Cartomancer Feat - Spell Slot - Rules & Game Mechanics - Dungeons & Dragons Discussion - D&D Beyond Forums (2024)

Quote from Erik_Soong >>

The feat allows you to imbue a non-magical item with a spell you may not even know, turning it into a consumable magical item. Without the aid of magical items, you cannot cast a spell you do not know. This feat gives you a hackerman version of the Artificer infusion feature. There are no spell slots used in the imbuing or use of the spell because you are not casting the spell, the magic item is. Similar to how infused items only use your action economy to use.

In closing. ^^^

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Quote from Erik_Soong >>

Once again, can you furnish an example of a magical item that is not a magic item?

Items invested with magic by an artificer's Magical Tinkering

At 1st level, you learn how to invest a spark of magic into mundane objects. To use this ability, you must have thieves’ tools or artisan’s tools in hand. You then touch a Tiny nonmagical object as an action and give it one of the following magical properties of your choice

Genie warlock's Genie's Vessel

See Also

DnD Races: A Comprehensive Guide to Character Selection - GadgetMates

Your patron gifts you a magical vessel that grants you a measure of the genie’s power. The vessel is a Tiny object, and you can use it as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells.

Scribes wizard's Wizardly Quill

As a bonus action, you can magically create a Tiny quill in your free hand. The magic quill has the following properties

Items created or imbued with magic by any number of spells, such as cordon of arrows

You plant four pieces of nonmagical ammunition – arrows or crossbow bolts – in the ground within range and lay magic upon them to protect an area.

Just to interject but I am not sure what the purpose of this post is ... three of the four items described explicitly describe themselves as magical so I am uncertain how these can be examples of "magical items that are not a magic item".

"You then touch a Tiny nonmagical object as an action and give it one of the following magical properties of your choice" - you give an item magical properties which makes it a magic item.

"Your patron gifts you a magical vessel that grants you a measure of the genie’s power." - it is explicitly described as a magical vessel making it a magic item.

"The magic quill has the following properties" - the quill is explicitly described as magical so it is a magic item.

All of these items would be detectable with Detect Magic - they are magic items.

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On the topic of whether the card of the cartomancer feat is a magic item. The answer is yes based on the definition in the Sage Advice Compendium.

Is the card imbued with the spell a "magic item". If you take the Sage Advice Compendium into account then the answer is yes.

One of the criteria for something being considered magical is:

"Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description?"

The card mentions a spell selected from your class list and allows you to create its effects so the card is clearly magical by this definition. So, if folks are arguing the card used in the cartomancer feat is not a magic item then they need a house rule or ignore the SAC to reach that conclusion. The last line of the feat also states that the "card loses its magic (when used)" which also indicates that the card is a magic item.

Finally, in terms of RAW, is a spell slot required or not? The answer is that the rules do not define the word "imbue" in the context of placing a spell in an item. Comparable items, like the ring of spell storing or the artificer spell storing item have much clearer wording. It is a DM decision as to whether a spell slot is required and both interpretations are consistent with RAW in my opinion.

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The cartomancer feat is ambiguous because the meaning of the word "imbue" is not defined.

"Hidden Ace. When you finish a long rest, you can choose one spell from your class’s spell list and imbue that spell into a card. The chosen spell must have a casting time of 1 action, and it must be a level for which you have spell slots. The card remains imbued with this spell for 8 hours. While the card is imbued with the spell, you can use a bonus action to flourish the card and cast the spell within. The card then immediately loses its magic."

A similar item is a ring of spell storing that explicitly requires a spell slot to place the spell into the ring and then uses the following wording to later cast it: "While wearing this ring, you can cast any spell stored in it." while the Cartomancer feat uses the wording "cast the spell within".

Is "cast the spell within" equivalent to "cast spell stored in it"? ... if it is, then this would imply that the spell slot for the spell is not needed when casting it. On the other hand, "cast the spell within" could mean that the item contains the instructions to cast the spell and the slot needs to be used when the spell within is cast. No other magic item works that way but it is a possible interpretation.

On the other hand, the ring of spell storing is very explicit in stating that the spell slot is expended when the spell is stored in the ring. The Cartomancer uses the word "imbue" to describe this entire process without defining whether "imbuing" requires a spell slot or not.

The cartomancer feat could have very easily stated that the spell slot needed to be expended when the spell is imbued which would have eliminated the issue but it does not. Ultimately, it comes down to how the DM decides to interpret the word "imbue" and in my opinion the process could equally well require a spell slot or not require a spell slot. There is nothing in the wording that definitively states whether a spell slot is required or not making this entirely a DM call until WOTC provides clarification.

Quote from David42 >>

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Quote from Erik_Soong >>

Once again, can you furnish an example of a magical item that is not a magic item?

Items invested with magic by an artificer's Magical Tinkering

At 1st level, you learn how to invest a spark of magic into mundane objects. To use this ability, you must have thieves’ tools or artisan’s tools in hand. You then touch a Tiny nonmagical object as an action and give it one of the following magical properties of your choice

Genie warlock's Genie's Vessel

Your patron gifts you a magical vessel that grants you a measure of the genie’s power. The vessel is a Tiny object, and you can use it as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells.

Scribes wizard's Wizardly Quill

As a bonus action, you can magically create a Tiny quill in your free hand. The magic quill has the following properties

Items created or imbued with magic by any number of spells, such as cordon of arrows

You plant four pieces of nonmagical ammunition – arrows or crossbow bolts – in the ground within range and lay magic upon them to protect an area.

Just to interject but I am not sure what the purpose of this post is ... three of the four items described explicitly describe themselves as magical so I am uncertain how these can be examples of "magical items that are not a magic item".

"You then touch a Tiny nonmagical object as an action and give it one of the following magical properties of your choice" - you give an item magical properties which makes it a magic item.

"Your patron gifts you a magical vessel that grants you a measure of the genie’s power." - it is explicitly described as a magical vessel making it a magic item.

"The magic quill has the following properties" - the quill is explicitly described as magical so it is a magic item.

All of these items would be detectable with Detect Magic - they are magic items.

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They are items that are magical in that they will register as such, but that does not mean that a level 4 feat grants you an additional copy of any one spell slot you have. It's like "melee weapon attack" vs "attack with a melee weapon"; the words are still there and there's significant overlap, but they are still two distinct things that interact with other aspects of the game differently.

Quote from David42 >>

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Quote from David42 >>

Without including the spell slot, I'm not sure the ability to cast a designated spell as a bonus action is really worth a feat.

You don't see the value in casting, say, dimension door as a bonus action and still having your action free that turn? Or, if you want lower-level examples, armor of agathys, bane,faerie fire etc.?

I see a lot of value in that but I don't really think it is equivalent to many other feats or an ASI. It is also a 1/day use so it becomes situational in terms of when it will be best to use it. So, yes it is a nice to have feature, but without including the spell slot for the casting it just doesn't have enough utility and value, in my opinion, to be worthwhile.

The equivalent existing feat would be Metamagic Adept, which can also give you a 1/day Quicken, but with Cartomancer you trade the extra Metamagic options for prestidigitation

They at least seem balanced against each other

Quote from David42 >>

All of these items would be detectable with Detect Magic - they are magic items.

They are absolutely not "magic items" as defined by the rules. They don't have rarities, don't have the standard magic item damage resistance, etc. Again, contrast artificer's Infuse Item feature -- which explicitly says "The magic items you create with this feature are effectively prototypes of permanent items" with Magical Tinkering, which has no such language