The Deck of Many Things is one of the most well-known magic items from Dungeons & Dragons, as well as one that should be avoided at all costs. Some of its cards can have beneficial effects, including a couple that can give significant rewards. Even so, in order to get them, the player puts their character at risk of some of the harshest penalties in all of DnD.
The Deck of Many Things is a magical deck of cards that imparts varying effects depending on what cards are drawn. The holder of the deck has to declare how many cards they wish to draw, and they can never draw any more than that from the deck in question. In addition, the cards will draw themselves if the holder does not. Since the Deck is one of DnD's most valuable magic items, a party can get rich just by finding and selling one. That may actually be the best thing to do with the Deck, because despite some amazing potential rewards, there are some cards that can yield disastrous consequences.
The Donjon Card Inflicts The With D&D's Imprisonment Spell
A lot of the best items in Dungeons & Dragons bestow the effects of spells onto their s. For example, while a Ring of Feather Fall is not gamebreaking, immunity to fall damage is always welcome. Likewise, a Ring of Three Wishes is one of the best items that one could ever hope to find, granting the owner one of the most powerful spells in the game. Unfortunately, the Donjon card of the Deck of Many Things will instead inflict the character with a spell effect so cruel, DnD DMs should consider banning it.
If drawn, the Donjon card inflicts an effect similar to the Imprisonment spell. The character will be trapped in suspended animation in a sphere, either deep below the earth or in an extraplanar space. Worse, divination spells will not reveal the character's location, only a Wish spell can. This effect completely takes the character out of play until the rest of the party finds them, and that's assuming that they're capable of doing so in the first place. After all, it takes one of the game's strongest spells just to even find the Donjon card's victim.
The Donjon card has the potential to wreck a campaign through its effect. A character that has a lot of time and care put into them can be taken off the table entirely because of one bad draw. When DnD players get invested in the world, it can be gutting to lose their character out of the blue. Imprisonment is a spell that very few DMs would likely be willing to drop on a player due to its devastating effect, but the Deck of Many Things can make it hit randomly.
The Void Card Steals A D&D Character's Soul
The Donjon card is not the only one hiding in a Deck of Many Things that can take away a player's character. Depending on one's point of view, it may not even be the worst card in the deck that has that class of effect, despite how awful Imprisonment is. The Deck of Many Things does not hold back in offering potentially terrible fates to those who draw from it, and yet another entry in this regard is the Void card. Despite how impossible it may seem, the Void card is essentially an even worse version of Donjon, which has an overpowered DnD spell effect already.
The moment that the Void card is drawn, the 's soul is exctracted from their body and trapped in an object. What this object is and where it is placed are completely up to the DM's discretion. No matter what though, there will be at least one powerful creature or person quarding the object, virtually guaranteeing a tough boss fight before the soul can be restored. In addition, much like Donjon, a Wish spell will not reverse the effects, only reveal the location of the trapped soul. Without the soul, the body is essentially an empty shell, incapable of movement. In all likelihood, the party would not only have to find where the soul is trapped, but cart the body around so it could be returned easily.
Saving a character's sould could make for a highly unique DnD adventure, but the Void card is ultimately a more annoying Donjon. The card's description in the Dungeon Master's Guide says that it signals disaster, and that's its most accurate description. The Void card is another way that the Deck of Many Things can rip a character from the player's grasp, and it's just as unfair.
The Skull Card Can Permanently Kill A D&D Character
While Donjon and Void are utterly terrible cards to draw, the player can at least theoretically come back from them. As long as the party is capable of finding where the afflicted character or their soul is, they have a chance of getting them back. There's one card in the deck that doesn't even offer that option, potentially ending a player's game instantly. That card is the Skull card.
Upon being drawn, the Skull card will summon an undead creature that will immediately attack the . Although Dungeons & Dragons characters can survive after death, that is not the case with the Skull card. If the loses the Skull fight, then they are killed and cannot be resurrected by any means. Even Wish and Miracle, the strongest spells in DnD, can't bring the character back. The player has no choice other than to abandon the character.
The idea of irreversibly killing a character in itself feels unfair. In Dungeons & Dragons, closing off everything related to a character like that can hurt a campaign's flow, and also prevents the party from a potentially fulfilling side quest of trying to bring said character back. It feels antithetical to the goal of the game, and losing on the Skull card would be a disappointment to everyone. The Skull card is the biggest argument against ever drawing from a Deck of Many Things, proving how badly it can ruin a DnD player's day.
The Deck of many things in DnD can offer players a knightly companion, fantastic treasures, and even the Wish spell. None of those rewards are worth the possibility of having one's character wrenched away by the roll of a die, though. If a party ever finds a Deck of Many Things in Dungeons & Dragons, then they should stay as far away from it as possible.
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