It seems there is a significant opportunity being wasted with the lack of support for shrunken heads.
I have found but two.
One absorbs spells, and one relays messages. Both could be combined into a single item and still not really offer anything as far as actual flavor.
I am sure you could pick any of the classes or archetypes that utilize fetishes, and then just say you use shrunken heads as your fetishes.
But there doesn't seem to be anything specific to making shrunken heads cool. Like a reflavored Souldrinker that makes shrunken heads instead of Soul Gems. Nobody seems to carry around a bag of skulls like the Predator. No heads on sticks circling Kurtz's hut. Not even a talking head Witch Familiar (that I know of).
I understand these elements can be added as background details, but it seems like something is missing for the game to not include a way to make shrunken heads offer a mechanical benefit over using a voodoo doll or some other twigman bundle of BS.
Is there content supporting shrunken heads that I am unaware of?
Beheaded is an improved familiar option, there's some necklace for faking a hag for a coven which features shrunken heads, and the sentry skull spell does what the name says.
If I remember correctly, the making shrunken heads was practiced to prevent the spirits of the slain seeking revenge on those who had vanquished them in battle? So some sort of Deathward/Protection from Evil-type stuff would be fitting.
A more evil approach would be to use the spirits of the sl!in as guardians/servants/mana batteries.
The actual making of shrunken heads is a pretty intensely grisly practice. I think a lot of people would think of it as falling under the Evil alignment, much like cannibalism.
But there are real-world cultures that used to make them, and they did not so so out of malice or cruelty as far as I know/remember.
I had a half-orc "shaman" (we made an archetype of sorts for the druid where I downgraded my proficiency and attack bonus for a slightly larger spell list and more skill points/class skills) who was sort of a mishmash of Cajun bokor, dark ages witch and Amazonian medicine man. He smoked reeking cigars, weaponized chili pepper dust and had an immense, lethargic (+2 Con, -2 Dex) one-eyed alligator named Sue. He would have been all over the shrunken head bit.
I am sure you could pick any of the classes or archetypes that utilize fetishes, and then just say you use shrunken heads as your fetishes.
A Psychodermist Occultist can use shrunken heads as their Implements for everything except Transmutation.
Abjuration (hides), Conjuration (internal organs), Divination (sensory organs), Enchantment (hair), Evocation (horns, bite attacks), Illusion (prehensile digits-the tongue), and Necromancy (bones).
Then you'd have to hunt monsters, and people, for their heads as part of the progression of your character. As it actually has mechanical significance that they're heads instead of hands, it's worth mentioning.
Tangentially related, but Vestigial Head is available with Racial Heritage. It's your own shrunken head but it does give you a very real mechanical benefit and can easily be reflavored as being a slain foe's head.
Shrunken Head(neck or none)$90000
That seems way overpriced.
Shrunken Head(neck or none)$90000That seems way overpriced.
It is overpriced because it can be a slotless item.
Wonderstell, I was also thinking of a way to incorporate Vestigial Head. That has to be one of the coolest feats in the game. Lol.
That Psychodermist is quite fitting, indeed. I will have to give it a closer look when I have more time.
The practice, itself, would probably be considered Evil in Pathfinder... something about removing the head, removing the skull from the head, then keeping the empty sack of face as a souvenir probably doesn't sit right with 90% of literally everyone, everywhere...
Evil is fine, though... I am still caught up on using shrunken heads as a replacement for Soul Gems... imprisoning the soul of the slain.
Still seems overpriced.