| Magical Tattoos (in reference to Circuit Tattoos from Dragon#258) |
Question:
The Machine Mage kit in Dragon #268 has a new proficiency that allows
wizards to imprint a 'personal circuit tattoo' that can be used to
store 'Machine specific spells' sort of like an open ended right of
spell storning. I don't think I'll be using the Sheechaser or Machine
Mage in my games any time soon but the tattoo idea is really
interesting and can explain why a lot of wizards in fantasy
illustrations have all these weird tattoos, they're actually USEFUL!
I've searched through spells & powers and spells & magic and can't
find any reference to any rules on this idea, seems to be a really
good tie in for the School of Geometry. Does anyone know of any rules
that have been done for this yet?
Answer:
- Red wizards of thay in the spellbound boxed set for the forgotten realms, and
they get a spell called create enchanted tattoo. Awesome spell
- If you like the concept, check out the Patryn from Weiss & Hickman's Death Gate
Cycle. Excellent books.
- We've used magical tatoos in our campaign, They leap off the body of
the tatooed (not an illusion) and follow the bearers commands.
- That's an interesting idea I've seen used in some stories here an
there that I had forgotten about. How do the tattoos get there in the
first place? Some sort of spell or magical tattoo ink?
- I had an old character in an oriental campaign that was really into tattoos.
Mori had quite a number of them all over and had researched a more advanced
version of the Wizard Mark spell that allowed her to make detailed drawings
which could be inked later. She used them as illusion focuses a number of
times. The snake tattoo coming alive and crawling off her body was quite
scary.
- Cool idea for a one-use magic item I think. You could set it up to be a
scroll that a nonspellcaster could use. Whatever was depicted on the tatoo
would be a representation of the spell to be cast. So a fireball spell might
have a picture of a red dragon breathing fire, etc.
If you wanted things to be permanent, it could be kind of like a Ring of Spell
Storing, requiring recharge when used. To pimp it a bit (since it can't really
be taken away) I might say that a successful Dispel would discharge the stored
spells.
I'll have to throw this at players sometime, either by giving them the option
to have a magical tattoo done or meeting someone with a magical tattoo. The
latter is rather cool as sometimes I've seen players get mad at opponents who
use temporary items, thinking as if the temporary items were "their items,"
which is pretty damn callous if you ask me.
|
|
| |
 |