The Host : put some alien symbiosis in your creepiness... (an Alchemist archetype !)

[Edgar Lamoureux]

Cackles madly

[cartmanbeck]

Maxximilius wrote:

Edgar Lamoureux wrote:

Now I want to play a Symbiont Vivisectionist, having formed around some sort of animal. That seems like it would be pretty fun.

I think I may have to use this for an NPC, if I ever get the chance.

Ahahah, hope you'll have a blast playing it !

Don't hesitate to let me know how it turned out, if you decide to someday use this archetype as a player or a DM. (I'm pretty sure your players would be surprised by something like an elephant with class levels in Host, and the Pounce evolution... "Wtf happened to us ? Why is the Elephant holding a shield ?" :D)

That is... the greatest image ever. I will have to make that happen in my game as well. :-D

Question though... if the symbiont generally only takes over one part of the body, how would it control the elephant? Or are we assuming that the symbiont was able to make it to the brain and just take over completely?

[Maxximilius]

cartmanbeck wrote:

That is... the greatest image ever. I will have to make that happen in my game as well. :-D

Question though... if the symbiont generally only takes over one part of the body, how would it control the elephant? Or are we assuming that the symbiont was able to make it to the brain and just take over completely?

There are a lot of ways to make that happen, including to explain a Symbiont PC on an animal :

- The symbiont speaks it's host's languages : he may express sounds or vapors which influence the host's behaviour, or even communicate directly concepts and ideas to the brain. He may also train the creature with Handle Animal.
- The symbiont may also associate it's presence and it's obedience with pleasure : if the elephant freaks out to see it's trunk taking a weird shape, if said trunk catches more fruits and give them to the elephant whenever possible, the animal will associate the symbiont and the obedience to it's orders with "pleasure" and "power", since it also terrifies other animals. A host may even become an alpha male (charisma and natural survival allowing to overcome the Unnatural Aura) transmitting little, weird but useful characteristics to heirs.
- At level 4, increasing the animal's intelligence of 1 point just from the eidolon feature increases both the host's and the symbiont's, also making the host able to understand complex orders. You may now use the animal as more than a tamed creature, like an animal companion or a paladin's mount.

In a sense, when you are in an animal, you begin with 6 Int/6 Wis/6 Cha, more than enough to tame it little by little, and over-wit it. So basically, it's more a "giving cryptic orders/suggesting behaviour" kind of comportment at lower levels, and a "full" understanding beginning at level 4.

[FireclawDrake]

Sorry did someone mention Yeerks? Call the Andalites!

[Maxximilius]

FireclawDrake wrote:

Sorry did someone mention Yeerks? Call the Andalites!

I had to google this.

Took me back to when I was 9 or 10, and the vague remembrance of a TV series...

[cartmanbeck]

Maxximilius wrote:

FireclawDrake wrote:

Sorry did someone mention Yeerks? Call the Andalites!

I had to google this.

Took me back to when I was 9 or 10, and the vague remembrance of a TV series...

Oh man, I was so obsessed with Animorphs. I still have all 54 monthly books and all the special edition ones in a box at my dad's house.

[Maxximilius]

Never really caught to it. In France I believe the series were not a great success, even though I can remember the cover of some novels at the local media library.

[Azten]

I'm sorry, but I really don't think Yeerks fit the Host/Symbiont at all. Sorry, but I really think there is a difference between total control over the Host and unwavering loyalty.

Great book series though! I'll probably go to the threads where people are making classes and suggest it now...

[Maxximilius]

Well, you could see a yeerk as a symbiont having fully succeeded at mental control. Ironically though, the melded symbiont would probably be more powerful than a mental controler, unless you create a subarchetype improving mental stats instead of physical ones...

[Lucas M Santos]

Its great, and some wizard's options?

[TheGreatWot]

Necromancy of the highest order!

