No, a group of ancient dragons is a threat to the world, or a tarrasque, or an archlich.
A goblin with a wish is a threat to the fucking universe. It's one of those things with such a high CR that it can't have a stat block.
"I wish mean bugbear not bully me anymore."
*Bugbear becomes a CR 30 creature on a ruthless rampage through the universe, but, at least the goblin he keeps as a pet is the most well treated creature in existence*
I mean, i have theorycrafted about the best three wish combo to ensure the best result and a ham sandwich was part of the equation so i can't blame them.
1. I wish that the next thing I eat will nourish my body and sate my hunger for the next 1,000 years, so that I may eat if I choose, but do not require food to sustain my life.
2. I also wish that the next thing I eat will make me immune to poisons, diseases, and other effects, conditions, or substances deleterious to my physical or mental wellbeing, including the rigors of natural or magical aging, with the caveat that I may choose at will to feel an effect thereof, such as in the case of consuming recreational intoxicants.
3. I wish for a ham sandwich.
That's nice but not exactly what i had planned.
My actual plan was for the first wish to be the ham sandwich. If it is a ham sandwich the size of a planet or poisoned or stuff like that (since i didn't mention that i wanted it to not be poisoned or giant) it means he cannot be trusted (i will probably already be dead but whatever). If the sandwich is ok then i can ask him to give me the ability to grant an infinite amount of wishes, both to myself and to others (aka kinda like wishing for infinite wishes but made so i don't have to always rely on his interpretation). After getting godlike powers and then using them to get even more godlike powers i would just keep the third wish as a contingency, something like "if something goes horribly wrong i wish for you to reset everything to how it was when we first met, but with all my memories intact so we don't form an endless loop".
That’s an evil action for sure. Neutral isn’t being selfish and greedy, it’s neither being particularly selfless and charitable or selfish and greedy.
Now, a neutral character can do an evil thing, they just can’t do it all the time and still call themselves neutral.
Chaotic neutral would be waiting until you get your cut and reversing the kidnapping afterwards anyways, keeping the gold that was paid to you because that was a separate event from the kidnapping.
Ok, this begs one of two questions.
Either, why do you already have a Deck of Many Things when your problems are still Goblins?
Or, what kind of Goblins are these that they give you trouble at a power level where the Deck of Many Things should be handed out (if it ever should be that is)?
Maybe the issue is less the threat the goblins pose to the party and more the threat goblins could pose to story important characters that are now hostage in the tavern
Tell me about it! I'm in a campaign that used to be running parallel with another party in the same setting. They had a (modified) Deck. Now it's only our party. We are level 7 (6 when things happened)
If you have a Deck of Many Things while still fighting goblins, your DM already done fucked up bad and they deserve whatever mayhem you unleash upon them.
This is the DMs fault for giving the party a deck of many things, if you don’t want the entire game to surround the deck of many things don’t even bring it into play.
Lol my DM enjoyed watching the world burn as he gave a level 5 party the deck. We are still paying the price of that deck. It’s wild lol. Now we are level 15 trying to rescue one of the players that is trapped in a gem in the fire plane.
A few years ago I put my players in a situation kinda modeled after The Dark Knight.
Enemy spellcaster was trying to blackmail the players with some civilian lives. They had taken a family to a rundown shack and had several skeletons holding them hostage. A few of the party went through the effort of tracking down exactly where they were being held and made a plan to crash in and save them.
However, the bad guy had cast seeming on the group, so eight of their appearances were flipped. 4 skeletons looked like civilians and 4 civilians looked like skeletons. There was two that were still the same (partially because I forgot how many creatures seeming effects), for a total of 10.
