Deck of many things


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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Ok so you have a deck of many things infront of you, how many cards do you pull? Im just trying to get a general idea of how many people normally pull. Every now and then my DM likes to throw one in to toss things up a bit, he hasn't done it in a while but I just get the feeling its coming soon... what do you do when presented with one?


too many bad stuff for me to use it. My mage got 1 one time and use it in my spellbook to keep my page. If *** hit the fan, I show it to my opponents. Maybe that will save my life. Never used it

Silver Crusade

Every time someone decides to pull one out, same answer. Five. I like to tempt fate. Thus far I've always came out on top. Too bad that luck doesn't help in things like combat.

Silver Crusade

Maximum number you can draw. Because you have to draw all your cards and usually you get enough good to make up for the bad.


Starfinder Superscriber

Maximum. No guts, not glory, no Experience Points.


karkon wrote:
Maximum number you can draw. Because you have to draw all your cards and usually you get enough good to make up for the bad.

you know the bad thing can kill you with no chance of comming back?, im curious how that can be compensated with good :P


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one... or none if possible

troll:
deck of many things = one of the worst things any one could possibly do to a game... OR the best way to ruin an otherwise great adventure

Silver Crusade

Foxdie13 wrote:
karkon wrote:
Maximum number you can draw. Because you have to draw all your cards and usually you get enough good to make up for the bad.
you know the bad thing can kill you with no chance of comming back?, im curious how that can be compensated with good :P

Because after an hour the other cards pull themselves out of the deck and you can't wishes and other effects to use to reverse bad cards.


your english is confusig me a bit but if you pull say 20 cards and get to the 7th card and its something similar to instant death... card 8-20 dont matter. you dont get them. your just dead.


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at one point my dm let me keep a deck of many things, so all the time I would be using the deck. at first I would draw2 to 3, then a few times all I could, but at the end I figured three was the best option.

3 keeps the chance of bad events small enough from going catastrophic, but also have a decent chance of getting good rewards.

As for ruining a game? any DM worth their salt would be able to handle what happens with the cards. The #1 thing a dm needs to know is that their plans are going to be thrown out the window at some point, its just that a good dm rolls with the punches.


Ever since my favorite character was thrown into the void by that deck, I've never pulled another card...


I actually had the same thing happened to my drunken monk billy bob bilabado, but it just made the game that much cooler, and I got to play a quasi undead fighter (it was the lvl 4 fighter npc card you can get from the deck, that was combined with the wraith card that was also pulled at the same time as void card)


Two or three. And I always get enmity.


Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

I was in a party once that obtained one. We never drew from it ourselves, but would offer a (single) draw from it as an enticement to NPCs we needed to influence.


I use the deck of many things frequently (as in, at least once per campaign i offer my players a chance to draw)

My players normally ask for 0-3, but i have has one player ask for 6 (he was a compulsive gambler!)

The last person who drew three got; 25,000gp magic item, a free level, and 4 wishes.

The next person was the one who drew 6. He drew, in this order; void, donjon, flames, void, donjon, flames. we decided that that was SO bad he was completely erased from all existence, not even the party remembered him!

I think that soon, my players may realise that i use the deck only when i have lost interest with the campaign after them comstantly refusing to take any mission seriously

EDIT: just decided to get my deck and draw 3 cards from it. My result was: Fool, Visier, Visier, Talons. Could be worse...


Banatine wrote:
EDIT: just decided to get my deck and draw 3 cards from it. My result was: Fool, Visier, Visier, Talons. Could be worse...

Correct me if I am wrong, but once the joker has been drawn, is it not supposed to be removed from the deck?


J3Carlisle wrote:
Banatine wrote:
EDIT: just decided to get my deck and draw 3 cards from it. My result was: Fool, Visier, Visier, Talons. Could be worse...
Correct me if I am wrong, but once the joker has been drawn, is it not supposed to be removed from the deck?

Yes, Jester and Fool are discarded once they are drawn. Jester is the one that Gives exp and allows a redraw, and fool is the one that takes it away and forces a redraw (hence why i have listed 4 cards.)


