Deck of Many Things-SPOILER

[tri4ko]

Spoiler ahead:
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I wonder whether the effects from the Deck of Many Things are permanent.When i used it i got "Mantle".Does someone know whether this will be permanent?It would be great.I am not sure but for me it last more than 4 rounds(I even slept and still got it).The other thing is if i play the game with that cambion the effects are also permanent(that "plague" or "strength" curses).I didn't got them.I simply killed the cambion and got The Deck.Any help will be much appreciated.I looked over the pages of this forum and didn't find any thread on this.

[Pennance]

The effects are not permanent, although at one point I did earn 1 point in one of my ability scores from the deck. As far as the negative effects, all you need is a Remove Curse spell to rid yourself of Plague or Strength or what-not. Nevertheless, in the end everything is Balanced.

[masteraleph]

Not sure about Plague, but it's probably just a Remove Curse situation.
If you'd like to read on, here is an explanation on how the deck works (credit goes to Sestuna on the Black Isle MBs)
MAJOR SPOILER ON HOW THE DECK OF MANY THINGS WORKS!!!
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Don't steal this faq unless you give me credit. Please. I wrote it first, fair and square.
This is a list of all the possible outcomes from the deck of many things. I was dissappointed; DaveG said that it circumvented the save/reload thing. He lied. He also said that the strategy guide missed one. He also lied. That is, unless the file itself is lying to me (which I doubt).
Here's how the deck works. Keep in mind this is a *BIG* spoiler!
Here's how it works. *'ed cards are considered Bad Draws. The previous draw affects the subsequent draw. Note that some of the other draws can be pretty bad too, but they're not considered BAD in terms of subsequent drawing. Once you have drawn a BAD card, you will have to continue using the BAD draw list. This means that if you draw a good, then bad card, your third draw will be from the bad list.
First draw (random):
-Donjon* (Imprison user, save at -4)
-Ruin* (Party loses all gold)
-Euryale (permanent -1 to all saves, no save. ha ha.)
-Flames (Gate in a Balor and 4 fire elementals to play with)
-Gem (Get a rogue stone, king's tear, sapphire, diamond, ruby and emerald)
-Jester (User gets 50,000 exp)
Second Draw (if first draw was a BAD card):
-Void* (Disintegrates user, save at -4)
-Key (Get a powerful magic item, I think it's a ring of protection +3)
-Star (Get +1 to one stat, depending on class (fight/barb/pal/ranger str, mage/sorc int, thief/bard dex, monk/cleric/druid wis)
-Rogue (User is dire charmed and attacks the party until dead. Cannot be dispelled, so kill the person and raise him/her)
-Sun (party gains 300,000 exp)
-Vizier (User gets a mantle spell that lasts 24 hours)
Second Draw (if first draw was a NOT a BAD card):
-Void* (see above)
-Magician* (user turned into a rabbit. Cure with remove curse)
-Knight (summons 4 demon knights to duke it out. They do not drop equipment once killed)
-Rogue (see above)
-Sun (see above)
-Vizier (see above)
Third Draw (no BAD cards yet). Note that this is the final draw you can pull.
-Skull (Gates in a Death Shade to play with. He attacks with +5 weapons, dispels magic with each hit, 100% magic resist, resists most attacks, sees invisible and attacks fast. Only tries to kill the user, and once the user is dead, leaves)
-Moon (+10 hp permanently)
-Talons (user permanently blinded until remove curse is cast)
-Fool (user's Wisdom lowered to 3 + confusion (no save). remove curse to restore wisdom, dispel to fix the confusion)
-Comet (5% fire resist permanently)
-Erinyes (+1 to all stats for 24 hours, also called the Fates)
Third Draw (Bad card happened sometime along the way)
-Skull (see above)
-Throne (party gains 1,000,000 exp)
-Moon (see above)
-Fool (see above)
Draw again? Deck dissappears. By the way, if you want to cheat, you can play with the global variables to manipulate what kind of draws you get, though you still get an equal chance in each case. The global variable is DOMTdraw. A value of 0 means no cards drawn yet, 1 means 1 drawn, etc. If the variable value is 3, it will auto-dissappear whenever you draw another one. The global to see if you've gotten a BAD card draw is BadCardDrawn. 1 meaning yes, 0 meaning no. If you don't mess with the global variables, if you cheat in a deck of many things (item code: deck), your first draw (from the second (cheated) deck will make the deck dissappear (DOMTdraw = 3).
Optimally, you probably want that 1,000,000 exp, you'll go for a bad card in the first draw (and survive, hopefully), then go for either Star, Sun or Key in the second draw, then the Throne in the third. However, I did notice that there are only 4 possibilities on the third draw after having drawn a bad card before. Perhaps those are undisclosed happenings, but I haven't seen it yet. Perhaps that was what DaveG was talking about before, that the strategy guide missed, because everything else shown in here is listed in the guide. If you want to cheat, you can set the global variable BadCardDrawn to 1 before you even start drawing, so you can get a *good* card (jester) in the first draw, and still get to those other cards in the subsequent ones.
Hope it helps.
--Setsuna

[Avatar]

sounds dangerous but powerful

Any more info on the Death Shade?

[tri4ko]

Thanks a lot guys.Btw the Death Shade was not that powerful.I got him in the third draw.Looks like a Bone Golem.Thanks again.