Card (3.5e Class)

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A Card Master, Twisted Fate manipulates his infamous enchanted deck.

Card

Cards are intelligent and quick. They rely more on their self-confidence and ability than pure luck. A player will need a deck of cards, a coin, and a pair of dice to play this class.

Special thanks to Mason Dawe. This class is based off of his Gambler class. Special thanks to Daniel for help with balancing.

Making a Card

The Card has the capability for a high damage output, but poses a risk to both himself and his comrades.

Abilities: A Card needs a high intelligence for his spells and skills, as well as a high Dexterity, for his shooting abilities, and to improve his Armor Class. He needs absolutely no strength, all his attacks are spells or ranged.

Races: Any humanoid.

Alignment: Any non-lawful.

Starting Gold: 4d8 gp (16 gp)

Starting Age: Moderate.

Table: The Card

Hit Die: d6

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spells in Deck
		Fort	Ref	Will		0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+0	+0	+2	+0	Draw Cards, Play Card, Roulette, Flashy Shuffle, Peek (3 cards)	4	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+0	Weapon Focus: Revolver, Swap, Card Swirl	5	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+1	+1	+3	+1	Augmented Play Card, Toss the Dice	5	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	+1	+4	+1	Doubles Gives Another Turn	5	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	+2	+1	+4	+1	Advanced Play Card, Bonus Luck Feat, Improved Flashy Shuffle	5	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	+3	+2	+5	+1	Joker Swap, Peek (4 cards)	5	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	+3	+2	+5	+2	Weapon Specialization: Revolver, Crap Shoot	6	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—
8th	+4	+2	+6	+2	Improved Roulette, Dice Bomb	6	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
9th	+4	+3	+6	+3		6	4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—
10th	+5	+3	+7	+3	Joker Swap bonus, Bonus Luck Feat, Up the Sleeve	6	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—
11th	+5	+3	+7	+3		6	5	4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—
12th	+6/+1	+4	+8	+4	Peek (5 cards)	6	5	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—
13th	+6/+1	+4	+8	+4	Exploding Dice	6	5	5	4	4	3	2	1	—	—
14th	+7/+2	+4	+9	+4	Hot Streak	6	5	5	4	4	3	3	2	—	—
15th	+7/+2	+5	+9	+5	Joker Swap bonus, Bonus Luck Feat	6	5	5	5	4	4	3	2	1	—
16th	+8/+3	+5	+10	+5	Bonus Luck Feat	6	6	5	5	4	4	3	3	2	—
17th	+8/+3	+5	+10	+5	Hot Shot	6	6	5	5	5	4	4	3	2	1
18th	+9/+4	+6	+11	+6	Ace in the Hole, Peek (6 cards)	6	6	6	5	5	4	4	3	3	2
19th	+9/+4	+6	+11	+6		6	6	6	6	5	5	4	4	3	3
20th	+10/+5	+6	+12	+6	Joker Swap bonus, Bonus Luck Feat	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	4	4	4
Class Skills (8 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Knowlege (Local) (Wis), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Card.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Cards are proficient with Light Armor and all simple weapons. In addition they are proficient with Revolvers

Cards may wear Medium Armor by taking the Armor Proficiency (Medium) feat, but under no circumstances may a Card wear gloves, gauntlets, or heavy armor. This equipment would hinder the Card’s ability to shuffle his deck of cards and perform most other actions associated with his class.

Spells: The Card may not directly cast spells gained from progression in the Card class. The Card must instead choose a number of spells equal to his daily spell allotment, and imbue the spells onto cards in his deck (on a one to one basis). Any spells from the Wizard, Cleric, and Druid spell list may be imprinted. This means that the Card will not imbue every card in his deck with spells until level 20 (52 spells + 2 Jokers).

Once the Card has used a card during combat, the card is removed from the deck until the Card has rested for eight hours and taken the time to prepare spells (as a Wizard would). The Card automatically knows all spells in a spell level when he gains access to it. While preparing spells, the Card may reset all imbued cards and reassign spells to different cards.

The deck's magic nature makes it a strange deck of cards. When anyone other than the gambler uses the deck, it appears to be all blank cards. In fact, the gambler cannot cheat and stack the order of the cards ahead of time because they appear blank to him until he uses one of his gambler abilities to use a card.

The Card gains no bonus spells based on attributes.

The Card may not imbue cards with spells that have an XP cost associated with them.

It is recommended that the player keep a sheet of paper with a list of cards on which spells are imbued for reference.

Draw Cards(Ex): As a move action, the Card may draw 5 cards from his deck. If he still has cards from his last draw, the Card must put those cards on the bottom of his deck in a random order before drawing his new cards. The Card must do this at the beginning of an encounter, as he travels with his deck on hand, but not at the ready.

