Tarot as an At-Will

[ardentmoth]

Greetings. It's been a while.

I'm looking for advice and criticism on the following, not alternatives, and look forward to hearing from you all.
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Minor Arcana:

This is taken as a feat.
[attribute-mod] refers to the attribute chosen when the feat is taken.

As a free action, the player draws cards from the deck until a damage card has been drawn. As an at-will standard action, an attack can be performed using these drawn cards, or they can be held until an opportune time. As an at-will minor action, the hand can be discarded. They auto-hit and cannot crit. Decks are ranged weapons with a base range of 40 feet (eight squares), and the Minor Arcana can be used as a basic ranged attack.


Values 1-10:
Level 1: damage points correspond to the face-value (1-10)
Level 11: damage is twice face value (2-20)
Level 21: damage is three times face value (3-30)


Swords:
fire
necrotic (half damage, on-going 'til end of next turn)

Wands:
psychic
radiant (half damage, on-going 'til end of next turn)

Cups:
cold
healing (healing may target neutral or friendly only, half damage on-going 'til end of next turn)

Pentacles:
force
poison (half damage, on-going 'til end of next turn)



Page/Jack:
Add burst 1 of alternate damage type [for example, if it's a 7 of Cups and the player wishes to heal a target that is surrounded by enemies, thanks to the Page card, the target gets healed 3 (twice) and all enemies around it take 7 cold damage.]

Knight:
Damage bonus of [attribute-mod]

Queen:
Push [attribute-mod]

King:
Prone and Immobilize (save ends both) until the end of next turn.

Example of gameplay: Steve draws a Queen, then because it is a face-card, draws another card revealing a 5 of Wands. Steve then decides to attack a target with radiant damage, dealing 2 now and 2 at the start of that target's turn, and pushing the target 5, which is his INT mod.









Major Arcana:

Take a feat to use the Major Arcana.
Player must already have the Minor Arcana feat.
[attribute-mod] refers to the attribute chosen when the feat is taken.

As a free action after an extended rest, a Major Arcana card can be drawn. As a minor action the card can be activated, providing the character with the bonus or attributes described. It is a free action to sustain this bonus until another Major Arcana card is drawn, and only one Major Arcana card can be active at a time. All bonuses are feat bonuses, but also stack with other feat bonuses. The feat can be taken twice, allowing a maximum of two Major Arcana bonuses to be active at any given time.

0 The Fool
+1 to Ref/Fort/Will, +3 Athletics

1 The Magician
+3 Arcana, associated rituals performed in half the time

2 The High Priestess
If an attack would put you at or below 0 health, you take half of that damage. The other half is taken by your attacker as radiant damage. The rest of the attack and any effects are resolved normally.

3 The Empress
+3 Perception, and you know one additional language of your choice.

4 The Emperor
+2 Intimidate, summoned creatures gain [attribute mod] to their AC

5 The Hierophant
+3 Religion, associated rituals performed in half the time

6 The Lovers
+3 Diplomacy, +4 attack bonus with charm/enchantment spells

7 The Chariot
+2 speed, does not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving

8 Justice
Once per day as a free action you share hit-points with a target, each of your totals becoming half of the combined total rounded down (half of any remainder taken as temporary HP until the end of the player's next turn). [For example: Player starts with 50/100 and target has 200/200, target becomes 125/200 and player 100/100 with 37 temporary until end of his next turn].

9 The Hermit
The first time you receive damage per encounter you remove yourself from the battlefield as an immediate interrupt, returning within 3 squares of that position at the beginning of your next turn.

10 Wheel of Fortune
Re-roll a d20 once per encounter, taking the new result even if it's worse.

11 Strength
When you take damage, you take half immediately, and half at the start of your next turn.

12 The Hanged Man
You have a -2 to escape checks for grabs, ensnarement, and traps which immobilize, but +3 to will.

13 Death
Once per day, you command a creature to die as a standard action. [attribute-mod] vs. will, no save.

14 Temperance
You are immune to poison, but have -2 fort.

15 The Devil
You are immune to fire damage, but have -2 will.

16 The Tower
Regain the use of a Second Wind or an Action Point, once per day.

17 The Star
Any radiant damage you deal is increased by [attribute mod], and you remove one non-wands suit from your Minor Arcana deck.

