Gambling with the Deck of Many Things!

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On level 3 of Watcher's Keep with the Cambion, is it even possible to win? I have probably started/restarted the game 50 times and the only 2 options i get are "Strife" and "Plague"...really freaking annoying...

 

you will allways get either strife or plague on your 1st draw.
strife is the better option, having a higher value.
the cambion will draw either Triumph, which is valued lower, in which case you win the first rounf, or Construct which is valued higher then strife, so you lose.
Both triumph and construct are valued higher then plague, so if you drew plague you lose whichever one of the 2 the cambion draws.

on the second draw strength is the highest value card you can draw, you should win no matter what the cambion draws if you get it.
If you gamble for the gem on the second draw and win, the cambion will attack you.

there is no way to win the third draw, the cambion will allways win here.

 

I know how you feel. I usually end up loosing as well.

***SPOILERS below***





Don't pull the 3rd card if you want to fight the Cambion and his buddies. I always go over to the portal (that you can't activate yet), set some nice traps up near where the divider is then use an invisible mage to get just out of sight and cast Death Fog or Cloud Kill or something like that. If you do it right it will force the clerics to heal the others and themselves. Eventually they run out of healing spells and start to die off. It takes a couple spells but it works. I have had the enemies get some common sense and run over to kick my butt. Kinda random for me. Maybe I got to close? I think one of the tieflings has a True Sight spell so that probably got me for being to close.

Or you can fight them the uncheesy way and face off against the Cambion his 2 cats and the Tieflings (I thinks that's all of them). They cast hast so be ready for that. There's also at least 1 thief that will sneak over and backstab you.

IF you kill the cambion & his buddies you can loot the deck off his body. I think I got 3 more draws before it disappears. I had better luck that way as compared to playing the game with the cambion.

I don't remember if you get to loot the Specrtal Brand off of the cambion or not. Been a long time sense I've been there. I always play for that 1st anyway so I don't know.

The cambion has the 3rd "jewel" I guess you can call it. As soon as you pick it up it goes into the exit device and the portal can be used.

 

From some guide that I don't know where I got from anymore:

Spoiler

There are 2 possible effects in each draw, both for you and for him. Your
draw is worth a specific number of 'suit' points. The more points, the
higher the suit. If your suit points are higher than his, you win the
gamble. If you tie, he wins.

1st draw:

You:
Plague - Gambler is Cursed - 1 point
Strife* - Gambler is Slowed - 3 points

Him:
Triumph - 1 point
Construct - 4 points

2nd draw:

You:
Strength - Gambler's str and con are reduced to 6 - 6 points
Guile - Summons 6 assassins to play with - 2 points

Him:
Defiance - 2 points
Empress - 3 points

3rd Draw:

You:
High Priestess - Silence on gambler - 4 points
Emperor - Permanent Mind Shield - 5 points

Him:
Wheel

If you play for the gem in the second round, you can win the gem from him.
If you do, however, he will go hostile on you and attempt to kill you,
since he *does* want to get out of there.

There is *NO* way to win the last draw. The Cambion will always draw the
wheel on the third, and will walk away with the gem. Unless, of course,
you kill him and his cronies, and take the deck yourself. You can also
pickpocket the Cambion for the Deck as well, and this will *not* affect
what happens when you play with him.

And if you got the deck of many things off of the cambion, you can get some other effects as well:

Spoiler

Here's how the deck as an item 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)
-Comet (see above)
-Erinyes (see above)

If you win the gem from the cambion, you can typically just run away as soon as you know what draw you got (or even before that), but before he announces his draw. Normally, you can get out of his line of sight so that when he turns hostile he'll not attack you straight away.

Note that the Strength card in the second draw will curse you with 6 CON and STR, so you'll need a Remove Curse scroll or spell memorised. Also you'll likely be overburdened if you have 6 STR so you won't be able to move unless you prepare for it. Alternatively, you can go to the group on the top of WK as one of them offers remove curse as a service.

 

Hmm, thanks for the help everyone, I got it now