Fleshwarper

Although darkrunners are content to simply explore underground, those who belong to the guild (which accounts for over ninety percent of darkrunners) offer their services as guides to merchants, pilgrims, or adventurers who need to traverse the gloomy underground regions of the world. They are also called upon to serve as mercenaries in armies that move through the deep earth. PCs might want to hire a darkrunner for any of the above reasons, or they might encounter one alone during an adventure.

Organization

See the presentation of the Darkrunner Guild, page 218.

NPC Reactions

The Darkrunner Guild has a powerful, well-known charter to those who dwell below. A darkrunner is honor-bound to serve and protect his charges from the dangers of the wild, on threat of expulsion and exile from the guild. As a result, most nonaberration underground races react favorably to a darkrunner, and have an initial attitude of no worse than indifferent despite any racial tensions that might exist between the individuals. Aberrations that recognize a character as a darkrunner have an initial attitude of unfriendly at best, since the darkrunners sometimes serve as spies against these races.

DARKRUNNER LORE

Characters with Knowledge (local) can research darkrunners to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: “The darkrunner is an explorer, guide, and spy who focuses his skills on the realm below.”

DC 15: “Most darkrunners belong to a powerful guild. This guild has chapter houses underground, including many in otherwise hostile cities; these houses are excellent places to rest and hide out if you happen to be allied with them.”

DC 20: “All darkrunners are expected to wear a magic badge that proclaims their allegiance to the guild. Some darkrunners have broken their ties with the guild. These darkrunners are dangerous, but one can tell them apart from others by the red glow their emblems emit. Someone who refuses to display his emblem even though he claims to be a darkrunner is probably lying about something.”

DC 30: Characters who achieve this level of success can learn important details about powerful darkrunners and their guild in your campaign. They also know certain passwords that can smooth over initial contacts with a darkrunner and grant a +6 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks made to adjust a darkrunner’s initial attitude.

DARKRUNNERS IN THE GAME

A darkrunner spends most of his time in the vast region of caves and tunnels below the surface world. If the PCs wish to explore underground, they might wish to secure the aid of a darkrunner as a guide. Darkrunners are naturally much sought after as guides to various aberration outposts. A darkrunner NPC could easily ally with adventurers or hire on with them to lead them to an aboleth city or mind fl ayer stronghold.

Adaptation

If your campaign world doesn’t include a subterranean region, you can still use the darkrunner after you make a few adjustments. Simply pick an area of inhospitable terrain, such as a swamp or a high mountain, and base the guild in this region.

You can even have the darkrunners serve as a highly specialized guild within the confi nes of a particularly large city. In this case, the guild would function more like a thieves guild, although one more interested in helping visitors adapt to the city than profi ting from them in an illegal manner. Several of the darkrunner’s abilities can be adapted to work in alleys or dense crowds, although the class’s aberration lore feature should be changed to something more appropriate for the city in question. A sample darkrunner appears in the description of the

Darkrunner Guild on page 218.

FLESH WARPER

The fl esh is the key. It holds the secrets, the hidden words. It is the constant between man and beast and monster. It is a simple matter, once the way of the fl esh is understood and embraced, to use it to your will. It should not be abhorred simply for its differences, because the eye can be retrained to fi nd beauty in all things. For what is more beautiful than the primal fl esh? It is simply the purest form of expression one can hope to achieve.

—Erkin Tiorki, fl eshwarper

The fl eshwarper is destined to walk a lonely path, for few have the stomach to accept what he considers enjoyable. To a fl eshwarper, there is no greater canvas than fl esh itself. To reshape, reform, and rebuild the fl esh into a new form is a closer step to divinity. To a fl eshwarper, there are no taboos, only possibilities.

BECOMING A FLESHWARPER

Most fl eshwarpers are primarily wizards or sorcerers with a level of cleric (or, more rarely, druid); this cleric or druid level raises your maximum ranks in Heal to your character level + 3 even if you were forced to buy several of the required ranks as a cross-class skill. The adept NPC class from the Dungeon Master’s Guide has access to both Heal and Knowledge (arcana), as well as the summon familiar class feature, and thus can qualify for this class by 6th level without multiclassing. Such dedication pays in the long run. The fl eshwarper learns countless eldritch and disturbing secrets that most people can never even guess at. Intelligence is perhaps the most important of the class’s abilities, since many of the fl eshwarper’s class

Table 9 – 6: The Fleshwarper Hit Die: d6 Base Attack Fort Ref Will Graft

Level Bonus Save Save Save Special Reserve Spellcasting 1st +0 +2 +0 +0 Aberrant familiar 500 — 2nd +1 +3 +0 +0 Elder secret 700 +1 level of existing spellcasting class 3rd +1 +3 +1 +1 Graft mastery 900 +1 level of existing spellcasting class 4th +2 +4 +1 +1 Aberrant familiar 1,200 +1 level of existing spellcasting class 5th +2 +4 +1 +1 Elder secret, 1,500 +1 level of existing spellcasting class graft mastery 6th +3 +5 +2 +2 Rapid grafting 2,000 +1 level of existing spellcasting class 7th +3 +5 +2 +2 Aberrant familiar, 2,500 +1 level of existing spellcasting class graft mastery 8th +4 +6 +2 +2 Elder secret 3,000 +1 level of existing spellcasting class 9th +4 +6 +3 +3 Graft mastery 4,000 +1 level of existing spellcasting class 10th +5 +7 +3 +3 Aberrant apotheosis, 5,000 +1 level of existing spellcasting class aberrant familiar

Class Skills (4 + Int modif ier per level): Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Heal, Knowledge (all skills taken individually),

Search, Speak Language, Spellcraft, and Use Magic Device.

skills are keyed to it. The ability keyed to the fl eshwarper’s spellcasting is also important, as is Constitution, since he has fewer hit points than most other characters.

Entry Requirements

Alignment: Any nonlawful.

Skills: Heal 4 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks.

Feat: Graft Flesh†.

Special: Summon familiar class feature. † New feat described on page 216.

CL ASS FEATURES

All of the following are class features of the fl eshwarper prestige class.

Spellcasting: At each level above 1st, you gain new spells per day and an increase in caster level (and spells known, if applicable) as if you had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. You do not, however, gain any other benefi t a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a fl eshwarper, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining spells per day, caster level, and spells known.

Aberrant Familiar (Su): Your familiar (if you have one) becomes tainted by your magic. The familiar’s type changes to aberration, it gains darkvision out to 60 feet, and its form becomes warped. Your aberrant familiar gains one of the abilities described below, as chosen by you. At every third level you gain above 1st, your aberrant familiar gains another ability from those described below. You can’t choose the same ability twice. If your familiar is killed and you obtain a new one, you can choose new aberrant abilities for your new familiar based on your current fl eshwarper level. Your aberrant familiar grants you a +2 bonus on all saving throws against mind-affecting spells and abilities as long as the familiar is within arm’s reach. Your fl eshwarper class levels stack with all other class levels used to determine the familiar’s other attributes (see page 53 of the Player’s Handbook). The abilities your aberrant familiar can have are as follows:

Amorphous Form: A familiar with this ability is immune to extra damage from critical hits and sneak attacks.

Scales: The familiar’s natural armor bonus improves by 4. The familiar gains a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves.

Size Increase: The familiar’s size becomes larger by one category. Consult the Monster Manual for the effects of this size increase on the familiar’s ability scores and other statistics.

Tentacle: The familiar gains a tentacle attack with a reach of 5 feet. The attack deals 1 point of damage (assuming Tiny size). It cannot combine this attack with its other natural attacks. Wings: The familiar can fl y at a speed of 40 feet with good maneuverability. (If the familiar already has a fl y speed, use whichever speed is higher and whichever maneuverability is better.) The familiar gains a +2 bonus on Refl ex saves.

Graft Reserve (Ex): You receive a pool of points you can spend instead of experience points when creating a new graft with your Graft Flesh feat. Each time you gain a class level, you receive a new graft reserve; leftover points from the previous level do not carry over. If the points are not spent, they are lost. You can also use your graft reserve to supplement the XP cost of a graft you are creating, taking a portion of the cost from your graft reserve and a portion from your XP.

Elder Secret (Su): Your continuous self-experimentation in grafting results in occasional improvements to your form. At 2nd level and every three levels thereafter, you make a powerful discovery in your research and learn how to improve your body in a subtle, minor way. Choose one elder secret from those described below when you reach 2nd, 5th, and 8th level.

Secret of the Aboleth: You gain a swim speed equal to your base land speed. You also gain a +8 racial bonus on Swim checks, and can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check even when rushed or threatened.

Secret of the Beholder: Your eyes protrude grotesquely from your head and move independently of each other. You gain a +4 racial bonus on Search and Spot checks, and you can’t be fl anked.

