Hi all, back with more questions about my favorite monstrous mother goddess, Lamashtu and her wacky followers.
It's been said in several of the Pathfinder articles that covered the Mother of Monsters that some of her human worshippers have had themselves altered to become members of more monstrous races in order to better serve her. I think they mentioned one 'pink-skinned gnoll who speaks like a cultured gentleman'. Just how would this be done in the setting?
Are there spells for this?
Do you have to perform some sort of quest for Lamashtu?
Are there magical places that can transform characters into a member of another species?
Or do they just have a Lamashtan druid stock up on the Reincarnation spells and start plugging away? "Ooops, we got an elf again. Sorry, Thrashak, we'll have to lop your head off again..."
Or is it a combination of 'all of the above'?
Of course, in the end anyone can do as they please in their own campaign, but I'd like some input from the other folks here as to why one of those choices might be a better or worse idea than the others, and what I ought to remember if and when I ever use any of them.
Thanks.
The Lamashtu article in Pathfinder should have a spell called lamashtu's blessing that accomplishes this temporarily, with a chance of becoming permanent.
Or you can use polymorph.
Or perhaps there are secret rituals or unholy sites that cause this to happen.
If you wanted to use something already published, the 3.5 PHB II has rules for retraining that even allows someone to take on different races. Typically, that requires quests to accomplish, but is still possible, and could provide some useful guidelines.
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Well, then here's the spell, in non-Paizo format:
Lamashtu’s Blessing
Transmutation
Level: Clr 4, Drd 4
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Willing creature touched
Duration: 1 day/level
This spell functions like polymorph, except as noted above and that you can only transform the target into a beastlike monstrous humanoid (gnoll, goblin, and so on) or a hybrid form somewhere between that of their original form and an animal (resembling a lycanthrope’s hybrid form). For example, you could make someone hyena-like (and thus resembling a gnoll), lizard-like (resembling lizardfolk), lion like, and so on. The change is purely cosmetic and the creature gains none of the abilities of the new form (gnoll-form does not grant natural armor, darkvision, increased strength, and so on), though it does disguise them as a creature of the appropriate race (a human transformed into a gnoll with this spell looks like a gnoll, even to other gnolls).
Successive uses of this spell on a target eventually make the change permanent (an instantaneous effect that cannot be dispelled), as if it were their true form. A target permanently affected in this manner breeds true as if they were a creature of their apparent shape, and can have children with creatures of their original or new form (for example, a human blessed with a gnoll-form can have offspring with gnolls or humans). The young look like a mix of their parents’ actual forms and most have the racial abilities of their untransformed parent (a child of a transformed human and a gnoll is usually a gnoll, a child of a transformed human and a human is usually a human). If there is no clear example of what sort of creature the offspring should be (such as two human-cheetah hybrids), use the game statistics for gnolls.
Priests of Lamashtu use this spell to help new tribesmen of a different race to mix with the tribe or when two tribes of different races must combine for survival. When this occurs, within a generation most of the tribe is racially mixed, and within two generations there is enough blending that all members are essentially one of the original races, though there may be some indications of the minority heritage (such as an exceptionally tall goblin, a barefaced gnoll with a short snout, and so on). A priest may use this spell to help infiltrate an enemy camp or to hide a fugitive. Rumors exist that the cult has a reversed form of this spell that makes bestial humanoids less bestial, allowing them to enter places where “monsters” are forbidden but merely ugly humans are not.
Director of Brand Strategy
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The Lamashtu article in Pathfinder should have a spell called lamashtu's blessing that accomplishes this temporarily, with a chance of becoming permanent.
Or you can use polymorph.
Or perhaps there are secret rituals or unholy sites that cause this to happen.
If you have true faith in Lamashtu's blessing, there's always suicide with the promise of a reincarnation afterwards. Surely druids in her clergy would have a more monstrous table to roll for a new race. 1% chance of being human, 20% chance of being a gnoll.
Well, then here's the spell, in non-Paizo format:
Lamashtu’s Blessing
Transmutation
Level: Clr 4, Drd 4
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Willing creature touched
Duration: 1 day/level
This spell functions like polymorph, except as noted above and that you can only transform the target into a beastlike monstrous humanoid (gnoll, goblin, and so on) or a hybrid form somewhere between that of their original form and an animal (resembling a lycanthrope’s hybrid form). [etc.]
It's a bad idea to use the phrase "monstrous humanoid" when it has a very specific meaning in D&D (and presumably Pathfinder). Goblins and gnolls aren't "monstrous humanoids" in the technical sense of the term.
Or perhaps there are secret rituals or unholy sites that cause this to happen.
