Divination, luck, and potential weapon: The playing card!
PECTOMANCER
The pectomancer sees the many paths of the past, present, and future using what other people use to play games: playing cards. For some reason or another, the Universe is written on those small pieces of cardboard and only those skilled enough can decipher the intricate patterns in the symbols and numbers. Not all decks can be used though, as the cards must have been in the possession of them for some time and be in tune with him/her. As a result they usually carry upwards of seven 52 card decks. However they are far from helpless, the pectomancer can also affect probability to a degree, either giving just that little bit of needed luck to himself and his allies or misfortune to his enemies. They do not see the definite future, but rather see potential things that can happen. Combat is not their forte but to compensate they have a very small amount of offensive spells to keep foes at bay. To a pectomancer the world and universe is chaotic and random, and the cards reflect this in their dealings frequently. Pectomancers, being either former card dealers, street gamblers, or simply card game aficionados are also adept at sleight of hand, card throwing and card counting. They are capable pick pockets or at swiping a small items undetected along with using the cards as simple projectiles. Their ability to count cards allows them to get lucky at games and come in just when their odds of winning are best. The cards used by the pectomancer is the 52 card poker deck. Not surprisingly the suits themselves act according to their strength with clubs being weakest, then diamonds, hearts and spades. Needless to say they always try to get the best hand and seem to be inhumanly lucky or unlucky.
Charging:
MINOR: Spend an hour shuffling and watching the flow of their movement for even in that there is a pattern of power. (broken concentration will cause the charge to not be gained)
SIGNIFICANT: Divine something. Past, present or future using one of your personal decks with a specific suit of card (heart: past, diamond: present, spade: future).
MAJOR: Play a game of cards and gain a straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, or royal flush. (royal flush guarantees a major charge regardless of roll)
CHARGING TIPS: Playing any card game will give a possibility of generating a minor or significant charge, Major charges must be gained in a game of poker 1 on 1 dual style.
TABOO: Believing for a moment that the cards are wrong in a reading will cause a pectomancer to lose a minor charge, if no minor charges are held a significant charge will be lost. And if no significant charges are available then a major etc.
PARADOX: People say the universe is random and chaotic. Pectomancers understand this principle and try to understand the chaos with the power of the cards. In essence, using chaos to bring order to chaos itself.
BLAST STYLE: With enough luck and skill a pectomancer can throw a playing card and harm his enemy fairly decently however spells in this category are very limited.
SLEIGHT OF HAND: A special ability specific to the pectomancer it allows him/her to get exactly the card or item he/she needs at that moment and consumes 2 significant charges (can only be used once per day)
LUCK: The pectomancer is unique in that in addition to the four main stats. Body, mind, soul and speed they have a fifth attribute specific to themselves: luck. The higher their luck, the better chance they have of getting the cards they need, however luck caps out at an indeterminate level (GM’s decides)
SUGGESTED ATTRIBUTES IN MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANCE:
Speed, soul, luck, mind, body
STARTING CHARGES: 3 minor charges
MINOR FORMULAS:
I’m Feeling lucky
2 minor charges
Pull a card from the top of the deck. Based on suit, target ally gets modifier of 1, 2, 3 or 4 on their next roll. (clubs: 1, diamonds: 2, hearts: 3, spade: 4, Joker: no modifier)
Why so serious?
1 minor charge
Draw a card, if it’s the joker the enemy starts laughing hysterically for 5-10 minutes. If not the caster is affected instead.
Bad timing
1 minor charge
Pull a card from anywhere in the deck. Based on suit target enemy gets a minus to their next roll (the effect is in reverse of I’m Feeling lucky)
IT’S A TRAP!
3 minor charges
Several of your cards fly out at the target empowered by your magic and form a glyph at their feet preventing movement for a number of rounds equal to the tens digit rolled (half of a deck is used for this spell and can be placed on multiple targets at the cost of half a deck per target)
Deadly deal
2 minor charges
Throw a playing card at the enemy dealing minimal damage. (Feeling lucky can only give a bonus of +2 maximum)
52 pickup
2 minor charges
Target enemy is disorientated for a number of rounds equal to the tens digit in the roll (lose an entire deck of cards until they are retrieved)
Do-over!
1 minor charge
Magically calls all used cards you own back to you (can only be used once a day)
SIGNIFICANT FORMULAS:
What’s coming next?
2 significant charges
Use the cards to divine the past, present or future. If successful the GM gives a small hint of his/her choice about what happened or going to happen in the past, present or future.
Sucks to be you
4 significant charges
Two cards are drawn from random sections of the deck. If they are of matching suit and the cards are in sequence (2, 3. 4, 5. 9, jack. 3, 4 etc) the targets flip flop is reversed back to its original number.
