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View Full Version : The Blue Book Preview No. 3: The Devourer!



Kellus
2012-07-05, 08:39 PM
Hey peoples! Yes, this is still in the works, yes, there is a xenoalchemy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205119) remake upcoming called the Blue Book. This time we get a fun cross between the famous ozodrin and xenoalchemy. Now, this is where it gets a little funny, since Owrtho already made a fantastic dual-class between the two called the sower of strangeness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229089#post12665992). So this class takes the idea in a slightly different direction, crossing the ozodrin and the connoisseur to make something which, appropriately enough, eats everything. Enjoy!

Preview No. 1: The Connoisseur (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232699)
Preview No. 2: The Nahual (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12754094)


The Devourer

"I want you inside of me. Don't make it weird."

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs26/f/2008/035/e/f/eff37ac832273f6f.jpg
Image credit priapos78 (http://priapos78.deviantart.com/) of Deviantart.com

The circle of life is a beautiful thing. The weak are preyed upon by those stronger, faster, and smarter, who in turn are preyed upon themselves. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things higher up in the food chain than humans. It's hard to call humans an apex predator when there are hyper-intelligent moose-people with pincer claws roaming the land looking to turn you into a side dish. But the time has come for humanoids to strike back against their hunters and reclaim the food chain for themselves! The art of the connoisseur is known to few, but among them there has developed a society of gourmands who have looked in deep places for strange secrets of the flesh which will allow them to reclaim the title of apex predator. But the bizarre inevitably becomes mundane, and the novel turns to tedious. Eventually, these devourers become slaves to their cravings, searching for greater and greater prey to feast on so that they can assimilate their victims into their own strange anatomy. They're also not often invited to fancy dinner parties.

Requirements: To become a devourer you must meet all of the following requirements.
Skills: Heal 8 ranks, Knowledge (dungeoneering) 6 ranks, Survival 6 ranks
Special: Devour (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153536) and gourmand (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232699) class features
Xenoalchemy: Must be able to attach 1st level grafts

Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifer

Class Skills: A devourer's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Craft (all) (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

The Devourer
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|
Xenoalchemy

1st|+0|+2|+0|+2|Assimilate, child of strangeness, swallow whole|
+1 level of existing grafting class

2nd|+1|+3|+0|+3|Internal operations, fleshworker|
+1 level of existing grafting class

3rd|+2|+3|+1|+3|Form before function, seize graft|
+1 level of existing grafting class

4th|+3|+4|+1|+4|Ties that bind |
+1 level of existing grafting class

5th|+3|+4|+1|+4|Split stomach|
+1 level of existing grafting class

6th|+4|+5|+2|+5|Second skin|
+1 level of existing grafting class

7th|+5|+5|+2|+5|Racial profiling|
+1 level of existing grafting class

8th|+6|+6|+2|+6|Charlatan's web|
+1 level of existing grafting class

9th|+6|+6|+3|+6|Split stomach|
+1 level of existing grafting class

10th|+7|+7|+3|+7|Devourer of souls|
+1 level of existing grafting class

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the devourer.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: A devourer gains no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Assimilate (Ex): You turn your enemy's strength into your strength. By eating them alive. Whenever you swallow a creature whole (see the swallow whole class feature) and they die inside your stomach or whenever you kill a creature with your devour class feature, you can assimilate them. This breaks them apart into small pieces inside your stomach which can be stored for later use. When you assimilate a creature, you can immediately find out which grafts it could grant, as if with your gourmand class feature. You may select a number of graft components up to your Intelligence modifier, which you can preserve inside your prodigious innards. Each component takes up space inside your stomach equal to a creature of two size categories smaller than the creature it came from (if this would take it below Fine-sized, it takes up no space at all). These components are preserved perfectly, and can be grown at a later time on you as if by the gourmand class feature.

Child of Strangeness: Your devourer class levels stack with your levels in the ozodrin class to determine the number of form points you have, as well as for the purposes of any class feature whose potency is based on your ozodrin class level (including abilities you gain in the future).

Swallow Whole (Ex): Your thoughts are driven by the eternal hunger that wracks you, and you will try to eat anything. If you make a successful grapple against a creature in the same square as a mouth, you can attempt to swallow it whole. You may only swallow a creature whole if the creature is the same size as the mouth used for the attempt, or smaller. Creatures may escape the stomach by trying to cut through the walls or, if there are any mouths, trying to climb up the throat and out the mouth.