18 The Moon
Any healing you perform is increased by [attribute mod], and you remove one non-cups suit from your Minor Arcana deck.

19 The Sun
Any fire damage you deal is increased by [attribute mod], and you remove one non-swords suit from your Minor Arcana deck.

20 Judgment
+3 Insight, and damage dealt to marked or cursed targets increases by 1 die per tier.

21 The World
Any time you hit with a force-damage attack, you gain [attribute-mod] to your AC until the end of your next turn. Remove one non-pentacles suit from your deck.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Very interesting idea, if somewhat complicated.

The issue I would have with a system like this is that there is so much material here, that it would crowd out your regular class options. This might be a good attack method for an entire Essentials-style class.

 

[herrozerro]

I really like this idea, and I agree with the poster above its a bit wordy, perhaps a better formatted table might work better.

I think a theme or a full class could be built around this.

 

[herrozerro]

Just a quick question, are you meaning that Cups is always neutral or Feiendly? Even the cold Damage effect?

 

[the Jester]

Wow does this seem like it would slow gameplay down. Especially when you might end up with a piddly 2 points of damage for your trouble, it doesn't look very good to me. Then again, you could get an at-will immobilize and prone, which is far too good imho.

 

[herrozerro]

Wow does this seem like it would slow gameplay down. Especially when you might end up with a piddly 2 points of damage for your trouble, it doesn't look very good to me. Then again, you could get an at-will immobilize and prone, which is far too good imho.

I have to disagree. As a free action it could be used to draw cards off your turn and get it ready, so you could not worry about it once its your turn.

At-will prone comes in at least 2 class atwills as an on hit ability, and at least 3 more on secondary attack or augment.

 

[ardentmoth]

Could be better as a class: I agree, it really could. It certainly does seem to make a better class mechanic than a feat, but I also wanted to be allow various classes to use it: a thrown-weapon specialist, a bard, a warlock, etc.--these could all be easily justifiable choices.

There's alot of material here, or it looks wordy: I agree to this as well. I haven't gotten around to publishing a nice chart yet, but I can do so if need be. Actually, if someone else were to get antsy about it not being better tabulated or tabled, I would greatly appreciate a hand! As for being so massive that it crowds out class abilities--maybe. I would suggest that the "material" actually consists primarily of rules for interpreting card draws--so that the only "addition" to the class is the cards. If a deck of cards is class-ability crowding, what about the rules for ranged combat, or teleportation? It is, though, "entirely new", so I see where you're coming from.

Might make a good theme: That's true, it probably could. "I picked up the basics of a card game when I was a kid--then i got way, way to good at it...it's as if the cards took on a life of their own" or some such.

Would slow gameplay down: It could, but only in the same way that a player who doesn't pay attention to the table would slow it down. "Oh, it's my turn? Ok...hmm. What will I do...." Since it is a free action to draw, it can be done at the end of the turn, readying it for the next turn.

A wide disparity of damage and effect possibilities: Indeed. You might say it's the luck of the draw that makes this balanced enough to consider viable.

Thanks, guys! I've made some minor changes, one sec and I'll edit the OP.

 

[The Halfling]

Something like this was already done: Huxtropy

The Major Arcana would need to be done, but I plan on using this as the basis for a trokka deck for a Ravenloft 4e campaign I want to run.

 

[Saeviomagy]

It seems incredibly powerful for a feat, considering you can just keep minor-action ditching your hand until you get something good. Similarly one feat for "auto-kill a creature per day" (which is what every character who takes the feat will eventually get) is bananas.

From a power point of view, it would be hard to justify not taking, while at the same time not matching the flavor of most characters at all.

IMO, you need to change it to "standard action to draw and use" on both decks, with no choice about whether you use or don't use the associated card and no up-front knowledge. I'd recommend adding some inconvenient side-effects to the major arcana to balance out the extremely good possible effects. Not enough to make the deck bad (or even neutral) to use, just to throw a spanner in the works every so often.

Incidentally, this also gives you room to add more feats, such as a feat which lets you put aside a single card for use in a later hand, or a feat that lets you redraw a hand once per day. Or a feat that lets you peek at the top card of the deck. Or a feat which lets you use your hand on your next standard action instead of on the current one.