Deck of Many Things - Broken?


Magic Items


I don't mind the Deck of Many Things having some outstanding ablities and negative effects, but isn't being granted 50,000XP a bit too much? I believe this is a holdover from 2nd Edition. Please fix.

Are there other effects on this item people feel could use tweaking?

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Eric Tillemans wrote:

I don't mind the Deck of Many Things having some outstanding ablities and negative effects, but isn't being granted 50,000XP a bit too much? I believe this is a holdover from 2nd Edition. Please fix.

Are there other effects on this item people feel could use tweaking?

In 3.5 that would be huge. In PRPG, it's not so much actually. If you've just hit 12th level for instance, it takes either 145000/95000/65000 xp to advance to 13th level depending on if you're using the fast/medium/slow progression. At low levels, it is a lot, but by the time characters are likely to encounter a DoMT, it's not so bad.

Because there are 3 different advancement tracks, this effect should indicate how much XP is granted under each track. It could be simpler to say that they advance to the next level, or something like that.


Taking a good, hard look at the XP award will give PF a chance to give out different XP amounts depending on the level advancement table being used. I heartily recommend reviewing the XP awards for the Deck of Many Things.

Paizo Employee Director of Game Design

Good catch folks.. I will take a look at this ability. It needs a slight rework to match the new XP system.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing


Good catch indeed - but one thing I wouldn't want to see is the depowering of the Deck of Many Things. It is a minor artifact after all.

Shadow Lodge

Yeah, but there is a 50% chance something really bad happens, and 2 chances at sudden, instant, and even immidiate death.;)
No really, it is a wild card out there. and i dont think the cost should be important. It should only be obtainable through killing someone who has it. Come on. who is gonna let the possiblilty of three free wishes just sit around there shop? curiosity would kill them sooner or later.


Quite frankly, I was always amazed that WotC never caught the XP problem and put out errata. It always looked like an obvious mistake to me.


I don't see it as broken in any way, not even with the 50,000 XP card. This is an artifact (albeit a minor one) that is all about taking the ultimate gamble with your life and sometimes the lives of your party members. You either win big or lose big.

Plus with the fact that this is a minor artifact, you can't just buy one at the local magic shop. Our group has run into a few of these in our 10+ years together gaming. We were always over 10th level, and it was an integral part of the campaign that we had to find it. Otherwise, I have never come across a deck in any other game.

In fact, I was in a game that involved quite a bit of gambling when a party member asked if we could try to find a deck. The DM flat out denied it saying that it was too powerful and it could throw a big wrench into the game and our plans that we had been working on for a couple levels. When we argued, he supported his denial with this:

"It's an artifact. Most artifacts are rumors and don't really exist. Even if it does, you'd have to find the one and only deck in all existence."

I say leave it as is.


The problem with the 50,000 XP is it's lifted directly from 1e/2e without being revised for the XP tables. In 2e, for example, that 50,000 XP is generally less than 1 level's worth of advancement after 7th level. Contrast to 3.5 in which that 50,000 XP is at least 2 levels, even by the time you hit 18th or more. In 3.5, compared to previous editions, that amounts to being seriously broken.

It's not as big a problem in PF with the longer tables, but should still be adjusted and customized for each of the XP progressions in the game so it has the same net effect for the character regardless of the progression in effect.


Jason Bulmahn wrote:

Good catch folks.. I will take a look at this ability. It needs a slight rework to match the new XP system.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Oh leave it - it was 50K in 1st with multiplicative xp, and 50k in 3rd with additive.

The only difference is in 1st it was worth a minimum of 1/7th of a level. Now that can drop lower eventually, but not until much much later.

The Exchange

JoelF847 wrote:

Because there are 3 different advancement tracks, this effect should indicate how much XP is granted under each track. It could be simpler to say that they advance to the next level, or something like that.

I like simple. Bump up from level N to half way between N+1 and N+2.

However, this will, of course, lead people to leave drawing cards until they have just gained a level...


Roman wrote:
It is a minor artifact after all.

Exactly. And artifacts cannot be broken. Pun intended! It's something that is completely in the GM's hand's. Basically a plot device. If the GM wants to have an artifact that quadruples the crit range of any weapon the wielder carries and makes all crits deal x10 damage, that's okay.

Liberty's Edge

KaeYoss wrote:
If the GM wants to have an artifact that quadruples the crit range of any weapon the wielder carries and makes all crits deal x10 damage, that's okay.

Oh, I'll take 3 of those please... Um... Make it 4, our wizard can use one for a back up weapon... :)

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