House of Cards

Warmages who join the House of Cards approach
combat the same way they do games of chance,
with high stakes, calculated gambles. Each warmage
of this house wields a special deck of cards tied to
the very threads of fate, through which they can
empower their magic with deft flurries of hands.
However, while these warmages command incredible
power, their magical surges are at the whims of the
cards, and so they must make strategic, ingenious
plays to master them.
BLUFF
When you choose this house at 3rd level, your poker
face carries you through practically any lie. You gain
proficiency in the Deception skill and with gaming

sets (playing cards), if you didn’t have it already.
Additionally, you can use your Intelligence instead
of Charisma for Charisma (Deception) checks you
make.
DECK OF FATE
Starting at 3rd level, you gain a deck of magical
playing or tarot cards, called a Deck of Fate, through
which you can enhance the power of your cantrips.
Shuffle a standard 52-card playing card deck and
draw a hand of 5 cards when you roll initiative.
Whenever you target a hostile creature with a
warmage spell that deals damage, you can use your
bonus action to play one or more cards from your
hand to enhance the power of the spell. If the cards
exactly match one of the results on the Hands table
below, it deals additional damage or one additional
effect according to the result to one of the spell’s
targets of your choice. Playing cards which do not
match a result has no effect. Aces count as ones for
results. Once you play a card, place it on the bottom
of the deck and draw back to five cards.
HIGH STAKES
At 7th level, you’ve mastered a very risky card trick
using your Deck of Fate. On your turn, you can
choose to lose 2 hit points to play 1 card from your
hand and draw back to 5 cards (no action required).
DEALER'S CHOICE
At 10th level, you can use your bonus action to gain
one of the following three abilities, selected by the
GM:
• You gain resistance to all damage until the end of
your next turn.
• You teleport to a point you can see within 60 feet.
• You vanish into a safe, endless demiplane until
the beginning of your next turn, at which time
you return at the same location from which you
vanished.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until
you finish a short or long rest.
CARD READING
Beginning at 15th level, once on each of your turns
when you draw a card from your deck as part of your
Deck of Fate feature, you can declare a suit (Club,
Diamonds, Hearts, or Spades) and check the top
card of your deck. If you guessed the suit correctly,
you can take the Dash, Disengage, or Use an Object
action as part of the bonus action used for the
feature.

HANDS
NAME CARDS BENEFIT
Straight Any five sequential cards,
regardless of house.
You deal an additional 12 damage.
Flush Any five cards of the same
suit, regardless of order.
You deal an additional 10 damage.
Three of a
Kind
Any three of the same
card.
You deal an additional 6 damage.
Pair Any two of the same card. You deal an additional 2 damage.
Hearts Any two hearts. You gain temporary hit points equal to your Intelligence modifier.
Spades Any two spades. Your movement speed increases by 10 feet until the start of your
next turn.
Diamonds Any two diamonds. You gain a +1 bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn.
Clubs Any two clubs. You gain a +1 bonus to saving throws until the start of your next.

ACE IN THE HOLE
Beginning at 18th level, you are a deckmaster.
Whenever you would draw one or more cards from
your deck, draw twice as many. Put half of the drawn
cards on the bottom of your deck and the other cards
in your hand.