The walls have an AC of 10 + two times your ozodrin class level, hardness equal to 1/2 your ozodrin class levels (rounded down), and require five times your ozodrin class level in damage to make a hole large enough for a medium sized creature to escape; a hole for a Large creature requires twice as much damage as for a Medium creature, and so on. A hole large enough for a Small creature requires only four times your ozodrin class level in damage to create a hole large enough, and a Tiny or smaller hole requires only thrice your ozodrin level in damage. Holes reseal in 1d4 rounds, assuming no further damage is dealt to them, and that you are still alive. You takes 1 point of damage for every 10 points of damage dealt to the walls of your stomach.

If a swallowed creature attempts to climb out, it must succeed on a DC 30 Climb check for three consecutive rounds (for each successful round count it as an additional 10 feet of height for calculating fall damage on a failed check). If the creature is attacked while climbing, it must attempt the check again at a -5 penalty. As a move action you may attempt to swallow with one or more throats. This prompts a Climb check from any creatures currently trying to climb out, opposed by your grapple check. You may also tighten one or more throats as a standard action, reducing the DC of Climb checks for the round by 10.

Xenoalchemy: At every level you add +1 to your xenoalchemy level from one existing class of your choice that you have levels in. This increases your effective xenoalchemist level for the benefits of grafts as well as the level of graft you can achieve. This does not provide you with any other benefit a member of your previous class would have received, such as class features, skill points, spellcasting, or hit points.

Fleshworker (Ex): Your command over the flesh falls somewhere between 'incredible' and 'disgusting'. If you remove or replace a graft attached to you, you can store its memory inside your stomach as if with your assimilate class feature. It takes up space based on the creature it came from, like normal (if you forget where it came from, assume the creature was Large-sized). In this way, a clever devourer never truly loses grafts, they only shuffle them around. You can grow a graft in ten minutes instead of an hour.

Internal Operations (Ex): There are a lot of strange things happening inside your stomach. When you swallow someone whole, you can try to operate on them while they're inside of you. You must make a grapple check against them with a +4 bonus as a full-round action in order to restrain them until the start of your next turn. While restrained, they cannot attempt to damage the stomach or climb out, and you can operate on them as a swift action. In order to operate on a creature, you must have a graft component stored in the same stomach as the target creature. An operation implants a graft, and requires a Heal check against a DC of 10 + 1/2 their Hit Dice + their Constitution modifier + the graft level. If successful, the graft grows at the same rate as your own do, assuming the creature survives its stay inside you. If you fail, the graft material isn't wasted, but can't be implanted on that creature.

Form Before Function (Ex): Your grafts are somewhat stranger and a lot more fun than most peoples'. Starting at 3rd level you can 'fill' a graft with a number of form points up to your ozodrin level. This is done as a standard action, and can be done to a graft which is currently attached to you or even to a graft component which hasn't been turned into a graft yet. When you fill a graft, you spend the form points on features you have access to and augments, as if you were buying them like normal. You then lose access to those form points, but whoever has the graft attached to them gets the purchased features instead. You can also fill grafts attached to people you are operating internally on as a free action made as part of the operation. You can fill a graft with only augments if you like, but they only take effect if the creature has the matching feature as well.

When you gain this class feature you gain a number of bonus form points equal to twice your devourer level which can only be spent on filling grafts. At every additional devourer level you gain an additional two such form points. By meditating for ten minutes you can recall all of your form points to you, no matter where the bearers of them might be.

Seize Graft (Ex): Operations run both ways. Maybe you have a rival xenoalchemist. Maybe you just really like that lion-turtle jaw. Either way, starting at 3rd level, whenever you operate on a creature restrained inside of you, you can remove a graft instead of adding one. You must have room inside the appropriate stomach for the graft component, which becomes yours as surely as if you had assimilated it from the donor yourself. The creature is allowed an additional Fortitude save against your Heal check to avoid having their graft stolen.

Ties that Bind (Ex): At 4th level, your bizarre senses follow your victims. If you attach a graft to someone in an internal operation, you always know what direction they are in, as if looking for north with a know direction (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/knowDirection.htm) effect. This effect fails if they are on another Plane of existance. In addition, if you've invested form points into their graft, you can gain additional benefits:

1 Form Point: You know the distance that lies between you (if applicable)
2 Form Points: You know their current Plane of existance
3 Form Points: You can detect their surface thoughts, as if with a detect thoughts (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/detectThoughts.htm) effect
4 Form Points: You can make a suggestion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/suggestion.htm) to them as a full-round action
5 Form Points: You can scry (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/scrying.htm) on them with an hour's concentration.