Play Card(Sp): The Card may choose any one card in his hand and play it (it is removed from the deck, see “Spells”). The type of action associated with the card is the type of action for Play Card (ex. standard action). The Card must designate a target for the spell before he plays the card. The spell is then cast by the Card at the chosen target. The Card’s caster level is treated as his Card class level plus any Wizard/Sorceress class levels minus 2 plus his Intelligence modifier/Charisma modifier, whichever is higher. (Clvl + Wlvl + Slvl - 2 + Int mod/Cha mod).

The Card ignores all component requirements for spells, but must pay the proper amount of gp for material components (if any) at the time of playing the card.

Any limitations (range, target type, etc) apply to spells cast by Play Card. If the Card plays a card with a designated target outside of the imbued spell’s specifications, the card is removed from the deck just as if it was played, but there is no effect.

If the Card draws a Joker from his deck, he may choose any level spell within his normal Spells in Deck levels and treat the Joker as a standard card imbued with that spell.

Peek (Su): As a swift action, the gambler can look at the top three cards of his deck and can choose to place any or all of those seen cards on the bottom of their deck. At 6th, 12th, and 18th level, the gambler can look at and rearrange one extra card with this ability. The cards last in this order for 1 minute and then the order is randomized again.

Flashy Shuffle (Sp): The gambler can shuffle his deck as a standard action to replicate the effects of one of the following spells: Daze, Charm Person, Hypnotism, and Sleep. The save DC for these spells is 10 + 1/2 gambler's HD + gambler's cha modifier.

Roulette(Sp): The Card’s other weapon besides his deck of cards is his revolver. The Card may attack with the revolver as a standard action, as with any other weapon, but the weapon’s true strength is shown when the Card uses his Roulette power.

Choose a target and roll 2d6. Take the following actions based on the result:

Table: Roulette

Result	Action
2, 12	Roll again, but you must choose an additional target (if possible).
3	1d4 sonic damage/2 levels in the Card class
4	Heal Minor Wounds effect on target (cleric level = Card class level -2)
5	1d4 electric damage /2 levels in the Card class
6	1d4 fire damage /2 levels in the Card class
7	Remove all remaining bullets from the revolver
8	1d4 frost damage/2 levels in the Card class
9	1d4 acid damage /2 levels in the Card class
10	Heal Moderate Wounds effect on target (cleric level = Card class level -2)
11	1d4 negative energy damage/2 levels in the Card class

If the card rolls a 2 or 12 after choosing six targets, or if the Card cannot target a member of the opposing side after a roll of 2 or 12, all remaining bullets are removed from the revolver.

Reloading the revolver is a full-round action, and must be done every six shots (whenever there are no remaining bullets).

If the revolver is fired normally, treat the attack normally. If Roulette is used, make an attack roll as if it is a standard attack, but instead of applying the revolver’s damage, use the effect listed on the table.

When using the Roulette attack the Revolvers Critical is lowered to x3 rather than x4

Weapon Focus: Revolver: At class level 2, the Card gains this feat automatically.

Swap(Su): At class level 2, the Card gains the ability to count cards, and thus pull intended cards out of the middle of the deck instead of off the top. The Card may use Swap as a free action any time he uses Draw Cards. When using swap, the card may choose to swap a card or cards at any point while drawing his 5 cards. The Card must then make a check of 1d20 + hard points in Sleight of Hand + his Dexterity modifier versus a DC 20 + double the spell level imbued upon the card. The Card must make this check for every card he tries to pull from the deck into his hand. Add a +5 to the DC of each cjkiheck for each card above one used with Swap, regardless of whether or not previous swap attempts during that Draw Card succeeded.

If the Card fails to swap a card, he instead draws a card normally. This does not effect other swaps in any way.

This ability may not be used to increase the size of the Card's hand above 5. If you use Swap with 3 cards already drawn, you must choose two or fewer cards to attempt to Swap.

Card Swirl (Sp): At second level, as a standard action, the gambler can throw 1d4 cards from his deck to replicate the effects of Color Spray. The DC to save against this effect is 10 + 1/2 gambler's HD + gambler's cha modifier.

Augmented Play Card(Sp): At class level 3, the Card may make a coin flip while playing a single card. The Card calls the coin in the air. If the Card is correct, the spell is treated as if it was maximized. Otherwise, the card is removed from the deck with no effect. All limitations of Play Card are applied.

Toss the Dice (Su): At third level, as a swift action, the gambler can toss his special pair of dice to have a random beneficial spell affect him with a caster level equal to his HD. The gambler cannot use this ability again until the spell duration has expired (or it is dispelled).

