I'm planning an NPC for an upcoming campaign set in Exandria, and could use some advice:
For those that followed the first CR campaign, you might remember Grog's use of the deck of many things. In one instance he convinces a drunkard to pull a card, and the drunkard gets two wishes out of it. The first he uses immediately to become a "powerful lord of the quadroads", the second wish is never discussed. Eventually the party gives the deck of many things away to be locked up forever beneath the platinum sanctuary.
I would like to build out this drunkard-now-lord (or a descendant) as an NPC, and also get the DOMT out of the vault and back in play. The idea being that the drunk used the second wish to obtain it (something along the lines of wishing for the source of Strongjaw the Kingmaker's power), then drew a card that ultimately resulted in his demise (or at least complicated his life enough to serve as a good plot hook).
Here are my questions:
I know I can do whatever I want as DM, but I'm wondering if there's something notable about the DOMT that might prevent me from using it this way (e.g. you can't wish for more wishes or something)
Assuming he can wish himself the DOMT: What suggestions would you have for the next card(s) he draws that ultimately cause his downfall?
How might the party get pulled into some sort of business with this man (or his family) as a result of what happened?
You're all awesome, I look forward to any suggestions you might have for me!
I do not follow Critical Role, so it is possible my comment might conflict with their campaign. Still, I will try to answer your questions as best as possible without that knowledge .
Question 1:
I think the limitations are more on the Wish Spell than on the Deck of Many Things itself. Wish is a case where the "DM can do anything the DM wants" is written explicitly into the operation of how the spell is cast:
You might be able to achieve something beyond the scope of the above examples. State your wish to the GM as precisely as possible. The GM has great latitude in ruling what occurs in such an instance; the greater the wish, the greater the likelihood that something goes wrong.
With Wish giving you the explicit ability to choose the limitations, there is no issue other than what you make of it (and the consequences for making such a wish, which are described in the spell itself). As DM, you can also decide (and the spell sort of encourages you) to add an ironic consequence to the Wish--in this case, the person wished for the Deck of Many things and received it, but the ironic side is he drew cards that punished, rather than helped, him.
Question 2:
Start by drawing the Fool, which causes you to loose 10,000 XP and forces you to draw from the deck again.
Second, draw The Idiot, which reduces the individual's intelligence by 1d4+1. Naturally, still under the monkey paw effect of the wish, the individual maximizes this effect, loosing 5 intelligence. The Idiot gives the drawer the option of drawing another card. With their intelligence score now being 5 points lower than it was, they are stupid enough to think "I can win this all back!" so they draw again.
You have a lot of options for the third and final card they would draw as part of this action.
The Donjon traps them in suspended animation and hides them away from all forms of magical detection, other than a Wish spell. This has the advantage of ironically tying in the "Wish" element, but also removes the NPC from the game until discovered, so it might not work so well with what you want to do.
The Euryale puts a -2 penalty on all saves that only a god can remove--something that might lead the person to disaster as casters take advantage of him with mind-magic.
The Fates allow you to erase something that once happened to you--under the effect of the Idiot, the person might not think through the consequences of what they choose to erase and do something that drastically effects their life for the worse.
Flames and Rogue are both similar, causing something--a powerful devil or an NPC chosen by the DM--to become hostile toward the drawer.
Key gives them a powerful artifact or magical item--which very easily could be cursed or something that otherwise negatively effects the drawer.
Or, if you want exactly what you are looking for, Ruin causes you to lose all your wealth, items, property, businesses, etc. It's exactly what you are looking for, though I still listed the others in case you wanted to set something else up through any of those options.
Question 3:
It depends on what option you chose for the third card. Perhaps they have to rescue the man from suspended animation. Or find a way to defeat the devil/NPC hunting the person and the person's descendants. Or they come across a beggar who says he was once a lord/who says his ancestor was once a lord. Each of the above cards give you some way you can curse the person and/or his descendants.
To expand on whatCaerwyn_Glyndwrsaid, you could actually have the Rogue card cause the players to become compelled to try and kill the noble. All the players have a good reason to want to see the noble dead - have them come up with them themselves. Perhaps they think he is evil, or he killed a family member.
Then, when they finally do kill him, the memories fade, for they were nothing but the magic of the deck.
Another take: What if he just strong-armed (financially, politically, physically, whatever suits you) the platinum sanctuary to get the deck? He's a man of influence and power who wants more, so he blackmailed someone in the platinum sanctuary to give him the deck. The higher ups found out, and now they're after him. The party is asked to chase him down and recover the artifact, and they aren't told what it is.
You can have him pull whatever cards you want, or maybe he hasn't pulled any yet because he's trying to lie low or get away. It can be a simple recovery mission.
This is all great stuff. I hadn't considered the fact that a man of means and influence might not need a wish spell to get their hands on the deck, although I might still have them use it for this purpose because then it solves the problem of having a second wish available to solve whatever problem they have from the next card they draw.
I LOVE the idea that drawing Flames or Rogue makes a possible plot hook for the party to intervene, and Rogue in particular might be useful for an interesting plot twist!
As always, you DMs are incredibly helpful. Thank you!
The drunk could have used the second wish to "be successful at everything he attempts". This would put them in position to become an immensely powerful BBEG, stealing the deck back "because they wanted to", drawing the right cards "because they wanted to", that sort of thing. The party would not be able t otake them on directly, and only by catching them entirely off-guard could the hurt them - otherwise if they want to dodge the monks flurry of blows, they will succeed!
The party could be sent to find the missing wish card, then have to steal the whole deck to make it work, then try to pull it to wish away his power. Just remove the really, really bad results like the one where they are locked away, those would detract from the fun!
By all means incorporate the deck into a plot line for the NPC. However, I would strongly recommend NOT giving the deck to your players. I have witnessed more games implode from the effect of the Deck of Many Things than from any other single element in all of D&D. It seems so cool and random at first but it is utterly game destroying unless folks don't mind rolling up new characters.
Why? Some folks will get lucky and become either extremely wealthy or powerful or both. On the other hand, some folks will likely die or suffer a really nasty, debilitating and not fun side effect. Unless you have an exceptional group of players, the ones with their characters destroyed will not be too happy to play them any more, the ones who are suddenly powerful may trivialize encounters for everyone else in the group.
The bottom line is that a deck of many things USED by the players is a gaming disaster waiting to happen. Even in your critical role story, it doesn't sound like they used it themselves, they got an NPC to draw a card which worked out well for him and then made sure that magic item was buried deep where it belongs :)
P.S. Some of the other posts suggest interesting plots that can develop from the draw of one card - these are true. However, when the magic item gets into the hands of the players, the DM no longer controls how many cards will be drawn or by whom. This leaves the DM with the difficulty of what to leave in the deck - if there are only good cards then the power level of the game takes a quantum jump up - if there are any bad cards then someone will be unhappy. The randomness, uneven distribution and inability of the DM to control the situation in terms of how many cards are drawn by how many characters will again be significant issue even if the DM tries to stack the deck.
IMO it is well within the power and spirit of a wish for it to give you a DoMT, after all giving you the means of your own down fall would seem appropriate.
I would be tempted to have them draw Rogue and earn the players hostility, be interesting for them to find out the only reason they hate this NPC is a card, reversal of the normal effect.
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Howdy DMs,
I'm planning an NPC for an upcoming campaign set in Exandria, and could use some advice:
For those that followed the first CR campaign, you might remember Grog's use of the deck of many things. In one instance he convinces a drunkard to pull a card, and the drunkard gets two wishes out of it. The first he uses immediately to become a "powerful lord of the quadroads", the second wish is never discussed. Eventually the party gives the deck of many things away to be locked up forever beneath the platinum sanctuary.
I would like to build out this drunkard-now-lord (or a descendant) as an NPC, and also get the DOMT out of the vault and back in play. The idea being that the drunk used the second wish to obtain it (something along the lines of wishing for the source of Strongjaw the Kingmaker's power), then drew a card that ultimately resulted in his demise (or at least complicated his life enough to serve as a good plot hook).
Here are my questions:
You're all awesome, I look forward to any suggestions you might have for me!
I do not follow Critical Role, so it is possible my comment might conflict with their campaign. Still, I will try to answer your questions as best as possible without that knowledge .
Question 1:
I think the limitations are more on the Wish Spell than on the Deck of Many Things itself. Wish is a case where the "DM can do anything the DM wants" is written explicitly into the operation of how the spell is cast:
With Wish giving you the explicit ability to choose the limitations, there is no issue other than what you make of it (and the consequences for making such a wish, which are described in the spell itself). As DM, you can also decide (and the spell sort of encourages you) to add an ironic consequence to the Wish--in this case, the person wished for the Deck of Many things and received it, but the ironic side is he drew cards that punished, rather than helped, him.
Question 2:
Start by drawing the Fool, which causes you to loose 10,000 XP and forces you to draw from the deck again.
Second, draw The Idiot, which reduces the individual's intelligence by 1d4+1. Naturally, still under the monkey paw effect of the wish, the individual maximizes this effect, loosing 5 intelligence. The Idiot gives the drawer the option of drawing another card. With their intelligence score now being 5 points lower than it was, they are stupid enough to think "I can win this all back!" so they draw again.
You have a lot of options for the third and final card they would draw as part of this action.
The Donjon traps them in suspended animation and hides them away from all forms of magical detection, other than a Wish spell. This has the advantage of ironically tying in the "Wish" element, but also removes the NPC from the game until discovered, so it might not work so well with what you want to do.
