Pick a Card

[Xoham]

WARNING: treasure spoilers!

UPDATE: Filled in some ‘?’; put Trump cards in “suits”.

I have been having a very enjoyable time playing the Ravenloft expansion, and just acquired the item I was most excited about: Fate, the Knower of All!

I had already done a quick google and couldn’t find any information on the “Pick a Card” property on the “dagger”. I also wasn’t familiar with Ravenloft’s Tarokka Cards before playing the expansion. I had a look in the DMG and the Deck of Many Things only appears to have the “Donjon” card in common. So the below structure is what I’m guessing purely based on experiments.

Also, note that I may be missing things, as this is all from attacking the Magefire Cannon on our guild’s airship. (Fate kept vorpalling real monsters while I was trying to test!) And finally, I obviously don’t know for sure about the 1d4 and 9d6 below; they’re just (slightly educated) guesses.

Does Pick a Card do anything else? Please let me know if you have other data or theories! I’ll be very happy to update the below, and will probably do so myself after more experiments - I know I’ve been dealt cards by Madam Eva in the Amber Temple that I haven’t yet seen on Fate; and I haven’t seen the seven of coins yet either.

16 Suit cards (These have an instantaneous blue cold blast icon)

	1	5	7	Master
Coins (acid)	THE ONE OF COINS: 1d4 negative, 9d6 acid	THE FIVE OF COINS: 1d4 sonic, 9d6 acid	THE SEVEN OF COINS: 1d4 cold, 9d6 acid	THE MASTER OF COINS: 1d4 electric, 9d6 acid
Glyphs (electric)	THE ONE OF GLYPHS: 1d4 pierce, 9d6 electric	THE FIVE OF GLYPHS: 1d4 rust, 9d6 electric	THE SEVEN OF GLYPHS: 1d4 electric, 9d6 electric	THE MASTER OF GLYPHS: 1d4 fire, 9d6 electric
Stars (cold)	THE ONE OF STARS: 1d4 light, 9d6 cold	THE FIVE OF STARS: 1d4 slash, 9d6 cold	THE SEVEN OF STARS: 1d4 bludgeon, 9d6 cold	THE MASTER OF STARS: 1d4 cold, 9d6 cold
Swords (fire)	THE ONE OF SWORDS: 1d4 force, 9d6 fire	THE FIVE OF SWORDS: 1d4 poison, 9d6 fire	THE SEVEN OF SWORDS: 1d4 acid, 9d6 fire	THE MASTER OF SWORDS: 1d4 bludgeon, 9d6 fire

14 Trump cards (These have an instantaneous green acid splash icon)

(chaotic)	THE GHOST: 1d4 force, 9d6 chaotic	THE SEER: 1d4 rust, 9d6 chaotic
(evil)	THE EXECUTIONER: 1d4 light, 9d6 evil	THE RAVEN: 1d4 sonic, 9d6 evil	THE TEMPTER: 1d4 acid, 9d6 evil	THE DONJON: 1d4 fire, 9d6 evil
(good)	THE HORSEMAN: 1d4 negative, 9d6 good	THE MARIONETTE: 1d4 poison, 9d6 good	THE ARTIFACT: 1d4 acid, 9d6 good	THE BROKEN ONE: 1d4 cold, 9d6 good
(lawful)	THE INNOCENT: 1d4 pierce, 9d6 lawful			THE BEAST: 1d4 bludgeon, 9d6 lawful
(light)		THE MISTS: 1d4 slash, 9d6 light	THE DARKLORD: 1d4 electric, 9d6 light

Note that the “suit” (i.e. the 9d6 damage type) determines what the card looks like in the hand. It looks like an envelope when leaving the hand (this is probably a bug). Once it is in flight, and when it lands, it looks like a plain Tarokka card, I think it’s the Hooded One.

[Xoham]

I have just updated the original post to add some more information. In particular, the damage type that the Magefire Cannon was immune to was lawful. Also interesting, is that poison damage does not show “immune” if it does not apply, there is simply no record of it. There are still some unknowns to be explained; perhaps more hidden damage types.

Also, while I had speculated there might be 16 trump cards, I am now fairly convinced there are only 14 trumps and that I have now seen all the cards (I’ve also now seen the seven of coins). The reason for this is googling Tarokka cards!

You can see them all in this nice YouTube video by a Kiwi guy wearing a top hat:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WC2SHDXKJI4

It turns out that the other cards I had seen in the Amber Temple (Wizard, Soldier, Hooded One, etc.) are actually the names of various suit cards. I now also think the card depicted when equipped is the Hooded One.

[Lynnabel]

This is so awesome. You're doing a great job by compiling this data! This item was inspired by Shiradi and I'm so glad it's getting figured out

[cdbd3rd]

WARNING: treasure spoilers!

UPDATE: Filled in some ‘?’; put Trump cards in “suits”.

I have been having a very enjoyable time playing the Ravenloft expansion, and just acquired the item I was most excited about: Fate, the Knower of All!.....

Very cool.

[Xoham]

This is so awesome. You're doing a great job by compiling this data! This item was inspired by Shiradi and I'm so glad it's getting figured out

Thanks! Feel free to drop hints

[Xoham]

Today I noticed that increasing card numbers increases the visual effects:

• ones of suits have subdued visual effects sticking only to the card surface (like the old cold touch);
• fives and sevens of suits have visual effects that come a little out of the card (like the old frost); and
• masters of suits, and all of the trump cards, have very large visual effects surrounding the card (like the old icy burst).

I thought this might suggest extra effects on the masters and trump cards; but I haven’t noticed this as yet, e.g. I haven’t noticed extra damage on critical hits.

[sleeksilver]

Wow! This is great information! Thank you!

