Rediculous stuff from the PC aspect of the game

[Turanil]

You can only gain one level at a time, you end up 1 XP short of the next level, the remaining XP are wasted.

I know, but the OP would not have said "I'm 100,000 XP higher", he would just have said "I'm one level higher". Since this thread is about ridiculous game events, I was wondering about it.

 

[Numion]

When the DM introduces a deck of many things, they're essentially fishing for ideas.

Or sometimes they're just F'ing with the players with no greater purpose to it. That's why I did it, anyway

 

[Tsillanabor]

You know, in over 20 years of DMing I've never used one.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I have never played out the results of a disaster Deck-tried a few practiced draws.

We did hit the fountain of fortunes Folly from an issue of last years dragon.
-far less on both benefits and penalties, its only one drink. You can pick a positive and get a random penalty or vice versa.

The random effects turned out to be so minor they are nearly negliagble.
the wizard got -1 to all str checks, +1 to fort saves(best of 2 rolls)

The rouge got a +3 defending (dagger??) sucks for a medium item- he doesn't know what it does yet. Then a -2 to initative. Which he thought was the lesser evil of 2 choices.

the NPC fighter got -1 wis, +2 diplomacy.

No the real absurdity came when they realized they had trusted a known spokesman for the goddess of lies AGAIN, and had no idea why they were chasing a flying ship through the etherial plane.

 

[painandgreed]

Anyone who uses a Deck of Many Things before about level ten needs a swift kick to the face. It's going to throw off the party a lot, good or bad.

My first thought when reading the OP was along the lines of "How many people would use a Desk of Many Things these days with 3.5 neurotic tendencies for balance?"

I vaguely remember it but IIRC, somebody got trapped and somebodey else got Stormbringer and then there was a long planar adventure to rescue the trapped person. I think that's also where we got this talking ring. Somebody got wishes and wished for a rign of wishes. He got this ring that talked and said it was a ring of unlimted wishes. It never did anything except talk and sid it had granted our wishes but to get them we had to do what it said. If we wished for a magic item, it would direct us to a really hard dungeon or offer a suggestion about how to find out about said dungeon that would have said magic item in it. So every now and then, we'd acheive one of the things that we had wished for from it and it would say "See, the wish has been granted." I guess you might call it a Ring of Self Fullfillig Prophesies. It was very talkative and would occationally get us into trouble in the middle of RP because it did not need to be worn to talk. We eventually had it built into the pommel of a custom magical sword because we figured a talking sword was cooler than a talking ring.

 

[Gundark]

Anyone who uses a Deck of Many Things before about level ten needs a swift kick to the face. It's going to throw off the party a lot, good or bad.

When my 5th level rogue got the deck, he got a bonus to Charisma, a +5 rapier, and went up to level 11 or so. The sorceress turned evil, and the paladin had his soul imprisioned in hell.

The game pretty much was in various stages of disintegration after that.

I can top that...2nd level...and the DM took all the bad cards out. but the effect was the same

 

[Psion]

Ah yes. The Deck of Many Things... it's all fun and games until someone loses a soul.

Ahem.

Anyway, for those who dig the variety and risk of the Deck of Many Things but not so much game-wrecking potential, I recommend:
http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/magicitems/deckofpastandfuture.html

 

[Falkus]

The best use of the deck of many things that I've ever seen was in Baldur's Gate: Throne of Bhaal, where, in Watcher's Keep, you eventually get into a game with a plane traveller over a necessary item. Essentially, you and he would take turns drawing from a custom deck of many things, try to survive the result, and whoever got the most beneficial result would win that round.

 

[Chimera]

Have only seen it used once since highschool, when we would routinely mess with each other.

That was a short-lived campaign a few years ago with a rather chaotic GM who threw it in for the second or third session. Unbelievable. Only one person drew from it. He got four good results, but in the end, didn't get half of what he had drawn because the GM didn't feel like giving him a 4th level minion (at 2nd level) and a castle.

It's one of those "This sounds really cool" things, in a sort of "Gee, I found a box of hand-grenades, this is really cool" kind of way.

 

[WayneLigon]

I know, but the OP would not have said "I'm 100,000 XP higher", he would just have said "I'm one level higher". Since this thread is about ridiculous game events, I was wondering about it.

Or he (or the DM) didn't pay attention to that. More and more, I'm convinced that 'last sentence syndrome' (where you read all but the last sentence of a spell or power and thus think it works one way - usually in an uberpowerful game-breaking way - when it really doesn't work that way at all because you failed to read every word of the instructions) is the cause of most scenarios like this.