Base Class: Card Mage [Archive] - Wizards Community

Base Class: Card Mage [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Bard of DorAr
07-01-05, 09:40 PM Wrote this oh about a year ago, play tested and reworked it a few times. It occured to me I never threw it up here for approval/scorn/critique. So here we go.

Card Mage

Background: Some wizards study complex math, memorizing precise patterns to use exactly the power they wish. Others take a more trusting approach, relying on luck and chance and their own intuition to bring magic to their grip. This mage combines their interest in the arcane arts with a touch of flash, a trust in luck, and their reliance on their most often favorite past time, Card games.

Adventures: Card Mages travel for a variety of reason. Some move from place to place to find casinos and tournaments, upping their already extensive wealth and knowledge of how the games work. Beyond that, to find better cards for their art, one needs the experience of the effects in question.

Characteristics: Card mages use of magic relies on their luck. They tend to test the fates more than most. Tend to take the chances that pay off big, if rarely. They trust to luck and a toss of the dice more than planning and precision. Sometimes they come off as flighty, but never assume that to be the truth, their insight sees more than most think or would want.

Alignment: Card Mages understand that to truly find the right answer to a situation, you have to rely on the way the world really works, not on the preconceived laws forced onto it. As such they tend towards Chaos over Law

Abilities: Wisdom determines how powerful certain aspects of the cards come out, as a Mage’s intuition is the true deciding factor in something like the luck of the draw. Charisma determines how powerful certain aspects of the cards come out as well as the mage’s extra power points per day. Intelligence is important for understanding the games linked to his craft as well as bonus skill points. For the dishonorable, Dexterity can be important for Sleight of Hand.

Game Rules Information:

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d4

Class Skill List: Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge(Arcane, Games, Mythology, taken separately)(Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Gambler)(Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Points: 6+Int (x4 at level 1)

Level BAB Fort Reflex Will Special Abilities Spell Points
1st +0 +0 +2 +2 Spells, Mage Deck 4 / 3
2nd +1 +0 +3 +3 4 / 5
3rd +1 +1 +3 +3 Awaken Card 4 / 8
4th +2 +1 +4 +4 4 / 14
5th +2 +1 +4 +4 Craft Deck 4 / 19
6th +3 +2 +5 +5 4 / 29
7th +3 +2 +5 +5 4 / 37
8th +4 +2 +6 +6 4 / 51
9th +4 +3 +6 +6 4 / 63
10th +5 +3 +7 +7 Fate’s Blessing 4 / 81
11th +5 +3 +7 +7 4 / 97
12th +6/1 +4 +8 +8 4 / 115
13th +6/1 +4 +8 +8 4 / 131
14th +7/2 +4 +9 +9 4 / 149
15th +7/2 +5 +9 +9 Bend Chance 4 / 165
16th +8/3 +5 +10 +10 4 / 183
17th +8/3 +5 +10 +10 4 / 199
18th +9/4 +6 +11 +11 4 / 217
19th +9/4 +6 +11 +11 4 / 233
20th +10/5 +6 +12 +12 Bind Chance 4 / 249

Spells: The Mage is trained in the rudiments of normal Wizardly Magic and so gains the usage of Cantrips. The Mage selects 1d8+Int Cantrips from the Bard’s Spell List at first level and may use them in any combination up to 4 times a day. After those four usages, a Mage may activate a cantrip by expending 1 spell.

Mage’s Deck: While normal mages use complex formulas and precise direct channeling of energies to activate their spells, a Card Mage’s magic is drawn from luck and intuition. Preparing a specially crafted deck of magical cards, the Mage’s instinct help him to draw the proper ones for a day’s usage. Each morning the Mage must spend one hour shuffling his deck, focusing his magical energies and his trust in fate into it in order to prepare it for the day’s use. Each card has a cost and effect, the cost in spell points, and each card may be used only once per day.

