Magical Tattoos

[Victor Zajic]

So multiple chronicles in season 4 can give access to magical tattoos. Is there a limit to the number a character can have, do they take up a magic item slot? If you have one, can you get rid of it to make room for another?

[MrSin]

Not keen on the chronicles in particular, but here are magical tattoo rules for you. Pretty sure they're slotless and you don't have to worry about them taking up a slot you'd otherwise use if they're vanities, unless they state otherwise.

[Fromper]

The details are in Inner Sea Magic. I think the SRD link MrSin provided covers it properly:

Quote:

Magic tattoos must be placed on a part of the body normally able to hold a magic item slot, but they do not count against or interfere with magic items worn on those slots. A single slot can only hold one magical tattoo (nonmagical tattoos and tattoos acquired from the tattooed sorcerer archetype do not count against this limit). Tattoos may be inscribed on the following slots: belt, body, chest, feet, hands, head, neck, shoulder, ring (up to two), or wrist. They cannot be inscribed on armor, eye, headband, or shield slots.

[DesolateHarmony]

Note that these tattoos are different than the tattoos created by the tattooed sorcerer archetype from the level-7 ability.

[Fromper]

*Light bulb suddenly appears and shines brightly over Fromper's head*

I can't believe I never thought of this before. Heading into derail territory, but I just had to point this out.

So in the past, I've looked at spell tattoos and assumed nobody would ever bother paying 4x normal cost to have a scroll inscribed on their skin as a spell tattoo instead of on parchment. After all, why pay so much? And after looking over the tattoo rules again for this thread, I finally realized the answer to that question.

The extra cost is to pay for action economy! With a scroll tattooed to your arm, you don't have to spend a move action pulling it out before using it.

Have a GM who won't let you put a scroll in a spring loaded wrist sheathe? Just get Breathe of Life tattooed to the back of your hand!

Given that I've looked at the tattoo magic rules in detail in the past, for my Tattooed Sorceress character, I can't believe I never thought of this before.

[Tony Lindman]

Fromper, I have a tattooed sorcerer with about six or seven spell tattoos at the moment. As you say, they are great for the action economy. They are also silent, which can be a big boon.

I just wish that they could be used by other casters than the bearer. Every one of my characters would have his own Breath of Life where the nearest cleric could find it, like a Medical Alert badge. ;-)

[Victor Zajic]

back to the tattoos on chronicles topic, lets say one scenario offers a lesser version of a tattoo at low tier, and a greater or normal version at high tier. If I play low tier, can I later pay to upgrade the tattoo?

I'm thinking the answer is no for 2 reasons, but I wanted to double check.

Reason #1: Since I played on low tier I don't get access to the high tier items, and if the tattoo isn't availble from another source on the Additional Resources pages, then I can't buy it.

Reason #2: Even though they share similar names, they are seperate items, similar to brachers of archer(lesser and normal/greater). The only thing your allowed to upgrade in PFS is actually pluses, new special weapon and armor abilities, and stat belts and headbands.

Any chance I can get a link to those tattoo rules on Archives of Nethyis? the SRD is blocked by my work filter here.

[d20pfsrd.com]

FYI: For anyone that finds d20pfsrd.com is blocked by firewalls, or is otherwise unreachable, you can also try http://www.pathfindersrd.com and/or https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc