School of Cartomancy

"The power's not in the cards, it's inside. It comes from the heart, it comes from my friends!" — Yami, King of Games.
Cartomancy is an ancient tradition of modifying one’s arcane force using the fate-changing attributes of cards.
Cartomancers are able to bend the elusive luck of the cards to their will by channeling magic through their decks, changing the tide of battle by spreading some much needed weals and woes.

Dealer’s Choice

Beginning when you select this school at 3rd level, you gain the following abilities:

Card Magic. You have proficiency in playing card sets and are able to use such a set as your spellcasting focus. You can also use a playing card set as an alternative to your spell book by transcribing your spells onto the cards.

Lucky Draw. A creature within reach of a deck of cards you are holding can use its action to draw a card if you are willing. Alternatively, When you cast a spell while using a deck of cards as a spellcasting focus, you can draw a card as part of the casting of the spell. When a card from your deck is drawn in one of these ways, you may choose what card that is, whether you can see it or not.

Drawing Hand

Starting at 3rd level, you have a pool of 10 value points, which can be used to empower your cards. Once per turn, when a card from your deck is drawn with the lucky draw ability, you can activate cards with a value from 2 to 10 by spending the corresponding amount of value points. You then choose whether the card’s type is of Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, or Spades. The type and value of the card determine the effect that happens when you activate it.

• Clubs. The target takes force damage equal to the value of the card.

• Diamonds. The next ability check or attack roll that the target fails within a number of rounds equal to the value of the card receives a bonus of a single die roll, potentially turning the result into a success. The size of the bonus die is equal to the value of the card (1d2 for a 2 of diamonds, 1d4 for a 4 of diamonds, 1d6 for a 6 of diamonds, etc.) A target can only be under the effect of one diamonds card at a time.

• Hearts. The target gains an amount of temporary hit points equal to twice the value of the card.

• Spades. The next ability check or attack roll that the target succeeds within a number of rounds equal to the value of the card receives a penalty of a single die roll, potentially turning it into a failure. The size of the penalty die is equal to the value of the card (1d2 for a 2 of spades, 1d4 for a 4 of spades, 1d6 for a 6 of spades, etc.) A target can only be under the effect of one spades card at a time.

The target of the effect refers to the creature who draws the card. If you are the one to draw the card while casting a spell, you can make the effect target either yourself, or another creature that is either a target of your spell, or one that's included in its area of effect.

Regaining Value Points. When casting a leveled spell using a deck of cards as a spellcasting focus, you gain an amount of value points equal to the level of the spell slot you spent. If you activate a card as you're casting a spell that would give you value points, you receive these value points before the card is activated. You can only have a maximum of 10 value points at a time. When using your arcane recovery, you can choose to gain any number of recoverable spell levels as value points instead.

Royal Flush

Starting at 6th level, the maximum amount of value points you can have increases to 13. Additionally, you gain the ability to activate the prince, queen, and king from your deck by spending more than 10 value points.

• Prince. A prince has a value of 11. When a prince is drawn, it is able to possibly affect up to one additional creature with the effect of the card, as long as it counts as a valid target.
• Queen. A queen has a value of 12. When a queen is drawn, it is able to possibly affect up to two additional creatures with the effect of the card, as long as they count as valid targets.
• King. A king has a value of 13. When a king is drawn, it is able to possibly affect up to three additional creatures with the effect of the card, as long as they count as valid targets.

Wild Card

Starting at 10th level, you gain the ability to activate the joker from your deck. You do not need to spend any value points to activate a joker. Instead, each time it is activated, it imitates a card of a diffrent value. To determine the card that the joker imitates when activated, choose a card type between Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades, then roll 1d12+1. For the purpose of that activation, the joker acts as if it was a card of your chosen type with a value equal to the number rolled, and activates the same effect accordingly.

If the rolled value for a joker is ever higher than 10, it malfunctions and fails to activate altogether.

Ace up the Sleeve

Starting at 14th level, you gain the ability to activate an ace from your deck. An ace has a value of 1, but it also provides a special effect according to its type.

• Clubs. The target takes an amount of force damage equal to your wizard level, and loses all damage resistances it has until the end of its next turn.

• Diamonds. The next time the target rolls a number that is lower than your wizard level on an ability check or attack roll, the result of that roll is instead treated as equal to your wizard level.

• Hearts. The target gains an amount of temporary hit points equal to twice your wizard level. While these temporary hit points remain, the target is resistant to all damage but force.

• Spades. The next time the target rolls a number that is higher than [20 - your wizard level (minimum of 1)] on an ability check or attack roll, the result of that roll is instead treated as equal to that amount.

Once you activate an ace from your deck, that type of ace can then no longer be activated until you complete a long rest.