SLAs for a Poultrymancer

[Luccan]

Years ago, after first learning of the Commoner Flaws from the April Fool's edition of Dragon, I got the idea for a "Poultrymancer" prestige class for the Chicken Infested flaw. I never really got farther than controlling the flaw and a Cockatrice companion, but I've been reinvigorated by the idea of a few prestige classes where commoner's turn those flaws into unexpected power. Something fun to spring on a party during a light-hearted one shot or to run during the same. So, re-approaching the Poultrymancer, I think a few spells or SLAs that fit the theme of Chicken Magic might be a good idea. I'm leaning more towards SLAs, as I don't think there are very many spells for a spell list that fit the idea. Right now my only ideas are

Spells/SLAs:

Level X:summon poultry*

Level 1:feather fall,


*As Summon Monster X but can only summon Celestial or Fiendish poultry and cockatrices.

Any more ideas? This isn't intended to be too serious, but it isn't intended to be wildly imbalanced either.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Make hen grenades out of self-destructing zombie chickens. Greater consumptive field + Fell Animate + Destruction Retribution.

Don't forget Tomb Tainted Soul on the party to heal everyone with your foul fowl.

Or you could use Fell Drain to turn them into the other wight meat.

[Thurbane]

These are more (loosely) bird-related in general, but you can re-fluff as more chicken-related if you like:


Animal Messenger (Brd 2)
Eagle's Splendor (& Mass) (Sor/Wiz 2) (Sor/Wiz 6)
Feathers (MotW) (Drd 4)
Fire Wings (SC) (Drd 3)
Harrier (DotF) (Drd 3)
Hungry Gizzard (SC) (Drd 6)
Master Air (SC) (Drd 2)
Owl's Insight (Drd 5)
Owl's Wisdom (& Mass) (Sor/Wiz 2) (Sor/Wiz 6)
Raptor Cloud (SoS) (Sor/Wiz 4)
Spores of the Vrock (BoVD) (Clr 2)
Stunning Screech (BoVD) (Brd 3)
Summon Elysian Thrush (SC) (Brd 2)
Summon Pest Swarm (Cty) (Sor/Wiz 4)
Tern's Persistence (St) (Sor/Wiz 2)
Winged Watcher (Drd 1)

[MaxiDuRaritry]

You could always insist that hippopotami are actually birds, but their wings were taken from them, just like with buffalo. The poor things had their wings lopped off just so they could be served with sauce in cheap pubs.

Use Blessed by Tem-Et-Nu to rebuke and command hippos.

https://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?type=card&name=Phelddagrif

https://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?type=card&name=Phelddagrif

[TheCount]

Away from books

Animal growth spell

Handle animal bonuses

Poultry squads/regiments/platoons/legions: start out as bonuses for the poultry, end up in a hivemind... Or with intelligent chicken followers.

Blessings of Mother Hen: no idea,what to put here, probably awareness and protection from evil and chaos maybe,among other things.

[Nifft]

You could make it more serious (and perhaps even playable) by delving into chicken thematics and also puns.

[Fear] spells make others chicken out, for example.

Create Food and Water and Heroes Feast are highly compatible with chicken.

Dawn (SpC) mentions a rooster's call.

Stinking Cloud has a rotten egg as its material component.

[Luccan]

I appreciate the feedback, particularly the spells and abilities (Thanks Thurbane and TheCount!) Maxi, when I use this PrC for a oneshot villain, they'll absolutely be taking vengeance for the buffalo and hippopotamus losing their wings and the many chickens lost over the years. Also, capital puns.


You could make it more serious (and perhaps even playable) by delving into chicken thematics and also puns.

[Fear] spells make others chicken out, for example.

Create Food and Water and Heroes Feast are highly compatible with chicken.

Dawn (SpC) mentions a rooster's call.

Stinking Cloud has a rotten egg as its material component.

These could work. I did have the idea to use it (along with some of the other commoner flaws) as a player PrC in a game where they were all cursed and have to turn it around on the mage who cursed them. You know, have a Poultrymancer alongside a Boarrior and a Sheepshifter.

Edit: I could pull from some mythology on chickens too. Roosters, in particular, show up a fair amount.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

