Optimization 'Create Magical Beast' feat [Archive]

Sheogoroth

2016-11-02, 01:27 AM

I am intrigued!

Found the book, here's the feat:

Create Magical Beast
(Item Creation feat)
Prerequisits: Caster level 5th, 1 item
creation feat, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks,
Heal 3 ranks.
Benefit: This feat enables a spellcaster to
create a magical beast, by merging two or
more creatures of the animal, magical beast,
or vermin type. The process is both costly
and time-consuming, and requires
preparatory research for each new
combination a given spellcaster attempts.
There is a chance that the completed
creature will turn upon its creator. Use of this
feat in Ravenloft warrants a Powers check
(3%), as an act of sheer hubris or perversion.
Create Aberration (Item Creation feat)
Prerequisits: Caster level 10th, Create
Magical Beast, Knowledge (arcana) 10
ranks, Heal 5 ranks.
Benefit: With this feat, any two or more
living corporeal creatures can be combined
to create a living aberration. The process is
both costly and time-consuming, and
requires preparatory research for each new
combination which a given spellcaster
attempts. Only the greatest of spellcasters
can tamper with life to such a degree.
There is a chance that the completed
creature will turn upon its creator. Also, use
of this feat in Ravenloft warrants a Powers
check (4%), as an act of seer hubris or
perversion.
Druids are incapable of learning this feat,
as creating such bizarre life forms is
anathema to their divine magic.
Creating a Magical Beast
The process of creating magical beasts is
presented here, along with an example of
these rules in action. In the text to follow,
the creature upon which modifications are to
be made is called the “base creature”. Other
creatures being used to enhance such a
melded life form are called “secondary
creatures”. The magical beast to be created is
called the “target creature”.
A. Advance Preparation
In order to create a magical beast, the creator
needs a lab costing at least 500 gp/HD of the
target creature. This lab must be equipped
specifically for the creation of magical
beasts and/or aberrations; an alchemical
laboratory, for example, will not suffice for
this task.
Regardless of the laboratory’s size and
quality, the target creature’s HD can be no
higher than the feat-user’s caster level –1.
Appendix I New Magic and Feats
244
B. Creature Design
Designing a new magical beast is a two-step
process. First, the creator must come up
with a plan for creating the target creature,
and select the base and secondary creatures
necessary for its creation. Second, suitable
base and secondary creatures must be
procured and examined, to work out the
details.
Note that the first step may be omitted if a
creator copies a creature read about or
encountered in the past (e.g. reverseengineering
an owlbear), but the second
stage must be done in person. Creators
cannot, for instance, copy a creation-ritual
from another spellcaster’s research notes,
although consulting another caster’s
successful design provides a circumstance
bonus to the would-be creator’s skill check
(see below).
A creature produced by means of the
Create Magical Beast feat may itself be used
as the base creature for a new ritual in turn.
Such a “stacking” of beasts requires that a
separate ritual be devised, each time an
additional set of secondary creatures is
added to the mix.
Step 1
The player tells the DM how he or she
envisions the target creature, or the DM
thinks of an idea for such a monster. The DM
decides if the creation is even possible, and
what base and secondary creatures will be
required to produce it. Secondary creatures
may be no more than one size category
bigger or smaller than the base creature.
If the creature is to demonstrate unique or
atypical behaviors, these must also be
selected at this time; if not, the target
creature will act like the base creature by
default.

Step 2
The spellcaster must acquire and study a set
of living specimens of the base creature and
all secondary creature(s). Such study
includes vivisection, and always results in
the deaths of these initial specimens. In the
case of sentient magical beasts, or of
vivisections performed without anesthesia
(see Van Richten’s Arsenal) on specimens
with an Int of 1 or 2, this may incur an
additional Powers check.
This stage of the process takes 3 days, plus
one day for each secondary creature. The
research costs 50 gp/day, not counting the
purchase price of the specimens (DM’s
discretion), plus one vial of anesthetic or
ether per non-mindless specimen per day (if
desired). At the end of the procedure, the
creator must pass a Knowledge (arcana)
check, with a DC of 15 + HD of the target
creature. This DC is increased by 1 for each
secondary creature of the base creature’s
type, or 2 for each secondary creature of
another type. For each facet of the base
creature’s natural behavior that is to be
changed (social vs. solitary, predator vs.
scavenger, diurnal vs. nocturnal, etc), the DC
also increases by 1.
A +5 circumstance bonus applies to the
Knowledge (arcana) check if the creator can
consult design notes from another, successful creator of a similar target
creature, or is advised directly by such a
person. If the base and/or secondary
creatures are either animals or vermin, and
the creator has 5 or more ranks in
Knowledge (nature), a +2 bonus from
synergy also applies to the Knowledge
(arcana) check. Each previous failed attempt
to design the ritual also grants a cumulative
+2 circumstance bonus, as the creator learns
from past failures.
If the base and the secondary creatures are
of the same species (i.e. the creator simply
wants to make a higher-HD or multi-headed
version of the base creature), another +3
circumstance bonus applies to the
Knowledge (arcana) check, and no
secondary specimens are needed for
vivisection. The cost of research is also
halved if the target creature’s HD, alone, are
being augmented, although the minimum of
3 days’ work is still required.
If the Knowledge check succeeds, the
caster has managed to devise the arcane or
divine ritual needed to create the target
creature and can proceed. This particular
ritual may be attempted as many times as the
caster wishes, without need for further
research. If it fails, the DM may decide that
the caster had misjudged what sort of
creatures are needed (e.g. wrong subspecies,
wrong place of origin, wrong history), or that
the character simply needs more study.
C. Creature Assembly
Having developed a workable design, the
caster must use a fresh set of creatures, this
time to merge them. The process of
assembling the target creature takes one day,
plus an additional day for each secondary
creature. It costs 200gp/day +200 gp per HD
of the target creature, and drains 50 XP per
target creature HD from the spellcaster. The
ritual must be performed under similar
conditions to the construction of a magic
item, save that the process cannot be set
aside in mid-ritual: if the creator’s work is
interrupted, the base and secondary creatures
become unsuitable and the assembly must be
started again, with new specimens.
Success is determined by a Heal check
with a base DC of 10, +1 per HD of the
target creature and +1 per secondary creature
used. A creator with 5 or more ranks in
Knowledge (nature) receives a +2 bonus
from synergy on this Heal check, provided
the base and/or secondary creatures are
either animals or vermin. Success on the
Heal check to create a specific sort of target
creature also gives the creator a +5
competence bonus on subsequent Heal
checks to create similar target creatures. If
the base creature and secondary creatures are
of the same species, an additional +4
circumstance bonus applies to the Heal
check, as merging similar creatures is easier
than merging dissimilar ones.
At the DM’s discretion, sentient magical
beasts may be allowed a saving throw to
resist being incorporated into the target
creature, as per the Create Aberration feat
(see below). Magical beasts which were
themselves a product of this feat never
receive a saving throw.
If the creator’s Heal check fails, the target
creature is still created, but it is hideously
distorted and in agony. It must pass an
immediate Fortitude save as the same DC as
its maker’s Heal check, or else it writhes in
helpless anguish and dies within minutes of
its creation. Even if it survives, it exists in a
state of constant pain, is permanently and
irrevocably afflicted with the sickened
condition, and is likely to rebel against its
maker if not euthanized. Witnessing such a
deformed “mistake” is grounds for a Horror
save, at a DC of 10 + ½ creature’s HD.
Upon the creation of a creature, the
spellcaster must make a Powers check,
whether or not it is malformed or survives
the procedure.

Rather convoluted. I'll take a look in the morning.