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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9490520" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/uLYuISz.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/413965/Aspects-of-Fate-5-TarokkaThemed-Subclasses" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: Character OptionsCoS-Required? NoThe Tarokka deck has a special place in the broader Ravenloft universe. Originating as a means to generate treasure and character placement in the Castle Ravenloft modules, the Tarokka has expanded to other uses, such as the stand-alone Prophet’s Gambit card game to items with magical properties when used in the hands of a Vistana. Needless to say, homebrewers have expanded on the Tarokka in their own ways as covered in prior posts in this thread, and today we have a supplement for subclasses themed around the cards.Each subclass in Aspects of Fate requires the player (not the PC) to draw from a Tarokka deck in order to determine the abilities of various class features. For groups that don’t own such a deck, alternatives are provided for using the rules with regular playing cards as well as traditional tarot cards. For in-game requirements, only two of the subclasses (Kismet Rogue and Cartomancy Wizard) require the PC to have a Tarokka deck as an item for certain abilities.Seerknight Fighter is our first subclass, and actually the most complicated one in terms of page count and options. It represents a warrior who learns how to manipulate fate in order to gain split-second glimpses of insight in battle to perform sublime maneuvers and avert doom. They are similar to the Battlemaster Fighter in that they can learn special abilities known as Glimpses, can gain more as they level up, and they recharge their uses on a short or long rest. The subclass is a bit MAD as the save DC is based on Wisdom, not a skill most Fighters use.At the end of a long rest the player draws three Tarokka cards in order, with them representing the Future, Present, and…Future, which I presume is a mistype as there is a “Past” card listing for all of the game mechanic results. Tarokka cards drawn this way are known as sight cards, and at the end of a short rest the player has the option of shuffling any remaining cards back into the deck to draw three new ones. Each Glimpse has a default feature that triggers when it’s used, and any Tarokka card can be spent to activate it, even if it doesn’t match the Glimpse’s title. However, if the card does match, it also activates the corresponding Past, Present, or Future ability. Glimpses pertain to specific cards: individual High Deck cards along with the Masters of Stars, Coins, and Glyphs. Swords is an exception, as it can trigger with any card in that Suite and is a Glimpse the Seerknight automatically starts with by default.The Seerknight’s initial class features grant them proficiency in either Insight or Perception, learn either the Dancing Lights or Light cantrip, and learn three Glimpses. One of them must be Swords but the two others can be any of their choice. They learn two additional ones at 7th, 10th, and 15th level and can replace a learned one with another at any time they level up. At 7th level the Seerknight can study a space up to 30 feet diameter for 1 minute and see a particular event in the past, whose length and time placement is both based on their Wisdom modifier. They can only perceive time in one such space per long rest, but can use this ability an unlimited number of times as long as they do it in a new area per use.At 10th level the Fighter can see into the Ethereal Plane up to 60 feet when they’re not incapacitated, and they can also draw two of every sight card for Past, Present, and Future after a rest. At 15th level creatures hit by their weapon attacks suffer disadvantage on saving throws against Glimpses used by subsequent weapon attacks this turn, and at 18th level they can see through magical darkness and automatically detect and save against magical illusions. Once per long rest they can see through up to 30 feet of solid objects as an action, and whenever they spend a sight card can activate any number of Past, Present, or Future abilities for a matching Glimpse rather than just one of them.Now, what about the particular Glimpses? I won’t cover all of them due to the sheer amount, but instead highlight some of the more interesting ones.Swords can be spent when the Fighter makes a weapon attack roll, rolling an additional d20 and taking the highest result. Its Past Value adds the value of the card to the attack roll with a Master of Swords being 10, Present does the same but adds to the damage, and Future lets the Glimpse apply to the next attack made against that creature, even from an ally.Master of Stars lets the Fighter learn two cantrips with a casting time of one action, and the base effect lets them forego one of their attacks as part of the Attack action to cast one of these cantrips; Past lets them automatically break a creature’s concentration when they hit with a weapon attack, but this can be done only once rather than multiple times with each attack; Present makes an attack roll with one of the learned cantrips have advantage, or if it provokes a saving throw the target has disadvantage; Future lets them replace any number of attacks made as part of the Attack action with one of the cantrips.Beast is activated by an action, and grants the Fighter advantage on Dexterity saves vs effects they can see for a number of hours equal to their Wisdom modifier; Past grants