1. What do you get when you cross a chicken and a four-leaf clover?
The Cluck o’the Irish!

2. What’s a hen’s favorite type of movie?
A chick flick.

3. How do baby chickens dance?
Chick-to-chick.

4. What do you get when you cross a chicken with a bell?
An alarm cluck.

5. Which chicken is at the top of the pecking order?
Attila the Hen.

6. Why do chickens lay eggs?
Because if they dropped them, they’d break.

7. What do you call a chicken that crosses the road?
Poultry in motion.

8. Why is it easy for chicks to talk?
Because talk is cheep.

9. What happens when a hen eats gunpowder?
She lays hand gren-eggs.

10. What do you get when you cross a ghost with a chicken?
A poultry-geist.

11. Why did the chicken cross the playground?
He wanted to get to the other slide.

12. How do you know if it’s too hot in the chicken barn?
The chickens are laying hard-cooked eggs.

13. What do chickens grow on?
Eggplants.

14. What does a chicken need to lay an egg every day?
Hen-durance.

15. What do chicken families do on Saturday afternoon?
They go on peck-nics.

16. What kind of chicken grows on a tree?
Poultry.

17. What happened to the baby chicken that misbehaved at school?
It was egg-spelled.

18. The chicken farmer died under mysterious circumstances.
The police suspect fowl play.

19. I have no idea how to raise chickens.
I think I’ll just wing it.

20. I ate an omelette for breakfast…
but I’m still feeling peckish.

21. What do you call a chicken that crosses the road, rolls in the dirt, crosses the road again, and then rolls in the dirt again?
A dirty double-crossing chicken.

22. Why did the chicken cross the road halfway?
She wanted to lay it on the line.

23. What do you call the door to a chicken barn?
The hen-trance.

24. What did the baby chicken say when he saw his mother sitting on an orange?
Dad, look what marma-laid!

25. Why can’t a rooster ever get rich?
Because he works for chicken feed.

26. What do chickens call school tests?
Eggs-aminations.

27. What do you call a crazy chicken?
A cuckoo cluck.

28. What do you get when a chicken lays an egg on top of a barn?
An eggroll.

29. What do chickens serve at birthday parties?
Coop-cakes.

30. Why does a chicken coop have two doors?
Because if had four doors it would be a chicken sedan.

31. Which dance will a chicken not do?
The foxtrot.

32. What do you call a bird that's afraid to fly?
Chicken.


33. What do you get if you feed gunpowder to a chicken?
An egg-splosion.

34. How long do chickens work?
Around the cluck

35. Which day of the week do chickens hate most?
Fry-day

36. Why did the chick disappoint his mother?
He wasn’t what he was cracked up to be.

37. Is chicken soup good for your health?
Not if you’re the chicken.

38. When do chickens go to bed?
Half past hen!

39. When the farmer died, all his chickens were sold to the highest bidder.
They would have preferred to stay on the farm, but auctions speak louder than birds.

40. Why did the chicken go to KFC?
He wanted to see a chicken strip.

41. Why did the chicken join a band?
Because it already had drumsticks.

42. What do chickens study in school?
Eggonomics.

43. Why did the chicken cross the basketball court?
He heard the referee calling fowls.

44. Did you hear about the chicken who could only lay eggs in the winter?
She was no spring chicken.

45. How does a chicken mail a letter to her friend?
In a HEN-velope!

46. What do you call a group of chickens clucking in unison?
A Hensemble.

47. Why don’t chickens wear pants?
There peckers are on their face.

48. Why did the t-rex cross the road?
Because the chicken hadn’t evolved yet.

49. What did one chicken say to the other after they walked through poison ivy?
“You scratch my beak and I’ll scratch yours!”

50. How did the headless chicken cross the road?
In a KFC bucket.

https://thoughtcatalog.com/january-nelson/2018/06/chicken-puns/

Surround your enemies (and your negative energy-based allies) with exploding zombie/wight chickens each round, have your chickens use their turns to peck and deal damage, then cast a chicken-ified wings of flurry on all of them, both dealing damage to your foes and killing your exploding chickens (which deal additional damage). You would, of course, avoid dealing damage to your allies, healing them, instead. Fluff it as a full-on Legend of Zelda cucco attack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw-ugyUqfPk)?

Wings of cover using flapping white wings works.

Spell Thematics feat to refluff (that is, refeather) all your spells into a chicken theme. Throw literal hen grenades at enemies -- chicken eggs that explode into fireballs. They'll have egg all over their faces.

Alchemy items that look like chicken eggs, like eggshell grenades and Cadbury cream eggs filled with acid and fire. Yolk's on them!

Also, feather tokens (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#anchor) used in abundance.

You might also take some inspiration from the Simurgh (https://worm.fandom.com/wiki/The_Simurgh), using an advanced chichimec (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/abomination.htm#chichimec) mechanically (but with bird-oriented SLAs instead). Add the phrenic template (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/phrenicCreature.htm), but switch up the PLAs for better ones. Maybe say it drives its foes mad with the constant clucking. It could be a major campaign end-boss. Perhaps have your poultrymancer set off the aukpocalypse in an Elder Evil-style campaign. The addition of the War Magic Study template (Dragon #309) could allow it to cover vast areas with its SLAs and PLAs if applied to them. Use bestow curse and suggestion SLAs to cover the Simurgh-bombs. A truly terrifying eggsperience for any adventurer.

[Saintheart]

How about some work on the natural attacks? Improved Natural Attack (claw) (beak)?

Razorfeathers from Steelwings get masterwork, adamantine, and keen effects. How about some chickenfeather ammunition?

And how come nobody's mentioned Feather Fall yet?

[SangoProduction]

SoP has a Death sphere talent from Jester's Handbook.

