacts to leave....hell of a way to travel 😁 Great vid kiwi with some really stunning artwork thanks m8 🌪🌩🌨🌬

[@MrKago1]

Imo one of the most important aspects of the middle eastern Djinni is the consequence of wishes. The whole point of the Djinni stories is to teach you not to rely on the whims of cosmic beings. To this end, any time you make a wish, they make it come true, but in a horrible or unhelpful way. Wish to be rich? All your living relatives instantly die and you inherit their wealth. Wish for political power? A warlord succeeds his power to you just before an invading army conquers your city and you are beheaded. Wish for fame? You become the most hated person in Faerun. I mean, if you could force Q to do something this is exactly what he would do.

[@Drew-qs2wk]

Rewatching this video years later so I can incorporate them in my homebrew desert campaign. New player: can I be an air genasi? Me: Absolutely. / They developed this backstory involving a lost library and an estranged supernatural family member, and I’m going to have fun turning it all upside down.

[@trentonmaloney3280]

so if you wish for more wishes,it creates a time loop back to when you made the last wish . the djinn are said to be older than demons and giants. there almost like little primordials.

[@AJPickett]

+trenton maloney Older than Toril, perhaps some are around who were sitting on the side lines of the Dawn War, creating bowls of pop corn, cheering as they saw Asmodeus plummet into the heart of Avernus.. spectators to the antics of the gods.

[@OwlQueenAnimations]

The go-to wish for those who imagine encountering a genie is to wish for more wishes, but I never hear anyone actually specify that they want these wishes to be _granted._ As DM, if a player encountered a genie or the like and asked for unlimited wishes, the genie would fill the character's head with an endless number of desires but not grant a single one, because genies are assholes like that.

[@adreabrooks11]

You brilliant bastard... I love it!

[@joshchandler13]

Huge leap there, AJ. “Turn a horse into a donkey.” 🤣😂👍🏼

[@danielstellmon5330]

I want to see a djinni vs a beholder now. Tell each that the other thinks its better.

[@deanweir9023]

Unlimited power

[@ahmadoudiop8547]

Lol that’s funny. Beholder: rolling dice, Djinni: I change reality you miss, Beholder: I knew you would do that so this is plan B, Djinni: change really your plan is crap, Beholder: I have think of you changing my plan B and I have the plan C for that...... etc

[@MisterTutor2010]

No wishing for more wishes :)

[@AJPickett]

+MisterTutor2010 Well, if you have squeezed a Genie into granting you wishes.. it's up to the DM I guess!

[@AJPickett]

+Grant Jacobson Bwuahahahahahahahaaaaa!

[@PetTheZombieRaptor]

MisterTutor2010 did ttys

[@That80sGuy1972]

"I wish for 3 more wishes," Genie says "The power of your wish allows me to grant one wish. Your wish is granted. You now have another wish." "Wait, I wished for more wishes. You granted as much as you could, one more wish?" "Yes. You used a wish for wishing more wishes. The best I can give from that wish is granting one wish." "So using a wish for wishes on any level just gives me a wish?" "Yes." "So wishing for more wishes is just a waste of both our time?" "Yes." "Okay, now that is out of the way. I wish..."

[@jonathanwells223]

You can't wish for more wishes but you can wish for more genies trapped in bottles, no one ever said you couldn't

[@UncleRiotous]

Really useful stuff AJ. I'm running an Al Qadim game and have the Secrets of the Lamp supplement but I couldn't quite get the essence of what made them tick. This has helped massively.

[@AJPickett]

+UncleRiotous Very happy to have helped!

[@destonlee2838]

Alafan bound the djinn in the flask, saying to him, again my wish is for you to end the threat of the terrasque in Taurua. He then went to the husbandmans of Heredor, saying,. "Get me a cow that I might fasten this flask upon her and she may be left out for the beast", giving him a fist sized ruby crafted by the famed Gnomish guildmasters at the Gemmeling. Soon the husbandman brought a pregnant heifer as if to make a lido offering to Apollo, and Alafan made the flask fast about the neck of the cow with a fine eleven cord. "Stay fast my friend, thank you. Goodbye." And he bade the husbandman return the cow to the herd. I'll spare you the visceral details, but.. I'll say ... It worked.

[@Im-Not-a-Dog]

If you give them the ability to negate turns via wishes I’d recommend making it a limited use thing or make it have to wait a few rounds to use it again. I like the idea of treating it like a legendary resistance and considered it a use of “Nope” but for attacks also, but let it use this 15-20 times per short rest, because it’s a god damned genie. Essentially the first 5 rounds of combat will be spent trying to get past it’s Nope Armor while it’s just laughing and kicking 50 shades of shit out of you and your party with magic. In summation; You ain’t never had a foe like him.