A Card mage may draw up to five cards in a round as a standard action, or one new card as a free action. Once the mage draws the cards, however, their energies are activated and are considered drawn and expended for the day. From the time of the draw the Mage has one hour to use the cards before their energies fade for the day unused. The Card Mage begins play with One deck granted by his teacher or master containing 40 cards, 10 of which MUST be able to be cast for 4 spell points or less, No monster card can cost more than 10 points and no spell card may cost more than 6. In the future the Mage may create new decks. (See below for requirements of making a new deck, as well as rules for each card)

Abilities to Spells and Cards: The Card Mage’s Charisma modifier is used to determine the DCs of any spell card he plays. His Charisma score is used to determine Bonus Spell Points gained.

Awaken Card: At 3rd level a Card Mage may imbue a level of sentience and form into a single card from his deck. This may be done to any Summon card with a cost of 3/4the Card Mage’s level or less. The first time this is done is free, any future awakenings costs 50 XP per Spell Point cost of the card. Upon doing so the Card transforms into the being it summons and is bound to the Card Mage as a Familiar. This is treated in all ways like a normal Wizard’s Familiar. A Card Mage may Awaken only one card at a time. The Card used for this is irrevocably turned into the creature and thusly destroyed. The card mage needn’t wait for an Awakened Card to die before awakening a new one, however awakening a new card destroys the old one.

Craft Deck: At 5th level the Card Mage understands enough to begin crafting is own personal decks of cards for usage. For rules on this look at the “Caster’s Deck” section below. While a Card Mage may have as many decks of cards as he wishes, he may only prepare one deck a day to use cards from.

Bend Chance: Starting at level fifteen a Card Mage’s Intuition has grown to the point where his ability to predict random chance becomes uncanny. A Card Mage has a 50% chance to use correctly any item based on random occurrences (Such as a slot machine or a game of cards or dice), including magical items (Such as a Wand of Wonder, or a Deck of Many Things). Should the Card Mage succeed his check he may draw the desired result from said items. This ability does not affect the Card Mage’s magical decks.

Fate’s Blessing: At level 10 a Card Mage’s intuition grows. He knows how to shuffle his deck to gain what he wants, his ability to draw the card he needs become uncanny. Game Mechanic’s Wise, a Card Mage may make a Wisdom Check with a bonus equal to the Card Mage’s class level as DC 15 in order to select the card he wants from his Deck. Each additional time he does this per day increases the DC by 5.

Bind Chance: At 20th Level a Card Mage’s Understanding and Control of probabilities is Near infallible. Any Item of Chance will end Exactly the way the Card Mage wants it to be (barring impossibilities, such as drawing four aces when other aces are already on the board). The exceptions are magical items, such as the Deck of Many Things. While the Mage’s understanding benefits this (the chance to use the item correctly rises to 75%), it’s magic prevents perfect understanding. This ability does not affect the Card Mage’s magical decks.

Caster’s Deck: A Deck used to channel and Focus a Card Mage’s abilities. Each card is thinly sheathed silver over wood from the heart of a white oak. Each card shows a stylized image of its effect and abilities on one side, and a uniformed design on the other. Each deck must be hand crafted by the person who created it. Should the deck be used by one other than it’s creator, all cards cost one spell point more to activate.

Strong Conjuration; CL 5th Level Card Mage; One Scroll or Item or Talisman for each desired Card (IE a Scroll of Fireball for a Fireball card, a Freely given Phoenix Feather for a Phoenix, etc) Price 5 GP per Card plus the Focus item.

The cost of cards is relative to their Power.

Should a Card’s Effect mimic an already existing Arcane Spell, the Spell Point Cost is the same as a normal spell of that level (ie: 1 for First Level, 3 for Second level, etc up to 17 for Ninth level).

Should the Spell Mimic an already existing Divine Spell, the Spell Point cost is equal to a normal spell of that level+2. (IE a First level Divine Spell as a card costs 3 points)

Should the Spell specifically call for a needed material Component (IE the Gem in a Trap the soul Spell) This material component must still be provided.

In any case, a Card Mage cannot create a Spell Card for a spell of a higher level than a Mage of the Card Mage’s level could cast. (IE at seventh level a Card Mage can make level 4 Spell cards, level 9 and seventeenth level.)