Better count on it…
6 significant charges
The roll must be as high as possible, and if gained the GM gives a significant hint to what MIGHT happen, not what will. (The GM is open to give information that can be misinterpreted and misleading but must be related to what the pectomancer was trying to divine)
The Devil’s luck
4 significant charges
A card is drawn from anywhere in the deck. If it is an ace the target is given a modifier of 10 on his/her next roll. If not a penalty of 20 is given instead.
Pectomancy major effects:
Based on the trigger, all people, objects etc within a 5 mile radius of the caster is given ridiculous amounts of luck or misfortune while the opposite happens to the caster. (hope everyone is unlucky!)
Additional notes: I am well aware of the potential overpowered nature of this class I have thought up. Which is why some of the divination spells are quite pricy as valuable information gained should be worked for as hard as possible.
revisement to the Why so serious? spell. the 5-10 minute timer is based on the number in the 1’s die
Sorry to be critical, but I think this needs a serious rework. As it stands, it’s wildly unbalancing, and I don’t think it fits the feel of the game all that well, either. I see the following as significant issues:
– The addition of a fifth stat is a really major game element, yet you haven’t given any mechanics for it.
– Playing cards are not, in themselves, paradoxical. The paradox here relates to chaos and chance, which is already covered by the Entropomancer. This concept seems better suited to be done as a variant Entropomancer with an emphasis on card-based gambling, rather than an completely new school unto itself.
-Charging is far too easy, while the taboo isn’t nearly restrictive enough.
– Major charges are far, FAR too easily obtained.
Alright. Suggestions then commentators on revisions for this?
i also realize the charging is very easy. which is why some of the spells are again very pricy, you lose them as fast as you gain them
Maybe change the scope of your playing card magic shool.
Philosophy: Cards are the loose pages in the secret book of Thoth. Once all the pages are right, the nature of the book will become apparent and assemble granting the reader the combined wisdom of the secret elders…
Paradox: The paradox is that a random hand of cards represents the change in social positions and mentally of people — represented as bricalage combos of archetypes in your hand.
Pectomancer myth: All our cards are broken versions of a Platonic ideal of a perfect deck. It is therefore common for pectos to buy many different types of decks: playing, tarot, Go Fish, Scrabble, Magic: The Gathering, mah-jongg or more. Not only that, pectos usually fetishise a special deck of playing cards, defacing them, drawing on them, gluing crap to them and inserting others as they progress through a weird spiritual alchemical path paved with Jokers, suits and face cards.
Paradox: As symbolically potent as this is, cards are basically bits of laminated cardboards.
Who is: Gamblers, stage magicians, card gamers and tarot readers are all fine choices for pectomancy recruitment.
The pectomancer charges up through sacrifice — losing money in card games to gain charges. The Bibliomancer charging scheme should work well here.
I’d still be inclined to build this as a sort of Entropomancer with a card-fixated twist. Have charging as the Entropomancer, but tightened up so that all the risks must be taken in a game of cards (it’s quite hard to find people to bet lives against you.) To counterbalance that difficulty, ease off the Entropomancer taboo so that the bodybag only taboos by refusing a fair gambling card game (such as by leaving the card table while he still has something to bet and an opponent who wants to continue) or by failing to honour his bets. He doesn’t taboo by refusing a game he knows to be rigged.
Then, replace the Entropomancer blast style with your “thrown card” blasts — if you require a successful attack roll to hit with the card, then give the blast a reduced cost, otherwise keep it as is — and swap perhaps four of the other Entropomancer formulae out in favour of your favourites from above, trying to roughly match the power levels of the swapped-out formulae.
This approach gives a very different feel to the Entropomancer, retains the Gambit-style card flinging, but is still much easier to balance relative to other schools than one built completely from the ground up.
Incidentally, your school reminds me of a game called “Deadlands” that uses an entirely playing-card based magic system. The feel of Deadlands is very different from UA, but you might be able to mine some ideas from it.
What’s the Luck stat do? Do you roll it to see if you get the right card for whatever?
The way I see it, you could make Luck into a custom SOUL skill instead of a fifth stat.
luck would function with a passive effect. at certain intervals it would give a bonus to rolls. example being every 10 points in the luck skill you would get a +1 to your rolls. so 10 would give you +1, 30 would give you +3 etc.
… A bonus to rolls? Really? In a system where a high roll is a bad thing most of the time? Even if it was a shift, your better off just using an existing mechanic, like, say, hunches, and a fifth stat is way too major for an adept school.
As much as I like the idea of a playing card school, this needs some serious re-working before it’d be playable. Nice concept, though.
I really like the paradox of “doubting the cards” but I think it should cause you to lose all held charges. and divining something takes magic right? you cant use magic to make magic. maybe it could be accurately predict a coincidence. focus more on coincidences and hokey fortune telling and I think your on to something