Spirit Marks (PEACH)--variant to the Graft Flesh feat

[Stycotl]

Atua Moko "Spirit Marks"

A wild variant on the Graft Flesh feat

Critique notes:
• More prerequisites than graft flesh
• Not generally as powerful as g.f. with its lack of ability score boosts, etc
• More flexible than g.f. in terms of caster level—allows for more powerful versions
• More versatile than g.f. in that it does not permanently alter and occupy a body part in any way more intrusive than a tattoo or brand, though there is still a # limit dependant on individual
• Prices were just kind of guestimated, according to similar grafts. I am not actually aware of the method used to determine graft prices.

Spirit Mark

You have found the means of summoning spirits of nature that imbue the ageless insights of the earth into your ritual scars, brands, and tattoos.

Prerequisites: Craft 10, Heal 10, Know Nature 10, cast level four druid or ranger spells, summon nature’s ally IV, among them.

Effect: You can ritually imbue a crafted tattoo, scar, or brand (your choice) with the power of the wild. Creation time, XP, and gp costs are built into each scar description. At the end of the crafting ritual, the caster must cast summon nature’s ally IV, or any higher-level variation of the spell, and the other listed spells within the mark’s description. The effect thereafter is permanent.

Spirits capable of imbuing the marks are generally elementals, legendary variants of animals, some fey and magical beasts, and other, intelligent or semi-intelligent creatures who revere nature.

You must have a way to communicate with the spirit you wish to summon for the ritual to work.

Nature spirits will not accept an individual for marking, or a summoner, that has shown a callous disregard or malicious abuse of the earth and her creations, and previous marks may cease to function if the creature later shows such tendencies. A nature spirit will not empower a mark with abilities that do not lie within its sphere of knowledge and influence. Thus, if you wish a mark of strength, you would do better to summon an earth elemental or a bear spirit than a bird spirit.

A single creature can have one spirit mark, plus one for every four levels it possesses (1+HD/4). Some of these effects become very elaborate, and cover the entire body, weaving together to create an ornate tapestry.

Spirit Marks grant two kinds of abilities: numeric bonuses to various statistics (which count as untyped bonuses unless specified differently), and supernatural, spell-mimicking abilities which can generally be used only a limited number of times per day.

Note: Text describing what kind of mark it is, and where it is placed, amounts merely to flavorful suggestion; the ritualist decides before creation where the artwork will go and what it will be in order to win the spirits’ favor.

Example Grafts:

Hand of Ruin (Spirit Mark)
A spirit of deterioration and decay has gifted you with the ability to obliterate the fabrications and trappings of industry. Angular devices forming a knotted series of triangles cover your forearms, denoting the cycles of creation and destruction.
Effect: +2 Appraise and Disable Device checks, both of which become class skills; 2/day—touch attack sunder deals non-acidic corrosion damage to any object, equal to 1d10+7, and ignoring hardness in nonmagical items. Oil of Timelessness, or similar, negates this sunder attack.
Requires: rusting grasp
Caster Level: 7th
Cost: 15,000 gp

Aggressive Quarry (Spirit Mark)
You have been taught the secrets of formidable defense by cunning prey spirits. Abstract representations of the mortal struggle between predator and prey have been depicted across your back and shoulders.Effect: +2 Sense Motive; +3 natural armor; 1/day—sprout barbed quills across your entire body that last for 30 minutes. Anyone who successfully hits you with an unarmed, natural, or non-reach melee attack, or grapples with you, takes 2d4+9 points of piercing damage, getting dozens of finger-length quills lodged in their flesh. The wounded creature takes a -4 penalty to all strength and dexterity rolls until the quills are removed, requiring 10 minutes of operation and a DC 20 Heal check. Failure to take the proper time, and/or to make the Heal check results in another 1d6+9 damage upon removal. The quills replenish themselves constantly during this half hour, and will not run out.
Requires: quillfire
Caster Level: 10th
Cost: 40,000 gp

Elemental Soul (Spirit Mark)The wisdoms of the elemental planes has been whispered to you softly in the crackling of a fire, the murmur of a brook, and the soft clatter of windblown grains of sand. Scenes of earth, sea, and sky are intricately displayed on your collar and breast.Effect: +2 Knowledge (planes), which now becomes a class skill; 1/day gain resistance 10 to any one energy type, and summon a friendly medium elemental of a type associated with that energy, for 20 rounds total.
Requires: resist elements
Caster Level: 10th
Cost: 25,000 gp

Charnel Touch (Spirit Mark)Putrification and scavenging spirits have answered your call, imbuing you with nature’s macabre power of death and rejuvenation. A complex series of rings and glyphs on your abdomen describes the ancient patterns of life and death.
Effect: +4 Intimidate; 2/day—infestation of maggots, except that it is a mixture of maggots, fungi, and other natural, decomposing agents.
Requires: infestation of maggots
Caster Level: 6th
Cost: 20,000 gp