them enhanced sense of smell, letting them recognize distinct styles and detect creatures within 30 feet; Present increases their speed by 10 feet; Future grants advantage on Survival checks to track creatures; all of these effects persist while the Glimpse’s base feature is active.Broken One’s base effect is used on a successful weapon attack, making the target incapacitated for 1 turn on a failed Constitution save; Past lets the Fighter learn its two lowest ability scores if it failed that earlier save; Present makes the target paralyzed instead; Future lets the Fighter add the damage of the initial attack to their next glimpse save DC while the creature remains affected by the base effect.Donjon is used as a reaction on a successful weapon attack by the Fighter, transporting the target into a harmless demiplane for 1 turn if they fail a Wisdom save; Past lets the Fighter use it for free without spending a reaction as they “saw it coming;” Present deals psychic damage equal to Fighter level to the target while inside the demiplane; Future causes the creature to still believe they’re in the demiplane and need to make Intelligence saves to break the illusion, and the Fighter can concentrate on the effect as if it were a spell for up to 1 minute.Executioner is spent as a reaction on a successful attack, causing the target to instantaneously gain vulnerability to the damage of the attack; Past lets the Fighter do it for free without spending a reaction; Present lets the Fighter kill the creature if it would end up with fewer hit points than their Fighter level; Future lets the next attack against that creature gain the glimpse’s base benefits.Ghost lets the Fighter cast Detect Thoughts on one creature as an action, and can be done as part of the Attack action; Past lets the Fighter learn the target’s darkest secret on a failed Wisdom save; Present makes the Fighter’s weapon attack deal psychic damage instead of its normal damage type and leaves no physical marks; Future makes it so that the creature’s attacks have disadvantage against the Fighter, but doesn’t specify a duration. As the flavor text reads “your insight into the creature’s thoughts give you the upper hand in battle,” I mean that to read for the rest of the combat encounter.Marionette lets the Fighter forego one attack to target a creature within 30 feet. If it fails a Wisdom save, it uses its reaction to make an attack against another creature of the Fighter’s choice; Past lets the Fighter use it as part of an action rather than an attack, and can roll Stealth opposed by the target’s Perception to remain unnoticed if done this way; Present lets the Fighter forego more than one attack if the target has Multiattack, but can only forego as many attacks as the target has attacks to spare; Future causes a creature attacking the Fighter to roll a Wisdom save, attacking another creature of the Fighter’s choice if they fail or automatically missing if the target’s unable to attack anyone else.Seer lets the Fighter cast Augury without material components; Past negates the chance of getting a random reading; Present lets them ask one yes/no question pertaining to the course of action being read by the spell; Future makes it so the Fighter gains advantage on one ability check made while carrying out the course of action if the result is “weal.”Tempter lets the Fighter cast Suggestion without material components; Past makes it so the target doesn’t remember being influenced by the Glimpse; Present lets the Fighter forego an attack to use the Glimpse as part of the Attack action; Future doubles the duration of the base effect.Thoughts: This is my favorite subclass in the book. The Seerknight has a great variety of options, useful in both combat and out-of-combat utility stuff. Its middle-level features such as reading into the past and seeing in the Ethereal Plane are nifty, and although they don’t compete with the broad powers of actual spellcasters they are the kinds of things that you’d see more use in a setting such as Ravenloft. The various Glimpses are cool too, and the Seerknight certainly isn’t starved for options.My main criticisms of the class are it being reliant on Wisdom, even if that thematically makes sense. There’s also the mistype on listing Future twice for the three-card draw, and the fact that outside of Swords it is overall rare to get an appropriate matching card for a Glimpse. While non-Sword Glimpses still have base effects, the guarantee of getting a matching card is a 1 in 54 chance. Even with the 10th level feature that lets them draw 2 sight cards instead of one, the doubling of odds is still less of a chance than gaining a natural 20 on a d20. Thus, the Seerknight’s Past/Present/Future abilities will matter less for build concerns vs the base effects, being more akin to nice things you get once in a while rather than planning for them during adventuring.School of Cartomancy Wizard represents one who entrusts the will of the cards to guide them and their magic. Their initial class feature has them able to cast Augury once per long rest, and they incorporate a deck of Tarokka cards into their spellbook. The wizard can copy a spell whose value is equal to or less than a numbered suite onto a card instead, and masters and high decks can hold spells of any level. Whenever they finish a long rest, the player draws five cards. Any cards drawn that have inscribed spells are prepared automatically and don’t count against the Wizard’s limit, but they can only have a maximum amount of bonus spells equal to half