Wildcard (5A)
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| Starfox's 5th Edition Fan Page |
Your powers rely on chance. You have learned to stack the deck in your favor.
A wildcard sorcerer's magic is as wild and unpredictable as the luck of the draw. Some revel in this, riding their luck as far as it goes. Others try to calculate the odds and play the long game.
Sorcerous Origin Abilities
Wildcard Deck
Starting at 1st level, you build a deck of wildcard spells. These 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. All 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.
| 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 |
As a bonus action you can discard your current hand of cards (if any) and draw cards randomly from your wildcard deck up to your hand size, see the Wildcard Deck table. All the spells in this hand are known spells to you as long as they are in your hand. 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. If you are to draw more cards than are currently in your deck, shuffle discards and place them back in the deck.
Using your hand of cards requires one of your hands. This includes drawing, discarding, and shuffling. This hand of cards also works as an arcane implement to you. All spells cast using the Wildcard Deck use spell slots normally.
Discard
At 1st level, as a bonus action, you can discard any number of cards from your Wildcard Deck and then draw random cards from your deck up to your hand size.
Luck of the Draw
At 1st level, as a bonus action, you can draw a random card from your Wildcard Deck and cast it immediately as a part of the bonus action. You then fill your hand up to your full hand size. The normal restrictions on casting other spells in the same turn you cast a spell as a bonus action applies. You then discard the card.
Counter-Draw
At 6th level, as a reaction when you see a spell being cast, you can draw a random card from your deck. If you draw the same spell that you saw being cast, that spell is negated with no effect. You then discard the card.
Double Draw
At 6th level, as an action, your can draw two cards from your deck and select one of them to use, as Luck of the Draw. Then you discard both cards.
It is traditional to draw one card from the top of the deck, and the other from the bottom, but this is not required.
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 has a negative effect, 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 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.