conjuration, magical
- Price: 22,000 silvers
- Bulk: –
- Hands: 2
- Slot: –
Usually found in a box or pouch, this deck contains a number of cards made of ivory or vellum. Approximately three-quarters of these decks have only thirteen cards, but the rest have twenty-two.
Before you draw a card, you must declare how many cards you intend to draw and then draw them randomly. Any cards drawn in excess of this number have no effect. You can use an altered deck of playing cards to simulate the deck. As soon as you draw a card from the deck, its magic takes effect. You must draw each card no more than 1 hour after the previous draw. If you fail to draw the chosen number, the remaining number of cards fly from the deck on their own and take effect all at once.
Once a card is drawn, it fades from existence to reappear in the deck, making it possible to draw the same card twice, unless the card is the Fool or the Jester which can only ever be drawn once. A deck of many things is a legendary item.
| Playing Card | Deck of Illusion Card |
| Diamonds, Ace | Vizier1 |
| Diamonds, King | Sun |
| Diamonds, Queen | Moon |
| Diamonds, Jack | Star |
| Diamonds, Two | Comet1 |
| Hearts, Ace | The Fates1 |
| Hearts, King | Throne |
| Hearts, Queen | Key |
| Hearts, Jack | Knight |
| Hearts, Two | Gem1 |
| Clubs, Ace | Talons1 |
| Clubs, King | The Void |
| Clubs, Queen | Flames |
| Clubs, Jack | Skull |
| Clubs, Two | Idiot1 |
| Spades, Ace | Donjon1 |
| Spades, King | Ruin |
| Spades, Queen | Euryale |
| Spades, Jack | Rogue |
| Spades, Two | Balance1 |
| Joker with Trademark | Fool1 |
| Joker without Trademark | Jester |
- Balance. Your mind suffers a wrenching alteration, causing your alignment to change. Honor becomes Integrity, Communal becomes Independent, and vice versa including the lesser alignments. If you are true neutral or unaligned, this card has no effect on you. This causes you to lose access to any trait that requires an alignment match, such as Devout Follower.
- Comet. If you single-handedly defeat the next hostile monster or group of monsters you encounter, you gain experience points enough to boost your Proficiency Score by one. Otherwise, this card has no effect.
- Donjon. You disappear and become entombed in a state of suspended animation in an extra dimensional sphere. Everything you were wearing and carrying stays behind in the space you occupied when you disappeared. You remain imprisoned until you are found and removed from the sphere. You cannot be located by any divination magic but an Alter Reality, Miracle, Primal Phenomenon, or a Wish spell can reveal the location of your prison. You draw no more cards.
- Euryale. The card’s medusa-like visage curses you. You take a disadvantage on saving throws while cursed in this way. Only a god or the magic of The Fates card can end this curse.
- Flames. A powerful outsider creature becomes your enemy. This creature seeks your ruin and plagues your life, savoring your suffering before attempting to slay you. This enmity lasts until either you or the creature dies.
- Fool. You lose 99 Experience Points. Discard this card, and draw from the deck again, counting both draws as one of your declared draws. If losing that many Experience Points would cause you to lower your Proficiency Score by one, you instead lose an amount that leaves you with just enough Experience Points to keep your Proficiency Score. You lose all the Trait Points associated with those Experience Points and the abilities you gained from those Trait Points.
- Gem. Twenty-five pieces of jewelry worth 2,000 silver pieces each or fifty gems worth 1,000 silver pieces each appear at your feet.
- Idiot. Permanently reduce your Intelligence by 1d4+1, though not below 1. You can draw one additional card beyond your declared draws.
- Jester. You gain 99 Experience Points or you can draw two additional cards beyond your declared draws.
- Key. A rare, very rare, or legendary magic weapon, with which you are proficient with, or equivalent magical item appears in your hands. The GM chooses the weapon or item.
- Knight. You gain the service of a warrior with Proficiency Score 6. The fighter serves you loyally until death, believing the fates have drawn them to you. You control this character.
- Moon. You are granted the ability to cast the Wish spell 1d3 times.
- Rogue. A NPC of the GM’s choice becomes hostile towards you. The identity of your new enemy is not known until the NPC or someone else reveals it. Nothing less than an Alter Reality, Miracle, Primal Phenomenon, or a Wish spell or divine intervention can end their hostility toward you.
- Ruin. All forms of wealth that you carry or own, other than common or magical items, are lost to you. Portable property vanishes. Businesses, buildings, and land you own are lost in a way that changes reality the least. Any documentation that proves you own something which is lost to this card also disappears.
- Skull. You summon an avatar of death which appears as a ghostly humanoid skeleton clad in a tattered black robe and carrying a spectral weapon. It appears in a space of the GM’s choice within 10 feet of you and attacks you, warning all others that you must win the battle alone. The avatar fights until you die or it drops to 0 hit points, whereupon it disappears. If anyone tries to help you, the helper summons its own avatar of death. A creature slain by an avatar of death cannot be restored to life.
- Star. Increase one of your ability scores by 2. The score can exceed 20 but cannot exceed 24.
- Sun. You gain 500 Experience Points and a wondrous item, which the GM determines randomly, appears in your hands.
- Talons. Every magical item you wear or carry disintegrates. Artifacts in your possession are not destroyed but do vanish and their new location is determined by the GM.
- The Fates. Reality’s fabric unravels and spins anew, allowing you to avoid or erase one event as if it never happened. You can use the card’s magic as soon as you draw the card or at any other time before you die.
- Throne. You gain proficiency in Diplomacy and a 2d10 Insight bonus to those checks. In addition, you gain rightful ownership of a small keep somewhere in the world. However, the keep is currently in the hands of some others, which you must remove before you can claim the keep as yours.
- Vizier. At any time you choose within one year of drawing this card, you can ask a question in meditation and mentally receive a truthful answer to that question. Besides information, the answer helps you solve a puzzling problem or other dilemma. In other words, the knowledge comes with wisdom on how to apply it.
- The Void. This black card spells disaster. Your soul is drawn from your body and contained in an object in a place of the GM’s choice. One or more powerful creatures guard the place. While your soul is trapped in this way, your body is incapacitated. An Alter Reality, Miracle, Primal Phenomenon, or a Wish spell cannot restore your soul, but those spells can reveal the location of the object that holds it. You draw no more cards.
Crafting Requirements: You must supply a casting of Wish.