their class level when done in this fashion.At 6th level cards drawn this way grant the Wizard from a short list of choosable additional benefits if a card belongs to the Suite of Stars, such as making it so enemies cannot surprise them or they gain advantage on initiative rolls, but only up to two such benefits can be active at one time. At 10th level any spells from their card spread are easier to maintain concentration on, as they auto-succeed on such checks unless the damage is greater than their wizard level + Proficiency Bonus, and they gain the benefits of Evasion for lowering damage from Dexterity save effects. Their 14th level capstone lets them draw two separate spreads of 5 cards each instead of one, and count all such cards as “conditionally prepared” until a spell is cast from one of the spreads. Once this is done, the cards from the other suite are lost and no longer count as prepared as the “divergence collapses.”Thoughts: This is a pretty cool subclass with good features, and really simulates the idea of a mage who relies on both the randomness of a Tarokka deck but also having backup plans from supernatural foresight. One would think that a PC would just inscribe all of their spells onto Stars cards. But as the level of spell a card can hold depends on its number, the class is still encouraged to “wait out” putting low-level spells on higher-value cards and instead patiently wait until they get better slots upon leveling up. The class features are broadly useful for a variety of builds, such as being able to better maintain concentration on certain spells being great for most casters.Kismet Rogue represents people with extraordinary luck, where circumstances just seem to go their way. Their initial 3rd level features grant them a bonus equal to their Proficiency Bonus on Deception, Performance, and Persuasion checks when incorporating a Tarokka deck into their social activity, like telling someone what they want to hear via a made-up fortune with Deception. They can also perform a Fate of the Draw, foregoing benefiting from advantage on a roll with a proficient attack or skill to instead have the player draw from the Tarokka deck. They can do this a number of times per short rest equal to their Wisdom modifier plus Proficiency Bonus. Half the card’s number is added to the roll, the bonus being a minimum of their Proficiency Bonus if it would be lower. Masters are considered a 10, and High Deck cards are set aside and the deck is drawn from again. A suit of Coins drawn for an attack roll causes that attack to become a critical hit if it successfully hits.At 9th level the Rogue can use Fate of the Draw to add the result to death saving throws, and Coins cards restore hit points (half their maximum for Master, 1 hit point for all others). At 13th level any High Deck cards used during Fate of the Draw let the Rogue cast a spell relevant to that card as an action, using their Wisdom for attack rolls and save DC and they usually have a shorter duration than the default spell. For example, Donjon grants a casting of Arcane Lock, Seer grants Augury, and Broken One grants Hex. Their 17th level capstone lets them add the full value of Fate of the Draw results to damage rolls, the value for Coins cards are doubled for this damage, and their total number of uses for Fate of the Draw in general is equal to their Rogue level.Thoughts: The initial feature of Fate of the Draw is actually underpowered, as in terms of probability advantage is equivalent to a +5 bonus. As Tarokka card suites only go up to 10, that’s a +5 bonus at best. It’s thus most useful for crit-fishing when the Rogue has a good chance of hitting by default and getting Coins is a low yet still respectable  1 in 4 result. Their 9th level feature, on the other hand, is really good in that it grants increased survivability when it really matters. Even presuming that none of the other party members can get to the Rogue in time, they have 3-5 rounds before they either stabilize or die, and as Coins restores hit points there’s a 25% chance each round that a card is spent on them getting back up from dying. The High Deck spells are neat, but due to their random nature and being relatively low-powered for 13th level PCs they’re more of a flavor thing than a reliable tactic. In short, I’d rank this as an average subclass: has some nice features, but not broadly useful at all tiers of play.Omen Domain Cleric represents priests and priestesses who serve gods of prophecy and foresight, using their glimpses of the future to act in tune with the present and avert the more calamitous visions. Their bonus spells include divination stuff like Augury and Commune, but also include quite a bit of defensive magic such as Glyph of Warding and Protection from Energy. At 1st level they gain proficiency with painter’s supplies and learn the Guidance cantrip, and also at 1st level the player draws a number of cards from a Tarokka deck equal to the Cleric’s proficiency modifier after completing a long rest. A card can be spent to paint a glyph onto a flat, stationary surface with 1 minute of preparation, and its effect is dependent on the card: Swords deals AoE damage when a creature passes nearby, Stars forces an immediate concentration save to maintain a spell and imposes disadvantage on all such saves for 1 minute, Stars makes the glyph invisible and it silently alerts the Cleric whenever a creature passes within 5 feet (or opens something if painted onto a container/lock/etc), and Glyphs and High Cards can have any of these effects.Their