[Balanor]

Overview
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 especially in Bezantur, you will find tattooists with Tattooist Models which can be setup with tattoos with your choice of color them 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 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 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 10 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.

[Gatalis]

Sweeeet!

Would these magical tattoos happen to work with feat/race-spells (Blackguard, Assassin, Tiefling Darkness, etc.), or just with actually cast spells?

[DarkRanger]

Awesome, curious about what level/duration the spells are cast at. Current caster level, caster level at time of binding, or is it like a sequencer, taking the larger of 10 or the minimum caster level(2xinnate level-1)?

[Balanor]

Racial feats and class spell-like feats cannot be cast on the item. I don't know of any way to make them target-able, however this is meant to be for quickly recalling spells, not racial/class abilities. So if someone does find they are able to do put anything other than memorized spells on the magic tattoo item, post a bug report.

The level/duration of the spell will be at the current caster level. The caveat is you need to have it memorized, and if you don't, the spell won't be applied when you activate your tattoos. The magic of the tattoos is a way to apply a number of spells that you currently have memorized into a single, near-instantaneous casting.

[DarkRanger]

Getting the colors you want is tricky. Every time you go back to main menu it resets to your character's appearance, which will either be untattooed or have tattoos of a color different from what you've selected. Currently you need get the tattoos, then change one color, then the other.

[Purulent Carcass]

Pretty sure you can set both then without going back to the main menu, step over to the tattooist and get exactly what you want.

[DarkRanger]

The options under tattoo coloring are next appearance, previous appearance, specific value, rotate model clockwise or counterclockwise, and back to main menu. No way to get the colors you want without using the model multiple times.

[Animayhem]

Caracass is correct. That's what I did. I also before doing so wrote down the values.

Thanks for this new feature!

[Wids]

I haven't tried the magical tattoo feature yet, but it sounds like a way to apply the Quicken Spell feat to one particular spell, and without the need to memorize that spell four Levels higher. That could be pretty useful, but I trust that the tattoos are appropriately pricey.

Racial feats and class spell-like feats cannot be cast on the item. I don't know of any way to make them target-able, however this is meant to be for quickly recalling spells, not racial/class abilities. So if someone does find they are able to do put anything other than memorized spells on the magic tattoo item, post a bug report.

The level/duration of the spell will be at the current caster level. The caveat is you need to have it memorized, and if you don't, the spell won't be applied when you activate your tattoos. The magic of the tattoos is a way to apply a number of spells that you currently have memorized into a single, near-instantaneous casting.

So you have to have the spell memorized for it to work. For example, you memorize Stoneskin, then you get a Stoneskin tattoo, and as long as you have Stoneskin prepared and not yet cast, using that tattoo will instantly cast Stoneskin on you. But the tattoo won't work if you didn't prepare any castings of Stoneskin when you last rested, nor will it work if you already cast all of your Stoneskin spells for the day. Is this about right?

On a related note, what about clerics and spontaneous casting? Clerics can convert any prepared spells (except for Domain spells) into Cure spells and Inflict spells of the same Level; Darkness can be turned into Cure Moderate Wounds or Inflict Moderate Wounds, et al. Infusing a tattoo with an Inflict spell would be a dumb idea, of course (unless the cleric happens to be undead), but what if a cleric got a Cure Critical Wounds tattoo? Would the tattoo work as long as the cleric had any Level 4 cleric spell prepared and not yet cast?

(And can a tattoo be infused with one of a cleric's Domain Spells, come to think of it?)

[Balanor]

With the next server reset, the model will only transform to your appearance if you break conversation with him, and then talk to him again. Going back to the main menu won't cause him to transform to your appearance again.

Magic tattoos are appropriately expensive. And the more you have, the more expensive they become. So if you're looking to get fully loaded up with magic tattoos, expect to spend a small fortune to do so. You can't cast Stoneskin or Cure Critical Wounds on a magic tattoo, but a 3rd level or lower spell works as you explain Wids, yes. Spontaneous casting will not work from a tattoo. You need to have the exact spell memorized (even the metamagic version if that's what you originally cast on it) for it to be cast - even for clerics or druids.