D&D 5E Touch of Class - Cardcaster Question

[Caleb Medeiros]

So I've been looking a lot at the Cardcaster class and it just seems to be... lacking. The biggest issue that stands out to me is how limiting the Major Arcana plays are. For a class that revolves entirely around playing cards, only being able to play 8 tops feels very low. While they do get some high level options to give more plays, like Card Mastery and Signature Card, it comes too late and still doesn't really feel like enough. If the class had other things to offer, like how Warlocks have very few spells but have Eldritch Blast and invocations to rely on, then I could understand. However every time I've tried running a Cardcaster in games, they get stuck throwing out cantrips on repeat after just a few battles; meanwhile the Wizards, Sorcerers, and Clerics of the party still have plenty of spells to spare.

Has anybody else come across this problem? Does anyone know of anything that could be done to fix it? Perhaps making the plays available reload on a short rest, while still keeping the discard pile separate until a long rest? Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[TwoSix]

It's tough, because being able to nova with 8 5th level slots is pretty powerful. The relative scarcity of the spell slots and the random access to the most powerful spells is necessary as a balance consideration.

That being said, a 10th level caster only has 15 slots; once the Card Caster and other full caster have burned 8 slots, the full caster is relying on 1st and 2nd level spells, not the optimal position to be in. So the divergence isn't quite as large as it could be.

If you do feel the need to give them more endurance, I would give them the ability to play one card from their hand of type 0-V for free at 3rd level, once per short rest. Upgrade it to 0-VII at 5th level, twice per short rest at 7th level, and 0-IX cards at 9th level. None of these plays would benefit from arcane surge. So a free 1/SR 1st level spell at 3, 2nd level spells at 5, 2 per short rest at 7, and 3rd level spells at 9.

 

[Caleb Medeiros]

That feels like a pretty safe fix; you have a good point about the power from Arcana Surge. I still feel like that would cause the class to fall out at higher levels though. At level 20, a regular caster would have access to 9 slots of 5th level or higher, while the Cardcaster only has 8. I don't think they'd need any more low level slots from that extra ability you mentioned, but what if the progression of major arcana plays didn't stop at 8? Either it could continue increasing every other level for an end result of 13 5th level spell slots, or it could slow down to every three levels for a total of 11 5th level spell slots.