My friend is starting up a new campaign in the next few weeks, and I had an idea for a neat character. I wanted to make a wizard who was all about studying life and biology. I was looking for a prestige class that would fit that theme , when I thought I stumbled on the jackpot, Fleshwarper from Lords of Madness.
As I read over it however, I ran into a few problems. that made me think the class wasn't thought out all that well. First of all, the Fleshwarper needs the Graft Flesh feat, which requires 10 ranks of heal, which wizards don't get, but I can get around that with some multiclassing. But another prereq is 4 ranks of heal, why 4 ranks of something they already need 10 ranks of.
Which brings me to my next point, is it just me or are grafts terribly convoluted in D&D. The really good Dragon grafts are done completely differently from grafts in all the other books (Fiend Folio, Serpent Kingdoms, Lords of Madness, Libris mortis). Does anybody have any suggestions on how to work around this, or even some homebrew grafts?
A good idea may be to either reduce the prerequisites for the Graft Flesh feat, so that it is easier to get into earlier. Another helpful trick is to use the Skill Training feat from (I think) Unearthed Arcana. It allows you to turn an untrained skill into a class skill. So awkward ones, like Heal, can be easily acquired. Another suggestion is to replace Graft Flesh with one of the grafter feats (and accompanying grafts) from Magic of Eberron (Deathless Fleshgrafter, Eldeen Plantgrafter, Elemental Grafter), and the Wyrmgrafter feat from Races of the Dragon. These represent a coherent system, but somewhat limiting on the number and type of grafts that can be present in a creature (only one graft per "slot" [understandable; mirrors magic item slots], and only one kind of graft per creature [less understandable])
Another suggestion: There is a new feat in Pathfinder Adventure Path 16 called Brew Fleshcrafting Poison. In fact, there is an entire chapter devoted to it (pg. 58). It has a similar system, with the option of either temporary or permanent alterations. The requirements are kind of steep (Cl 10, Craft [Alchemy]8 ranks), but its very freeform (you can replicate almost any monster ability), with several prefabricated options available.
Also, here are some suggestions for smoothing out the kinks. Normally, you would have to wait until 9th level to be able to take the Graft Flesh feat. However, if you utilize the Taint system from Heroes of Horror, you can acquire it almost for free (there are some drawbacks to being tainted, of course, amd you must meet the prerequisites)upon attaining a moderate level of either kind of taint (Corruption [body] or Depravity [mind]; personally, I find depravity to be more in line with forbidden knowledge, though taint could also work, as if the physiology of your brain was warped to acheive a better understanding of meshing disparate flesh, or eldritch parasites have taken up residence in your brain, instructing you how to use your knowledge in a terrible new way, but at a horrible cost)
A number of class features for the Fleshwarper prestige class may be a little awkward to convert, but it works. Graft reserve can be converted to any grafting feat, or any biomod-oriented feat for that matter (though stuff like grafting is more in line with the flavor). Graft Mastery could be adapted to expand the number of Grafter feats (and not just variants of the Graft Flesh feat). Rapid Grafting is easy for most of the above suggestions, except for Fleshcrafting Poisons.
I hope this has been helpful to you, sir. We seem to share the same attitude towards RPG biomodding. If you ever need help with stuff like this, you know where to find me.