Wildcard (5A)

Starfox's 5th Edition Fan Page

This is a Sorcerous Origin for 5A.

Magic relies on chance. The Wildcard Sorcerer has learned to bind this chance to cards and literally stack the deck in their favor. A wildcard sorcerer's magic relies on the luck of the draw. Some revel in chance, riding their luck as far as it goes. Others calculate the odds and play the long game.

Sorcerous Origin Abilities

Bonus Proficiencies

You gain proficiency with Sleight of Hand and the playing card set. If you are already proficient in Sleight of Hand, you instead gain proficiency in Arcana, Deception, Insight, or Perception.

Wildcard Deck

Starting at 1st level, you build a Wildcard Deck. Spells gained from this ability are in addition to and independent of the spells you learn as you advance in level as a sorcerer. You can build this deck from a deck of regular playing cards and use that as a prop during play. Each card is linked to a spell of the same level as the value of the card, aces are linked to first level spells, deuces to second level spells, 3s to third level spells, and so on up to 9s that are linked to 9th level spells. At first level you begin with a deck of four aces, linked to 1st level spells. At third level, you add 4 deuces, linked to second level spells. You continue to gain new card to your deck at this rate up fives at level 9. At level 11, you add a single 6 to your deck, and continue to add one new card of each value up to a single nine (linked to a 9th level spell) at level 17, for a total of 24 cards in your deck. This information is summarized in the Wildcard Deck table.

When you add a card to your deck, you must link it to a single specific spell of the same spell level as the value of the card from the wizard spell list. Each spell must have a casting time of one action. This creates a growing list of card/spell combinations you can use to cast spells. Whenever you gain a sorcerer level, you can replace one spell linked to a certain card with another spell of the same level from the wizard spell list.

Wildcard Deck

Sorcerer Level	Cards Added	Spell Level	Hand Size	Deck Size
1	4 aces	1st	2	4
3	4 duces	2nd	3	8
5	4 threes	3rd	4	12
7	4 fours	4th	5	16
9	4 fives	5th	6	20
11	1 six	6th	7	21
13	1 seven	7th	8	22
15	1 eight	8th	9	23
17	1 nine	9th	10	24

Handling the Wildcard Deck Using your hand of cards requires one of your hands. This includes drawing, discarding, and shuffling, you can do it all with one hand. This hand of cards also works as an arcane implement to you. If you do not use a hand to hold your cards, the cards still remain in your hand but you cannot use them until you again hold them in hand. If at any time you are to draw more cards than are currently in your deck, shuffle discards and place them back in the deck. All spells cast using the Wildcard Deck use spell slots normally. You can only have one wildcard deck at any time. You can take a minute to turn a regular deck of playing cards into a copy of your Wildcard Deck, this destroys your previous Wildcard Deck. You do not need your old wildcard deck at hand to do this.

Deal At 1st level, when you finish a long or short rest, discard your entire hand, shuffle the draw and discard piles and draw cards randomly from your Wildcard Deck up to your hand size, see the Wildcard Deck table. All the spells linked to by cards in this hand are known spells to you as long as they are in your hand. They all require your Wildcard Deck as an additional material component. You cast these spells as if they were sorcerer spells, including the ability to modify them using metamagic. Once you cast a spell linked to a card, you discard that card and draw a new card from your deck.

Luck of the Draw

At 1st level, as a bonus action, you can draw a random card from your Wildcard Deck. You can now immediately cast the linked spell as a part of the bonus action. You then discard the card. The normal restrictions on casting other spells in the same turn you cast a spell as a bonus action applies; you cannot cast another spell in the same round unless that spell is a cantrip.

Fold

At 6th level, as a reaction when you see a spell being cast, you can discard your hand and draw a new hand. If you draw a card linked to the same spell that you saw being cast, that spell is negated with no effect and you discard that card and fill your hand.

Discard

At 6th level, as a bonus action, you can discard any number of cards (if any), and draw cards randomly from your Wildcard Deck up to your hand size. You can do this three times. You regain all uses when you finish a long rest.

Quick Draw

At 14th level, when you are about to be affected by a spell cast by an enemy you can draw a card from your deck as a reaction and then immediately cast it as a part of the reaction. If this spell requires an attack roll or saving throw, you must include the caster of the spell that triggered this effect as a target or in the area covered.

Jack in the Hole

At 18th level, when you are about to draw a random card from your Wildcard Deck, you can instead select one card from your deck or discard pile and draw that card. Reshuffle your deck and discard pile into a new deck after doing this. You can use this ability three times. You regain all uses when you finish a long rest.

See Also

• Token Occultist (Apath)
• Wildcard Sorcerer (Apath)