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Appearance Modification - Bertram Anders - 03-30-2020
Although common Thayans are the most likely to be encountered by visitors and adventurers, the real power in Thay lies with the Mulan; the descendants of the renegade Mulhorandi who first founded the nation. Fashionable to the extreme, they wear intricately designed tattoos in place of hair, usually on their bare skulls and where their eyebrows once were, and shave any hair on their body.
To allow your PCs to keep up with the trends, apply tattoos to themselves, and also provide some character modification options after initial character creation, there are ways in-game to change your character’s appearance.
Tattooing
Thayan tattoos often represent dragons, demons, devils, and other creatures of ancient evil. They are extremely stylized, sometimes to the point of being cryptic runes or even abstract designs. Many Red Wizards use tattoo magic, and the fashion of tattooing arose from this.
This passion for tattooing has spread throughout Thay, and it is said that the skin artists in the port city of Bezantur are the best in all the Realms. Even those without the power of the Red Wizards wish to look as though they do.
Getting Inked
Throughout Thay and the Underdark you will find tattooists with Tattooist Models which can be setup with tattoos that have your choice of color, and placed on any body part(s) you wish a tattoo. Then, by talking to the model’s nearby owner, that tattooist can ink the tattoos on you which will permanently change that body part to the tattooed body part of the model.
There are 10 places on a PC’s body to which a tattoo can be applied, plus the head for Humans, Half-Elves, or Fire Genasi.
Magic Tattoos
Certain skilled tattooists found only in Thay can magically enchant any tattoo on your body, for an amount of coin that increases with each magical tattoo you have. Once you get your first tattoo magically enchanted, you will be given a non-droppable Magic Tattoo item which is a representation of all the magic tattoos on your body. Just like your tattoos, this item will never leave your possession, even if you lose everything else by ending up in the Fugue or enslaved, for example.
Once obtained, the purpose of the Magic Tattoo item is to allow its owner to bind a spell that they have memorized to one of their magic tattoos.
Binding Spells to Magic Tattoos
You can bind a spell you have memorized, of 3rd level or lower, to a magic tattoo by simply casting that spell on the Magic Tattoo item. You can bind one spell on the item for each magic tattoo you have (up to a maximum of 11 spells if you have all possible body parts tattooed). Once bound, the only way to ever replace a spell is to go back to a tattooist to have them re-enchant your magic tattoos.
Note that you can cast a spell on the tattoo item that has been prepared with a Metamagic feat, such as Empower or Extend. Then, so long as you have that version of the spell memorized, the Magic Tattoo item will cast the metamagic version of the spell when it is activated.
Activating Magic Tattoos
Once a spell has been bound to a magically enchanted tattoo, the tattoo item can be used to near-instantaneously cast all spells which you have memorized that are bound to your magic tattoos. As a result, in gameplay terms magic tattoos provide two primary benefits:
First, magic tattoos can free up to 11 quickslots where you may normally have these spells setup, giving you back quickslots that you can use for other things.
Next, and perhaps most importantly, it allows you to very quickly cast a series of spells (invaluable for thwarting assassin attacks, for example).
Note that you can cast *any* spell of 3rd level or lower on a tattoo - including offensive spells. However, the target of a magical tattoo is always the caster. So for some people who want their tattoos not only to protect, but also attack, you could cast things like Darkness or even a Fireball on them. However, spells such as Magic Missile or Flame Arrow are going to damage only the caster, which in most cases will make no sense to bind to a tattoo. Be warned though that no spell of 3rd level or less is restricted from being bound to a magic tattoo!
Hairstyle/Head and Skin Color Modification
In addition, the Tattooist Models can also double as barbers and change your hairstyle if you have not tattooed your head/face. You can also change the color of your hair and/or skin using this option as well.
In gameplay terms, this allows you to change the head and skin color of your PC once every 3 in-game months (approximately 1 month real-time) to show they have grown out their hair, changed hair style or head ornamentation, grown older, got a tan, and so on. Note that any major change needs to be RPed since you may end up looking considerably different than before.