Channel Divinity option at 2nd level lets them declare a goal they want to achieve within a week, and the DM gives an omen of a possible obstacle to it. At 6th level the Channel Divinity option can store a prepared spell of 1/3rd their Cleric level in a glyph, or create one of their 1st level Suite-based glyphs as an action instead of 1 minute. At 8th level they add Wisdom modifier to the damage of cantrips, and at 17th level their glyphs gain improved uses such as Swords causing the stunned condition on a failed Dexterity save and resetting after 1 minute, Stars radiating a short-range antimagic field, and coins poisons those who trigger the glyph for 1 hour if they fail a Constitution save.Thoughts: Given the subclass’ reliance upon divination spells and glyphs that require a minute to set up, Omen clerics are of situational use depending on how well the party can prepare for encounters ahead of time. The 2nd level Channel Divinity is also reliant upon DM Fiat, as the text says that the omen “may be cryptic or mysterious” rather than explicit in the obstacle it outlines. The fact that the glyphs are triggered by any creature vs being able to select who can and cannot makes friendly fire a concern and thus limits their usability. That being said, being able to imbue cleric spells into glyphs can be useful, as the glyphs last for hours (Wisdom modifier plus Proficiency Bonus) and characters can just trigger them via movement vs the Cleric needing to spend actions to cast them.Fate Warlock Patron represents a powerful being that holds the destiny of reality in its hands or is a servant of fate itself. It might not even be a unique entity so much as fate itself as a concept. At 1st level the warlock chooses what Aspect of Fate they embody based on one of the four suites, which provide an advantage on a certain skill check (Athletics for Swords, Arcana for Stars, Persuasion for Coins, Religion for Glyphs) for the spell’s duration whenever they cast a leveled spell. Their expanded spells are partially determined by this suite: one set of spells are available to all warlocks of this subclass and tend to be divination, while the other set is based on theme. For instance, Sword spells are all various kinds of Smites, while Glyphs tend to be divine in nature such as Spiritual Weapon and Death Ward. Also at first level, they draw a Tarokka card at the end of a short or long rest, and can spend the card to force a creature to reroll a certain type of roll, such as an attack roll against the warlock if the card is Swords or a save vs a certain effect for the others: Evocation spell for Stars, charm effect for Coins, incapacitating effect for Glyphs. High Cards can reroll any of the four listed effects. If the card matches their Aspect of Fate, the Warlock chooses whether they succeed or fail on that roll.At 6th level the Warlock gains persistent resistance to a damage type based on their Aspect as long as they’re not incapacitated, and can grant this resistance to a nearby creature for 1 turn but lose the resistance themselves. They can also use the benefits of their drawn card reroll on an ally as a reaction. At 10th level the Warlock becomes a living representation of one of the cards from the High Deck, granting them some thematic ability. For instance, Raven lets them summon a raven with 18 Intelligence as an action once per long rest that can answer a question to the best of its ability before disappearing; Tempter grants them persistent advantage on Deception and Persuasion checks and creatures charmed by the Warlock forget their face 1 minute after the charm condition ends; or Ghost, which lets the warlock turn ethereal for a number of minutes equal to their Charisma modifier once per long rest.At 14th level once per long rest, the Warlock can shield themselves and an additional number of targets based on their Charisma modifier + 1 from an effect requiring a saving throw, and said creatures gain resistance to all damage for 1 turn.Thoughts: At the very least, the Fate Warlock becomes a good diviner just from their expanded spells. Certain suites are more useful for the class than others barring multiclass options: for instance, Swords is ideal for melee and gish types, but as Hexblade is the primary bladelock subclass the smites aren’t as useful as just doing Eldritch Blasts from a safe distance. The spending of a card to reroll or auto-fail/succeed on particular rolls can have great synergy based on build: Coins is good for enchanters, while Stars is good for those with Fireball and other classic blasty spells. The damage resistance at 6th level is a bit situational as they tend to be rather rare types, barring swords which is slashing damage. As for the 10th level High Deck features, I do like the diversity of options one can choose, although not all are made equal. For instance, Ghost’s ethereal nature is very broadly useful, while the Raven is basically an additional roll of a skill check with a total +4 bonus. But overall, this looks to be a pretty strong subclass.Overall Thoughts: The incorporation of a Tarokka deck for subclasses is a cool idea, and I like the ones for Fighter, Warlock, and Wizard. I wasn’t as wowed by the Cleric’s and Rogue’s, but they don’t strike me as outright bad either. As this product is only a dollar, it’s certainly no great cost, and I would recommend it to anyone who is intrigued by the options covered.Join us next time as we read Countess Von Zarovich, a guide for running a female Strahd!</blockquote>

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