Split Stomach (Ex): Much like a cow, you have more stomachs than one might expect. At 5th level your extradimensional stomach splits as if by mitosis, and you permanently gain the Stomach feature, without having to spend any form points on it. You can augment it just like normal by spending additional form points.

At 9th level your stomachs split again. You gain the Stomach feature twice more, and your original secondary stomach grows to the original size of your primary stomach. You can share augments between all of your stomachs, so by buying an augment for one of them it simultaneously affects all of them. If you make any kind of decision for these augments, such as a choice of planar trait, you may select different choices for each individual stomach.

Second Skin (Ex): Inside you there's someone else just waiting to blossom. Beginning at 6th level you can gather a set of grafts inside of you which form a 'skin'. This is an alternate set of grafts which are grouped together, and which can be switched to at a moment's notice. As a swift or move action, you can switch all of your displayed grafts with those in your second skin. It actually looks to an observer as if your skin is turning inside out. All of your second skin graft components must be in the same stomach.

They go grouped, which means, for example, if you have a graft in your Shoulders body slot displayed but no Shoulders graft in your second skin, when you make the switch your Shoulders slot is filled with normal shoulders for your race. Your previously displayed grafts are now your second skin inside you. Adding or removing a graft component from your second skin takes as much time as growing one in the first place. You can now grow a graft in a minute instead of ten minutes.

Racial Profiling (Ex): A seasoned devourer knows that the yak-people from the next valley over aren't just delicious, they're useful, as well! Starting at 7th level you can salvage a new kind of graft component from any creature you have swallowed with a Level Adjustment. Whenever you assimilate such a creature, their racial traits can be placed into a special graft component, which can be used to grow a racial graft.

A racial graft always occupies the Body body slot (yeah) and when attached to a creature actually trades out their racial abilities (including all racial traits, racial skill bonuses, racial ability score modifiers, although not size category) for all of the racial traits of the creature the racial graft was assimilated from. A +0 Level Adjustment creature creates a 1st level graft, a +1 Level Adjustment creature creates a 3rd level graft, and a +2 Level Adjustment creature creates a 5th level graft. Higher Level Adjustments cannot be assimilated into racial grafts. You can assimilate graft components for racial grafts that you can't actually grow yet, just like normal assimilation; they're just dead weight in your stomachs until you achieve the level of skill needed to grow them.

Charlatan's Web (Ex): Starting at 9th level you realize that mind and memory is nothing but an illusion created by housing intelligence in different minds. Your otherworldly powers connect minds, and in so doing they break down the walls of self and identity. You can allow any creature who is connected to you with the ties that bind class feature to join your hive mind. Creature in a hive mind can access any of the ties that bind abilities, although you have discretion over their use. Anyone in the web can take purely mental activities from the square of anyone else in the web, no matter where they are. Additionally, anyone in the web can use an immediate action to switch their senses over to those of someone else in the web, letting them see out of the other person's eyes, hear what they hear, and so on. Finally, everyone in the web can communicate with telepathy no matter how far away they are or what Planes they are on, although you have discretion over the messages sent in this way (and can alter them, if you like).

Devourer of Souls (Ex): You like to devour souls, which is a pretty cool party trick. At 10th level you get a free Devouring Ribcage graft which is always attached to you, even if your Torso body slot is otherwise occupied. This doesn't count against your limit of a single 5th level graft. You can burn Hit Dice inside of your ribcage to gain temporary form points which last for one minute per ozodrin level. You can do whatever you like with them in that time, but at the end of it they dissipate and all features they've granted break into oily black mist.

Playing a Devourer
"You're awfully cute, but unfortunately for you, you're made of meat."

Okay, so you eat people. As a job, as a hobby, maybe just to pass the time. That's cool. But what really sets you apart from your run of the mill connoisseur is the level of control you have over your grafts. In exchange for giving up your other theft-related abilities, you're basically a walking arsenal of grafts. Your ability to store grafts inside of you and manifest them when needed gives you a vast number of options compared to a normal grafter. It's nearly as drastic as the difference between spontaneous and prepared casting!