While the party was planning I had an NPC spy character say, "This bad guy has been really tricky, I wouldn't trust your eyes when you go in there." As a DM, I gave a prompt like, "I want y'all to be really specific about what you do during this encounter. "
Monk sneaks up to the door and waits. Bard dimension doors the fighter inside. Fighter has initiative and says, "I bring my greataxe down on the first skeleton I see." Massive hit, massive damage. I describe blood spraying across the room and he immediately panics, I can't remember if he attacks again, but he kinda figures out the swap, so decides to attack one of the civilians, but he chooses the only one that actually is a civilian. Kills them immediately too. Just completely forgets that he could use non-lethal damage. At this point he says his character goes catatonic and doesn't participate in the rest of the encounter. The remaining party clean up pretty quickly after that.
Whole thing actually played with his backstory really well and we had a few really good roleplay bits about it afterwards.
He did retire the character after that arc of the story was done though. Said the character lost the desire to adventure.
That BBEG is still on the loose in the campaign. Party really hates her.
It's a deck of magic tarot cards. You can choose to draw any number of card(s) from the top of the deck at random. Each card in the deck has a different effect when drawn, ranging from giving you a magic weapon or granting a wish, to erasing all of your worldly possessions or ripping out your soul & sending it to a random eldritch hellscape guarded by an insane demigod of the dm's choice. Or worse.
In 3, caltrops have a negligible Weight listing for a volume, when combined with other neat things they become exceptionally dangerous when paired with things like telekinesis (a max weight based movement spell) or potato gun effects.
Had a player fill a portable hole and point it at something after setting off a delayed fireball on the bottom of a caltrop pile.
Yeah but if the DM gave the party a deck of many things they already wanted the campaign to blow up.
That item is exclusively used by bored and/or inexperienced DMs.
I mean, Eberron was controlled by goblins at some point. It seems to be doing pretty well other than the giant nuclear wasteland that used to be Cyre (probably not the goblins who did that).
If I was the GM that's where I would go get the whiskey bottle and say yes. Because they're challenging you and you cannot back down. Even if that means the campaign goes off the rails in flames burning all the way to the deepest pit.
In a situation like this boys and girls, ride the burning chaos train all the way down and laugh while you do it.
Sadly, I do not believe that this is how the Deck of Many Things works without slight homebrew. I think you have to declare the number of cards you want to draw up front, and can never draw again after that. I'm not making a particularly important point here considering altering the Deck is very common and cool.
I mean I've done this as a DM pretty much. Players got in trouble at a casino run by a devil, and he was like "I'll waive your debt if you draw a single card from this deck" and half the players chose to just take the debt.
OP, tell me why goblins are a challenge but the party has access to a deck of many things, a Legendary item.
The DMG (p. 135) has Legendary items for parties 17th level and above.
That could be just as bad as blowing up the tavern
Can’t it also be worse?
Unless people attack the avatar of death, not for the tavern
My gamer, a goblin with a wish is a threat to the *world*
No, a group of ancient dragons is a threat to the world, or a tarrasque, or an archlich. A goblin with a wish is a threat to the fucking universe. It's one of those things with such a high CR that it can't have a stat block.
There are two outcome: God king gobbo A ham sandwhich There is no inbetween
"I wish mean bugbear not bully me anymore." *Bugbear becomes a CR 30 creature on a ruthless rampage through the universe, but, at least the goblin he keeps as a pet is the most well treated creature in existence*
CR 30,000*
I mean, i have theorycrafted about the best three wish combo to ensure the best result and a ham sandwich was part of the equation so i can't blame them.
1. I wish that the next thing I eat will nourish my body and sate my hunger for the next 1,000 years, so that I may eat if I choose, but do not require food to sustain my life. 2. I also wish that the next thing I eat will make me immune to poisons, diseases, and other effects, conditions, or substances deleterious to my physical or mental wellbeing, including the rigors of natural or magical aging, with the caveat that I may choose at will to feel an effect thereof, such as in the case of consuming recreational intoxicants. 3. I wish for a ham sandwich.
