The problem with this Deck is that it actually gets you nothing. Seriously, none of the retrainings help you at all unless you've made some very bad choices in your character's life, and most of them just mung your character until no good. While the old Deck of Many Things would frequently flat-out kill you, there was at least a reason that anyone in their right mind would draw a card from it.
Variant Deck of Many Things
- Thread starter Glyfair
- Start date
Glyfair
Explorer
Imban said:
I think that's a bit strong that they made bad choices. Yes, it's an option. However, there are many other reasons for character rebuildling. Maybe you want to use some new options, maybe you just changed your mind about how you want the character to be, etc.
Still, you are basically right. The only character getting anything out of this deck is one that wants to rebuild, without going through the process in the PHB II. Even then, he has to draw cards from the deck hoping to get the choices he wants to use.
If I used this deck as written, I would use the option mentioned to place the individual cards where the PC could find them.
Here's my variant, that I came up with my lonesome self. Note that I posted this a few months ago in another thread, so I didn't steal it from that guy, I -am- that guy.
First of, the reason. I had noticed that my players had too much extra cash laying around.
And, for plot reasons, they were headed for the City of Brass, to trade with a Djinni merchant there for a piece of a sword. I set up the deal so each character had to "buy" a minimum of one draw from the Djinn's deck, at 1000 GP a card. They were free to buy more, but as usual with the deck, they had to decide how many draws they wanted before drawing.
In comes my variant. Since this was the Djinn's personal deck, he had ways to "fix" the worse draws from the deck. For a price, of course...
It worked out really well. As expected, a player or two gained somewhat minor advantages. And the group as a whole were drained of their extra cash (including -all- of the gems/whatever one of the players got as a result of a draw). And my players were happy. Yay.
First of, the reason. I had noticed that my players had too much extra cash laying around.
And, for plot reasons, they were headed for the City of Brass, to trade with a Djinni merchant there for a piece of a sword. I set up the deal so each character had to "buy" a minimum of one draw from the Djinn's deck, at 1000 GP a card. They were free to buy more, but as usual with the deck, they had to decide how many draws they wanted before drawing.
In comes my variant. Since this was the Djinn's personal deck, he had ways to "fix" the worse draws from the deck. For a price, of course...
It worked out really well. As expected, a player or two gained somewhat minor advantages. And the group as a whole were drained of their extra cash (including -all- of the gems/whatever one of the players got as a result of a draw). And my players were happy. Yay.
lukelightning
First Post
These cards don't fit my concept of "rebuilding." For rebuilding you make changes to your character with a conscious plan. The deck, on the other hand, just afflicts you with a random change.
Player: "I'm having problems with my ranger; I specialized in bows but I like melee combat better, can I switch to being a TWF ranger?"
DM: "Sure, we can rebuild your character with this deck. Pick a card!"
Player draws "The Clumsy One" and loses 4 points of dexterity, then "the Small Folk" becoming a halfling (now his weapons and armor are too big), and finally "The Speaker" (swap some languages, no biggie).
Hooray! Wasn't that fun? Instead of playing a character that didn't fit his style, he now has a sickly halfling who has to buy a bunch of new items and can speak French. Woo hoo!
Player: "I'm having problems with my ranger; I specialized in bows but I like melee combat better, can I switch to being a TWF ranger?"
DM: "Sure, we can rebuild your character with this deck. Pick a card!"
Player draws "The Clumsy One" and loses 4 points of dexterity, then "the Small Folk" becoming a halfling (now his weapons and armor are too big), and finally "The Speaker" (swap some languages, no biggie).
Hooray! Wasn't that fun? Instead of playing a character that didn't fit his style, he now has a sickly halfling who has to buy a bunch of new items and can speak French. Woo hoo!
zypherillius
First Post
variant deck of many things
you could always cast a wish with a higher caster level than the deck and wish out all the bad things
then everybody wins.
you could always cast a wish with a higher caster level than the deck and wish out all the bad things
then everybody wins.Glyfair said:
Yeah, but they're not going to actually benefit at all. Seriously, for an example, I have a greatsword-wielding Paladin 3/Fighter 9 here who wants to seek a new path in life. So he decides to draw 3 cards from the deck. Using their random draw, I get...
Innate Magic. Well, I don't qualify for that, so I redraw.
The Zealot. Okay, so I lose 4 ranks from one of my crappy Fighter skills and gain 2 ranks of Knowledge (religion), since it's cross-class.
The Weakling. Okay, so I lose 4 points of Strength (um...), dropping it from 18 to 14. This nets me 7 point buy points, which I use to bump my Constitution from 16 to 18 and, on a whim, my Dexterity from 13 to 14.
The Moon. Alright, I'm a werebear now. I need to buy off my 6 racial HD and +3 LA now, which drops me to being a 3rd-level Paladin that goes around as a giant monster with 30 Strength. Well, I guess that one IS pretty interesting.
If I hadn't drawn the Moon, though...
The Ranger's Dilemma. I'm not a Ranger, so I redraw.
Saving Grace. I don't have any of the saving throw bonus feats, so I redraw.
The Vigilant. I never really cared about Knowledge (religion) and thought it was sorta lame that I was forced to take it, so I retrain the ranks of that into Spot.
Alright, you might be able to argue that turning into a werebear constitutes an interesting new path in my character's life, but if I hadn't, I would have lost Strength (my primary attribute for using my weapon!) and gained some random skill ranks in skills I don't care about, either because I was a dumb fighter (Knowledge (religion)) or because having a +2 to Spot checks helps very little at character level 12.
Maybe I could have built some roleplaying around my sudden new interest in religion, but for the most part instead of making my character different, the Deck very simply made him worse.
lukelightning
First Post
If you're lucky you can start off as a half-elf rogue and end up a half-fiend werebear vampire rogue. Woo hoo!
Remathilis
Legend
Ok, lets try this.
12th level rogue/5th level thief acrobat, elf, chaotic good.
15/21/14/14/10/14
3 draws
GO!
The Ultimate Weapon: Dump Mobility for Weapon Focus: Short Sword
The Mage's Dilemma: Not a spellcaster. Draw again.
The Spellcrafter: Hmm... dump 4 ranks in gather info, add 2 in spellcraft
Holy Light: Rebuild as celestial or half-celestial. I choose celestial. I lose 2 levels of rogue, and gain resistance to acid/cold/electrisity, SR 20, DR 10/Magic, Smite +15, and darkvision.
While I woulda been abit disapointed, I think I got lucky.
12th level rogue/5th level thief acrobat, elf, chaotic good.
15/21/14/14/10/14
3 draws
GO!
The Ultimate Weapon: Dump Mobility for Weapon Focus: Short Sword
The Mage's Dilemma: Not a spellcaster. Draw again.
The Spellcrafter: Hmm... dump 4 ranks in gather info, add 2 in spellcraft
Holy Light: Rebuild as celestial or half-celestial. I choose celestial. I lose 2 levels of rogue, and gain resistance to acid/cold/electrisity, SR 20, DR 10/Magic, Smite +15, and darkvision.
While I woulda been abit disapointed, I think I got lucky.
Michael Silverbane
Adventurer
I don't know that I'd much like randomly drawing from this particular deck of many things... But I do like the idea of single cards as treasure, or even easily obtainable purchasable or side-quest items. Need to rebuild your Int into something else? Go do a favor for Fred the Escorcellator and he'll fix you right up... And so on.
Later
silver
Later
silver
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