Summary
Dungeons & Dragons' The Book of Many Things introduces The Deck of Many Things, a legendary deck of cards that features up to twenty-two possible effects that players can receive when drawing from the deck. While there’s some level of risk when drawing from the deck, there are also a great many benefits to be gained. It’s a bit of a gamble, but there are some upsides to running the risk, with some cards granting extremely unique and powerful effects.
Some cards might allow a player to level up, while others may add a little weight to a character’s coin sack. Rare magic items can be received, as can allies to assist in combat. Here are the best effects players can gain from The Deck of Many Things.
7Knight
Recruit A New Ally
The Knight card allows players to employ a reasonably strong ally who can assist in combat. This card is more useful at lower levels, but could even provide a lot of utility in higher-level games. Anyone who draws this card will suddenly be greeted by a fourth-level fighter, who will assist the player in combat until they die.
This character is then controlled by the player, with the character believing they should be loyal, and act as a valiant ally, to the player until they perish. This effectively provides an extra character for a player to play, which, if they’re level four or lower, would be an instant bonus. Depending on the DM, this character would level up alongside the players, giving the lucky player who draws this cardan extra combatant to keep them safe in combat.
6Key
Gain A Rare Magic Weapon
The Key card is one of the simpler cards available in The Deck of Many Things, but it provides an instant benefit in terms of items and grants a neat little bonus to a character’s abilities too. If this card is drawn, players will instantlyreceive a rare, or rarer, magical weapon, and they will gain proficiency with this weapon, allowing them to utilize it no matter what their class or pre-existing abilities are.
This could be a great card for spellcasters to draw, giving Wizards or Sorcerers a little something extra to protect themselves with. As some of the squishier characters inDungeons and Dragons, it’s not uncommon to see spellcasters as glass cannons relying on their magic to save their skin, so an opportunity to get a fairly powerful magic item that can help with shortcomings when magic is off the table is a fantastic possibility for some characters.
5Jester
Gain A Hefty Chunk Of XP
The Jester card is, amazingly, not the best XP gain card available in The Deck of Many Things, but it is a fantastic card nonetheless. Upon drawing this card, the player will immediately gain 10,000 experience. This is an incredible boost to XP which will, usually, cause a character to level up. Any character level 6 or lower will immediately level up if they draw this card, and even for a level 19 player who has just leveled up, it will get them 20% of the way to level 20. This could be a great card forany player looking to multiclass.
Alternatively, players can opt to test their luck and discard this draw, and instead opt to draw two more cards than the number they originally wanted to. Of course, this could provide a ridiculously powerful ability or accolade to their character, but it could also destroy all the magic items in their arsenal, making this a great wildcard effect for the daring members of the party.
4The Fates
Rewrite History And Avoid Catastrophe
The Fates is an incredible card that grants the player brief mastery over time itself, allowing them to rewrite history as they see fit. Upon using the magic imbued in this card, players can opt to avoid or even remove an event from their past, as if nothing had happened. This is an incredibly powerful tool that could allow a player toundo a tragic death, or change the course of an empire.
If the power of this card wasn’t self-evident, a player could keep this card in their back pocket, specifically up until any time before their death, to utilize it as they wish. This effectively gives players an in-universe undo button, which could be used in any number of scenarios, from combat, to roleplay, to overarching narrative reasons. While it may be a challenge for a DM to work around, there’s no doubt a card like this would be an incredibly lucky draw.
3Moon
Gain The Ability To Cast The Most Powerful Spell In The Game
The Moon Card effectively grants the character who draws this access to any spell 8th level or below, at least once. If a character draws this card, they can cast the Wish spell 1d3 times. Of course, this is determined by a dice roll and can mean only one wish, but a lucky player can get up to three wishes from this card. Wish is undeniably the most powerful spell in the game, and can be seriously useful to an adventuring party.
Wish canreplicate any spell that is 8th level or lower, meaning a player with access to this spell could wish to resurrect their fallen companion on a whim or reach from one end of the material plane to another to call for backup. Wish can also do exactly what it says on the box, and allow a player to wish for something not as clearly defined as a spell, such as creating thousands of gold coins, or imbuing allies with magical resistance. Whatever the occasion, a player with access to this spell is a force to be reckoned with.
2Star
Increase Ability Scores Beyond 20
The Star Card would perhaps be one of the most coveted cards available in The Deck of Many Things, granting an amazing power that is typically confined to extremely rare wondrous items available inDungeons and Dragons. When a player draws this card, they may opt to increase one of their core abilities, picking between Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, or Charisma.They can increase this score by two, even above 20.
Typically, a character’s maximum in each skill is 20, and only items that grant a powerful increase, like The Tome of Leadership and Influence or the Tome of Clear Thought, can increase an ability score beyond 20, but even if a character has already been lucky enough to use such an item, the Star card will allow them to increase their ability score up to 24, which provides a ridiculous +7 ability modifier if it hits the cap.
1Sun
Gain A Colossal Amount Of XP And A Magic Item
The Sun card is undoubtedly the most powerful card a player could draw from The Deck of Many Things. If a player draws this card, they will gain a whopping 50,000 XPand one wondrous itemchosen by the Dungeon Master. This will always be enough experience for a player to level up and would take a first-level player to level 9 instantly, or a 12th-level player to level 14. XP gain like this can represent years of real-life time, even if a campaign plays a session every week.
That doesn’t even take into consideration the wondrous magic item whichever player who is lucky enough to draw this card will receive, which can be extremely powerful items like the Helm of Teleportation, the Robe of the Archmagi, or the Tome of Leadership and Influence. Considering there’s a 1/22 chance to draw this card from a full Deck of Many Things, it almost seems like any negative consequence from the cards could be worth the risk.