Dice Result	Spell Cast on the Gambler
2	Heroism
3	Invisibility
4	Fox's Cunning
5	Bear's Endurance
6	Cat's Grace
7	Blur
8	Owl's Wisdom
9	Bull's Strength
10	Eagle's Splendor
11	Mirror Image
12	Protection from Energy

Doubles Gives Another Turn (Su): At fourth level, whenever the gambler rolls doubles with Toss the Dice, he may make another roll on the table and also benefit from that spell. If he rolls the same number again, he may choose a different spell from the table.

Advanced Play Card(Sp): At class level 5, the Card gains the ability to play more than one card simultaneously once per day. This is subject to two main limitations:

Limitations – All spell limitations must be regarded, just as if the Card was playing each card in a set consecutively. Standard procedure applies for spells with invalid targets, as with Play Card.

Combinations – Only certain cards may be played together. This applies to the value and/or suit of the cards (ex. 4 of hearts), not to the spells imbued on the cards. The following are the allowable combinations, from worst to best:

Table: Advanced Play Card

Name	Description
One Pair	any two cards with the same face value (ex. a pair of 3s or a pair of Jacks).
Two Pairs	any two One Pairs (see above).
Three of a Kind	any three cards with the same face value.
Straight	a combination of all 5 cards if they are in progressive order (ex. 4-5-6-7-8 or 10-J-Q-K-A). Ace low straights are not allowed.
Flush	a combination of all 5 cards if they are all the same suit (ex. all clubs or all hearts).
Full House	a combination of a One Pair and a Three of a Kind.
Four of a Kind	any four cards with the same face value.
Straight Flush	a combination of all 5 cards that has both the properties of a Straight and a Flush
Royal Flush	a Straight Flush with an Ace.

The Card must choose only one target for Advanced Play Card. If any of the spells have a range of Personal, they effect the Card as if he was the target, and other cards are played normally. All cards in a combination must be imbued with a spell.

In the case of a Straight or a better combination on the list, the Card may choose to negate the spell imbued on one of the cards in the combination in order to either add +5 to his caster level for another imbued spell in the combination, or to treat another imbued spell as a touch attack.

In the case of a Four of a Kind or better combination on the list, the Card may choose to negate the spell imbued on two of the cards in the combination in order to either add +10 to his caster level for another imbued spell in the combination, or to treat two other imbued spells as touch attacks. Choosing either of these options negates the ability to choose an option from the “Straight or higher” case.

In the case of a Royal Flush, the Card may treat every imbued spell as a touch attack.

The Card gains the ability to use Advanced Play Card +1 time/day for every level until level 20 at which the Card has no limit to the number of times she can use Advanced Play Card each day

Bonus Luck Feat: At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, the gambler gets a bonus feat with the luck descriptor.

Improved Flashy Shuffle (Su): At 5th level, when the gambler uses the shuffle ability, he may also use Deep Slumber, and Suggestion.

Joker Swap(Ex): At class level 6, the Card gains the ability to swap a Joker in his hand with any card currently in the deck. This can be done as a free action, but the Card must first make a Sleight of Hand check against all enemies’ Spot checks. If the Card fails, the Joker is removed from the deck. At class level 10, the Card gains a +5 bonus to his Sleight of Hand check for Joker Swap. This bonus increases to +10 at class level 15 and +15 at class level 20.

Weapon Specialization: Revolver: At class level 7, the Card gains this feat automatically.

Crap Shoot (Su): At 7th level, as a standard action, the gambler can toss his dice to curse an enemy. The gambler can use Crap Shoot against any target within 100ft. The caster level for these spells is equal to the gambler's HD and the save DC is 10 + 1/2 gambler's HD + gambler's cha modifier. The spell only hits the target (even if it would normally have an area of effect). Once he has used Crap Shoot, he cannot use it again for 1d4+1 rounds.

Dice Result	Spell Cast on the Target
2	Dominate Person
3	Phantasmal Killer
4	Black Tentacles
5	Shout
6	Enervation
7	Lightning Bolt
8	Waves of Fatigue
9	Confusion
10	Resilient Sphere
11	Bestow Curse
12	Roll twice on this table instead. If you get this result again, choose a spell on this table.

Improved Roulette(Sp): At class level 8, once per day the Card may choose a value for one of the 1d6 die used for Roulette. This must be done before the other die is rolled. The Card gains an extra use of Improved Roulette every 4 character levels, to a maximum of 4 uses/day (class level 20).

Dice Bomb (Su): At 8th level, as a full round action action, the gambler can create a massive explosion. He points his finger at a target area within 100 ft. + 10 ft. per HD and rolls his pair of dice. A 10 ft. radius burst deals 1d6 fire damage per gambler HD to each target in the area. Creatures are entitled to a reflex save DC 10 + 1/2 gambler's HD + gambler's cha modifier for half damage.

