Crafting Magic.... People?

[Acco Spoot]

Okay, this may be odd, I'm pretty sure it is, but hey curiosity calls, anywho, is it possible, if not slightly perverse, to imbue a magical property onto persons genetic structure? I'm not the number one person on Geneticism and there's only so much Wiki can tell you, certainly no section detailing imbueing magic onto genes...

Thanks in advance for response :)

[Fourth Tempter]

By the rules of D&D? No.

In general, assuming magic? "Is it possible..." has no meaning. It's possible if you say it is. Magic is not possible.

[Acco Spoot]

By the rules of D&D? No.

In general, assuming magic? "Is it possible..." has no meaning. It's possible if you say it is. Magic is not possible.

Wow that was quick!

Hmmm, well I was expecting a little more discussion...

...

Thanks anyways, I'm off to stay up all night trying to find another stupid question to ask...

[High-Chancellor]

Think I remember reading a splatbook with stuff like that in it...

There's also enough templates and little quirks (such as grafts and such) that tweaking it a bit more to the point of genetic coding is up to the DMs discretion.

It's the sort of thing where, yeah, there's not really anything about it in the rules, but the rules would support it if you wanted to throw something in there.

[ocato]

Well, I guess you could get really uh, I dunno. On one hand, you'd think that Permanency would make an effect permanent, as in, ingrained in your person. But that doesn't really make it genetic, now does it. I mean, if I cut your arm off, it's permanent, ingrained in your person. But your kids have 2 arms. That may not be a perfect example. I am not the person to ask about this. uh... GLITTERDUST *runs away*

[Arbitrarity]

Illumians were.... experimented on. From Races of Destiny.

[Gralamin]

It would have to be homebrewed. I would rule you have to take a feat, have to have permanency, and some other homebrew spells.

[Genome]

Spellwarped template? (MM3)

[kemmotar]

Abberant magical effects that have lingered in a place altering an othewise normal race to being more magical, mutated? As with the effect in Eberon where in the misty lands place (don't remember name) with the living spells and awakened animals etc...Or you could get a race that has been created by someone resembling the Daelkyr mentality (eberon campaign setting page 278) such as mindflayers deciding that genetics is the future and using their magic to create new creatures more powerful than any other by combining the strengths of other creatures...frankenstein effect?

Natural selection is also a viable idea, an island that has only recently been discovered, high in some unreachable mountaintop a civilization has lived for aeons developing bodies different from their ancestors.

Wish or miracle with pretty much the effect of, maybe, alter reality as per the salient divine power?

strange racial combinations resulting from rape in the battlefield or experimentation or breeding? for example thri-kreen and catgirl...don't ask me where that came from *shrugs at the thought*

in all these ways you can work magic into enhancing someone in one way or another...and it affects genes...
However, you cannot magical affect the genes of the person in front of you, rather you experiment on the outcome of certain magic on the genes of what is "produced". For example you can't change the genes of an adult, but you can manage what genes the future baby gets (theoretically) so you can add the magic factor at the time of the conception...what happens if someone is polymorphed while *doing the act of conception*..or while shapechange is active...kid becomes a shapechanger? is this how dopplegagners are born? new race of dopplegagner human like creatures?

[Duskwither]

A long, long time ago, before I'd even garnered the very idea of playing D&D, before 3.5 came out, I was surfing the web as many adolescents do these days, and somehow, came across a rather neat word file which is no doubt lost to the annals of useless that stacks onto the internet over years.

It went over the complications of magic and even psionics used on, or by, pregnant mothers, and the effect it had on their un-born children. No templates, but flat racial abilities (and penalties) that came about because of it, as well as mutations and the like. It was quite an enjoyable read, but I might suggest another person (perhaps even yourself!) cook up another random-rolled list of side-effects for the like, as the idea was rather neat.

However, it sounds like you want something more intentional. Hey, if you're homebrewing or DMing, go nuts. Make up a template or a race for what you need. What do you want to imbue on things anyhow? I imagine a Reduce Person on a halfling could make for some laughs as a genetic trait.

[Ulzgoroth]

I can think of two cases of 'rules' relating to that. One is the core (Su) ability of the Sarrukh that produces Pun-Pun, but was presumably meant to allow them to make exactly the sort of inheritable changes you're talking about to serpent-people. Unfortunately, as a standard action and with no restrictions worth mentioning...

The other is the design of the Epic spell Origin of Species. By adapting that, you could create true-breeding anything, given sufficient mitigation. You would be building from scratch though, not modifying something that exists already.

[bosssmiley]

By the rules of D&D? No.

In general, assuming magic? "Is it possible..." has no meaning. It's possible if you say it is. Magic is not possible.

I think Fourth Tempter already Alpha-Omega'ed this thread with the above, but here's my 2cp-worth anyway.

Inheritance of traits in D&D does not work like it does in our world. Heck, I've seen theories that the descendents of mortals living on the Outer Planes naturally pick up the traits of the planes. Teiflings, Aasimars, Genasi, etc. could just be the offspring of normal planar humans who lived in the wrong place for too long.

Similarly with the magical/psionic experimentation, curses, thaumic pollution, planar warping and so on that created cross-breed monsters like the peryton, the owlbear, or the hippogriff. It's part of the divine will/eldritch encoding of the alterations of the base creatures (as you prefer) that their offspring breed true/create half-breeds/whatever. An in-game specialist in the field will give you hours of thaumobabble that ultimately boils down to "they exist because they do".

In a fantasy setting there's no meaningful reason to ask about the cellular incompatibilities that would have made the Minotaur, Pegasus, the Sphinx, et al impossible. These creatures exist; the whys and wherefores of their genetic make-up are an insoluble (and essentially meaningless) mystery.

Stop killing catgirls!

[kellandros]

It went over the complications of magic and even psionics used on, or by, pregnant mothers, and the effect it had on their un-born children.

Sounds like the Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge- the D&D book of sex. Somehow I doubt that's been updated to 3.5 edition.

[Acco Spoot]

Sounds like the Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge- the D&D book of sex. Somehow I doubt that's been updated to 3.5 edition.

I think I used to know someone with that... Too bad the only memory I have of him is well over 8 years old...

Thanks for all the advice people, I'll be sure to use it somehow somewhen...

[Closet_Skeleton]

Sounds like the Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge- the D&D book of sex. Somehow I doubt that's been updated to 3.5 edition.

There's a 'book of erotic fantasy' but it's a differant thing in the same vein.