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So...I have this character. She is a mildly insane, LE young woman in her early twenties, who for all intents and purposes is a bronze dragon, and a dread devourer. Don't ask, would take way too long to go into...
Needless to say, after a bizarre adventuring career, and with her mind opening to some pretty odd things thanks to her devourer abilities, she has a bit of free time on her hands.
After everything that has happened to her, she still remembers her life before her adventuring, and the dreams she had of family.
Obviously with being undead, the normal methods won't work, and she has no desire to keep a "husband". The kind of children she would have is actually immaterial to her, she just feels the desire to propagate, and create unique life in the process. Her own line, if you will.
SShe's tried to make undead dragon-humanoid hybrids, but those are just minions, and although intelligent, are 100% under her control and don't feel like children to her.
So, now she's set upon possibly breeding a new type of dragon that would breed true somehow, using her own eggs (she can polymorph to harvest them), and has the seed of an elder Copper dragon male (not the mightiest of breeds, but will do for now) available, but it wouldn't quite be "her" enough...she's looking for ways to breed in some of the abilities of her devourer into the dragons as well, to make it unique.
So, I'm looking for advice on how, mostly RAW with some RAI, she may be able to do this without hand-waving it, or if it would even be possible.
Any suggestions and process to use would be greatly appreciated, and even speculation on what the final outcome would be like is welcome.
She literally has all the time in the world (universe?) to attempt this.
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She is a level 20/MR 10 character.
Her skills are:
Acrobatics (Dex) 38
Bluff (Cha) 38
Climb (Str) 26
Diplomacy (Cha) 33
Disguise (Cha) 25
Escape artist (Dex) 12
Intimidate (Cha) 43
Fly 38
Knowledge (Arcana) (Int) 10
Knowledge (Nature) (Int) 10
Knowledge (Religion) (Int) 19
Knowledge (Planes) (Int) 27
Linguistics (Int) 11
Perception (Wis) 41
Sense Motive (Wis) 34
Sleight of hand (Dex) 11
Stealth (Dex) 38
Survival (Wis) 34
Swim (Str) 48
Spellcraft (Int) 29
Is this too weird? :)
Pretty sure RAW does not cover this. If you can use 3p I would recommend "Encylopedia Arcane: Crossbreeding, Flesh and Blood". Its not perfect but it does make a good baseline
Well she's undead and as far as I am aware, within the confines of pathfinder RAW/RAI, I believe only Vampires are ever implied to even be capable of having children with living beings (through not entirely specified methods.)
Now for myself in my setting I've actually had something similar happen as one of my oldest and most important NPCs in the setting is actually a female Dragon (species unspecified as in my setting literally each dragon is unique in it's specific combination of scales/breath/magic) who's had trouble finding a breeding partner. (due to the extreme scarcity of dragons in my setting)
Her solution is however not anything even close to RAW/RAI in any way.
But I can at least relate.
In general though, there is virtually no rule-text that outlines situations like this, even with more conventional dragons what happens when they crossbreed so you're unlikely to get a specific response in line with anything RAW/RAI. These sorts of details tend to be setting/setting-interpretation by you/your GM specific.
Alright, fair enough. Let's speculate, then, forget RAW.
What solution did your character come up with?
Pretty sure RAW does not cover this. If you can use 3p I would recommend "Encylopedia Arcane: Crossbreeding, Flesh and Blood". Its not perfect but it does make a good baseline
I will take a look. Do you know the publisher?
Well, she studied magic from an ancient race of demi-gods who are responsible for creating most modern mortal races of my setting.
She used her formidable political power and numerous (unaware of whom they are truly serving) mortal agents to acquire relics, texts and other resources over the course of hundreds of years to learn this.
Literally used a combination of her own essence, essence of a powerful nymph* she respects, almost as a peer, and her own eggshell from a few thousand years ago to create her own daughter. A being that is intellectually formidable enough to keep up with her and yet is distinctly her own entity as she also shares some traits with one of the handful of individuals she acknowledges as being worth her attention.
TLDR: She used ancient, divine magic to create life. Creating a new being out of the essence of herself and another so that it actually is, as is in line with normal reproduction, a mix of two parents.
*Edit: Nymph, not a dryad. I got two fey NPCs mixed up.
Interesting.
That's not a bad idea. She's considered going that route, but as a follower of Asmodeus, she's not keen to look to him for help in this area.
I imagine her using a mix of magic and genetic manipulation to get what she wants, along with some mythic power.
She's been plane hopping, looking for primordial life "stuff" to manipulate as well. I think she may end up taking a trip to the first world, but I know for a fact it's too chaotic for her. She would not enjoy it. At all.
She also doesn't want to be beholden to anyone, her experience with Asmodeus is uncomfortable to her as is, and that's enough for her.
I imagine her result will be something like:
1) physically on par with a black dragon as far as strength
2) breath weapon would be like a vampiric touch effect, or an entropic effect.