That was one of my ideas, akin to something I once read about from Arabic folklore, about sacred/cursed pools which transformed any man who entered or drank from one into a woman.
Just swap out "woman" for "gnoll" or "minotaur" and there we go.
If you wanted to use something already published, the 3.5 PHB II has rules for retraining that even allows someone to take on different races. Typically, that requires quests to accomplish, but is still possible, and could provide some useful guidelines.
Ah, yes! Thank you for reminding me of this.
And thanks to everyone else as well. This is all very helpful!
How much is considered repeated use? Is there a percentile chance of it becoming permanent, a Will save?
It's whatever you like. Not everything needs to be spelled out. Argh, pun unintended. Anyway, if your PCs don't know what the actual risk is, they won't be blasé about it. ;)
It's a bad idea to use the phrase "monstrous humanoid" when it has a very specific meaning in D&D (and presumably Pathfinder). Goblins and gnolls aren't "monstrous humanoids" in the technical sense of the term.
And that's why Wes, as managing editor of Pathfinder, would strike the word "monstrous" from that sentence. :) Even I, mad game designer evil genius, make mistakes and need an editor. :)
Dumb question that I just thought of: should it be possible for a Lamashtan to use a variant of Bestow Curse to alter someone as stated in Mister Reynolds' described spell?
Though another use for BC from a Lamashtan could be to make someone look like an elf or human. Hey, to them, that is a curse. "Be cast out from Lamashtu's faith, and marked forever with this beautiful form!"
Hard to tell what I love the most about this thread: the spell (even in unedited state), or this.
Basic healing could be corrupted by Lamashtu, whenever a cleric of Lamashtu rolls a "Critical Heal", i.e. maximum points, the wound heals with beastly effects; fur, hide, scales, feathers, etc., showing Lamashtu's favor (or curse).
It would only be cosmetic, with the exception of a Lamashtu-tainted Regeneration, but would add to the "creepy factor" of the cultists.
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Basic healing could be corrupted by Lamashtu, whenever a cleric of Lamashtu rolls a "Critical Heal", i.e. maximum points, the wound heals with beastly effects; fur, hide, scales, feathers, etc., showing Lamashtu's favor (or curse).
It would only be cosmetic, with the exception of a Lamashtu-tainted Regeneration, but would add to the "creepy factor" of the cultists.
Time to recycle the old mutation tables from Realms of Chaos. Come to think of it, a Holy Champion of Lamashtu who receives monstrous mutations every time he gains a level and who, depending entirely on his luck, will end as either an immortal elevated servant of Lamashtu or a pitiful maddened and difformed spawn seems quite fitting for the Chaotic Evil Goddess of Monsters
Time to recycle the old mutation tables from Realms of Chaos. Come to think of it, a Holy Champion of Lamashtu who receives monstrous mutations every time he gains a level and who, depending entirely on his luck, will end as either an immortal elevated servant of Lamashtu or a pitiful maddened and difformed spawn seems quite fitting for the Chaotic Evil Goddess of MonstersBasic healing could be corrupted by Lamashtu, whenever a cleric of Lamashtu rolls a "Critical Heal", i.e. maximum points, the wound heals with beastly effects; fur, hide, scales, feathers, etc., showing Lamashtu's favor (or curse).
It would only be cosmetic, with the exception of a Lamashtu-tainted Regeneration, but would add to the "creepy factor" of the cultists.
Now that you mention it, any Unholy Warriors of Lamashtu (as per the Green Ronin class/book) would probably end up as one of those freaky/deranged/mutated Knights of Bedlam...
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The Lamashtu article in Pathfinder should have a spell called lamashtu's blessing that accomplishes this temporarily, with a chance of becoming permanent.
Or you can use polymorph.
Or perhaps there are secret rituals or unholy sites that cause this to happen.
"Oh, how fortunate! You have fallen into the blessed pool of pink gnoll!"
/throws bucket of cold water
I suppose this is as good a place as any to ask -- has anyone used the idea of Lamashtu's "cursed" children in a game? It said in the PF 5 article on her that "a sign of her disfavor is when one of her monstrous daughters bears a 'normal' (human or elven) child".
I was wondering -- provided that such a child lives past birth and isn't killed by its horrified parent, what effect would their unusual heritage have on them? I'm assuming that a human born of a she-gnoll would be a normal human (though probably a CE, very "gnollish" one if raised by its birth mother), though there might be long-term effects, possibly showing up in their own children if they ever have any?
I guess I'm wondering if you could use this to pull an "Arthur Jermyn" or "Shadow over Innsmouth" type of backstory on a character who starts looking for their family roots for whatever reason. And if maybe as they get closer to the truth, they start to look more and more like dear old Grandmom...