Should the Spell summon a creature, it’s Spell point Cost is equal to the Creature’s CRx1 For CR 0-10, CRx2 for creatures CR 11-20, and CRx3 for creatures CR 21+. The Duration of such a creature is 3 rounds + 1 round per level of the Caster. The Card Mage may summon creatures with a CR up to 2 points less than his Caster Level without problem. Should the CR of a Creature Card exceed this there is a 50% chance the creature will not respond to the summons, even if the creature does respond it is not under the Caster’s control.

Cards created from scratch that do not summon creatures must be approved by the DM and their process of Creation is in the DM’s hands.

A Card Mage may have any number of Decks he wishes, but no deck may contain more than three of a single card and the Card Mage may only use one deck in a day’s time.
Shaken, not Stunned
07-01-05, 09:45 PM It is interesting in concept, but overly complicated. I don't dislike it, I just wouldn't want to try to DM for or play as character of this class
mrurbanitesmiley
07-02-05, 06:01 PM I like it. I really like it.
Just clean it up, and explain spell-points to those who don't have Unearthed Arcana, and post a sample 1st level spell deck, and it should be good. Add some card-magic feats, and maybe some special actions you could do (As a full round action, shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 7 new cards?) Also, how do apply metamagic feats to card spells? Also, maybe apply some 'special abilitys' you could add onto cards, like "Pay 5 spell points and discard this card to draw a new card as a free action"... ;)

Edit: Also, maybe make metamagic effects that, in addition to costing you more spell points force you to discard cards?
deamonprince
07-02-05, 06:18 PM Very nice work Bard of DorAr, a good original idea for a spellcasting class. Once you've tidied up the class abit and accounted for some of the good suggestions that mrurbanitesmiley made, the Card Mage class will be complete. I'd use it in my campaigns any day. Keep up the good work Bard of DorAr :D
Bard of DorAr
07-02-05, 06:36 PM I'll work on the first level deck and get it up here as soon as I can (we've only play-tested it once so far and it started at level 5). And I'll see about some of the abilities you suggested.

As for Feats and Metamagic. Hadn't thought about it, honestly. Metamagic could be a simple bandaid (Works the same as a Sorc casting with Spell Points). But hadn't really thought about any Card Specific feats...

