The Deck of Many Things...

Hurk Fun · Post by **Hurk Fun** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:30 pm

It's not giving me THRONE. What's strange is I actually managed to get it once, but I forgot to save, and the Quasits in one of the Wild Magic rooms apparently managed to permanently sex change my swashbuckler. This was highly annoying to me, so I reloaded. And, despite following the Strategy Guide's recommendations for getting the card to the letter, I have been unable to draw it since.

The game acts like I never drew a bad card, even when I certainly have (I try for Dondon, since my paladin can usually make his save vs. death). The second draw recognizes the fact, but not the third. I don't know if it's a glitch or what, but it's extremely annoying. I've only got one more gem to pick up, and I'm itching to get to the fourth floor, but I want my 1,000,000 exp. first.

Any suggestions? I can't find any posts about this particular problem, even with the site's search function. I even tried Google without success. PLEASE, tell me my game's not screwed up.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:00 pm

That is an unusual problem. You're not running any mods, are you? And you've got the game fully patched?

Hurk Fun · Post by **Hurk Fun** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:22 pm

Mod-free and fully installed, no cheats. It usually plays like a perfectly normal multiplayer game. I'm not sure about patched. If it isn't, though, wouldn't I have to restart the game before the patch took effect? Because that would suck badly. I've done quite a bit, and technically I could just get the third gem and take the fourth floor already.

EDIT: OK, my brother says with certainty that the game is patched. I'm stumped, basically.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:10 pm

So am I. I just checked to see if there were any mods that addressed the DoMT as buggy, but none showed up. Let's wait and see if anybody else has any possible answers.

Consider, too, checking out the Bioware BG2 forum--perhaps doing a search on the deck.

Celacena · Post by **Celacena** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 10:47 am

Throne

I had throne, but I had other party-members in tow and wanted to be selfish, so I reloaded.

It took me more than an hour of reloads to get throne again - kept getting comet and other annoying stuff.

what I did was to save (solo) and pull the first card - if I liked it, I saved again, if i didn't, I went back and reloaded until I did.
then I did the same with the 2nd card - not overwriting the first save.
then-with the right combination of 1st and 2nd cards, I saved and continued.
It took a lot of re-loads before Throne came up - I don't know the probability, but from my experience, it may be pretty low.

patience may be the key.

Saros · Post by **Saros** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:17 am

And I usually get Throne right in the moment I don't want to(in a solo no-reload). Maybe you're just constantly unlucky. Keep reloading...

Celacena wrote:
It took me more than an hour of reloads to get throne again - kept getting comet and other annoying stuff.

Comet is annoying? Well, imho, this is the best choice, better than even Throne. Because experience is abundant, while permanent resistance rewards are not!

Hurk Fun · Post by **Hurk Fun** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:58 pm

I'll try the patient strategy. If, after 100 reloads or so, I still can't pull the shiny card, I'll just screw it and finish up with completing the Scepter.

I'm hitting myself right now, because I got impatient with Aesgareth's game and fireballed his arse back to hell without picking up the goodies he was offering. I thought they would show up on his corpse, but it turns out the only way to get them, apparently, is to gamble for them. I would have been a bit more patient, too, if I had known the Spectral Band was a +4 scimitar. It sounded like a belt or something to me. I really tried to get them, though. I just kept getting the same results every time. I wish I had been more patient there.

(BTW, I agree that throne is better than comet, but the latter isn't a bad draw. If you got more than +5% resistance for it, it might not be so bad at all.)

EDIT: I did it! I don't know why, but simply by going back to Waukeen's Promenade, buying something I wanted in order to reduce the needless loss of gold, and playing RUIN instead of DONJON, I was able to get THRONE again with little difficulty. Perhaps it really was just luck.

Anyway, my problems are solved for now and Watcher's Keep is mine tonight. :devil: Thanks for your help!

Saros · Post by **Saros** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 12:52 am

I think you may wanna reconsider and replay Aesgerath's gambling competition once more. Why? Well...

