Bio-manipulation is my favourite type of power. Its aptitude for body horror and absolutely deranged alteration surpasses even that of
necromancy. This
wizarding tradition tries to lean into that, and while heavily based on
biomancy,
vivimancy,
viscerology and
flesh-crafting, it is even more geared towards tinkering with the bodies of your
patients victims.
Does the thrill of discovery throb in your beating heart?
Do you want more beating hearts for things to throb within?
Velexiraptor the Vague
Academy of Biomantic and Biokinetic Arts, PR Department
You are either Chartered and on a retainer of some noble family, or an Outlaw and hunted with extreme prejudice.
Items: white coat, leather apron, scalpel, bonesaw, needle and thread
Skills: Surgery and (d6) Epidemiology, Parasitology, Pharmacology, Physiology, Toxicology, Xenobiology
Perks & Flaws:
You are immune to pain. In fact, you barely remember what it was like when pain inconvenienced you.
Whenever you receive magical healing, save. If you fail, gain a random mutation.
Cantrips:
- Sarcography: Make a finger frame over a body to see through layers of skin and flesh (but not bone) as easily as layers of stained glass.
- Haematopathy: Taste blood to tell what kind of creature it came from. Drink more blood to maybe learn additional info.
- Dermatoplasty: Move or transfer cosmetic features with a touch. You could swap eye colours or pull warts off a toad and put them on a princess. You cannot transfer or remove significant features (poison glands, wings, eyeballs).
Spell List:
1. Spit Acid
R: 50'
Target takes [sum] damage, then [dice] damage at the end of the next [dice] rounds unless washed.
2. Shape Flesh
R: touch, T: living creature
For ten minutes, target's flesh becomes as malleable as clay to your touch. You can alter their form to resemble another creature of a similar type. This doesn't work on hard tissues like bone or teeth, cannot grant any special abilities (you can make wings, but not wings capable of flight) and might require a skill check to copy somebody else's appearance.
The changes will gradually fade over the course of [sum] hours, but any use of healing magic will delay it by that magic's [sum]. If [sum] is 12+, you can choose to make the transformation permanent.
You can instead use this to deal [sum] damage, but that ends the spell immediately.
3. Fix Flesh
R: touch, T: living creature
As if in a time-lapse surgery, the target's wounds rapidly reknit. Choose one of the following:
- Restore [sum] HP.
- Restore [dice] points to a damaged attribute.
- Remove Wound of up to [dice]×2 severity.
Note that this spell cannot regrow limbs (but might reattach a recently severed limb), nor cure diseases and other afflictions.
4. Fortify Flesh
R: touch; T: living creature
Suppress up to [dice] physical needs or afflictions in the target. For the duration of this spell, the target suffers no negative effects from the problem, but the problem is not cured and will reassert itself once the spell expires. Lesser problems (pain, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, sleep) are suppressed for [sum] hours, while greater problems (bleeding, dying, not breathing) are suppressed for [sum] rounds.
5. Extract Contaminant
R: touch, T: living creature
Pierce the target's skin with a sharp object, then draw out a foreign substance - venom, drug, etc. It must be a foreign substance, not blood or other vital fluid. The contaminant pools in a vial (if you have one) or your hand. The target may save to negate.
With 2 [dice], you can also draw out mundane diseases and parasites.
With 3 [dice], you can also draw out magical poisons, diseases and parasites.
With 4 [dice], you can also draw out heavy metal or radiation poisoning, or possessing spirits.
This is the reason why most biomancers always have a scalpel or a razor-sharp fingernail ready.
6. Sleep
R: 50'
Up to [sum] total HD of creatures that you can see, none of which has more than [dice]×2 HD, fall asleep. Save negates, but already drowsy targets are not allowed a save.
With 4 [dice], you can make the duration permanent. The target no longer needs to eat or drink while sleeping, doesn't age, and you must set an achievable condition that will cause it to wake up.
7. Sensory Revelation
With some supplies and a day of work, you can craft a
sthenicon - a face mask shaped like a wooden box, filled with symbiotic flesh. On its own, it grants the wearer an unbelievable sense of smell; gain +1 Awareness per hour of wearing it (up to +[dice]) and scent-tracking.
You can also graft up to [highest] other sensory organs into the sthenicon, if you have those. Depending on what creature you had harvested them from, you might be able to incorporate for example: infrared vision, night vision, 360° vision, sight of invisible things as faint outlines, magic aura sight, poison or disease detection via smell, heightened hearing, etc.
Feed your sthenicon with broth and do not wear it for too long.