[Saekee]

nice work

[Thar]

I was hoping this would do special effects like hold, hurl through hell, dance, hambomb, or etc.

Damage is useful of course just was looking for something unique to fit the tarot card theme... guess not

[Kargon]

... hambomb...

Mmm... tasty deck...

[CaptainSpacePony]

nice work

Indeed.

[losian2]

WARNING: treasure spoilers!

UPDATE: Filled in some ‘?’; put Trump cards in “suits”.

I have been having a very enjoyable time playing the Ravenloft expansion, and just acquired the item I was most excited about: Fate, the Knower of All!

I had already done a quick google and couldn’t find any information on the “Pick a Card” property on the “dagger”. I also wasn’t familiar with Ravenloft’s Tarokka Cards before playing the expansion. I had a look in the DMG and the Deck of Many Things only appears to have the “Donjon” card in common. So the below structure is what I’m guessing purely based on experiments.

Also, note that I may be missing things, as this is all from attacking the Magefire Cannon on our guild’s airship. (Fate kept vorpalling real monsters while I was trying to test!) And finally, I obviously don’t know for sure about the 1d4 and 9d6 below; they’re just (slightly educated) guesses.

Does Pick a Card do anything else? Please let me know if you have other data or theories! I’ll be very happy to update the below, and will probably do so myself after more experiments - I know I’ve been dealt cards by Madam Eva in the Amber Temple that I haven’t yet seen on Fate; and I haven’t seen the seven of coins yet either.

16 Suit cards (These have an instantaneous blue cold blast icon)

	1	5	7	Master
Coins (acid)	THE ONE OF COINS: 1d4 negative, 9d6 acid	THE FIVE OF COINS: 1d4 sonic, 9d6 acid	THE SEVEN OF COINS: 1d4 cold, 9d6 acid	THE MASTER OF COINS: 1d4 electric, 9d6 acid
Glyphs (electric)	THE ONE OF GLYPHS: 1d4 pierce, 9d6 electric	THE FIVE OF GLYPHS: (nothing?), 9d6 electric	THE SEVEN OF GLYPHS: 1d4 electric, 9d6 electric	THE MASTER OF GLYPHS: 1d4 fire, 9d6 electric
Stars (cold)	THE ONE OF STARS: 1d4 light, 9d6 cold	THE FIVE OF STARS: 1d4 slash, 9d6 cold	THE SEVEN OF STARS: 1d4 bludgeon, 9d6 cold	THE MASTER OF STARS: 1d4 cold, 9d6 cold
Swords (fire)	THE ONE OF SWORDS: 1d4 force, 9d6 fire	THE FIVE OF SWORDS: 1d4 poison, 9d6 fire	THE SEVEN OF SWORDS: 1d4 acid, 9d6 fire	THE MASTER OF SWORDS: 1d4 bludgeon, 9d6 fire

14 Trump cards (These have an instantaneous green acid splash icon)

(chaotic)	THE GHOST: 1d4 force, 9d6 chaotic	THE SEER: (nothing?), 9d6 chaotic
(evil)	THE EXECUTIONER: 1d4 light, 9d6 evil	THE RAVEN: 1d4 sonic, 9d6 evil	THE TEMPTER: 1d4 acid, 9d6 evil	THE DONJON: 1d4 fire, 9d6 evil
(good)	THE HORSEMAN: 1d4 negative, 9d6 good	THE MARIONETTE: 1d4 poison, 9d6 good	THE ARTIFACT: 1d4 acid, 9d6 good	THE BROKEN ONE: 1d4 cold, 9d6 good
(lawful)	THE INNOCENT: 1d4 pierce, 9d6 lawful			THE BEAST: 1d4 bludgeon, 9d6 lawful
(light)		THE MISTS: 1d4 slash, 9d6 light	THE DARKLORD: 1d4 electric, 9d6 light

Note that the “suit” (i.e. the 9d6 damage type) determines what the card looks like in the hand. It looks like an envelope when leaving the hand (this is probably a bug). Once it is in flight, and when it lands, it looks like a plain Tarokka card, I think it’s the Hooded One.

Can we get a bit of video or a few screenshots of it in action? I'm really curious how the weapon looks when wielded/thrown!

[Xoham]

Thanks all for the kind words!

I was hoping this would do special effects like hold, hurl through hell, dance, hambomb, or etc.

Damage is useful of course just was looking for something unique to fit the tarot card theme... guess not

Me too. I haven’t completely given up hope yet though, as my character isn’t very good at throwing at the moment. Maybe soon! I do still like the random damage.

[Xoham]

Can we get a bit of video or a few screenshots of it in action? I'm really curious how the weapon looks when wielded/thrown!

[losian2]

First off, thanks for taking the time to post these!

But unfortunately it looks like photobucket isn't happy with you posting them here - even opening the images directly on Photobucket's site gives the 3rd party hosting error thing.

[Xoham]

First off, thanks for taking the time to post these!

But unfortunately it looks like photobucket isn't happy with you posting them here - even opening the images directly on Photobucket's site gives the 3rd party hosting error thing.

I see! It is broken for me now too.

I just tried switching to a different image site; let me know if that one doesn't work either.

[Xoham]

I just replaced the remaining two “nothing?” with “1d4 rust damage” in the original post. It turns out that rust damage is like poison damage, in that if something is immune, there is no record in the combat log, and no floating “immune” text.

Also, the Magefire Cannon and training dummy are immune to rust damage. House Cannith warforged are not.

I think that may complete the table! I am unaware of any other effects; though there is still that visual difference with different numbers in the same suit.

[losian2]

I see! It is broken for me now too.

I just tried switching to a different image site; let me know if that one doesn't work either.

It works, it works! Thank you for the time and effort of postin' up this stuff for the curious to admire.