On the ozodrin side of things, you're never going to have access to the nicer high level features. But make the most of what you have, and play to your strengths; your ability to spread grafts and features to allies is invaluable in supporting a group, and being able to plant choice grafts on your enemies can be useful in some situations as well. Like any grafter, you're only as powerful as the grafts you can plant, but the nice thing about your xenoalchemy is that you can store indefinite numbers of grafts at a time. So, and this should really go without saying, eat everything!

radmelon
2012-07-05, 09:14 PM
There's a copypasta error in the skills list. Says it's the connoisseur's skills.

Kellus
2012-07-05, 09:51 PM
There's a copypasta error in the skills list. Says it's the connoisseur's skills.

Thanks! Good c/p catch!

Owrtho
2012-07-06, 05:23 AM
It is quite exciting to see this up. Having briefly perused the abilities, it seems to fit quite nicely combining the connoisseur and the ozodrin. Also, a high level devourer/sower of strangeness could develop quite the little interconnected cult through the use of seeds of strangeness, strange bonds, ties that bind, charlatan's web, and a few well placed surrogates. That said, such a build would require one progress a good bit into epic.

It also occurs to me to wonder, how does Internal Operations interact with handicap grafts, and can they be filled with form points? It would seem the former could work, while the latter likely should not.

As a side note, would be quite fun to see a devourer with the Horrific Hunger ACF.

Owrtho

EdroGrimshell
2012-07-06, 09:12 PM
It is quite exciting to see this up. Having briefly perused the abilities, it seems to fit quite nicely combining the connoisseur and the ozodrin. Also, a high level devourer/sower of strangeness could develop quite the little interconnected cult through the use of seeds of strangeness, strange bonds, ties that bind, charlatan's web, and a few well placed surrogates. That said, such a build would require one progress a good bit into epic.

It also occurs to me to wonder, how does Internal Operations interact with handicap grafts, and can they be filled with form points? It would seem the former could work, while the latter likely should not.

My thoughts exactly, I'd love to play that as a cult leader, using my cult-based aberrant feats would help emphasize that, esspecially the Ceremony Feat from there. Another good option is the Menacing Mansion.

Kellus
2012-07-07, 11:36 PM
It also occurs to me to wonder, how does Internal Operations interact with handicap grafts, and can they be filled with form points? It would seem the former could work, while the latter likely should not.

Glad you like it; the ozodrin is amazingly cool, and I'm glad I was able to do it justice without stepping too much on the sower of strangeness' toes. As for handicap grafts, they are in fact grafts as much as any of the normal kind, they just have detrimental effects. So yes, you can attach them, and yes, you can fill them with form points if you like. I figure, if you've managed to swallow someone, restrained them, and are now operating on them, having a handicap graft attached to them is the least of their problems. And since your spread out form points are still limited to your total pool, it's sort of assumed that you're dividing them out as it is.

@Edro: Yeah, that sounds like a super-cool character idea. I've actually seen a ton of people trying to gestalt ozodrin and xenoalchemist, and I have to admit that they have a ton of synergy thematically together. Either as a super-versatile support character, or as an incredibly creepy bad guy!

Necroticplague
2012-07-08, 02:49 PM
As for handicap grafts, they are in fact grafts as much as any of the normal kind, they just have detrimental effects. So yes, you can attach them, and yes, you can fill them with form points if you like. I figure, if you've managed to swallow someone, restrained them, and are now operating on them, having a handicap graft attached to them is the least of their problems.


Not quite, as an ozodrin's stomach doesn't have natural hazards, so an enemy can stay trapped in their indefinitely without dying. They won't even run out of air until you stop manifesting true nature for a long time.Although, considering that you have to beat them on three consecutive grapple checks to do this, they probably are a non-issue anyway.

Grimsage Matt
2012-07-08, 09:42 PM
Mind if I steal this for a Abberant campain? Looks good, and already have boss planed... "Git in Mah Belly!"

Kellus
2012-07-08, 10:07 PM
Not quite, as an ozodrin's stomach doesn't have natural hazards, so an enemy can stay trapped in their indefinitely without dying. They won't even run out of air until you stop manifesting true nature for a long time.Although, considering that you have to beat them on three consecutive grapple checks to do this, they probably are a non-issue anyway.

Pretty much this. If you're at the point where you've dominated them so completely that you're in a position to operate on them unwillingly inside your stomach, then they're completely outmatched in the first place. Although it could lead to some very interesting grapple-focused connoisseur/ozodrin builds if someone really wanted to abuse it, which is pretty cool.

@Grimsage Matt: As per usual, please use anything you like.

So I've gotten a lot done on this the last few days, should have more xenoalchemy goodness up soon!