Mantle of the Firestorm (Spirit Mark)
The spirits of flame have granted you the understanding of the dangerously capricious movement and resilience of fire. Stylized flames dance across your arms, and up onto the sides of your face, showing the destructive, purifying power of the sacred element.Effect: +2 initiative; 2/day—You can surround yourself in a searing nimbus of flame for 12 rounds. You gain a flight speed of 90 feet (good maneuverability), and you deal an extra 1d6+6 fire damage with every melee, natural, or unarmed attack against adjacent foes. Any creature that strikes you with a natural, unarmed, or non-reach melee attack, or grapples with you, takes 1d6+6 fire damage. Additionally, while under the effects of this nimbus of flame, you gain 24 points of healing energy which you can use on yourself at any time as a swift action, using them all at once, or dividing them among multiple uses as you see fit. Unused points disappear without benefit to you at the end of the effect.
Requires: cure moderate wounds, fire wings
Caster Level: 12th
Cost: 52,000 gp

Breath of Peace (Spirit Mark)
Taught how to sustain life from the very spirits of creation, you can apply those principles of healing with potent results. Glyphs of water and light mingle with the intricate weave of what appears to be the veins of a leaf.
Effect: +4 Heal checks; 2/day—heal, as spell, but you must kiss the subject of the spell if targeting someone other than yourself.
Requires: heal
Caster Level: 13th
Cost: 60,000 gp

Old Growth (Spirit Mark)Tutored under the boughs of the most ancient of trees, you have subsumed the essence of the groves into your soul, gifting you with the physical presence of a mighty tree. Patterns of bark and foliage adorn your legs and torso, bearing a resemblance to the native trees of your homeland.
Effect: +4 Knowledge (nature); 2/day—gain the resilience and tenacity of a towering tree. Add +6 to your natural armor, and to your grapple, overrun, sunder, and trip attacks, as well as DR 4/-. In addition, when under natural sunlight you heal 1 point of damage per round, up to your maximum. Lasts 22 rounds.
Requires: barkskin, liveoak
Caster Level: 11th
Cost: 50,000 gp

Dance of the Windstorm (Spirit Mark)
The very winds of the skies have been your instructor, teaching you the whisper, stir, and dance of air. Billowing, roiling designs decorate your arms and brow, depicting the coming of a great gale.
Effect: +2 Tumble, which now becomes a class skill; 2/day summon a tremendous burst of wind, or a shrieking dust devil. The burst functions exactly as the gust of wind spell. The dust devil surrounds you in a churning cocoon of powerful wind and debris, making projectile and thrown weapon attacks against you impossible, as well as requiring every attack with a weapon, even unarmed and natural, to overcome a strength check against the intense winds (str 25) or do half damage.
Requires: gust of wind, wall of wind
Caster Level: 10th
Cost: 25,000 gp

[Zeal]

Wow, this is giving me some awesome character and NPC ideas, I'm defintely keeping track of this one. Nice work on this one.

[Stycotl]

thanks.

anyone have any editorial notes? questions? comments?

anyone have a better name idea than 'spirit marks'?

thanks, aaron out

[Admiral Squish]

I want the hand of ruin so very bad.

[Stycotl]

thank you much.
i have an even older version of this, something more along the lines of a ritualized geomancer shift. if i ever get around to typing it up--as it is currently in one of my sketchbooks--i'll post it here. i based it off of the three elements of germanic mythology: earth, sea, and sky.

[MagFlare]

These are very nice - I'm especially impressed by the way you've tied the in-game effects to the vivid tattoo descriptions. However:

Breath of Peace (Spirit Mark)
Taught how to sustain life from the very spirits of creation, you can apply those principles of healing with potent results.Effect: +4 Heal checks; 2/day—heal, as spell, but you must kiss the subject of the spell if targeting someone other than yourself.
Requires: heal
Caster Level: 13th
Cost: 60,000 gp

You left out the tattoo description for this one.

[Stycotl]

ah! thanks. i wouldn't even have noticed that.

that's why the boards rock.

aaron out.

[Stycotl]

seriously, does anyone have any suggestions for a better name? 'spirit marks' sounds too disneyish for me. i wanted something along the lines of 'primeval scarring' or something cooler, but that didn't really convey the feel...

thanks.

[wadledo]

Something like "World Grafts" or "Natures Gifts" kinda work, but Spirit Marks fit very well other wise.

[MagFlare]

How about "Atua Moko"? My Te Reo Māori is a little rusty, but it ought to mean, roughly, "spirit marks." And it sounds impressively tribal, even if the grammatical construction is a little wonky.

[Stycotl]

i like. thanks for the lesson in Māori. i like foreign languages quite a bit. already added the title.

aaron out.