I just picked up Green Ronin’s Deck of Many Things and immediately knew that I wanted to use this in my games.
The Deck of Many Things has a long and storied history in D&D. It was a really cool item that never saw (at least in my games) much play because it either stocked the players up with awesome or ended the game. I wanted something that would see a lot of use, adding flavor to the game without granting them wishes or sending them to an extradimensional prison.
Here’s what I came up with.
Deck of Many Things, Minor
Level 6
Wondrous Item 1,800 gp
This deck of cards radiates a chaotic magical aura. Many things can be gleaned with a draw from this deck, some good and some bad.
Property: A member of any arcane class can use the deck of many things as an implement. If used as an implement, the Deck of Many Things provides a +2 to attack rolls and damage rolls, and gives +2d4 damage on a critical hit. The deck counts as any implement that it’s wielder chooses for other purposes. A wizard can treat it as a wand, a staff, an orb or a tome, for instance.
Power (Encounter): Minor action. You may make a fate draw from the deck of many things. When making a fate draw, use either a tarot deck or regular playing cards. When a card is drawn, it’s effects take place immediately. Unless otherwise stated, all effects last until the end of the encounter.
| Card | Effect |
| 1. Balance | all damage dice you roll are treated as half the maximum damage of the die (e.g. 1d8 counts as 4) |
| 2. Comet | Each time you drop an enemy, you are granted a +2 tarot bonus to attack rolls until the end of your next turn. |
| 3. Donjon | You are at -2 speed. |
| 4. Euryale | -2 penalty on saving throws. |
| 5. The Fates | Once this encounter you may re-roll the results of any 1d20 roll you dislike. You must take the results of that roll. |
| 6. Flames | One opponent (DM’s choice) has combat advantage versus you for the rest of the encounter. |
| 7. Fool | you have vulnerable 5 all. You may draw an extra card. |
| 8. Gem | one item you possess gains a +1 tarot bonus to attack and damage rolls. |
| 9. Idiot | Lose a healing surge. If you don’t have a healing surge, take damage equal to the value of one healing surge. You may draw an extra card. |
| 10. Jester | you may shift 2 as a minor action for the rest of the encounter. |
| 11. Key | Your next hit is a critical hit. |
| 12. Knight | you have resist 5 all. |
| 13. Moon | Once this encounter you may add 5 to any 1d20 roll. |
| 14. Rogue | One of your allies (DM chooses) counts as an enemy for determining flanking, concealment and power effects. |
| 15. Ruin | the next hit you take is a critical hit. |
| 16. Skull | -2 on death saving throws. |
| 17. Star | you have regeneration 5 |
| 18. Sun | every time you regain hit points, you recover 5 additional hit points. |
| 19.Talons | you lose the use of one encounter power (your choice) |
| 20. Throne | Once this encounter, you may regain the use of an encounter power as a free action on your turn. |
| 21. Vizier | Once this encounter, you may make an attack as a free action against an enemy who misses you. |
| 22. The Void | -1 to all attack rolls. |
A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
By day he is a technologist.
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I’d be a little surprised if anybody used the Power unless as a lark in an encounter they’ll easily win, or maybe as a last-ditch effort in a fight already lost. In the original, the chance at awesome was the lure to risk destruction, here it’s just 50-50 whether you make the fight easier or harder…
I think this is a good stab at a Heroic tier version of this item. I think a Paragon or Epic version of this could come much closer to the original intent (and design) of the item, though.
I like it, especially if the players don’t know all the effects, but acquired it as loot from an enemy who just happened to pull good from it (thus making all the players want to pull cards!).
I love the flavor of this. I worry a tad bit about the mechanics, but I honestly think a lot of players would use it anyway because, well, it’s more fun to use your deck of many things to see what happens in a fight. Most fights the PCs can win anyway.
On the downside, it takes an item that previously was interesting out of combat, and gives it that 4.0 flavor of “only interesting things happen in combat.”
When you bought these, Ash IM’d me and said “You’re in trouble! He bought a Deck of Many Things!”
@Joshua Yeah, it’s mostly a flavor item. My wife is into tarot, I saw these and voila! there it is.
It’s an item I envisioned that someone like a wild mage would use, just to spice things up and play into a concept.
@Dead Orcs just wait till I get Paragon and Epic done! the Paragon scales up a bit more, and the Epic is going to be pretty close to “old-school” DoMT.
@Mad Brew –glad you like! Yeah, it would definitely be more enticing to draw without foreknowledge of everything you could get.
@JackofHearts –I felt a little constrained with what I could do at Heroic, simply because I didn’t want to break a game before 11th level. My decision was to make it all non-permanent in the opening tier, daily effects at paragon, and permanent at Epic. The heroic is about 50% flavor, 50% implement (one slight advantage is that you get a +2 implement a few levels before you normally get it at 8th, albeit with a weak critical bonus). Like I’ve said to others, I’m uping the scale of the deck in the Paragon and Epic levels.
@David -hehehehe.
OMG Finally a good version of the DoMT for 4E… I love it I’ll use it in my campaing… thanks a lot for it.
Time to give some spice to the fights
Maybe I’m mad but… how about adding a daily power to this DoMT that do something like:
Power (Daily): Minor action. You may make a fate draw from the deck of many things (using the same mechanic of the encounter version) the effect affect you and all your allies. This power cannot be used if u already use the encounter version of this power. This power spend the encounter version of the power.