Choose from the following magical boons

Thanks for the interesting replies, people, although I clearly ruined the question by including #10. I intended it more as “pick one of #1 to #9… and then as a separate question, how much money would you have to get to override your pick”, along with some commentary on which of #1 to #9 is least interesting, etc. I agree that once you get to a sufficiently large amount of money everything else becomes pointless, with the possible exceptions of #1 and #3 depending on your life circumstances.

I must say some of these choices are quite imaginative. Just to be a little different I’m going with option #6 (the free travel option).

When/where can I claim my prize?

Just give me money. A lot of money. That’s what I want.

Most of these, the restrictions would drive me absolutely batty. Yes, I can shapeshift into any human form, and nobody else on Earth can do that, nor ever has been able to. Why isn’t this remarkable? What’s happened to every single person on the planet that makes this seem routine to them? Or maybe everyone else can do it, too, and that’s why nobody says anything… but then, why am I only just now becoming aware of it?

Given that, I think that the ones most appealing to me are #3 (the perfect health) or #4 (the never-violence one), since either of those is superficially mundane enough that it really wouldn’t be remarkable. But the thing is, my health, while not perfect, is already pretty darned good, and based on my ancestors, is likely to stay that way for a nice long time, and I’m not all that worried about being victimized, either.

So it wouldn’t take much to make option #10 more appealing to me, mostly just because it doesn’t come with the bizarre restrictions of the others. It’d need to be enough to make a significant difference to my lifestyle, but something like half a million would probably be enough to do that (though of course, I’d try to bargain for more if I thought I could get it).

Thing is, if you don’t have those restrictions, then the entire thread just becomes people figuring out how best to abuse and profit from the boons.

Just keep telling yourself “a wizard did it”.

Does #4 extend to war?

Could I, in theory, just waltz into a battlefield and kill (insert bad guy here) because I’m guaranteed never to be a victim of violence? If we aren’t technically in war with the nation (officially) then it’s considered a murder if I’m killed is it not?

Scenario: The US Army flies me to Iraq with the sole purpose of killing Bin Laden (yes he’s dead, I literally don’t know anyone else) and no one else. Since my intention of violence is ONLY to one person, thus making his killing of me self defense, then any other soldier who does harm to me murders me. As long as we aren’t officially at war with them, then the killing isn’t justified. So as long as Bin Laden doesn’t KNOW I’m there to kill him, I should be able to waltz into his hideout unmolested by anyone other than him.

No. It doesn’t protect you from violence, just violent crime, and only “straightforward” crime. No abusing it by travelling to places where the laws are odd (or somehow making odd laws) and then claiming that you’re being the victim of a crime when odd laws aren’t being followed, etc.

#10, no question. If it’s my choice, $100 billion. Why not? If I have to say the minimum amount of money to supersede my second choice (which is probably #3, although #5 is actually kind of attractive), I guess it would be $1 million.

Since 10 is not really meant to be an option, I’d go with #3. Being ill can really fuck up your day.

Seems likely that people with chronic health problems will be highly disposed to picking #3. Wait, you specified “no dementia,” but what about mental health like depression and bipolar disorder and whatnot?

It would cure bipolar disorder and any biologically-related depression. It wouldn’t just magically make you happy if your entire family had just died in a house fire, or something like that.

I’d take 3 if there was SOME sort of guarantee of at least a few more years of life. But given my family history I’d be just as likely as not to drop dead in 3-5 years which doesn’t seem worth it.
Maybe 1 then, if that would mean none of the stuff hanging over my head genetically gets to drop for 15 years.

Well, least interesting is the crime one. I’ve largely already avoided crime so far, so there’s no way I’d waste a good magical boon on that.

As for the others, I’d go with one of 1, 3 and 10. Which I’d choose would depend a lot on the timing of when in life this boon was offered to me.

For a young guy, money would probably be the best plan, as you have most of your life ahead of you, and lots of money would let you maximize the enjoyment of that life.

For a middle-aged guy, the perfect health thing would probably be best. You’re just at the point where you have enough money to live comfortably, but your health is starting to be an issue. Making the last 1/3 to 1/2 of your life disease free is no small thing.

For an older guy, tacking on an extra 15 years is clearly a win. If you haven’t already developed some serious health problem, this would delay any such problem. Also, you’re likely already retired, and so money is probably taken care of. The longer you can draw a pension, the more you win at life :smiley:

Options 3, 5 and 6 are interesting to me.

But it’s not clear if the *return *trip counts as an extra travel…? If so then clearly I’d have to stay a month wherever I went, but I suspect this isn’t the intention.

For me, I only have to very, very momentarily consider any options other than the shapeshifting one. Are there other things I might like? Yeah. But none of them hold a candle to the shapeshifting in my mind. With some work and effort, it can lead to enough money to take care of me for the remainder of my life; after all, being able to be arbitrarily attractive and/or look however I want, even if recognized automatically, can lead to many opportunities like acting and modeling.

As far as the others, 1 and 3 are nice, but the shapeshifting totally outclasses them in my mind. The restriction on 7 of using it only 60 days out of each year seems excessive to me; it’s not really in the class of some of the other choices even without that limitation, but with it, it’s too specialized to be worthwhile.

As far as option 10…I’m not sure there exists an amount of money that could possibly replace the shapeshifting one, short of owning literally everything that exists, and…probably not even then. I can’t really imagine a quantity of material wealth that would be superior to being able to have any human appearance and always be in peak physical fitness as well.