Both wish spells and the deck of many things provide you with the opportunity to get some incredible rewards that can help determine a battle, but they can also turn a bad situation even worse. Here's some information that'll help you decide if you want to wager the risks to possibly get the benefits.
The effects of the deck of many things are random, so there's nothing you can do to prepare to enhance your possibilities of getting a positive result (luck spells have no effect). The results you get when using the deck on your own are different from the pool of results that you can get when playing the cambion's game at the end of level 3 of Watcher's Keep.
To get a good effect, you're likely to get a bad effect first. Before you decide whether or not you want to take the risks, here's a complete list of potential risks and rewards to help you to make an informed decision.
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Major bad |
Donjon |
Imprisoned (with a save vs. death at -4), freed normally with freedom spell |
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Ruin |
Party loses 100,000 gold immediately (no save) |
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Void |
Disintegrated (with a save vs. death at -4); this is permanent death |
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Magician |
Transformed into a rabbit (no save); effect can only be cancelled by a remove curse spell (of 15th level or higher if that can be set) |
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Skull |
A death shade is summoned in and attacks user and user only hasted and armed with the equivalent of +5 enchanted weapons and 100 percent immunity to magic and resistant to most attacks |
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Major Good |
Key |
Gain magic item |
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Star |
If user is fighter, paladin, ranger, or barbarian, +1 to strength; if user is monk, cleric, or druid, +1 to wisdom; if user is a magic user or sorcerer, +1 to intelligence, if user is bard or thief, +1 to dexterity |
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Throne |
Party gains +1 million experience points immediately |
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Moon |
User gains +10 hit points permanently |
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Minor bad |
Euryale |
User has permanent -1 to all saving throws (no save, permanent) |
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Flames |
Immediately gates in a powerful Balor and four fire elementals |
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Knight |
Immediately summons in four powerful demon knights |
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Rogue |
The user is immediately charmed (no save) and will attack the rest of the party |
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Talons |
Blinded permanently until remove curse spell is cast |
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Fool |
Wisdom lowered to 3 and confusion effect; confusion may be cancelled by dispel magic, but both can only be removed with remove curse spell |
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Minor good |
Comet |
+5 percent fire resistance permanently |
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The fates |
+1 to all stats, lasts for one game day |
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Gem |
Party gains one each of the following gems: rogue stone, king's tear, sapphire, diamond, ruby, and emerald |
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Vizier |
Mantle spell that lasts for one game day |
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Jester |
User immediately gains +50,000 experience points |
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Sun |
Party immediately gains +300,000 experience points |
The game initiated by the cambion in Watcher's Keep uses different cards. Here's a description of each available card in the cambion's game, listed from lowest to highest. To win the game, you must draw a card higher than the cambion's.
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Plague |
Reduces constitution to 6 |
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Triumph |
Summons four warriors |
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Guile |
Summons assassins |
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Defiance |
Flame strike hits cardholder |
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Strife |
Slowed effect until a remove curse spell is cast |
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High priestess |
Silenced until a remove curse spell is cast |
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Empress |
True sight effect for seven days |
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Emperor |
Immune to all mind effects for seven days |
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Construct |
Summons adamantine golem |
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Strength |
Reduces strength to 6 until a remove curse spell is cast |
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Wheel |
Spell effect, but it does nothing |
While the available wish spell effects are also somewhat random, you can affect your chances of getting a positive result by ensuring that the caster has a high wisdom score (either naturally or temporarily through magic). The higher the caster's wisdom score, the fewer bad effects the game will have to choose from. There are five different wisdom "categories" the game can place the caster in based upon the caster's current wisdom score: low wisdom (less than 10), medium wisdom (10-14), high wisdom (15-17), and super high wisdom (more than 18).
The following chart sets out all the possible good, neutral, and bad results.
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Advanced haste on all party members |
Heal all enemies 50 hit points |
Breach on all people in the area |
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Breach on all enemies |
Advanced haste on all enemies |
Blow all people away from the caster |
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Restoration on entire party |
Extra hostile monsters spawn in |
Heal everyone 50 hit points |
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25 in all stats for all characters for four rounds |
Level drain all party members two levels |
Strength on everyone (set to 18) |
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Mass raise dead to full health |
Remove 50 percent of caster's hit points |
Miscast magic on everyone for one round |
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Greater deathblow |
Remove 15 percent of all party members' hit points |
Magic resistance on everyone |
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Hardiness |
Lose all spells memorized |
Horrid wilting on everyone |
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Create wand |
Lose 10,000 gold |
Everyone intoxicated |
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Create seventh level scroll |
Bring meteor swarm down on the caster |
Bad luck on everyone |
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Instant rest causing all spells to be rememorized and 30 hit points to be recovered |
Reduce one of strength, wisdom, constitution, dexterity, or intelligence to 3 (temporary) |
Silence on everyone |
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Double length time stop with improved alacrity |
Slow entire party, no save |
Haste on everyone |