Secret of the Choker: You become preternaturally quick and alert to danger. You gain a +4 racial bonus on initiative checks and a +1 racial bonus on Refl ex saving throws.

Secret of the Destrachan: You gain immunity to damage from sonic energy.

Secret of the Ettercap: You gain a climb speed equal to your base land speed and a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks, and you can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks even if rushed or threatened.

Secret of the Gibbering Mouther: Your form becomes partially amorphous. You have a 25% chance to ignore the extra damage dealt by a critical hit or a sneak attack.

Secret of the Mind Flayer: You gain a +4 racial bonus on saves against mind-affecting spells and abilities.

Secret of the Otyugh: You gain immunity to disease.

Secret of the Umber Hulk: You gain a +2 racial bonus to your natural armor.

Graft Mastery (Ex): You learn how to create and apply grafts normally not available to your race by studying forbidden tomes and consulting ancient nameless sources. When you fi rst gain the Graft Flesh feat, you choose a specifi c type of graft to associate with the feat (most likely silthilar grafts, or beholder or undead grafts from the Fiend Folio or Libris Mortis). At 3rd level, you can select a new type of graft to add to the list. If you choose a graft type that normally requires the creator to be a member of that race (such as aboleth and illithid grafts, or fi endish or yuan-ti grafts from the Fiend Folio), you ignore that restriction completely. You can select a new graft type every time you gain an odd-numbered fl eshwarper level higher than 3rd.

Rapid Grafting (Ex): Starting at 6th level, you can create grafts with shocking speed. Creating a graft with Graft Flesh now requires only 1 hour for each 1,000 gp.

Aberrant Apotheosis (Su): At 10th level, you undergo a transformation into an aberration. Your type changes to aberration, and you gain darkvision out to 60 feet. You also gain a +2 racial bonus to your Constitution score.

PL AYING A FLESHWARPER

While merely becoming a fl eshwarper is by no means an evil act, you need to quickly come to terms with the fact that most people are disgusted and afraid of what you defi ne as beauty. You take pride in your work, and you defend your body’s improvements and those that you gift to others until your dying breath. Yet you need not do so cruelly or with violence; that is far from the best way to bring word of your experiments to the world at large. At best, others think of you as a mad scientist of sorts. You are convinced that your experiments are performed for the betterment of your kind, and that only by improving and refi ning what the deities have gifted to the world can humanoids hope to survive. You tend not to be distracted by morality, ethics, or compassion, yet need not be evil. You fi nd delight in what repulses others, and in so doing you fi nd ways to improve yourself that others could never appreciate.

Combat

Although you’re far from helpless in a fi ght, the time you spend ensconced in your laboratory and investigating new methods to improve the fl esh does not improve your combat skills.

Therefore, you should usually try to avoid direct combat. Instead of just wading into melee, use your grafts and spells to attack at range or to offset your inherent weaknesses before entering combat. If you choose the latter route, you can become quite a menace in combat if you protect yourself beforehand

Erkin Tiorki, a fl eshwarper

Illus. by W. Reynolds

with spells such as bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, stoneskin, mage armor, and the like. Once you are forced into melee, any number of grafts can give you a signifi cant advantage in combat.

Advancement

As you gain levels, don’t be afraid to create new grafts for yourself or your allies. The combination of grafting and the various elder secrets you can learn make you more versatile than your companions. Take care not to generalize too much; you should decide early on what your goal should be with your grafts. Do you want to be a better fi ghter? A better scout? A better spellcaster? Focus your elder secrets and grafts along these lines, and you’ll fi nd yourself in a much stronger position than if your grafts and secrets aren’t complementary. Regarding interactions with others, keep in mind when selecting new grafts for yourself how extreme they appear. If you choose grafts that involve major changes to your appearance, you might fi nd yourself spending resources and time just keeping others from attacking you on sight. One way to combat this problem, of course, is to invest in items such as a hat of disguise or a robe of blending that you can use to disguise your grafts. If you can use them, a wand of polymorph or alter self can be similarly helpful. If you’re not interested in how others react to your true appearance, though, your best bet is to focus your purchases on items that augment the particular type of grafts you select for yourself.

Resources

While most people are repelled by the fl eshwarper’s work, a fl eshwarper is usually an arcane spellcaster of no small skill.