The Euryale puts a -2 penalty on all saves that only a god can remove--something that might lead the person to disaster as casters take advantage of him with mind-magic.
The Fates allow you to erase something that once happened to you--under the effect of the Idiot, the person might not think through the consequences of what they choose to erase and do something that drastically effects their life for the worse.
Flames and Rogue are both similar, causing something--a powerful devil or an NPC chosen by the DM--to become hostile toward the drawer.
Key gives them a powerful artifact or magical item--which very easily could be cursed or something that otherwise negatively effects the drawer.
Or, if you want exactly what you are looking for, Ruin causes you to lose all your wealth, items, property, businesses, etc. It's exactly what you are looking for, though I still listed the others in case you wanted to set something else up through any of those options.
Question 3:
It depends on what option you chose for the third card. Perhaps they have to rescue the man from suspended animation. Or find a way to defeat the devil/NPC hunting the person and the person's descendants. Or they come across a beggar who says he was once a lord/who says his ancestor was once a lord. Each of the above cards give you some way you can curse the person and/or his descendants.
You can certainly try.
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To expand on what Caerwyn_Glyndwr said, you could actually have the Rogue card cause the players to become compelled to try and kill the noble. All the players have a good reason to want to see the noble dead - have them come up with them themselves. Perhaps they think he is evil, or he killed a family member.
Then, when they finally do kill him, the memories fade, for they were nothing but the magic of the deck.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
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Another take: What if he just strong-armed (financially, politically, physically, whatever suits you) the platinum sanctuary to get the deck? He's a man of influence and power who wants more, so he blackmailed someone in the platinum sanctuary to give him the deck. The higher ups found out, and now they're after him. The party is asked to chase him down and recover the artifact, and they aren't told what it is.
You can have him pull whatever cards you want, or maybe he hasn't pulled any yet because he's trying to lie low or get away. It can be a simple recovery mission.
This is all great stuff. I hadn't considered the fact that a man of means and influence might not need a wish spell to get their hands on the deck, although I might still have them use it for this purpose because then it solves the problem of having a second wish available to solve whatever problem they have from the next card they draw.
I LOVE the idea that drawing Flames or Rogue makes a possible plot hook for the party to intervene, and Rogue in particular might be useful for an interesting plot twist!
As always, you DMs are incredibly helpful. Thank you!
The drunk could have used the second wish to "be successful at everything he attempts". This would put them in position to become an immensely powerful BBEG, stealing the deck back "because they wanted to", drawing the right cards "because they wanted to", that sort of thing. The party would not be able t otake them on directly, and only by catching them entirely off-guard could the hurt them - otherwise if they want to dodge the monks flurry of blows, they will succeed!
The party could be sent to find the missing wish card, then have to steal the whole deck to make it work, then try to pull it to wish away his power. Just remove the really, really bad results like the one where they are locked away, those would detract from the fun!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
One quick comment ...
By all means incorporate the deck into a plot line for the NPC. However, I would strongly recommend NOT giving the deck to your players. I have witnessed more games implode from the effect of the Deck of Many Things than from any other single element in all of D&D. It seems so cool and random at first but it is utterly game destroying unless folks don't mind rolling up new characters.
Why? Some folks will get lucky and become either extremely wealthy or powerful or both. On the other hand, some folks will likely die or suffer a really nasty, debilitating and not fun side effect. Unless you have an exceptional group of players, the ones with their characters destroyed will not be too happy to play them any more, the ones who are suddenly powerful may trivialize encounters for everyone else in the group.
The bottom line is that a deck of many things USED by the players is a gaming disaster waiting to happen. Even in your critical role story, it doesn't sound like they used it themselves, they got an NPC to draw a card which worked out well for him and then made sure that magic item was buried deep where it belongs :)
P.S. Some of the other posts suggest interesting plots that can develop from the draw of one card - these are true. However, when the magic item gets into the hands of the players, the DM no longer controls how many cards will be drawn or by whom. This leaves the DM with the difficulty of what to leave in the deck - if there are only good cards then the power level of the game takes a quantum jump up - if there are any bad cards then someone will be unhappy. The randomness, uneven distribution and inability of the DM to control the situation in terms of how many cards are drawn by how many characters will again be significant issue even if the DM tries to stack the deck.
The other solution to the deck of many things is for the DM to stack the deck.
I'd say sure but any deck "created" by way of wish has no wish cards with in it. The universe abhors the concept of infinite wishes.
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IMO it is well within the power and spirit of a wish for it to give you a DoMT, after all giving you the means of your own down fall would seem appropriate.
I would be tempted to have them draw Rogue and earn the players hostility, be interesting for them to find out the only reason they hate this NPC is a card, reversal of the normal effect.