I normally pick between 3 and 4 cards, 4 if im feeling lucky. One guy I normally play with always passes and everyone of his characters always tries to convince the rest of us to do the same, im guessing there is a horror story there some where. One guy always draws 6-10, and usually he pulls good cards, looses everything then pulls 2-3 good ones at the end. But my dm doesn't put a limit on how many you can draw, you don't have to draw but on the flip side you can draw 80 if you want, knowing you would eventually get instant death and killing your character and negating the rest of your draws


ooh, oops, I thought you listed fool twice, not that it really matters anyway, just being a (bad) smartass

Silver Crusade

blue_the_wolf wrote:
your english is confusig me a bit but if you pull say 20 cards and get to the 7th card and its something similar to instant death... card 8-20 dont matter. you dont get them. your just dead.

Hah, my english was confusing. I could not even understand my own point.

The deck of many things is trouble but there are 11 good things and 11 bad things and only a couple bad things stop card draws. Two of the good things either tell you how to get out of the situation or let your avoid it.

Most DMs who put the Deck in the game are trying to wreck it anyway. So go out with a bang and you might get lucky.


well we've messed with the deck of many things once.

First guy went for 1 card I think and had all his non magical items destroyed. fortunately we hadn't given him his last treasure share from the session that he missed yet.

Next guy went for three and had all his magical items destroyed, a dread wraith appeared to kill him but not before he was dragged kicking and screaming into the void by the last card

next guy lost about 10,000 xp I cant remember the amount, was permantly cursed with -1 saves and got a castle

I drew the sun and the moon cards, I ended up with 50,000 bonus xp, a blessed book (random roll) and 3 wishes.

If I remember my wishes were wishing back an old friend alive safe and sound.
I wished for a map that would show me whatever land I wanted whenever I wanted
and lastly I wished for the tinkers troupe (our party) to be well regarded in all civilised lands.

the deck is an interesting fun item but it did do one hell of a number on us and put me a couple levels ahead


neodreamweaver wrote:


the deck is an interesting fun item but it did do one hell of a number on us and put me a couple levels ahead

thats why i say the deck ruins games.

many of the abilities either good or bad ruin games. I mean... getting dragged into the void, fighting a monster that basically insta-kills any one below level 15 or so, or being teleported to your new castle and kingdom all result in that character being removed from the group.

other cards like destroy non magical stuff, free XP or mony etc. are basically level dependent. at low level they destroy the group, at high level they can be neglegable.

I would say that most of the time 1/2 of the cards in a deck will destroy a group.


Not one. Not ever. If people insist on drawing from it, I insist they wait until I'm several miles away.

I didn't spend years getting to (nth) level just to gamble away my life/soul/hardwon prowess on an idiotic artifact designed to screw people.

But that's just me. Let me use my teleport scroll and go far, far away, and you can cuddle up to that hideous thing all you want. Call me if anyone survives.


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augury "if I draw one card we or woe?"
augury "if I draw two cards we or woe?'

repeat until answer is woe and draw one less cards.


I've never had the opportunity to pull a single card from a Deck of Many Things. I think I'd do it once, perhaps lamenting that choice afterwards. :)

/ been playing regularly since 1990. Also never had a vorpal weapon.


fictionfan wrote:

augury "if I draw one card we or woe?"

augury "if I draw two cards we or woe?'

repeat until answer is woe and draw one less cards.

You have to shuffle the deck before you draw, and between each draw, so it's impossible to know what you will get in advance like that. So the DM couldn't ever give you an answer.

Also, being an artifact of chaos, it would be really stupid if such a cheap trick could actually work.

Silver Crusade

Don't draw.

Had an epic campaign, 16th level characters adventuring on the negative energy plane, and gave them access to a deck of many things. Ended the campaign, and as a DM, can't pull punches because the luck of the draw was poor.

1st PC: Imprisoned, first card. Draw no more cards.
2nd PC: Imprisoned, first card. Draw no more cards.

By now, the others are drawing simply hoping they can free their friends because a Freedom spell is not accessible.

3rd PC: Loses all his magical gear and belongings. Being on the negative energy plane, a magic item was keeping him from the destructive energies. Begins to die and will eventually die, coming back as a wraith to attack PC #4. His wife back home realizes (because of the draw) she's really homeless instead of living in the PC's nice home.

4th PC: Loses all his nonmagical items, fights death. Is a cleric, so now he has limited ability to cast spells since his nonmagical holy symbol went away, and he's alone. The denizens of the tower they're in soon make short work of him.