[@AngelusAnsell]

Can a person deliberately become a genie by somehow becoming so deeply and intimately attuned with nature and/or by some other (possibly divine?) means that when they die their soul is able to bind to, say, the rock they sat on or the waterfall they sat under, or the winds they learned to know?

[@krispalermo8133]

Wizard that uses Polymorph Self and tricking mortals with Limited Wish will draw genie attention. Then there is always the Wish spell. Up to your DM, hey it is your own fanfiction. My last game shop allow players to PC genie and fiends. Play a Baator devil that is lawful evil trying to get back to his unit or full fill a mission, not all of them can Gate or Teleport.

[@madvulcan8964]

[How to kill a Genie (Djinni)?] 4:30 So what were to happen if you were to return those memories to them? 7:18 Is there way to trap a their Will Essence like say a 'Soul gem" type of device if so take it an chuck it into the darkest bleakest place in the Negative Plane to be consumed. Would that kill them?

[@AJPickett]

The prison spell works perfectly on genies.

[@gaelofariandel6747]

I'm playing a Djinn Warlock who has lived in a palace sized tower in the Elemental Plane of Wind his entire life.

[@KazeTheCursedOne]

Genies are great in campaigns because they balance the player's greed against their self-preservation, on one hand they might get a Wish if they can convince the genie to grant them one, on the other genies are so fickle that if the genie decides it doesn't like them it can use that power against them.

[@sandymyers3148]

You are so right!! Amazing

[@MisterTutor2010]

According to Middle Eastern folklore Djinn are creatures of smokeless fire.

[@AJPickett]

+MisterTutor2010 In D&D that would be the Efreet, who I shall cover later ;)

[@JanusHoW]

If I were to ever run a Warlock, I'd absolutely want to make a gnome one with no-one less than Husam al-Balil ben Nafhat al-Yugayyim, Grand Caliph of the Djinn as his patron. My thought is that the Grand Caliph, on a whim, challenged a pit fiend or other powerful devil to a game of chance and won. By winning, the ruler of the djinn got ownership of my character's soul. He then freed my character, but my character begged to show his gratitude by offering to work for him as an agent on the Material Plane anyway. The Grand Caliph, never one to turn down a new subject, obliged.

[@sephiose]

If I found something like a magic lamp and a Djinni popped out of it granting wishes, I would just have my first wish be that the Djinni makes the third wish after I've made the second one and have my second wish be for its freedom. In my opinion it doesn't feel good when I can just get items out of thin air since I didn't earn it. I would also be curious to see how a Djinni would react to that situation and what it would probably wish for now that it was free to do what it pleased, hopefully get on their good side.

[@AJPickett]

sephiose that is very good thinking.

[@Birbucifer]

sephiose What if it’s an evil genie?

[@HeadHunter-mv2ht]

You know this reminds me of the Genie from Dragons Crown, he appeared in a boss fight with pirates where his lamp was used as a weapon that both the pirates and players could use to summon him for aid. Their was even a side quest you could do where you summoned him three times in battle, only for the epilogue for that side quest reveals that it was a ploy by the genie to gain his freedom, and that now he is free he has created a lavish plaice and is gathering the most beautiful woman from across the world for his own personal harem.

[@brgardner897]

If you ever have the time, I'd love to see you talk about the Genasi. Keep up the great work!

[@Licjr]

Why are Genies not a warlock patron in 5e? "I wish for the ability to cast spells"

[@alanschaub147]

Licjr 1018: That’s a great idea!

[@brianroberts783]

I've been wondering the same thing. Pact of Elemental Power or something.

[@philiphamel8504]

@@brianroberts783 Pact of the Primordial. You have reached into the Elemental Planes and made a Pact with a Sultan of any of the four Elemental Planes. Your 9th level Mystic Arcanum can include Wish.

[@trainercoty2757]

They are in UA

[@adreabrooks11]

Aaaand now they are! Check em out in Tasha's Cauldron!