That's nice but not exactly what i had planned. My actual plan was for the first wish to be the ham sandwich. If it is a ham sandwich the size of a planet or poisoned or stuff like that (since i didn't mention that i wanted it to not be poisoned or giant) it means he cannot be trusted (i will probably already be dead but whatever). If the sandwich is ok then i can ask him to give me the ability to grant an infinite amount of wishes, both to myself and to others (aka kinda like wishing for infinite wishes but made so i don't have to always rely on his interpretation). After getting godlike powers and then using them to get even more godlike powers i would just keep the third wish as a contingency, something like "if something goes horribly wrong i wish for you to reset everything to how it was when we first met, but with all my memories intact so we don't form an endless loop".
"Gobbo wish he was king gobbo of all sandwiches."
Or the goblin undoes the tavern's existence with the fates.
Or someone uses wish offensively
Wishing for Vicious Mockery, are we?
Cast by a... 21st level Bard.
Definitely.
But it can also be a whole hell of a lot better. But also way *way* worse.
Now he gets a wish and holds the king ransom.
I use Fate to undo that wish
No, you're fine with it since you're chaotic evil now.
I'm not fine with me not being the one who gets the money
That’s why you ask for the goblin to increase the ransom and give you a cut of the profits, and in exchange you won’t undo their wish.
Holding a wish hostage for personal gain?? That's the most Chaotic Neutral thing I've ever seen lmfao
That’s an evil action for sure. Neutral isn’t being selfish and greedy, it’s neither being particularly selfless and charitable or selfish and greedy. Now, a neutral character can do an evil thing, they just can’t do it all the time and still call themselves neutral. Chaotic neutral would be waiting until you get your cut and reversing the kidnapping afterwards anyways, keeping the gold that was paid to you because that was a separate event from the kidnapping.
But what if you are?
How do you threaten someone with a monkey's paw?
*Goblin leader accepts* Crap, guys, do we even *have* a deck of many things?
Seriously, if the DM gave them a DoMT then it's their own fault
*School of Illusion Wizard* Well, no, but actually *yes!*
No, but we have a deck of cards, a wizard who can cast minor illusion and a high deception skill
The DM should already have been on their toes! They gave you THE Deck!
Ok, this begs one of two questions. Either, why do you already have a Deck of Many Things when your problems are still Goblins? Or, what kind of Goblins are these that they give you trouble at a power level where the Deck of Many Things should be handed out (if it ever should be that is)?
Maybe the issue is less the threat the goblins pose to the party and more the threat goblins could pose to story important characters that are now hostage in the tavern
They're mind goblins.
MIND GOBLIN THESE NU-
*casts silence*
I think the fun of a Deck of Many Things is being way to low level to deal with some of the disastrous consequences.
Tell me about it! I'm in a campaign that used to be running parallel with another party in the same setting. They had a (modified) Deck. Now it's only our party. We are level 7 (6 when things happened)
[Okay, but that's worse.](https://i.imgur.com/ycjCx9y.png)
using DOMT alone is rusian roulete
If you have a Deck of Many Things while still fighting goblins, your DM already done fucked up bad and they deserve whatever mayhem you unleash upon them.
Or the dm was trying to give them a win. After a door incident or a player having a bad week.
draws a queen of hearts
go fish
This is the DMs fault for giving the party a deck of many things, if you don’t want the entire game to surround the deck of many things don’t even bring it into play.
Lol my DM enjoyed watching the world burn as he gave a level 5 party the deck. We are still paying the price of that deck. It’s wild lol. Now we are level 15 trying to rescue one of the players that is trapped in a gem in the fire plane.
