Arcsthetics
Introduction
A bard entertains tavern goers by singing in the voice of a khan. Poisonous darts concealed in an assassin’s eye are ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Lumber workers use the saws built into their legs to cut large branches off trees. Each of these are examples of arcsthetics, arcane prosthetics meant enhance the physical body. In this world it has become common place for people to replace their flesh and bone with enchanted fabric, metal, stone, wood or many other possible materials. This article will describe what arcsthetics are, how the player can use them, and the mechanics associated with this system.What are Arcsthetics
Many people of this world choose to replace their flesh and bone with arcsthetics. They carry the ability to enhance the abilities of the user as well as grant access to powerful new abilities. Have you ever wanted to have eyesight that rivals that of an eagle? How about being able to eat almost anything, or gain the ability to soar through the skies? With arcsthetics all of that and more is possible. Many users of arcsthetics seek augmentation to perform better in a specific job, increases their general quality of life, or only as a fashion statement. These augmentations are made up of a variety of materials from worked metal, to natural stone and wood allowing for each person to have their own distinct look. See the charts at the bottom of this article for information on all available arcsthetics.Who Can Install Arcsthetics
Only specialized surgeons, often called teknomancers, can graft arcsthetics onto creatures. These individuals are masters of both the arcane and medicine. They must utilize both to bind the arcsthetics to each customer that strolls through their doors. Most large cities have at least one teknomancer within its borders while finding one in a smaller town or village is much rarer.Location on the Body
Each arcsthetic must be installed into a section of a creature. Those being the arms, ears, eyes, legs, mind, and body. Each of these sections can hold a certain amount of arcsthetics determined by the framework. For example, the body can have up to ten arcsthetics installed while the eyes can only have three. Every section, other than the body, has a required framework that must be installed before any functional arcsthetics can be used. See the framework table and section below for more information on framework arcsthetics.Frameworks
Frameworks are standard implants that allow for many arcsthetics to be installed and function properly. Frameworks such as the stonework eyes, mind merger, and arcsthetic legs provide their section of the body with the slots needed to house arcsthetics. Some arcsthetics gain greater functionality when paired with a framework. For example, the internal defibrillator will cause the user to gain two levels of exhaustion upon use unless a bio-regulator framework is also installed, which will cause the user to only gain one level of exhaustion.Perseverance
Perseverance is the measure of how much one person can withstand the toll arcsthetics take on the body and mind. This is calculated by adding your two greatest ability mods together then multiplying by 10, with a minimum of 10. Each arcsthetic has a certain perseverance cost associated with it which reduces a creatures remaining perseverance upon installation.Example: A human fighter with ability scores of 14(+2) strength, 11(+0) dexterity, 14(+2) constitution, 11(+0) intelligence, 12(+1) wisdom, and 13(+1) charisma will add their strength and constitution ability mods for a total of 4, then multiply it by 10 giving a total perseverance score of 40. If that same human fighter installed the vampire fangs arcsthetic they would roll 4d6 then reduce their perseverance score by that value.
Side Effects
Recklessly installing arcsthetics can have grave consequences. If a player character’s perseverance score is reduced to 25% of their total or less, their body will fail them forcing the teknomancer to transfer the mind into a new synthetic body. Upon this transformation the player character will lose their race, and all associated racial traits, and become Warforged. When becoming Warforged the player character gains all racial traits associated with the Warforged race in addition to the following features Arcane Sensitivity, Arcsthetic Body, and Damaged Energy Cell. More information on these features can be found at the bottom of this article.Another adverse side effect occurs when a player character installs an arcsthetic that reduces their perseverance score to 10% of their total or less. When this occurs, the player must make a probability check greater than 10 or succumb to arcsthetic madness. This condition forces the player character to attack the nearest creature until it is incapacitated, or a calm emotions spell is successfully cast on them. The player must make this roll once each day at the DM’s discretion, until their perseverance score is raised above the 10% threshold. Each time a player succeeds on the arcsthetic madness roll, the DC will increase by 1d10. Lastly, if a player characters perseverance is reduced to, or below 0, the character is immediately declared dead.
Example: If the same human fighter from before wants to install wax wings into their arms. When reducing their perseverance score, they have 9 out of 40 points remaining. Since this is below the 25% threshold that player must change their human fighter to a Warforged fighter and gain the additional feats mentioned above.
If that same Warforged fighter wants to install cheetah legs, reducing their perseverance score to 2 out of 40, they must make a probability check of 11 or greater or succumb to arcsthetic madness.
Arcsthetics Tables
Warforged Features
Arcane Sensitivity
Prerequisite: Must be Warforged
Craftwork bodies are kept together by delicate magic which can be easily disrupted from magical attacks. You become vunerable to all damage from spell based attacks and have disadvantage on spell saves.
Arcsthetic Body
Prerequisite: Must be Warforged
The heavy augmentation done to you does come with its benefits. You gain the effects of all framework arcsthetics including Arcsthetic Arms, Arcsthetic Legs, Feylike Ears, Mind Merger, and Stonework Eyes for no perserverence cost.
Damaged Energy Cell
Prerequisite: Must be Warforged
A factory-new energy cell could keep a Warforged running for centuries. Unfortunatly, this one seems well loved.
Any failed death saving throws made while you have this feat will not reset after stabilization.
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