Will get to work on that along with the Starter Deck (And other folks are welcome to add on as well, this is only really my creation because other folks working on the idea never went beyond pondering steps.)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bard of DorAr 07-01-05, 09:40 PM	Wrote this oh about a year ago, play tested and reworked it a few times. It occured to me I never threw it up here for approval/scorn/critique. So here we go. Card Mage Background: Some wizards study complex math, memorizing precise patterns to use exactly the power they wish. Others take a more trusting approach, relying on luck and chance and their own intuition to bring magic to their grip. This mage combines their interest in the arcane arts with a touch of flash, a trust in luck, and their reliance on their most often favorite past time, Card games. Adventures: Card Mages travel for a variety of reason. Some move from place to place to find casinos and tournaments, upping their already extensive wealth and knowledge of how the games work. Beyond that, to find better cards for their art, one needs the experience of the effects in question. Characteristics: Card mages use of magic relies on their luck. They tend to test the fates more than most. Tend to take the chances that pay off big, if rarely. They trust to luck and a toss of the dice more than planning and precision. Sometimes they come off as flighty, but never assume that to be the truth, their insight sees more than most think or would want. Alignment: Card Mages understand that to truly find the right answer to a situation, you have to rely on the way the world really works, not on the preconceived laws forced onto it. As such they tend towards Chaos over Law Abilities: Wisdom determines how powerful certain aspects of the cards come out, as a Mage’s intuition is the true deciding factor in something like the luck of the draw. Charisma determines how powerful certain aspects of the cards come out as well as the mage’s extra power points per day. Intelligence is important for understanding the games linked to his craft as well as bonus skill points. For the dishonorable, Dexterity can be important for Sleight of Hand. Game Rules Information: Alignment: Any. Hit Die: d4 Class Skill List: Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge(Arcane, Games, Mythology, taken separately)(Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Gambler)(Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha). Skill Points: 6+Int (x4 at level 1) Level BAB Fort Reflex Will Special Abilities Spell Points 1st +0 +0 +2 +2 Spells, Mage Deck 4 / 3 2nd +1 +0 +3 +3 4 / 5 3rd +1 +1 +3 +3 Awaken Card 4 / 8 4th +2 +1 +4 +4 4 / 14 5th +2 +1 +4 +4 Craft Deck 4 / 19 6th +3 +2 +5 +5 4 / 29 7th +3 +2 +5 +5 4 / 37 8th +4 +2 +6 +6 4 / 51 9th +4 +3 +6 +6 4 / 63 10th +5 +3 +7 +7 Fate’s Blessing 4 / 81 11th +5 +3 +7 +7 4 / 97 12th +6/1 +4 +8 +8 4 / 115 13th +6/1 +4 +8 +8 4 / 131 14th +7/2 +4 +9 +9 4 / 149 15th +7/2 +5 +9 +9 Bend Chance 4 / 165 16th +8/3 +5 +10 +10 4 / 183 17th +8/3 +5 +10 +10 4 / 199 18th +9/4 +6 +11 +11 4 / 217 19th +9/4 +6 +11 +11 4 / 233 20th +10/5 +6 +12 +12 Bind Chance 4 / 249 Spells: The Mage is trained in the rudiments of normal Wizardly Magic and so gains the usage of Cantrips. The Mage selects 1d8+Int Cantrips from the Bard’s Spell List at first level and may use them in any combination up to 4 times a day. After those four usages, a Mage may activate a cantrip by expending 1 spell. Mage’s Deck: While normal mages use complex formulas and precise direct channeling of energies to activate their spells, a Card Mage’s magic is drawn from luck and intuition. Preparing a specially crafted deck of magical cards, the Mage’s instinct help him to draw the proper ones for a day’s usage. Each morning the Mage must spend one hour shuffling his deck, focusing his magical energies and his trust in fate into it in order to prepare it for the day’s use. Each card has a cost and effect, the cost in spell points, and each card may be used only once per day. A Card mage may draw up to five cards in a round as a standard action, or one new card as a free action. Once the mage draws the cards, however, their energies are activated and are considered drawn and expended for the day. From the time of the draw the Mage has one hour to use the cards before their energies fade for the day unused. The Card Mage begins play with One deck granted by his teacher or master containing 40 cards, 10 of which MUST be able to be cast for 4 spell points or less, No monster card can cost more than 10 points and no spell card may cost more than 6. In the future the Mage may create new decks. (See below for requirements of making a new deck, as well as rules for each card) Abilities to Spells and Cards: The Card Mage’s Charisma modifier is used to determine the DCs of any spell card he plays. His Charisma score is used to determine Bonus Spell Points gained. Awaken Card: At 3rd level a Card Mage may imbue a level of sentience and form into a single card from his deck. This may be done to any Summon card with a cost of 3/4the Card Mage’s level or less. The first time this is done is free, any future awakenings costs 50 XP per Spell Point cost of the card. Upon doing so the Card transforms into the being it summons and is bound to the Card Mage as a Familiar. This is treated in all ways like a normal Wizard’s Familiar. A Card Mage may Awaken only one card at a time. The Card used for this is irrevocably turned into the creature and thusly destroyed. The card mage needn’t wait for an Awakened Card to die before awakening a new one, however awakening a new card destroys the old one. Craft Deck: At 5th level the Card Mage understands enough to begin crafting is own personal decks of cards for