3) standard arcane spell access of a dragon
4) very quick and agile in flight, like a silver
5) possibly aquatic based as well...but more like a black than a bronze
6) coldly intelligent...not very emotional, but familial
7) Lifesense, possibly.
8) Change self, definitely.
9) Some aspect of a devourer, toned down. I'll think on this more.
10) natural teleporter/gate-er. Like an SLA, similar to a devil.
11) Weaknesses...vulnerable to fire, lower than typical lifespan (age quicker/don't live as long).
12) Would be kind of a dark, metallic, color.
Polymorph any object to become living; follow through with that
- provides undead bloodline to sorcery-thingies; presuppose sorceror creature simple template to provide bloodline concepts.
Or, maybe look at the (bestiary version) Elohim.
Or, maybe look at the 3.5 Epic spell origin of the species. (The specific example was acherai, but it can be used with anything.)
This is a dot, by the way. XD
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I see you likin'. You dottin'.
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Mongoose Publishing. Originally printed for 3e/3.5 but most of it is convertible. They did alot of interesting other types of magic :)
For anyone interested, here's an abridged version of her background:
Helena started out life as a normal human girl, full of life, happy go lucky, and in touch with nature. She could speak with spirits, and was on her way to becomming a medium.
Then she is kidnapped by a black dragon. He had been running experiments on trying to get a ritual to work, where you could forcibly imprison a dragon soul into another vessel.
Becasue of her reputation as a medium, he picked her. So, he grabbed her and performed the ritual, and left her in a cave with a bunch of arcane ritual paraphenalia, and along comes a group of witch hunters. They see her, and assume the worst. They grab her up and throw her into a prison for witchcraft, sentance is death. She spends a week, unconscious, suffering nightmares as the dragon soul merges with hers...and wakes up in a cell with a few other people, all accused of horrific crimes.
She pleads with the guards, but to no avail. She already had her trial, that was it.
Then, a woman came to visit one of the other people in the cell, whispering promises of freedom, and offering a meaning of escape, should they choose it. They all accepted of course, and escape, fleeing for their lives. They rendesvous at the appointed spot, and are brought to meet their patron. A high priest of Asmodeus.
He offers them a choice: service or death. Helena chooses to live, and signs a contract to that effect in blood, swearing herself to Asmodeus, and to this priest.
The things she endures and eventually choose to participate in willingly over the next few years have twisted her. She was already borderline insane from the dragon soul, but having embraced it, it had given her power. Her natural talents as a medium hadn't ceased either, and if anything were amplified by the draconic power. So, they went about thir tasks for Asmodeus, tearing down the faith and worship of a rival god, even going so far as to complete a vile ritual to summon a greater daemon of Abbadon, just to get a magical sentient virus from him to poison the people of this nation that had refused Asmodeus. Doing so washed them in extra planar energies and changed them...
Later, the group had just destroyed a holy retreat of a rival god, and they stumbled upon a vampire lord, who offers them the gift of immortality. One of the group had already become a lich by this point, and the immortality seemed a great. It was also a great way to avoid the plague they had just unleashed on the populace. They all agreed.
Helena, however turned into something...else. Her ties with the spirits and conversion to undeath had drawn the attention of something beyond the veil, outside of the world.
It warped her, and turned her into a more vile form of vampire: a dread devourer. The rest of the group started to think she hadn't survived the turning, when she sat up. She didn't say anything immediately, instead looking around with eyes that had far more intelligence and temperance then when she had gone under. It was a battle, but she reasserted herself in control in short order, and convinced the others she was fine...
The terror campaign continues, and they learn their patron, the priest of Asmodeus, had grown jealous of their power, and sought to have them ended. They could not do anything to him directly becasue of the contract they signed, so they sought help from Asmodeus himself through a contract devil they had made aquaintance with. They found a loophole, and needed a Balor Prince who had named the priest "the high priest of Asmodeus" to rescind the title. This lead to more atrocities being done in Asmodeus' name to gain his favor, and he rescinded the title, and gave it to one of Helena's companions. Thus, contract loophole exploited, they defeated their old benefactor.
Now, answering directly to one of Asmodeus' lieutenants, they carried on their campaign. They finished with the destruction of an army of holy warriors, supported by a silver dragon follower of the enemy god. They then took the capital of the country through a puppet, and re-allowed the worship of Asmodeus...
They won. It was over, but Helena was forever changed from the experience.
EDIT: If you haven't played Way of the Wicked and are planning to, I would avert your eyes...
Mongoose Publishing. Originally printed for 3e/3.5 but most of it is convertible. They did alot of interesting other types of magic :)
Ahh! Mongoose! Ok, I'll take a look, thank you :P
Ok, that book is pretty neat. I like the rules.
Dunno that any of it would fit necessarily with what she's trying, but that's got some great stuff in it.
*bump*