[Lucas M Santos]

Necrobiologist (wizard archetype)

Symbiosis (This ability replaces scribe scroll.)
All necrobiologist get the Craft Symbiont feat as a bonus feat, even if they do not qualify for it and have the ability to use their own bodies as the base aberration when using the Craft Symbiont feat. They must pay for the necessary construction cost and suffer the normal host penalties for the time it takes to grow a new symbiont. Likewise, they can ignore the attribute damage caused by any symbiont he creates. However, if something kill his symbiont, he immediately suffers 1 point of Constitution drain and an additional point for every 24 hours he goes without having an attached symbiont. No saving throw or restorative effects can negate or heal his drain. Once he has reattached a symbiont or has started growing a new one, as per the Craft Symbiont feat, he heals any Constitution drain suffered in this way at the rate 1 point per 24 hours. See the Symbionts creation rules for more details.

Unlocked Benefits (This ability replaces the bonus feat at the 5th level.)
The necrobiologist find a way to work around the locked benefits complication present in all symbionts and can improved his own symbiont familiar upon later. Any symbiont “created” using this ability will increase the ego score by full, not the normal collective ego rule. Any create “symbiont” is actually a new ability for the symbiont familiar and each of they can by manifest as a move action and changed by the same way.
An ability that improves senses or healing don’t need de suppressed. You can have a number of active “symbiont” equal ½ int score of the symbiont familiar.

Symbiont Familiar (This ability replaces the arcane bond.)
At 1st level, the necrobiologist create a parasitic aberration. A symbiont is a creature with it's own mind and Intelligence, though it's way of apprehending life is usually cold and mechanical, thinking only about it's own survival. A symbiont is incorruptibly loyal to it's host, since the host's death signifies theirs.
As such, all symbionts are strictly Neutral, often suggesting to their host the course to follow, keeping it's morale high, checking his blood pressure or nutritious apports, and complying to his desires, including those that could put it in danger. But the symbiont isn't a slave, and may not hesitate to deprive it's host of any « un-needed » feature (a judgement the host wouldn't probably agree with), should he prove overly agressive and determined enough to get rid of it. As such, a symbiont and a host usually have a close, weird relation and tend to work in concert.
The the symbiont can detach a part of itself from the host leaving behind a tendon like structure and can go up to 5 feet per level; doing so affect the benefits provided to the host.
The master gain the Alertness feat if the symbiont is not detach
Work tools
At 1st level, the symbiont can manifest any tool require for the use of a master’s skill, any raw material is not provide, and is available only one use of consumables (like heal kit) for day. After 5 ranks this bonus improve a +2 (like masterwork) and a additional +1 for every 5 ranks.
Symbiotic Mutation
At 1st level, the symbiont provides a +1 natural armor bonus to the host. This bonuses increases by +1 at level 2, then each three levels later (5, 8, 11...) up to +8 at level 20. The symbiont also reinforces it's host's body, giving him a +1 bonus to one of his physical stats (Strength, Dexterity or Constitution); this choice is made at level 1 and is definitive. This bonus increases by 1 at level 4, then every four levels later, up to +6 at level 20. At level 8, the host chooses another physical stat to which it's symbiont provides a +1 bonus ; this bonus increases at the same levels than the first physical stat. At level 16, the host gains a bonus to it's third physical stat, this bonus increases as normal (up to +6/+4/+2 at level 20).
Last Defense
At 10th level, the symbiont is able to protect the body of it's host even when it is put unconscious. Once per day, when the host's hit points reach -1, he is stabilized, and gains a number of temporary hit points equal to his level during one hour. The symbiont may keep moving as if it was the host as long as the body has at least 1 temporary hit point.
Perfect Symbiosis
At 20th level, a host and his symbiont fully merge, in body and soul. Their personalities, if it wasn't already the case, converge into one (no more ego disputes). Hidding or shaping an evolution becomes a free action. The host does not need to sleep; allowing the merged organism to keep living and fighting as long as it is able to regenerate it's wounds.