Plastic Surgery in 3.5

[fishbrains]

I have an NPC idea for my Gestalt Eberron game. A former dragonmarked member of House Jorasco faked his own death so he could practice his "trade" away from the watchful eyes of the House. He specializes in altering peoples physical appearance via surgeries and a touch of magic. I was thinking that an expert//magewright could maybe do this. Anyone have any ideas for this? What would the skill be? Some variant of the craft skill or profession? I don't mind magic being involved, but I would prefer it to be mostly skill related. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[silverwolfer]

He goes utterly mad and does grafting of animal parts ?

[gorfnab]

Flesh to Stone + Craft (Masonry or Sculpture) + Stone to Flesh

[Kol Korran]

I imagine it to be connected to the Heal skills really, it's part of medicine after all, no? However, I'f imagine a really high Heal skills for this- these kind of alterations are considered a high specialty even in today's standards, where Heal usually deals with mostly trauma care and internal department like care.

As to magic? the various cure spells. I'd ask your DM for some custom spells:
- some sort of anesthetic (makes a willing subject sleep even despite the pain), though you could use mundane anesthetic for that (large quantities of alcohol. Might be dangerous).
- perhaps a minor spells that changes minor features in appearance (like a changeling) but immediately or permanently (The difference is if this can be dispelled or not). Hey, you might need a piece of a shapechanger for that, which could lead to interesting interaction (friendly or adversarial) with changelings...

[Feralventas]

Flesh to Stone + Craft (Masonry or Sculpture) + Stone to Flesh

Seconding this, with the added step of

Flesh to Stone.
Stone to Mud.
Craft (Sculpture)
Mud to Stone.
Stone to Flesh.

for a little more wiggle-room with the details and less risk of "I'm sorry but I chiseled a bit much off the nose. You didn't need it anyway."

[Anxe]

A homebrewed polymorph spell would also do the trick. Or PaO, but that might be going too far.

[lsfreak]

- some sort of anesthetic (makes a willing subject sleep even despite the pain), though you could use mundane anesthetic for that (large quantities of alcohol. Might be dangerous).

Opium, coca, cannabis, and aconite were pre-modern anesthetics. Aconite's the most powerful, I believe, it was also used to poison arrows.

[Ravens_cry]

Seconding this, with the added step of

Flesh to Stone.
Stone to Mud.
Craft (Sculpture)
Mud to Stone.
Stone to Flesh.

The trouble is Stone to Mud only works on and I quote (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/transmuteRockToMud.htm) "natural, uncut or unworked rock".
I really doubt stone formed by transmitting a human counts as natural.
esides, even if that doesn't apply, Flesh to Stone says " If the statue resulting from this spell is broken or damaged, the subject (if ever returned to its original state) has similar damage or deformities" (bolded for emphases)
You basically turned them to goop.
This is my reading, but if your turn them back into flesh, you just got the equivalent of this (http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp).
It might have a human shape, but the texture is Apeling McNugget.


for a little more wiggle-room with the details and less risk of "I'm sorry but I chiseled a bit much off the nose. You didn't need it anyway."
Call it the Sphinx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza) Special:smalltongue:

[Andreaz]

It's a surgery, no need to use magic to replace everything. Cut the guy up, shave a few bones, put some fillings. Heal skill! Profession:Surgeon!

Divinations and transmutations on the doctor enhance his ability and improve the work.




Regenerative spells may identify those changes as foreign and undo them, meaning the surgery should also affect the ego, soul or whatever it is that determine your "base appearance".

[nedz]

Flesh to Stone
Stone Shape
Stone to Flesh

But there are no skills involved.

[fishbrains]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I greatly appreciate the input. I'm on my phone, else I would quote and respond to several posts at once. Regardless, I will attempt to address several things mentioned. First off it may not have been clear: I am the DM. This is for a NPC that will interact with, and provide a few quests for the party. The halfling in question will have information the party needs and will ask them to prove themselves trustworthy before dispensing said info. Since this guy is going to be dragonmarked with the mark of healing and is a Magewright//Expert, a little magic and some healing is easily conceivable. I think I'll go with the heal skill, some masterwork tools and perhaps allow the magecraft spell to be applicable. He'll have plenty of skill points to spare for other things. Any suggestions on magic items he might posess? Remember, this guy came from a powerful family with access to a lot of wealth. He could have easily snagged a few things before faking his own death.

[theUnearther]

I'd ask you WHY he does those surgeries.
You said he went into hiding to practice, so does that mean he's a "new face for the godfather" kind of surgeon?
If so, antidivination items are the most obvious kind he should have. For himself in general, for when he's doing his job, and maybe some to offer to his clients, or the number of the guy who does that part.
And if that last, it would have to be a very special and hard to come by number, since by definition that guy would be very hard to track.

And yes, I know your campaign most likely does not have telephones. It's a figure of speech, alright?

[fishbrains]

I'd ask you WHY he does those surgeries.
You said he went into hiding to practice, so does that mean he's a "new face for the godfather" kind of surgeon?
If so, antidivination items are the most obvious kind he should have. For himself in general, for when he's doing his job, and maybe some to offer to his clients, or the number of the guy who does that part.
And if that last, it would have to be a very special and hard to come by number, since by definition that guy would be very hard to track.

And yes, I know your campaign most likely does not have telephones. It's a figure of speech, alright?

Yes, he's THAT kind of surgeon. :smallwink: What he's doing isn't illegal, but it's certainly frowned upon for obvious reasons. These are permanent alterations to a persons appearance. Magic is usually the answer to all things in Eberron, and the process being mostly mundane renders magical divination largly ineffective. It could cause a lot of problems for the Law trying to track down big time criminals if they're getting their faces changed.

As for why he went into hiding: I'm still smoothing out the details. I planned on leaving it vague for now. I usually leave a few background details in NPCs intentionally blank to allow for me to fill it in with whatever I please later on. Less work and sometimes I come up with (or a player instigates) a scenario that works out.

Anti-divination items are most certainly a good idea so he can continue to escape notice. I also like the idea of him providing other services to customers beyond his normal expertise. Perhaps a few situational but useful potions and scrolls. Maybe he made them himself, or maybe he has an Artificer contact he has a deal with that he sends some business to.

Thanks for the ideas. :smallbiggrin: