Every Fortune Has a Loser
A gambler-wizard’s treasured spellbook turns chance into leverage, but every winning hand leaves someone else holding the loss.
Spellbook · Wizard, Wagering Misfortune · Level 5
Every Fortune Has a Loser
A gambler-wizard’s treasured spellbook turns chance into leverage, but every winning hand leaves someone else holding the loss.
Ex librisMara VennWizardry, practiced as the study of wagers, odds, and consequence
At a glance
Level
5
Wizard, Wagering Misfortune
Spells
12
2 cantrips, 2 signature
Spell slots
1st level
2nd level
3rd level
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
12 spellsCantrips
2- Make one attack with a weapon or Unarmed Strike. On a hit, the attack deals its normal damage and extra Radiant damage; the weapon or strike can use your spellcasting ability for its attack and damage rolls.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Self; one creature you attack
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Make a melee or ranged attack with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike, using your spellcasting ability for the attack and damage rolls.
- Damage
- Radiant
- Higher levels
- The damage increases at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- On a hit, the target takes Necrotic damage and cannot regain Hit Points until the start of your next turn.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature within reach
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Make a melee spell attack against one creature within reach.
- Damage
- Necrotic
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
1st level
4- For the duration, sense the presence of magic within 30 feet. You can take the Magic action to see an aura around a visible magical creature or object and learn its school, if any.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- Self; magical effects within 30 feet
- Components
- V, S, M (a brass coin)
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- Summon a spirit in the form of an animal familiar. It obeys your commands, can deliver touch spells, and disappears when reduced to 0 Hit Points or when you dismiss it; casting the spell again lets you choose a new form or make the familiar reappear.
- Duration
- 1 hour
- Target
- One spirit in an animal form
- Components
- V, S
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- Until the start of your next turn, gain a bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and take no damage from Magic Missile.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- None; triggered by being hit by an attack or targeted by Magic Missile.
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- Cover the ground in a 10-foot square with nonflammable grease. The area is Difficult Terrain for the duration.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- Ground in a 10-foot square
- Components
- V, S, M (a drop of molasses)
- Save or attack
- Creatures in the area when the spell is cast make a Dexterity saving throw; a creature that enters or ends its turn there also makes the save or falls Prone.
- Higher levels
- The Cube's side increases by 5 feet for each spell slot level above 1.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
2nd level
4- Receive an omen from an otherworldly entity about the results of a specific course of action you plan to take within the next 30 minutes. The omen indicates weal, woe, both weal and woe, or nothing.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S, M (a set of marked bones)
- Higher levels
- Casting this spell again before finishing a Long Rest gives a cumulative 25 percent chance per casting after the first that you receive a random reading.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- Briefly surrounded by silvery mist, teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- Create three illusory duplicates of yourself. When a creature targets you with an attack during the spell, roll to determine whether it targets you or a duplicate; a duplicate is destroyed when hit.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- None; attack rolls against you can target a duplicate instead, according to the spell's rules.
- Higher levels
- No effect from using a higher-level spell slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- Conjure sticky webs in a 20-foot Cube. The webs are Difficult Terrain and lightly obscure their area. A Restrained creature can use its action to make a Strength check against your spell save DC, ending the condition on a success.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
- Target
- A point within range; webs fill a 20-foot Cube
- Components
- V, S, M (three loops of knotted spider silk)
- Save or attack
- A creature in the webs when they appear, or entering or ending its turn there, makes a Dexterity saving throw or is Restrained.
- Higher levels
- The Cube's side increases by 5 feet for each spell slot level above 2.
- Conditions
- Restrained
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
3rd level
2- When a creature you can see within range casts a spell with a Verbal, Somatic, or Material component, attempt to interrupt it. On a failed save, the spell fails and has no effect.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature casting a spell within range
- Components
- S
- Save or attack
- The target makes a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, its spell fails and has no effect.
- Higher levels
- If the target spell's level is higher than the slot used, the target has Advantage on its save for each level of difference.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
- A bright streak flashes to a point you choose and blossoms into an explosion of flame. The fire spreads around corners and ignites flammable objects not being worn or carried.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Creatures in a 20-foot-radius Sphere centered on a point within range
- Components
- V, S, M (a pinch of sulfur)
- Save or attack
- Each creature in a 20-foot-radius Sphere makes a Dexterity saving throw, taking half damage on a success.
- Damage
- Fire
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by for each spell slot level above 3.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2024)
In the margins
4 notes
WarningNever call it luck. Luck is only a debt whose creditor has not yet arrived.
DiaryThe raven chose the name Knave. I did not. It also refuses to carry losing cards.
FormulaThree coins in a triangle: one for the wager, one for the witness, and one for the poor fool who thinks the game is fair.- WarningIf the silver thread snaps during the reading, stop. The answer has already been purchased.
The book itself
The book’s owner insists that luck is never free; it merely sends the bill to someone else.
Its brass page-marker is a thin, bent coin that always lands on its edge when dropped.
The caster
Wizardry, practiced as the study of wagers, odds, and consequenceMara Venn
Studies: Divination and carefully timed defensive magicManner: Polite, observant, and unhurried. She lets others mistake her restraint for indecision.Focus: A chipped brass coin pierced with a hole and threaded on a black cord; she flips it to mark the start of a spell, never to decide what she will do.Quirk: Whenever someone says they are feeling lucky, she quietly asks who they expect to lose.Wants: Find the vanished proprietor of the Gilded Wheel and learn who has been paying the cost of her best breaks.Mara Venn learned probability from a traveling cardsharp and wizardry from the con artist who tried to cheat her. She keeps the folio as both spellbook and record of every bargain she regrets.
The book
A compact, oxblood leather codex with brass corner guards, a roulette-wheel diagram embossed on its cover, and pages edged in alternating gold and black. Tiny tally marks crowd the margins; some are crossed out in fresh ink.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatLeather-bound folio
ThemeEvery fortune has a loser.
Written by aWizard, Wagering Misfortune
Caster level5
SystemDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (2024)
Plot hooks
1A desperate cardsharp claims the wizard’s familiar cheated him out of a fortune, and brings a witness who remembers the game differently.
2The codex’s original owner has returned to collect a debt written in invisible ink, with the payment due from whoever currently carries the book.
3A sealed gambling hall is said to contain the ledger that records every misfortune diverted by the spells in this folio. Its entries include the names of the party.
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