Ugh.

On the other hand, in an older campaign, the PCs didn't draw one serious negative card and came out richer and wiser. Still, this deck can end your game with some bad luck.


I just received my new deck of many things from the Lance Lindley Kickstarter campaign. It's great. The artwork is really good, the box is a big so I can add more cards from other decks, and the quality of the cards is high. Thanks guys for doing a great job and delivering as you promised.

My favorite is the wizard with his extra long twin tweed-ed beard and his tattooed head. I can't wait to use this in my campaign.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1997853065/deck-of-many-things


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52. Because if my GM wants to break the game bad enough to put in a DoMT, I might as well play along and let my character die.

I have NEVER had an overall positive experience for the whole party result from introducing this item. Some PLAYERS got out lucky, but they were not as happy as those who were screwed were ticked off.


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Personally I am more of a fan of the Rod of Wonder for hilarity to ensue...

Combine a Rod of Wonder with a Wild mage arcehtyped wizard.... now THAT gets funny...


I've had a guy in a game I ran, draw 22 cards.. he ended up with only 7 "bad" draws, none of which were instant death..


Just went and pulled some cards to see what I got.

Fates, Vizier, Fates.

I can deal with that.


Just curious, do you guys use physical decks or the online generators? I just picked up the Analog Games one just for the heck of it. Has not arrived yet so I cannot really comment on it yet.


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I wouldn't draw a card from the damn thing if you paid me.


All of them, as others have said a few good can counter the few bad.

By the way, my experience is that you should never drop one in a game. I have never seen a campaign survive more than three sessions after one entered the game, and this is over 10+ games with at least 7 GM's (one of them being myself). Usually someone gets insanely lucky and is several levels, items and wishes ahead of the party, someone dies, etc., etc.


I dont know :) it depends on the character. I myself am too chaotic that I wouldnt draw it (but you betch ya that my characters would!)

Instead, i would rather read from The Codex of Infinite Planes.
Now THAT has some messed up stuff.. (and a few things that just made me cringe... Imagine it it allowed normal people the ability to activate it and its catastrophies? That would make for an interesting movie! Or game mod (thinking Skyrim?))


The Codex of Infinite Planes is priceless :P

best way to tease an over eager mage xD

Silver Crusade

PIXIE DUST wrote:

The Codex of Infinite Planes is priceless :P

best way to tease an over eager mage xD

Many years ago my Arch Mage PC got hold of this awful cursed item. The villain from whom he confiscated had just used it to open a gate from inside an active volcano to just above the center of a PC's home village. It was horrible.

My PC wanted to dispose of the thing, but it was impossible. Before he could get rid of it, the curse (from the original 1st edition writeup) took effect and he became the new GMPC BBBEG.

My new character helped the remaining group take down my previous character. The other Archmage in the group finally got him with the Eye of Vecna's death ray. Only time I've ever helped slay my own character.


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Banatine wrote:
fictionfan wrote:

augury "if I draw one card we or woe?"

augury "if I draw two cards we or woe?'

repeat until answer is woe and draw one less cards.

You have to shuffle the deck before you draw, and between each draw, so it's impossible to know what you will get in advance like that. So the DM couldn't ever give you an answer.

Also, being an artifact of chaos, it would be really stupid if such a cheap trick could actually work.

It works perfectly, since Augury gives you an accurate reading of the future.

The GM looks at the first card, and writes it down, since you WILL draw it, because accurate precognition. Continue for as many cards as needed.


I would draw as many as allowed.. but i dont play pFS. so if I die, then I can rejoin as a different character of the same level..

Shadow Lodge

Just sell it to some poor, unsuspecting commoner, in exchange for his last cow....:p

Or more seriously, depending on the character, I'd either keep drawing until I was told to stop or was physically detained(by a fight...or my limbs spontaneously becoming broccoli...or getting thrown into the semi-elemental plane of spaghetti...etc), or I would put my share in a bag for later studying, or I would sell it for pretty much anything. Different characters have different opinions on luck and knowledge.