Consequently, a fl eshwarper is often tolerated in wizards’ guilds or other arcane associations, or even welcomed in a guild of evil spellcasters who aren’t very squeamish about a fl eshwarper’s peculiar interests. As a member of a guild or similar organization, a fl eshwarper can often contribute to the organization by teaching new spells, acquiring rare material components, or capturing interesting creatures for study and vivisection. The exact nature of the benefi ts available in return for those efforts depend on the guild in question.

FLESHWARPERS IN THE WORLD

Fleshwarpers don’t make new friends easily; their bizarre obsession with alien grafts makes them diffi cult creatures to approach. As a result, fl eshwarpers live in out-of-the-way places, deep in the wilderness or underground. The few who live in large urban areas tend to be shut-ins and rely on allies or minions to run errands for them. Of course, exceptions exist; rare fl eshwarpers take glee in displaying their bodies and discoveries to the world. Too often, the lonely life of a fl eshwarper leads to cruelty or insanity. Evil fl eshwarpers are sadists who enjoy the torments they infl ict on others as much as they enjoy the thrill of creating new grafts. The PCs might fi nd themselves pitted against a small army of graft-enhanced minions with a fl eshwarper as their leader. Aberrations are drawn to this prestige class as well; a fl eshwarper mind fl ayer or grell would make a memorable villain.

Organization

The study of the fl eshwarper’s art is a solitary pursuit. No organization composed exclusively of fl eshwarpers exists.

However, evil fl eshwarpers sometimes strike bargains with powerful aberrations such as aboleths or mind fl ayers, trading their service and fealty for knowledge of new grafts.

NPC Reactions

Fleshwarpers have diffi cultly interacting with others, especially with the keepers of the Cerulean Sign or the abolishers of the Circle of the True. They are taken to be aberrations themselves, even well before they actually reach apotheosis.

Such individuals have initial reactions of hostile to a fl eshwarper; most others have initial reactions of unfriendly. This extends even to other fl eshwarpers; they guard their secrets jealously and fear the interest of other fl eshwarpers more than anything else.

FLESHWARPER LORE

Characters with Knowledge (arcana) can research fl eshwarpers to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: “Fleshwarpers are spellcasters who specialize in the construction of grafts.”

DC 15: “Fleshwarpers have several minions that they use as guardians and experimental stock for their projects.”

DC 20: “Not all fl eshwarpers are evil; some merely seek ways to enhance their bodies. The majority of them are cruel and sadistic, though, and society as a whole should fear these individuals.”

DC 30: Characters who achieve this level of success can learn important details about specifi c fl eshwarpers, including the nature of their researches and possibly even what kind of grafts they and their minions have.

FLESHWARPERS IN THE GAME

Fleshwarpers make excellent villainous masterminds. Their minions can have numerous bizarre and deadly grafts to make them more dangerous, and the fl eshwarper himself can be a memorable and unique villain. Yet they can also make interesting allies; a friendly fl eshwarper can give PCs powerful grafts and assistance as rewards for accomplishing tasks, or as payment.

Adaptation

Fleshwarpers are fairly insulated from the external factors of a campaign world; as long as your world has grafts in it, the fl eshwarper can thrive more or less unadapted from the way he is presented here.

If you are using the EBERRON Campaign Setting, you might consider allowing the craft homunculus class feature of the artifi cer to be used in place of the summon familiar requirement, allowing artifi cers with a more biological bent to pursue this class.

Encounters

Evil fl eshwarpers make excellent “mad scientist” villains. Their lonely towers or buried dungeons are places of horror and madness, where twisted monstrosities gibber and shriek in endless agony. Good and neutral fl eshwarpers could serve as allies of dubious virtue, sources of information that aberration hunters consult only out of desperation. Some characters might even seek out a fl eshwarper, voluntarily subjecting themselves to alteration and surgery in a search for strength and power. EL 12: Erkin Tiorki is a gnome scholar who studies the aberrant creatures of the Underdark. Long fascinated by the tremendous strength and resilience demonstrated by such creatures, he began to explore ways in which he could strengthen his own small, frail form. He lives for the chance to pass on the “benefi ts” of his study to others, and thus often agrees to perform grafts on willing characters. Unfortunately, not all of his early work was as sound or stable as the work he is now capable of, and a few former adventurers made into monsters by his clumsier efforts hunger for revenge. The PCs might seek out Erkin to be modifi ed with grafts in preparation for a terrible challenge, or they might be paid to capture (or kill) the fl eshwarper by one of his former subjects.