usage. For rules on this look at the “Caster’s Deck” section below. While a Card Mage may have as many decks of cards as he wishes, he may only prepare one deck a day to use cards from. Bend Chance: Starting at level fifteen a Card Mage’s Intuition has grown to the point where his ability to predict random chance becomes uncanny. A Card Mage has a 50% chance to use correctly any item based on random occurrences (Such as a slot machine or a game of cards or dice), including magical items (Such as a Wand of Wonder, or a Deck of Many Things). Should the Card Mage succeed his check he may draw the desired result from said items. This ability does not affect the Card Mage’s magical decks. Fate’s Blessing: At level 10 a Card Mage’s intuition grows. He knows how to shuffle his deck to gain what he wants, his ability to draw the card he needs become uncanny. Game Mechanic’s Wise, a Card Mage may make a Wisdom Check with a bonus equal to the Card Mage’s class level as DC 15 in order to select the card he wants from his Deck. Each additional time he does this per day increases the DC by 5. Bind Chance: At 20th Level a Card Mage’s Understanding and Control of probabilities is Near infallible. Any Item of Chance will end Exactly the way the Card Mage wants it to be (barring impossibilities, such as drawing four aces when other aces are already on the board). The exceptions are magical items, such as the Deck of Many Things. While the Mage’s understanding benefits this (the chance to use the item correctly rises to 75%), it’s magic prevents perfect understanding. This ability does not affect the Card Mage’s magical decks. Caster’s Deck: A Deck used to channel and Focus a Card Mage’s abilities. Each card is thinly sheathed silver over wood from the heart of a white oak. Each card shows a stylized image of its effect and abilities on one side, and a uniformed design on the other. Each deck must be hand crafted by the person who created it. Should the deck be used by one other than it’s creator, all cards cost one spell point more to activate. Strong Conjuration; CL 5th Level Card Mage; One Scroll or Item or Talisman for each desired Card (IE a Scroll of Fireball for a Fireball card, a Freely given Phoenix Feather for a Phoenix, etc) Price 5 GP per Card plus the Focus item. The cost of cards is relative to their Power. Should a Card’s Effect mimic an already existing Arcane Spell, the Spell Point Cost is the same as a normal spell of that level (ie: 1 for First Level, 3 for Second level, etc up to 17 for Ninth level). Should the Spell Mimic an already existing Divine Spell, the Spell Point cost is equal to a normal spell of that level+2. (IE a First level Divine Spell as a card costs 3 points) Should the Spell specifically call for a needed material Component (IE the Gem in a Trap the soul Spell) This material component must still be provided. In any case, a Card Mage cannot create a Spell Card for a spell of a higher level than a Mage of the Card Mage’s level could cast. (IE at seventh level a Card Mage can make level 4 Spell cards, level 9 and seventeenth level.) Should the Spell summon a creature, it’s Spell point Cost is equal to the Creature’s CRx1 For CR 0-10, CRx2 for creatures CR 11-20, and CRx3 for creatures CR 21+. The Duration of such a creature is 3 rounds + 1 round per level of the Caster. The Card Mage may summon creatures with a CR up to 2 points less than his Caster Level without problem. Should the CR of a Creature Card exceed this there is a 50% chance the creature will not respond to the summons, even if the creature does respond it is not under the Caster’s control. Cards created from scratch that do not summon creatures must be approved by the DM and their process of Creation is in the DM’s hands. A Card Mage may have any number of Decks he wishes, but no deck may contain more than three of a single card and the Card Mage may only use one deck in a day’s time.
Shaken, not Stunned 07-01-05, 09:45 PM	It is interesting in concept, but overly complicated. I don't dislike it, I just wouldn't want to try to DM for or play as character of this class
mrurbanitesmiley 07-02-05, 06:01 PM	I like it. I really like it. Just clean it up, and explain spell-points to those who don't have Unearthed Arcana, and post a sample 1st level spell deck, and it should be good. Add some card-magic feats, and maybe some special actions you could do (As a full round action, shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 7 new cards?) Also, how do apply metamagic feats to card spells? Also, maybe apply some 'special abilitys' you could add onto cards, like "Pay 5 spell points and discard this card to draw a new card as a free action"... ;) Edit: Also, maybe make metamagic effects that, in addition to costing you more spell points force you to discard cards?
deamonprince 07-02-05, 06:18 PM	Very nice work Bard of DorAr, a good original idea for a spellcasting class. Once you've tidied up the class abit and accounted for some of the good suggestions that mrurbanitesmiley made, the Card Mage class will be complete. I'd use it in my campaigns any day. Keep up the good work Bard of DorAr :D
Bard of DorAr 07-02-05, 06:36 PM	I'll work on the first level deck and get it up here as soon as I can (we've only play-tested it once so far and it started at level 5). And I'll see about some of the abilities you suggested. As for Feats and Metamagic. Hadn't thought about it, honestly. Metamagic could be a simple bandaid (Works the same as a Sorc casting with Spell Points). But hadn't really thought about any Card Specific feats... Will get to work on that along with the Starter Deck (And other folks are welcome to add on as well, this is only really my creation because other folks working on the idea never went beyond pondering steps.)