8. Choose one of:
Become Delicious
R: 60'; T: [dice] creatures or objects; D: [sum] minutes
Target smells and tastes absolutely delicious. The smell can spread via wind or leave a trail. Insects and hungry creatures will be attracted to the target and attack them as their first choice. Sentient creatures can usually resist the urge to eat the target, but they will be tempted.
With 4 [dice], you can make the duration permanent.
Become Disgusting
R: 60'; T: [dice] creatures or objects; D: [sum] minutes
Target smells and tastes outright revolting. Most creatures will try to avoid them, or try to fight them last in a battle. This does not affect creatures with no sense of smell, and some scavengers might be attracted by the smell. This also has a profound effect in social interactions.
With 4 [dice], you can make the duration permanent.
9. Flying Syringe
R: 120'
You must hold a vial of fluid while you cast this spell. The vial is transmuted into a glass dart that flies at a target creature. The target must save or be pricked and immediately suffer the effects of the fluid.
For every [die] after the first, pick one of the options below. Most can be picked multiple times.
- You can redirect a missed syringe to a different target.
- You can affect an extra vial, either mixing the contents together or creating another syringe.
- The target saves with a disadvantage.
- The syringe can clear corners and bypass cover, as long as you know the target's location.
10. Malmutate
R: touch; T: living creature; D: permanent
Target saves [dice] times and gains a random mutation per failed save. If the target chooses to fail its save, roll double the number of mutations and the caster chooses which half are gained.
Emblem Spells:
11. Chimeric Exchange
R: ritual circle; T: two creatures
This spell must target two creatures that negotiated the effects of the ritual beforehand and are willing to undergo it. While the spell requires willingness, it does not forbid coercion or non-magical influence. Subsequently, the two creatures can trade body parts as per their agreement, with the same ease as two items being exchanged. The caster doesn't need to be one of the two parties, but they surely can be.
The exchange can be one-sided. For example, the spell allows you to give someone an extra eye without taking something from them, if both of you agree. This way, you can gain new limbs and organs. You can demand some other form of compensation, though this is in no way enforced by the spell. Gaining new limbs may require that the recipient learns to use them.
The ritual takes 10 minutes. Should the ritual be interrupted, the targets must save or loose the body part that was being exchanged. The creatures are magically sustained while the ritual lasts, but can die afterwards if they traded away a vital organ. The spell also prevents transplant rejection and leaves no scars.
With 1 [die], you can exchange roughly compatible body parts (human eye for cat eye, hand for a paw).
With 2 [dice], you can exchange body parts from incompatible physiologies (living arm for an undead arm, head for an animated helmet).
With 3 [dice], you can mix material and immaterial body parts (hand for a piece of fire elemental's flame, switching souls).
With 4 [dice], you can exchange metaphysical qualities (bravery, damage resistances, skills, abilities).
I stole this spell from here, where more information on it can be found.
12. Tame Cancer
Mix at least 1 HD's worth of fresh meat with a droplet of up to [dice] creatures' blood to animate it into a macabre mass of cancerous growths. It will obey anyone who contributed blood to its creation.
The cancer will react the same way the meat's original owner would to any substances or effects. It makes a great guinea pig.
The cancer begins with 1 Mass and loses 1 Mass per day as it consumes itself. It has 1 HD per Mass, 2×[dice] in all stats* and no offensive capabilities (at first). It loses HD as it takes damage and cannot heal naturally. It may consume 1 HD of a corpse over 10 minutes to gain 1 Mass. At 4 Mass, it is about the size of an average human adult, and cannot grow larger than [sum] Mass.
It may also be ordered to spend 1 Mass to:
- Excrete a dose of substance it has previously consumed. This does not work well with special substances (especially those with permanent effects).
- Excrete a ration of nutritious goop.
- Grow a body part or organ it has previously consumed. It will be fully functional, but likely somewhat misshapen and twisted.
- Gain a random mutation.
*) Assuming stats in
range 1 to 10. If you use the more standard stats in range 1 to 20, this would be 4×[dice]. Yes, this means that at 4 MD, your pet shoggoth will be highly intelligent.
Dooms:
- You develop certain... tics. Gain a random insanity.
- Your flesh crawls. Save at the start of each day or gain a mutation. Save at the end of each day or that mutation becomes permanent.
- Mutagenic degradation and cascading organ rejection. Permanently reduce your Constitution by 1 per day, no save.
You can stall your final Doom with daily transplants of healthy organs, or avoid it completely by transplanting your brain into a new body made of something less feeble and mutable than flesh.
