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beccaelizabethI got distracted with the Deck of Many Things again.
So I tried the generator on the wizards website and said 22
(because Pathfinder rules mean you have to state the number of cards you will pull in advance, that is the most you can ever get from that deck, and you *will* pull them all, or they pull themselves at the rate of one an hour.)
but first time through I just got Flames Key Donjon, which is... not encouraging, or an interesting story without a rest of a group to come get me.
I mean basically that is the story of ending up in Outsider prison.
... I spent part of today thinking about Lindsey's Hell on Angel, and that kind of fits...
But! Next time through I got enough Fates in the right order to survive the whole 22, which is much more interesting.
I decided in advance that I'd pull all the cards swiftly and then if I got the Vizier I'd ask How Can I Do The Most Good
which worked, I could do that
but I also got so many Moons I got 10 wishes, and you have to use them up in 1 to 4 minutes, or in this case plausibly 10, because it's minutes equal to the number of wishes.
I have been sitting here thinking for More Than Ten.
So I either used them on my first thought (stat boosts, v boring)
or the Vizier told me what to do with them.
Trouble is now, I can think of several ways to use them, but I am the one interpreting the rules, so however plausible the application is I start thinking it's too sneaky.
Like Pathfinder definitely specifies Wish can undo the immediate past, so I could use Wishes like I could use Fates cards and undo the Idiot (I would definitely undo the idiot, it is survivable but Ow), and maybe Talons.
But Pathfinder lore has an example of someone using a Wish to specify what card they get from the Deck next. Castle Everstand, making of. So a 2 Wish card could definitely decide which two I'd get next and I could use it to get my favourites.
But could it be used to undo AND specify? Is that two wishes? I have a bunch of wishes, it surely could be.
BUT to undo the immediate past would I be able to skip back several cards? It seems a bit far, when Wish can usually only "Undo misfortune. A wish can undo a single recent event. The wish forces a reroll of any roll made within the last round (including your last turn)."
But can a Wish undo the EFFECTS of the Idiot card? Like it can for curses?
Or would I just have to use up 5 wishes to get a +5 inherent bonus just to stand still, in a worst case?
These and other questions need a GM who is not the same as the player.
... even though I just started this because Bored.
Really though, ten Wishes. Ten! That's a whole lot of Wish right there.
The other thing a Wish can do is bring back dead characters, though it takes two Wishes if their body was destroyed. So that's a whole stack of ideas. 5 characters no waiting?
Or just +5 my Int and my Wis and embark on the kind of career that can Wish or Miracle eventually anyway.
But I had a Star card and that is a +2 Inherent and my first thought is always Wis because using the Deck is unwise. Putting a +5 wish on that would not make 7 just 5 because same type of bonus. So that seems a bit of a waste.
Also +5 Charisma is ever so tempting.
But I got a ridiculous number of Throne cards. 4 Throne cards. Each with a +6 untyped bonus to Diplomacy, for a grand total of +24.
That means making DC 25 on Diplomacy whatever I roll.
So that's most Charisma sorted then.
If I used the Wishes to improve me that would be committing to being more use in the long term than the hypothetical five to ten other people it could Wish back.
Reckon that's unlikely.
If you can use Wishes to specify cards, what 10 cards would be most useful?
It would be instead of ten of the existing 22 though, not extra, cannot go over what you stated except via Idiot Fool and Jester.
... Jester is XP or two more cards, if you can Wish up some Jesters and then specify what you pull, you could indeed get extra.
Wishes are too powerful. The Deck is too powerful. Such grand scale things are difficult to Story, it all feels too cheaty.
Not counting the cards a Fates unhappened, I got a bunch of Gems, a couple of Comets, a Sun, a couple of Stars. A truly ridiculous number of Moons and Thrones. And a Vizier.
I'd need the Vizier to optimise all that.
Also, additionally, a problem: Where do you put a castle? Let alone four castles? Put them all together for a super fancy castle? But where? People tend to own all the land and you'd not get planning permission in an hour.
... with a Diplomacy of +24 even before you level up it's worth a try, but still, an hour.
How is that castle ever helpful when you have to figure out where to stick it?
I suppose I could apply all those Gems to the problem, but again, in an hour?
... starting at three in the morning on a Sunday even...
Also there is no solid convenient conversion between Pathfinder gp and real world money, so I don't know how much land a bag of gems could buy anyways.
These are not the practical problems one expects when attempting Adventure and Excitement.
... oooh, there's a Flying Castle in the Castles of the Inner Sea book. Solves the land problem. Probably a bit pricey, but, dis get Thrones four times.
... I wonder what the rule would be about Flying Castles in UK airspace...?
I should really definitely sleep.
So I tried the generator on the wizards website and said 22
(because Pathfinder rules mean you have to state the number of cards you will pull in advance, that is the most you can ever get from that deck, and you *will* pull them all, or they pull themselves at the rate of one an hour.)
but first time through I just got Flames Key Donjon, which is... not encouraging, or an interesting story without a rest of a group to come get me.
I mean basically that is the story of ending up in Outsider prison.
... I spent part of today thinking about Lindsey's Hell on Angel, and that kind of fits...
But! Next time through I got enough Fates in the right order to survive the whole 22, which is much more interesting.
I decided in advance that I'd pull all the cards swiftly and then if I got the Vizier I'd ask How Can I Do The Most Good
which worked, I could do that
but I also got so many Moons I got 10 wishes, and you have to use them up in 1 to 4 minutes, or in this case plausibly 10, because it's minutes equal to the number of wishes.