1. When you play and win a certain item(Scroll of Wish or Spectral Brand), you get 25 000 quest xp points for each of them. Meaning 50000 quest xp for all your party. In a party of six, that is 300 000 xp. You wanna miss that???

2. When you play the last gamble, the moment it starts, you get 20 000 quest xp more! Another 120 000 xp for a party of six. So far you've missed 420 000 xp!

3. Spectral Brand:

Scimitar +4, damage 1d8 +4 + additional 1d4 cold damage

Summons spectral blade once per day for 4 rounds - the blade is considered +4 weapon, is magic 100% resistant(cannot be killed by Disintegrate, FoD, Flesh to stone and other annoying things that can kill a Mordy sword), physical damage 100% resistant, elemental highly resistant(95% I think).

Can be upgraded by Cespenar the Imp:

Upgraded version:

+5, damage 1d8 +5 + additional 1d6 cold damage.

Spectral blade - same as above, although it counts as +5 weapon. Note that, unlike Ras, you can actually fight with the Spectral Brand while Spectral Blade is active.

Negative Plane Protection when equipped!

Armor Piercing Strike once per day - +10 THAC0 for 3 rounds.

In short, this weapon is one of the best in the game.

Scroll of Wish - there is a total of 3 Wish scrolls in the game - one is in the lower WK levels, in a very, very hard battle, the other is sold in the beginning of ToB, and this is the third one! So it is a must-have item!

So with your greed for the "Throne", you've actually missed 420 000 xp and 2 of the most valuable items in the game. And, if you *so* want a great reward from the Deck, do try reloading until you get the card 'Key'...

Hurk Fun · Post by **Hurk Fun** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 4:05 am

I...hope...I have a save before I did all this.

I had NO friggin idea I was missing so much. I'm afraid of spoiling myself too much, so the most I ever looked at up until now is a list of all the items in the game (and not specifically how to get them).

I can live without the Band, though the need for powerful weapons is half the reason I ventured into the keep as early as I did (My highest level character as of now? A level 13 swashbuckler. I haven't even done any missions for the Shadow Thieves yet, besides paying them their money). The wish scroll, however...isn't that supposed to be one of the most desirable objects you're ever likely to get in a D&D game? And 420,000 EXP is almost a third of what I got out of the deck.

Just...gah.

I might restart over it. I don't know, I don't particularly like to restart games at all, especially since I'm obsessive about the reroll button and often tire myself out on the Character Creation screen trying to get near-impossible numbers. I drive myself batty sometimes. Granted, I could simply upload my Pit Fiend-slaying heroes into the first part of the game, but the other half of the reason I went to Watcher's Keep while still at a relatively low level of experience is to challenge myself and my team; importing would count against that.

What do you think? What exactly does a scroll of wish do and how much less satisfying will my game probably be if I'm missing one? There are other +5 swords, and I can at least partially make up for the exp. lost, but I can't replace that scroll without cheating.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:31 am

Unlike in standard D&D, the Wish spell in BG limits you to the given options, which are dependent on your intelligence AND wisdom scores. Also, you CAN learn the spell as a mage (or a specialist mage, given that it's not part of your oposing school). If those scores aren't high enough and if you can't get them that high (and you can, through potions) it's of no use to you. While it can be useful at time, depending on the situation and the options presented to you, I never really use it. The game just doesn't call for it and the best wish, in my opinion, lets you rememorize all your spells, so you can cast them again and that's only useful if you have something against resting or are involved in a large scale battle. Either way, you have a few more opportunities to get the scroll and unless you plan on going farther into Watcher's Keep (depending on how you decide to play), you shouldn't need it in SoA. Besides, as I said before, you can learn it so your mages would be able to cast it at will, if you have the spell memorized that is.

I say that it's not that important as to restart so you should continue on. One of those scrolls is sold at a store in ToB and I really don't think that you'll miss it.