Fowl Infestation (ghost strike) [curse] [Jester's HB]
You may spend a spell point to make a ghost strike that permanently curses the target to become plagued by chickens, ducks, or another similar bird of your choice (Will negates). Whenever the target draws a weapon or pulls an item out of a container, they have a 50% chance of drawing a live bird instead. The bird’s starting attitude toward the target is hostile, and will react appropriately to being drawn out by its ankles (or other part of its body). A bird’s body created by this effect disappears if it dies.

If you spend an additional spell point when casting this sphere effect, the target always draws the same live bird, even if it was killed previously. Drawing this bird causes it to disappear from wherever it was and appear in the target’s hands. The bird remembers the target and will behave appropriately, usually becoming angrier with each draw. With enough time, some birds may realize peace was never an option.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Would poultrified orb of X spells be considered fowl balls?

Improperly prepared explosive runes spells with poor penmanship could be referred to as especially volatile chicken scratches.

[Hiro Quester]

More about tactics but any poultrymancer should always run from direct combat, and use minions instead.

He has to literally be too “chicken” for frontline combat.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

More about tactics but any poultrymancer should always run from direct combat, and use minions instead.

He has to literally be too “chicken” for frontline combat.Feel free to egg your minions on from the sidelines, though.

[TheCount]

Let's not forget we still didn't cracked this egg open.

For SLAs, I propose jump, for the simple fact most birds can help themselves with a boost from wing flaps to gain height/length of Thier jump.
Edit:a bonus to climb, tumbe and jump checks should work as well, scaling with the PRC's levels.

Now, I understand we need to choose hen-pecked ones, but let's not forget the low flying chickens.

Another one is ghost sound, or other illusions in general.

And I seem to remember a higher level one, devouring darkness. Which mentions bats, but could use some new feathers.

As for summons, or taming if you encounter some, don't forget the dire chickens either!

Also mythologies and folk tales have multiple pens' worth of poultry in them:
https://www.google.com/search?q=chickens+in+mythology+and+folklore&oq=chickens+in+mythology+and+folklore&gs_l=mobile-heirloom-hp.3...4400.79011.0.79757.32.26.1.5.5.0.476.6156.0 j6j17j2j1.26.0....0...1c.1.34.mobile-heirloom-hp..8.24.4510.NNyBuC-YvQA

[Uncle Pine]

Shalantha's Delicate Disk (Lost Empires of Faerun) is a very fun spell with a golden egg worth 200 gp as material component. I could imagine a high level Poultrymancer getting so in touch with their feathered touch that they start to lay such an egg every now and then (once a week? once a month?), with the option to either eat the egg for some minor benefits like nutrition or an all-day morale boost of +1 or +2 to attack and weapon damage rolls, or imbue it with a spell within 10 minutes, or leave it to spoil.

A refluffed Gembomb (Spell Compendium) can make for great egg grenades. Although don't forget about the actual eggshell grenades!

[Luccan]

How about some work on the natural attacks? Improved Natural Attack (claw) (beak)?

Razorfeathers from Steelwings get masterwork, adamantine, and keen effects. How about some chickenfeather ammunition?

And how come nobody's mentioned Feather Fall yet?

Probably because it's included in my OP. Natural attacks are an interesting idea here. I'll look over all the suggestions when I have time today

[Hiro Quester]

I'm trying hard to think of a way to get some form of Japanese Yodeling as a method of casting the summoning spell to get "Chicken Attack". https://youtu.be/miomuSGoPzI

If only there was a way to get improved unarmed strike on a summoned chicken.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I'm trying hard to think of a way to get some form of Japanese Yodeling as a method of casting the summoning spell to get "Chicken Attack". https://youtu.be/miomuSGoPzI

If only there was a way to get improved unarmed strike on a summoned chicken.Leadership with a phoelarch (or similar) bard (Chickenfire Inspiration, for preference) minion with lots of lower level awakened chicken unarmed swordsages as backup?

Equip them all with smoke bombs that they use to make dramatic entrances, pretending you summoned them. And it works thematically, given they're ninjickens. "We're here to cluck" *Flap!* "you up!"

[Nifft]

Probably because it's included in my OP. Natural attacks are an interesting idea here. I'll look over all the suggestions when I have time today

Baleful Polymorph - the spell would be restricted to turning the target into a chicken.

Mordenkainen’s Protection from Avians - early edition silliness which might have been the origin of Protection from Winged Fliers


If you're okay weaponizing dad jokes, you could reskin telekinesis (and friends) as poultry-geist, and that gives you a lot of effects to work with -- combat maneuvers, sustained levitation, and the instantaneous shove, in terms of combat uses, plus mage hand and unseen servant.

Further puns include twilight cluck (from BoED) and uncluck (from SpC).

[MaxiDuRaritry]

How about all those spells that create extradimensional spaces?

Like Rope roost?

Leomund's tiny coop?

Mordenkainen's magnificent lovenest?

And mount could summon a ghostly chocobo.

[TheCount]

For another class feather, they could have/grow/manifest/summon wings, either permanent ex ability or dismissible, like the dragon shaman or the swift wing PRC.