Bards of the College of Four Suits see games of chance as challenging questions of fate and predetermination. These charismatic players can see the threads of fate hard at work with every roll of the dice and card draw, providing timeless material for their magic and musings. By bearing witness to this magic firsthand, bards of this college believe that the future is something that can be directed, if not controlled. As such, these magicians, tricksters, and fortune tellers play along in a never-ending game against their future selves, strategically twisting luck in their ever-growing favor to force the hand of fate itself.
3rd Level: Arcane Deck
When you join the College of Four Suits at 3rd level, you find a way to twist your bardic magic in new ways using the magic of chance. You gain proficiency with playing card sets, if you don’t already have it, and you can use playing card sets as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses playing card sets, such as Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) or Charisma (Performance) checks made to either cheat or perform card tricks, respectively.
In addition, you can transform a mundane playing card set into a magic one, called an arcane deck, using a special ritual while holding the cards. The ritual takes 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. You can then dismiss the deck (no action required), shunting it into an extradimensional space.
The deck also disappears if it’s more than 120 feet away from you for 1 minute or more, or if you die. You can summon the arcane deck to an empty hand using a bonus action, and can use it as a normal playing card set. You can replace your arcane deck by performing the 1-hour ritual on another playing card set. When you do, the previous arcane deck becomes a nonmagical playing card set again. The deck appears at your feet if it is in the extradimensional space when this happens.
You use this arcane deck for your College of Four Suits features, drawing and playing cards as described in them and using the following rules:
The arcane deck uses a standard deck of 52 cards, removing any jokers from the deck. You can use a deck of playing cards at your table for these features or use a digital tool instead.
An ace counts as 1, and a jack, queen, or king counts as a 10.
At 3rd level, your maximum hand size is 3. Your maximum hand size increases when you reach certain levels in this class, becoming 4 cards at 6th level, and 5 cards at 14th.
Played and discarded cards disappear and are placed in a discard pile to the side of the deck. When you finish a long rest, shuffle the discard pile back into the deck. Discarded cards are unavailable to your arcane deck while you’re in combat, but can otherwise be used as normal when using the deck as a playing card set.
3rd Level: Hand of Fate
At 3rd level, you draw a hand of cards whenever you roll for initiative, up to your maximum hand size, called a hand of fate. You keep these cards until they’re played or until the combat resolves, at which time any remaining cards in your hand are discarded. When you draw these cards, your arcane deck and drawn cards magically appear and float in the air within easy reach for the duration. While the arcane deck is summoned in this way, you don’t need to be holding it in order to use it as a spellcasting focus.
You can play multiple cards at a time and combine their values provided that they’re all from the same suit. Regardless of what your cards’ combined value is, it can’t exceed your bard spell save DC. After a card is played and its effect resolves, it disappears from your hand and is placed in your discard pile.
You can play cards from your hand of fate in a variety of ways as described below.
- Fate Change. You can choose to forgo rolling a d20 for an attack roll or ability check to play one or more cards from your hand (no action required), using their combined value to determine the roll instead. You can wait until after you roll the d20 before deciding to use this feature, but must decide before the GM says whether the roll succeeds or fails. Once you use this ability, you can’t do so again until you roll initiative again and draw a new hand.
If you can eventually replace a d20 roll with a combined card value of 20 or more, it doesn’t count as a critical hit or success on the roll you replace it with.
- Trick. You can use an action to send one or more cards from your hand hurtling at a creature that you can see within 30 feet of you (other than yourself).
Clubs or Spades. If the cards’ suit is a club or spade, make a ranged spell attack against the target, using your spell attack bonus. On a hit, the target takes force damage equal to the cards’ combined value.
Diamonds or Hearts. If the cards’ suit is a diamond or heart, the target gains a number of temporary hit points equal to the cards’ combined value, which last for 1 minute or until you use this Trick again.
Whenever you expend a use of your Bardic Inspiration, you can draw 2 cards from the deck and choose 1 of them to add to your hand, placing the second card on the bottom of the deck. If your hand is full when you add a new card in this way, you can choose to either discard a card from your hand and replace it with the new one or simply place it on the bottom of the deck without replacing any cards in your hand.
When you reach 6th level in this class, the number of cards you draw and keep whenever you expend a use of your Bardic Inspiration increases by 1. At 14th level, you can choose to place the leftover card back on top of the deck, rather than the bottom.
3rd Level: Hole Cards
Also at 3rd level, when you finish a long rest, you can draw up to your maximum hand size from your arcane deck. Choose 1 of those cards and shuffle the remainder back into the deck. This card is called your hole card, and remains separate from your arcane deck and hand of fate.
The number of hole cards you keep when you finish a long rest increases when you reach certain levels in this class, becoming 2 cards at 6th level, and 3 cards at 14th.
When you roll a d20 to make an attack roll or ability check, you can choose to play a hole card and add its value to the total of the roll. You make this decision after you roll the d20, but before the GM says whether the roll succeeds or fails. Regardless of the value of the card, it can’t exceed the maximum value of your Bardic Inspiration die. For example, if your Bardic Inspiration die is a d6, a 7 card or higher would be treated as a 6.
While in combat, you can choose to play hole cards as though they were a card from your hand of fate.
This subclass is from the Griffon's Saddlebag and has been playtested and revised.
6th Level: Royal Flush
Starting at 6th level, you’ve learned how to draw more magic from your arcane deck and influence those around you. You can use an action to play a jack, queen, or king card from your hand of fate or hole cards to cast the command spell from it at 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level, respectively, using your bard spell save DC and without expending a spell slot. Once you play a card in this way, you can’t do so again with that card from any other suit until you finish a long rest. In addition, the range of your Trick feature increases to 60 feet, instead of 30.
14th Level: Ace
By 14th level, you’re an expert at using cards to influence your fortune and succeed. Your feature becomes more powerful in the following ways:
An ace counts as a 10 for you, instead of a 1.
You can choose to combine cards of the same value, rather than suit, when playing them as part of your Fate Change or Trick features. When played as part of a Trick in this way, you choose which suit to use between all the ones played when determining the kind of Trick it is.
If you hit a target with a Club or Spade Trick, you can add your Charisma modifier to the total of the damage dealt by the attack. The Trick’s total damage dealt still can’t exceed your bard save DC.
You can use your Fate Change feature twice during combat, instead of once.
If you have an ace in your hand of fate or as a hole card, you can use your reaction to play it when you see a creature within 60 feet of you make an attack roll or ability check, expending a use of your Fate Change feature if you’re in combat and replacing the target’s d20 roll with either a 1 or 10 (your choice). You can choose to use this reaction after the creature makes its roll, but before the DM determines whether the attack roll or ability check succeeds or fails. If the creature is unwilling, it can make a Charisma saving throw against your bard save DC, ignoring the effect and using the original roll on a success.
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