I have been sitting here thinking for More Than Ten.
So I either used them on my first thought (stat boosts, v boring)
or the Vizier told me what to do with them.
Trouble is now, I can think of several ways to use them, but I am the one interpreting the rules, so however plausible the application is I start thinking it's too sneaky.
Like Pathfinder definitely specifies Wish can undo the immediate past, so I could use Wishes like I could use Fates cards and undo the Idiot (I would definitely undo the idiot, it is survivable but Ow), and maybe Talons.
But Pathfinder lore has an example of someone using a Wish to specify what card they get from the Deck next. Castle Everstand, making of. So a 2 Wish card could definitely decide which two I'd get next and I could use it to get my favourites.
But could it be used to undo AND specify? Is that two wishes? I have a bunch of wishes, it surely could be.
BUT to undo the immediate past would I be able to skip back several cards? It seems a bit far, when Wish can usually only "Undo misfortune. A wish can undo a single recent event. The wish forces a reroll of any roll made within the last round (including your last turn)."
But can a Wish undo the EFFECTS of the Idiot card? Like it can for curses?
Or would I just have to use up 5 wishes to get a +5 inherent bonus just to stand still, in a worst case?
These and other questions need a GM who is not the same as the player.
... even though I just started this because Bored.
Really though, ten Wishes. Ten! That's a whole lot of Wish right there.
The other thing a Wish can do is bring back dead characters, though it takes two Wishes if their body was destroyed. So that's a whole stack of ideas. 5 characters no waiting?
Or just +5 my Int and my Wis and embark on the kind of career that can Wish or Miracle eventually anyway.
But I had a Star card and that is a +2 Inherent and my first thought is always Wis because using the Deck is unwise. Putting a +5 wish on that would not make 7 just 5 because same type of bonus. So that seems a bit of a waste.
Also +5 Charisma is ever so tempting.
But I got a ridiculous number of Throne cards. 4 Throne cards. Each with a +6 untyped bonus to Diplomacy, for a grand total of +24.
That means making DC 25 on Diplomacy whatever I roll.
So that's most Charisma sorted then.
If I used the Wishes to improve me that would be committing to being more use in the long term than the hypothetical five to ten other people it could Wish back.
Reckon that's unlikely.
If you can use Wishes to specify cards, what 10 cards would be most useful?
It would be instead of ten of the existing 22 though, not extra, cannot go over what you stated except via Idiot Fool and Jester.
... Jester is XP or two more cards, if you can Wish up some Jesters and then specify what you pull, you could indeed get extra.
Wishes are too powerful. The Deck is too powerful. Such grand scale things are difficult to Story, it all feels too cheaty.
Not counting the cards a Fates unhappened, I got a bunch of Gems, a couple of Comets, a Sun, a couple of Stars. A truly ridiculous number of Moons and Thrones. And a Vizier.
I'd need the Vizier to optimise all that.
Also, additionally, a problem: Where do you put a castle? Let alone four castles? Put them all together for a super fancy castle? But where? People tend to own all the land and you'd not get planning permission in an hour.
... with a Diplomacy of +24 even before you level up it's worth a try, but still, an hour.
How is that castle ever helpful when you have to figure out where to stick it?
I suppose I could apply all those Gems to the problem, but again, in an hour?
... starting at three in the morning on a Sunday even...
Also there is no solid convenient conversion between Pathfinder gp and real world money, so I don't know how much land a bag of gems could buy anyways.
These are not the practical problems one expects when attempting Adventure and Excitement.
... oooh, there's a Flying Castle in the Castles of the Inner Sea book. Solves the land problem. Probably a bit pricey, but, dis get Thrones four times.
... I wonder what the rule would be about Flying Castles in UK airspace...?
I should really definitely sleep.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-15 07:32 pm (UTC)So that means deciding which is more important, the trick with wishing for more wishes or bringing someone back from the dead.
... actually math suggests the wishing for more wishes because you're going to get a 3 or 4 eventually and then you can bring someone back *and* wish for more wishes. 2 means Sun and Moon, one is just another Moon. Because once you do the wishing the card disappears back into the deck and you have up to an hour to pull the next one. Or two hours of knowing what the next two will be.
That changes things many, I think I understand better now.
And, also, too, it means you can't get a +5 inherent bonus out of the Moon card. Cannot be done with 4 wishes. So up to a +4 yes but really you want other more wish shaped things.
I would want throne cards too.
Also there's a Quest for that.
So you get obsessed with finding the Deck and tell everyone it's about the Throne but you really want to bring your friends back from some seriously messy permadeaths.
... Ethan's body was a demon's meat suit, so you cannot use it to resurrect him without... consequence.
Leonard didn't leave two atoms put together, if the oculus blew like a supernova, let alone an actual corpse. Of course if it blew like a time machine he could have whole different problem trying to get home.
Richie died and his Quickening went to his teacher. Is the Q a soul? Might make it a teensy difficult to come back if his teacher absorbed his soul. A wish can fix most things though.
Lightly translated there's story in all of them.
And as for Lindsey... he had a contract. There are a lot of rules about getting someone out of a contract, and just wishing them back to life is not going to do it by itself.
Good start though.
But yeah, use Wishes in order and before you pull the next card, with a one to four minute time frame.
I wouldn't have got that right first time, but upon reflection a plan develops.