[@WoM]

Powerful beings indeed, great info AJ

[@AJPickett]

+World of MONSTERS Indeed! Thanks Arthur :)

[@kevinjustason]

Chaotic good. Primordial. Neat

[@kevinbarber2795]

I’m not sure if this would even be possible, or if demons would even care to try, but for some reason during this video I got to wondering if demons could capture a djinni and somehow thru horrible experimentation/torture, create some sort of twisted djinni or djinni-demon hybrid. I can just imagine some adventurers conducting some investigation (maybe they know demons are involved,maybe not) when suddenly a giant red hand with three claws slams into the corner of a rock wall in the cave ahead of them. Then that hand pulls into view a massive red figure, it’s body twisted and seemingly jagged outline like a kid had tried drawing a lightning bolt into the vague shape of a body. It’s body constantly twisting, morphing and convulsing, the adventures see it covered in the remains of what might once have been finery. They look at its face, horrible to see, and find blank, black voids where it’s eyes should be, seemingly bottomless, with a mouth much the same, perpetually open in some mute scream. Maybe it’s covered in thick red hair or scales in patches all over its body, indicating attempts to fuse a demon with its mighty power. But then, the creature actually screams, a wailing, screeching scream that makes several people drop their gear as they cover their ears in pain. But they can still hear it; their very souls are being shaken by this horrible scream. Fear runs through them. And then it charges them, and the bloodbath begins.

[@krispalermo8133]

Been there done that. Another problem with AD&D2ndE and 3.5E, fire genie run in clans. Tick one off and a few dozen will Planeshift at will and fall down on your central location. Ran in a few games where we played fire genie out reminding the demons as to why you don't mess with us.

[@JdRLudiste]

OMG this was very greath! Thx

[@AJPickett]

+JdR Ludiste - Paul Artwork Most welcome! Thank you for watching and commenting :)

[@iPhunnyT]

I’ll take a less impressionable Genie President over a mushbrained Warlock. A better alternative to the two? I couldn’t be naive enough to hope for such a thing.

[@AJPickett]

What?

[@sandymyers3148]

Djinn enjoy Champagne 🥂 and chocolate they don’t like aging! Very nice! They literally are very nice creatures 🤩

[@korygurman6638]

Is there an update for this one? Definitely deserves one with the warlock class being revised

[@lordkelvin666]

The WishMaster Series. Enough Said.

[@rpsketchbooks3931]

LOVE that intro!!!

[@AJPickett]

+Rp Sketchbooks Thank you! Big ups to Renkik and OSSAMFERA11 from Fivrr.com sky high results for dirt cheap prices. (btw, if you like this intro, look forward to the next video, because I got two new intros!)

[@McbrideStudios]

Did he say the physical stats of a Genie are immiteral? 😂

[@hamzaadwan-lz4iv]

It is said that Lucifer is the king of the jinn

[@AJPickett]

By whom?

[@DoWhatNowQuestionmark]

Let me start off with saying Great videos as always love the stuff! Quick question about genies Lore. So you said it’s a mortal soul that some how fused with elemental energies, then some randomness happens, and poof you get this awesomeness. But here are my two questions. First, what sorts of souls qualify for this? Like if you look at the playable races would all qualify? Or could you look at the monster manual and look at other intelligent mortal species. Like at the top of my head a Red Dragon dies in the elemental plane of fire and poof Draco-Efreeti. Now my second question is could some one learn about how genies come about and willfully become one? Like think fusion dance from DBZ. You learn how to do it. But even still you may not get it right and mess up.

[@AJPickett]

As far as I know, the secret of soul binding to elemental power is known only to The queen of chaos, Overgods, and possibly the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, perhaps some other ancient beings. AFAIK it is otherwise completely random and whatever the soul was before the transformation has nothing to do with the Genie created.

[@DoWhatNowQuestionmark]

AJ Pickett Awesome thank you so much AJ 😁

[@TheBagOfHolding]

They can probably shoot a lot of magic missiles.

[@sandymyers3148]

Very serious topic

[@adreabrooks11]

11:39 Ah, the legendary power of turning a horse into a donkey... No wonder they are feared by so many! XD

[@Weemadaggie]

Genies are hoarders of wealth, also, genies can make any wealth. ???? ??

[@AJPickett]

Yes.

[@sandymyers3148]

very intelligent i understand you truly need to know dante is terrible right

[@daverhoden445]

The fact that, in 2016, djinn were described as vain and narcissistic and then compared to Donald Trump made me laugh out loud.

[@darthshivvis956]

Genasi with extra steps

[@verticalflats2816]

I don't know if you looked at the Al-Qadim setting to add your Genies videos or not. Al-Qadim is in the forgotten realms and deals with a lot with the Arabian Nights type fantasy.

[@TheCubecrafer]

"they are the donald trump monster" xD haha

[@randallmarcum9998]

Any chance we’ll get a video on the Janni masters of all four elements?

[@AJPickett]

Yes

[@rendarcrow]

Lmao this video hits different since Jan 6th 💀🤣

[@WildeJagdNozdormu]

If I would use the item Empty Genie's Lamp on a Character and thereby turn it into a Genie, would it forgett who and what it previeous was?