Up the Sleeve (Su): At 10th level, when a gambler uses Peek, he can take one of the cards an hold it up his sleeve instead of putting it back on top of his deck. Whenever he would draw a card for any other gambler ability, he can instead use the card up his sleeve. The card returns to the deck if it isn't used in 1 minute. He can only have 1 card up his sleeve at a time.

Exploding Dice: At 13th level, whenever the gambler rolls the maximum result on a die for damage, she rolls the die again and adds the result. If the rerolled die comes up as the maximum result continue rerolling adding the damage each time.

Hot Streak (Ex): At 14th level, a gambler learns to make the best of a good luck streak. Each time he succeeds at an attack roll or saving throw he gains 1 luck point. If he fails at an attack roll or saving throw, he loses all of his current luck points. He can trade 5 luck points to reroll a failed attack roll or saving throw after he knows the results. After 1 minute without gaining luck points, the gambler loses all his current luck points.

Skip Town (Su): At 16th level, a gambler can teleport away from a bad situation. As a full-round action, the gambler must shuffle his deck and draw a card. He then is affected by a Greater Teleport spell with a caster level equal to his HD. Unlike a regular greater teleport spell, he cannot bring creatures he touches. The card disappears from his deck for 1 hour and cannot be retrieved with Restock or rest.

Hot Shot (Ex): At 17th level, a gambler can spend 5 luck points gained from Hot Streak to add 1d6 to an attack roll or saving throw before he knows the results.

Ace in the Hole (Ex): At 18th level, a gambler can spend a swift action to search his deck and put an ace up his sleeve. Shuffle the deck afterward. He now can have two cards up his sleeve at a time.

Ex-Cards

A Card who becomes Lawful at any time may no longer advance in the Card class until he is either Neutral or Chaotic.

Epic Card

Table: The Epic Card

Hit Die: d8

Level	Special
21st	—
22nd	Improved Roulette 5/day
23rd	—
24th	—
25th	Improved Roulette 6/day
26th	—
27th	—
28th	Improved Roulette 7/day
29th	—
30th	—
1d8 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Bonus Feats: The epic Card gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic Gambler bonus feats) every three levels after 20th.

Epic Card Bonus Feat List: Any for which the Card meets the prerequisites.

<-Sample race of your choice-> <-class name-> Starting Package

Weapons: <-Weapon selection for starting at 1st level with this class.->.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 4 + Int modifier.

Skill	Ranks	Ability	Armor Check Penalty
<-Skill name->	<-4 for class skills and 2 for cross-class skills->	<-Abbrieviated key ability->	<-armor check penalty based on starting armor. If innapplicable put "—"->
<-Skill name->	<-4 for class skills and 2 for cross-class skills->	<-Abbrieviated key ability->	<-armor check penalty based on starting armor. If innapplicable put "—"-> <-copy and paste the rows as necessary.->

Feat: <-1st-level feat selection->.

Bonus Feats: <-1st-level feat bonus feats due to class or sample race. remove this section if this sample doesn't get any bonus feats at 1st level. ->.

Gear: <-Starting armor and other equipment outside of weapons.->.

Gold: <-Starting gold using this package.->.

Campaign Information

Playing a Card

Religion: Cards may follow any alignment appropriate Deity, although a Card’s belief in himself normally surpasses that of his belief in his chosen religion.

Combat: Cards rarely fight on the front line, although their dexterity bonus gives them a moderate amount of survivability.

Advancement: It is not advisable for Cards to multiclass, as their decks will never be able to be fully imbued.

Cards in the World

“	It’s all in the luck of the draw...	”
—Wesley Gavin, Human Card

Daily Life: Cards can be found in Taverns playing games of chance

Notables: While Cards might gain fame at some point in their lives, they are apt to lose it quickly, as is the nature of chance.

NPC Reactions: NPCs behave toward a Card similarly to the way they would behave towards a Rogue.

Card Lore

Characters with ranks in Gather Information can research Cards to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Gather Information

DC	Result
5	Cards love to take chances.
10	Cards know how to work the odds.
15	Cards are able to tailor some seemingly random results in their favor.
20	Cards never turn down a challenge to a card game.

Cards in the Game

<-How characters of this class fit in the game (PC and NPC) and what roles they play.->

Adaptation: <-Possible variant conceptions of this class.->.

Sample Encounter: <-DM placement for NPCs of this class.->.

EL : <-Encounter scenario and character info on sample NPC including stat block. The CR of the NPC is typically the same as the EL for the encounter.->.

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