Both my campaigns running have encountered a Deck of Many Things.
In both cases it was a magical Gaming Hall (essentially a super major artifact).
1 Party was 8th and the other 9th I think.
The DoMT was 1 of 3 games they could play. It was Blackjack 52 card deck + 2 jokers and if the card you drew as part of your Blackjack hand was a DoMT card irt had the effect. I'm playing with a limited supply of Hero points (only gained for Campaign high points, not for gaining levels) and said for 2 hero pts you could cancel a card and draw another instead.

Both party's enjoyed it. Neither campaign ended because of it.

Point to remember is that you can't gain more than 1 level in a sessions. So it can't make 1 player several levels higher than another.
1 group spent hero points to avoid Void and Imprisonment.
The other group someone had to use Fate to avoid 2 bad but not fatal cards.


Stephen Ede wrote:
Point to remember is that you can't gain more than 1 level in a sessions. So it can't make 1 player several levels higher than another.

Is this a real rule or one of those assumed rules, because I'm not finding it?


Under A Bleeding Sun wrote:
Stephen Ede wrote:
Point to remember is that you can't gain more than 1 level in a sessions. So it can't make 1 player several levels higher than another.
Is this a real rule or one of those assumed rules, because I'm not finding it?

No, it's a rule from 2E. (Not sure about 3E.) It is, however, outside the norm unless the deck is involved.


We had a fun start to a mini-campaign once. I think we were 8th level, with minimal gear. We were all required to pull from the deck at start. Obviously a real Killer card would just mean a new PC, so not too bad. That was fun.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Zhayne wrote:
Banatine wrote:
fictionfan wrote:

augury "if I draw one card we or woe?"

augury "if I draw two cards we or woe?'

repeat until answer is woe and draw one less cards.

You have to shuffle the deck before you draw, and between each draw, so it's impossible to know what you will get in advance like that. So the DM couldn't ever give you an answer.

Also, being an artifact of chaos, it would be really stupid if such a cheap trick could actually work.

It works perfectly, since augury gives you an accurate reading of the future.

The GM looks at the first card, and writes it down, since you WILL draw it, because accurate precognition. Continue for as many cards as needed.

From the description of Augury in the PRD (bolding mine):

Weal (if the action will probably bring good results).
Woe (for bad results).
Weal and woe (for both).
Nothing (for actions that don't have especially good or bad results).

Just like the GM doesn't roll the combat with the trolls in the cave to determine the results of the augury, there's no pre-drawing that determines the result at the time of casting. Any augury about the deck of many things would result in weal and woe.


I give it 2-5 pulls.

I have even tempted fate by tricking a spectral town guard of a ghost city into pulling a card. They pulled the Skull card.
Suddenly the group of living adventurers wandering around a mostly hostile ghost town looting and looking for the McGuffin became much easier.

I have a question though? What happens if a familiar draws the sun card "Grants 50k xp and a wondrous item?"

Does nothing happen?
Does the Wizard master get it?
Does it get class levels?
Does it become a class leveled and become a Cohort?

The wizard is level 4 and the familiar grabbed from the deck on its own.


Either none or the maximum cards allowed, and yes i agree that it's a campaign killer although i was (once) in a campaign that survived the DoMT; it killed the session* but the campaign survived.

*it killed the session because one of the players decided to whine and pout after his character lost his soul even though we all agreed to a no pouting and whinning deal before we drawed.

Sovereign Court

I would draw the most, I love testing my luck. To quote a great man, never tell me the odds.

I've only encountered the deck once, in a 4e Lvl8-11 adventure a couple years ago. The adventure involved us finding 4 or 5 cards from it throughout the adventure. The DM didn't like it when he woke from a sleep I caused with my card, and after failing his save I said "OK he dies". The target of the card either passed his save and took 10d10 damage, or failed and died... the DM didn't like that lol.


I see guy pull 13 cards from it and make it out with nothing but bonus stuff. The pathfinder version a lot of the cards go back in the deck after being pulled. He keep draw a lot of the avoidance cards in the deck. would use them when pulled a bad card or before.

I pulled 5 my self before from harrowing version of it. Only 2 bad things happen. I end up 2 levels higher, and intelligent magic item and 2 bad things where not all that bad immunity to and element with vulnerable to another and I was always considers flanked and crits where auto confirmed. both where easy enough to over compensate for. via fortification armor, cloak of minor displacement and that helmet that add +1 luck bonus to ac and negates one critical a day. Which I all planing on getting anyway.

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