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:41 am

You are overestimating the importance the deck of many things.
Unlimited XP can be obtained elsewhere easily, so permanent stat boosts or the RoP+3 are the most useful things you get from the cards, but it doesn't really matter if one of 6 party members gets a little benefit or not.

Many have beaten the game without ever bothering about the deck of many things, so don't bother with reload orgies, keep on playing and have fun.

Endless reload orgies or excessive use the wish spell ("please mighty genie help us weaklings") is not what I'd expect from a heroic party.

Saros · Post by **Saros** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:09 am

The Deck is of little importance to a party, and I too don't like reloading in order to get the most of the deck(even with a solo). There are some places to achieve unlimited xp, although I will not give them away here. I don't use them either since it spoils the fun of the game.

The most important things here are the Spectral Brand and the scroll of Wish. Indeed, Wish can be learned by your mages, but in a spellcaster-heavy party, Wish is the rarest scroll available so one more is always essential. The Spectral Brand offers Negative Plane Protection, an essential thing to have especially if you run Ascension or some other tough mod. There are only five items granting permanent NPP - Spectral brand +5, Angurvadal +5, Runehammer +4/+5, Amulet of Power and Improved Mace of Disruption +2. If your protagonist is of Good alignment and you're running Ascension, then it is possible to protect all of your party from the Negative Energy plane only by assembling the collection above + completiing one of the Pocket Plane challenges.

BTC · Post by **BTC** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:14 am

I have a problem... my character has been silenced and strength reduced to 6 after Aesgerath's gambling competition... I didn't realise this and have subsequently saved over my latest games/quicksave and and made the mistake of leaving the area, so there goes the autosave...

Tried greater restoration, heal a bunch of potions with nothing...

Is there any way to reverse these problems? Or are the effects permanent? IF they are is it possible to get a profile editor so i can restore it that way?

Cheers,
BTC.

[Edit:]
Nevermind, found a character editor that was able to get rid of the effects...

Bit of a pain in the arse that deck!

Grombag · Post by **Grombag** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:45 am

Remove curse was the course of action against the strength thingy. As for the silence I don't know, are you sure you couldn't just sleep it of?

BTC · Post by **BTC** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:16 am

Grombag wrote:Remove curse was the course of action against the strength thingy. As for the silence I don't know, are you sure you couldn't just sleep it of?

It was really weird, remove curse didn't work, heal didn't work, several potions didn't work and no amount of rest would remove either effect. I recall something in the Deck's description that says the effects are permanent? The two effects were a direct cause of the 'strength' and 'high priestess' cards or something like that...

"the effects are irreversible" is in the description...

Dummy · Post by **Dummy** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:56 am

i had the pulled strength too, and was able to remove it with "remove curse"

btw, luck helps a lot!!! with both encounters of the deck.

Celacena · Post by **Celacena** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:12 am

I have just acquired the deck again - won brand and wish in straight draws, no reloads needed.

I really like Spectral brand for Jaheira when she is in the party (& wearing a girdle of strength), but because of its no-drain policy, it is a good offhand weapon and worth getting a * in scimitars for.

I didn't realise that Luck would help. I have to decide which party members would benefit from the xp - there is little point giving a share of the throne to an almost maxxed character. It also provides the chance to dual class a character to a decent level.

I had done WK in BG2 and exported the character, which I then used in a ToB game from scratch. her stats are generally 20s after Lum's machine had its way with her (didn't waste the INT point though and gave it to a MU).

I'm not sure starting as a Kensai was such a great idea - dualled at level 12 and the armour prohibition was a real b-tch until she got UAI as a thief ability. now with white dragon scale (thanks whoever pointed that one out!) she's about -14 AC before I have Edwin use spirit armour on her.

spirit armour was how I got through unscathed without being able to use protection earlier on. It is very worthwhile as a protection.

she had been in a multiplayer party that used the deck - will that prevent it being used again?