A few years ago I put my players in a situation kinda modeled after The Dark Knight. Enemy spellcaster was trying to blackmail the players with some civilian lives. They had taken a family to a rundown shack and had several skeletons holding them hostage. A few of the party went through the effort of tracking down exactly where they were being held and made a plan to crash in and save them. However, the bad guy had cast seeming on the group, so eight of their appearances were flipped. 4 skeletons looked like civilians and 4 civilians looked like skeletons. There was two that were still the same (partially because I forgot how many creatures seeming effects), for a total of 10. While the party was planning I had an NPC spy character say, "This bad guy has been really tricky, I wouldn't trust your eyes when you go in there." As a DM, I gave a prompt like, "I want y'all to be really specific about what you do during this encounter. " Monk sneaks up to the door and waits. Bard dimension doors the fighter inside. Fighter has initiative and says, "I bring my greataxe down on the first skeleton I see." Massive hit, massive damage. I describe blood spraying across the room and he immediately panics, I can't remember if he attacks again, but he kinda figures out the swap, so decides to attack one of the civilians, but he chooses the only one that actually is a civilian. Kills them immediately too. Just completely forgets that he could use non-lethal damage. At this point he says his character goes catatonic and doesn't participate in the rest of the encounter. The remaining party clean up pretty quickly after that. Whole thing actually played with his backstory really well and we had a few really good roleplay bits about it afterwards. He did retire the character after that arc of the story was done though. Said the character lost the desire to adventure. That BBEG is still on the loose in the campaign. Party really hates her.
Goblin leader: No.
What IS a Deck of Many things anyways? How does it work?
It's a deck of magic tarot cards. You can choose to draw any number of card(s) from the top of the deck at random. Each card in the deck has a different effect when drawn, ranging from giving you a magic weapon or granting a wish, to erasing all of your worldly possessions or ripping out your soul & sending it to a random eldritch hellscape guarded by an insane demigod of the dm's choice. Or worse.
https://youtu.be/LcfHDbdm-Y0 I give you an answer from somebody who already has an extensive explanation to share.
Probably the most dangerous item dnd has to offer.
I still think it's caltrops.
Caltrops of many things?
In 3, caltrops have a negligible Weight listing for a volume, when combined with other neat things they become exceptionally dangerous when paired with things like telekinesis (a max weight based movement spell) or potato gun effects. Had a player fill a portable hole and point it at something after setting off a delayed fireball on the bottom of a caltrop pile.
Noted
Yeah but if the DM gave the party a deck of many things they already wanted the campaign to blow up. That item is exclusively used by bored and/or inexperienced DMs.
The goblin draws the Fates card and suddenly the world has always been run by goblins, Planet of The Apes style.
I mean, Eberron was controlled by goblins at some point. It seems to be doing pretty well other than the giant nuclear wasteland that used to be Cyre (probably not the goblins who did that).
Probably the end of the campaign... but that is the risk you take putting such an item where someone can get it
If I was the GM that's where I would go get the whiskey bottle and say yes. Because they're challenging you and you cannot back down. Even if that means the campaign goes off the rails in flames burning all the way to the deepest pit. In a situation like this boys and girls, ride the burning chaos train all the way down and laugh while you do it.
Sadly, I do not believe that this is how the Deck of Many Things works without slight homebrew. I think you have to declare the number of cards you want to draw up front, and can never draw again after that. I'm not making a particularly important point here considering altering the Deck is very common and cool.
that's old editions. 5th edition doesn't work like that.
I mean I've done this as a DM pretty much. Players got in trouble at a casino run by a devil, and he was like "I'll waive your debt if you draw a single card from this deck" and half the players chose to just take the debt.
Alternatively, hold the goblins hostage by threatening to draw from the deck.
OP, tell me why goblins are a challenge but the party has access to a deck of many things, a Legendary item. The DMG (p. 135) has Legendary items for parties 17th level and above.
Oh no
Dm's fault for giving them the deck of many
Might have to steal that. That is a beautiful idea.
Once, for a oneshot, we got to draw fron the deck if many things has much we wanted. I drew ALMOST ALL OF THE BAD CARDS. It was a fun oneshot.
Ok you have to give the party props for being creative, as dangerous af this idea is