[@AJPickett]

No.

[@kingstewy]

Why would they attack you unless you attacked them. Didn't notice that they are Chaotic Good, so why would they do any of this?

[@AJPickett]

Imagine you are a band of adventurers hired to clear some goblins out of an area so farmers can raise crops and flocks there without getting raided. You kill a bunch of Goblin warriors and find the caves they are inhabiting, where you notice a couple of Goblins who are standing guard, they wear leather cuirass and have well made weapons, they have a prominent symbol on tabards the wear, and they begin combat by reaching to the sky and calling down fire on the adventurers.. because they are goblin clerics, and they are chaotic good, but they are there to kill the player characters, who are also probably of good alignment, but, while they have similar values, they have different goals, motivations and loyalties. Chaotic Good creatures can most assuredly attack and kill those who they do not consider to be a part of their community, and Djinnis are alien beings, they really have very little in common with humanoids of the Prime Material plane.. to them, humans are barely different from goblinoids.

[@booley]

did you ever do the jann?

[@sandymyers3148]

Djinn very narcissistic! All true

[@Chupazombra]

So what is the outro song tho

[@MithradatesMegas]

I would love to see you DM a campaign for the Nerdarchy group.

[@AJPickett]

+Mithradates Megas some time next year perhaps, if they let me.

[@MithradatesMegas]

Oh, they'd *better*.

[@AJPickett]

Hey I could always write a campaign in the meantime. Perhaps set up a patreon campaign club thing?

[@Slechy_Lesh]

I attempted many of their videos, it was tough. Loving AJ though.

[@CallieYote]

could there be such a thing as a celestial Geni/Djinn? Say a person devoted themselves/made deals with multiple celestial beings specifically to fight back some grand level of demonic/hellish entity. Could the idea that all these different entities providing different flavors of celestial energy create a sort of "raw" celestial essence that the person. could tie themselves too the same way Djinn tie themselves to an element?

[@AJPickett]

I see what you are talking about, and I keep thinking of how an Empyrean would be a good template for the powers of such an entity, though perhaps they manifest with more of an angelic appearance, wings of light, lower body a glowing mist that condenses into holy water, chaotic good alignment.An interesting twist would have them be a sort of free agent, privy to divine knowledge, they could give out information in exchange for things that they fancy. They could be far more hedonistic than one would expect, but always fair and ethical in their dealings with mortals. Let's call them Divini :)

[@CallieYote]

AJ Pickett Divini. nice. basically I've had this idea in my head of a player - goal. basically, I would play a Bard - cleric multiclass, A follower of the Dragon Deity Hlal, and on my personal quest, I would ally and follow the teachings of the other Good Dragon Gods, and several others, to access a combination of Celestial and Arcane magic and perform "The Dragonforce". probably to fight Tiamat and prevent her from gaining control on the Material Plane.

[@revanvonheaven8270]

What about your hadiths do they provide some explanation as well.

[@iamjustsham1066]

I was thinking they should b more like WISHMASTER.

[@sandymyers3148]

the sila right

[@sandymyers3148]

Djinn are different race all true! very weird super natural

[@MisterTutor2010]

Djinni Trump: I will build a wall around the Elemental Plane of Air and make the other elemental planes pay for it :)

[@MisterTutor2010]

Djinni Trump's wish power has no effect on bad hair :)

[@AJPickett]

LOL, his hair is the source of his power.

[@schonlingg.wunderbar2985]

An air wall? All those similarities... ^^

[@puppetgeneral39]

Djinni: Won't this effect trade? And by proxy, jobs? Djinni Trump: Won't effect me. Sounds like you're the one with the problems.

[@supremecaffeine2633]

@@puppetgeneral39 do the walls of your house stop you from going to work...

[@genehetzel2036]

So, Shazam?

[@edwardperez3535]

Re do these old videos

[@samuelsmith3781]

Can some genie be nice

[@SS-hz4jo]

How did you get the Donald Trump dig right years ago? Awesome.

[@kimwill6889]

ERAZOR ALFA LAYLA WA LAYLA

[@tappingninja]

Donald Trump lives rent free in the minds of every single person on the planet and I FUCKING LOVE IT...

[@agsilverradio2225]

I was going to point out the politicalness of the comparison to Trump, then I noticed the upload date.

[@AJPickett]

Yeah. Who knew?

[@sandymyers3148]

Everything is true! Very childish ! The sila djinn

[@jeffjohn2931]

no bill gates