Erkin Tiorki: Male gnome cleric 4 (Boccob)/wizard 5/fl eshwarper 3; CR 12; Small humanoid; HD 4d8+12 plus 5d4+15 plus 3d6+9; hp 74; Init +0; Spd 20 ft., swim 20 ft.; AC 17, touch 11, fl at-footed 17; Base Atk +6; Grp +2; Atk or Full Atk +7 melee (1d4/×3, rending claw) or +8 ranged (1d6+1/19–20; +1 light crossbow); SA spell-like abilities, turn undead 2/day (–1, 2d6+3, 4th); SQ aberrant familiar, elder secret (secret of the aboleth), familiar benefi ts, gnome traits, graft mastery (silthilar and illithid grafts), graft reserve (900), low-light vision, summon familiar; AL CN; SV Fort +11*, Ref +5*, Will +11*; Str 10, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 17, Wis 14, Cha 8.

Skills and Feats: Concentration +10, Heal +13, Knowledge (arcana) +20, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (the planes) +8, Spellcraft +22, Swim +11, Use Magic Device +11; Aberration Blood (+4 on Swim checks), AlertnessB (as long as Discalabus is in arm’s reach), Craft Construct, Craft Magic Arms and ArmorB, Craft Wondrous Item, Graft Flesh†, Lightning Refl exes, Scribe ScrollB . †New feat described on page 216.

Languages: Gnome, Common, Dwarf, Goblin, Undercommon.

Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day—speak with animals (burrowing mammal only, duration 1 minute).

Aberrant Familiar: Erkin has a familiar named Discalabus, a monkey that is an aberration rather than an animal. The creature’s abilities and characteristics are given below.

Familiar Benefi ts: Erkin gains special benefi ts from having a familiar. Alertness (Ex): *Discalabus grants its master Alertness as long as it is within 5 feet. Empathic Link (Su): Erkin can communicate telepathically with his familiar at a distance of up to 1 mile. The master has the same connection to an item or a place that the familiar does. Share Spells (Su): Erkin can have any spell he casts on himself also affect his familiar if the latter is within 5 feet at the time. He can also cast a spell with a target of “You” on his familiar.

Gnome Traits: Gnomes have a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against kobolds and goblinoids. Gnomes have a +4 racial bonus to Armor Class against giants. *Gnomes have a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against illusions.

Graft Reserve (Ex): Erkin has 900 points he can spend instead of spending XP when creating a graft.

Cleric Spells Prepared (caster level 4th): 0 —detect magic, guidance (2), mending (2); 1st—command (DC 13), comprehend languages, detect secret doorsDK , protection from chaos, shield of faith; 2nd—bear’s endurance, detect thoughtsDK (DC 14), resist energy, spiritual weapon. D: Domain spell. Domains: Knowledge (cast divination spells [K] at +1 caster level, all Knowledge skills are class skills), Magic (use magic items as 10th-level wizard).

Wizard Spells Prepared (caster level 7th): 0 —acid splash (+8 ranged touch), fl are (DC 13), mage hand, prestidigitation; 1st—expeditious retreat, mage armor*, magic missile, ray of enfeeblement (+8 ranged touch), shield; 2nd—blur, cat ’s grace, Melf ’s acid arrow (+8 ranged touch), web (DC 15); 3rd—fl y, greater magic weapon, undulant innards† (DC 16); 4th—phantasmal killer (DC 17). † New spell described on page 213. *Already cast. Spellbook: as above plus 0—daze, disrupt undead, light, resistance; 1st—color spray, charm person, detect secret doors, spider climb; 2nd—daze monster, invisibility, minor image, summon monster II; 3rd—blink, haste, hold person, summon monster III; 4th—confusion, ice storm, mass reduce person.

Possessions: +2 chitin plating, rending claw*, +1 light crossbow with 20 bolts, ring of protection +1, Heward’s handy haversack, pearl of power (2nd-level spell), wand of false life (31 charges), 2 potions of cure serious wounds, potion of haste. *A rending claw is an illithid graft detailed on page 212 of the Fiend Folio. It grants Erkin a natural attack that deals 1d4 points of damage on a hit and deals ×3 damage on a critical hit. He takes a –4 penalty on skill checks that require precision or fi ne manipulation with this claw.

Discalabus, Aberrant Monkey Familiar: CR —; Tiny aberration; HD 12 (effective); hp 37; Init +2; Spd 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fl y 40 ft. (good); AC 18, touch 14, fl at-footed 16; Base Atk +6; Grp –6; Atk or Full Atk +10 melee (1d3–4, bite); Space/Reach