Fun With Dismemberment
Hello, and welcome to another Obscure Arcana. Today, we’ll be going over some spells found in the journals of the wizard Nosicar of the Flesh, a mad wizard who specialized in severing and manipulating individual body parts. While he was mostly interested in perfecting his grisly art, at some point he ran afoul of a band of heroes, who stormed his laboratory and slew him. According to rumor, Nosicar’s head survived and escaped the battle, and he has been slowly attempting to rebuild a body from scrap parts ever since. Whether this is true or not, his journals have fallen into our care here at Necromancers of the Northwest, and we’ve decided to share some of his research with you.
Nosicar’s Assimilation
With this spell, you can take a severed body part from another humanoid and use it to replace one of your own that has been lost. The body part in question must have belonged to a humanoid creature, and the spell only works if the caster is a humanoid, as well. The body part must also originally have belonged to a creature whose size category is within one step of your own. The body part must be relatively fresh: it must not have been removed from its original body for more than 5 minutes per caster level (and if the bod.
The body part in question must be held to the place where your original body part of the same type was lost. If the original body part has not yet been removed, it must first be cut off, which may inflict damage to you at the GM’s discretion. As the spell is completed, the target body part melds with your body, as though your original body part had never been lost.
You cannot use this spell to gain body parts you never had, or to attach body parts in unusual places. Any body part that is sufficiently alien (such as claws that allow for a natural attack being put in place of normal hands) or which is placed somewhere it doesn’t belong (such as attempting to give yourself extra arms) causes your body to reject the body part, which withers and decays over the next 24 hours before putrefying and becoming unusable. This putrefaction, if it occurs, inflicts 1d4 points of Constitution damage to you.
If the body parts are similar enough that they are not rejected, they last indefinitely, and function as though they were a natural part of your body. The body part may or may not be obviously different from the rest of your body, depending on the source (for example, if you have brown eyes, and take an eye from a person with green eyes, one of your eyes will now be green. Similarly, if you take a hand from a creature with scales for skin, your hand would be obviously scaly, etc.).
Nosicar’s Dismemberment
This spell allows you to sever one of your target’s limbs. The target takes 1d4 points of damage per caster level (to a maximum of 20d4 at 20th level), and one of its limbs dislocates from its body, falling lifelessly to the ground. You choose which limb is detached. Arms, legs, wings, and tentacles can all be detached, though a creature’s head cannot be. Regardless of a creature’s anatomy, only one limb can be detached per casting of the spell. Some creatures (like most oozes) do not have limbs to detach, though they still suffer the damage.
The creature loses any natural attacks that involve that limb (claw attacks on arms with such claws, tentacle attacks for dismembered tentacles, etc.). If the limb was used as part of a creature’s movement speed, that speed is halved (at GM discretion, creatures with large numbers of such limbs, such as a giant centipede, may have its speed reduced by a lesser amount, or possibly not at all). In the case of wings, if they are used for flight, the creature loses its fly speed completely.
If the creature possesses regeneration, it regrows the limb eventually. If the description of the regeneration does not say how long this process takes, the limb is regrown in 24 hours. Even if the creature doesn’t possess regeneration, the limb can be reattached or regrown with regenerate, or similar spells.
Nosicar’s Helping Hand
With this spell, you can detach one of your hands, and then psychically manipulate it. As the spell is cast, you must sever your own hand, taking 2d4 points of damage. The hand is treated as a Diminutive creature with 6 hit points, and an AC of 16 + your spellcasting ability score modifier (Intelligence for wizards, Charisma for sorcerers, etc.). While the hand can take no actions on its own, you can actively direct its actions. You can direct it to move up to 20 feet as a move action. You can also direct it to grab or manipulate an object as a standard action. The hand can pull levers, push objects, and similarly interact with its environment. Its Strength score is equal to your own. Because it uses its fingers to move, though, it cannot move while carrying an object larger than Fine size (at GM’s discretion, other objects might be able to be carried if doing so while still being able to walk or crawl with its fingers is feasible). The hand has a Stealth modifier of +12.
The hand can also deliver spells you cast with a range of touch. Doing so provokes an attack of opportunity from the target, and the hand uses the same attack bonus you would use if you were delivering the touch yourself, except with a -4 penalty. The hand can deliver spells that you cast after casting this spell.
By closing your eyes and concentrating (a standard action), you can get a hazy view of the hand’s surroundings, allowing you to direct its movements even when it leaves your line of sight. As long as you concentrate in this way, the hand effectively has blindsight to a range of 20 feet, which you can use to guide it.
As long as the hand is within your reach, you can return it to your body as a full-round action. If you do not do so before the spell’s duration ends, then the hand falls lifeless in place as the magic fades, and must be retrieved. Every 15 minutes that the hand is separated from your body after the spell ends, it takes 1 point of damage. If the hand is reduced to 0 hit points for any reason, it is destroyed.
A destroyed hand is worthless, and cannot be used to manipulate objects. Such a hand can be replaced with regenerate, or a similar spell.
Nosicar’s Independent Eye
With this spell, you can detach one of your eyeballs, and then psychically manipulate it. As the spell is cast, you must pluck out your own eye, taking 1d4 points of damage. The eye is treated as a Fine creature with 4 hit points, and an AC of 18 + your spellcasting ability score modifier (Intelligence for wizards, Charisma for sorcerers, etc.). While the eye can take no actions on its own, it magically floats in the air, and, as a move action, you can direct it to fly up to 30 feet through the air (it has perfect maneuverability). The eye has a Stealth modifier of +20.
Even though the eyeball is detached, you continue to receive visual input from it, allowing you to use the eyeball to scout ahead or otherwise secretly observe events. “Seeing” from two entirely separate locations at once is somewhat disorienting, however, and you are sickened as long as the spell is in effect. You can negate this condition by closing your remaining eye, but in that case you are blinded to your surroundings.
As long as the eyeball is within your reach, you can return it to your body as a full-round action. If you do not do so before the spell’s duration ends, then the eyeball falls to the ground in place as the magic fades, and must be retrieved. Every 15 minutes that the eyeball is separated from your body after the spell ends, the eyeball takes 1 point of damage. If the eyeball is reduced to 0 hit points for any reason, it is destroyed.
A destroyed eyeball is worthless, and cannot be used to see. Such an eyeball can be replaced with regenerate, or a similar spell.
Protection from Decapitation
This spell protects its targets from decapitation, and, in fact, from any form of dismemberment of their limbs. Any attempt to sever the creature’s head or limbs (such as with a vorpal weapon or the spell Nosicar’s dismemberment) fail. Any damage that would normally be dealt as part of the attempt (such as the damage dealt by the vorpal weapon on a confirmed critical hit, or the damage listed for the spell Nosicar’s dismemberment) is still dealt as normal, but the detached head or limb instantly reattaches in the blink of an eye.
Each time you cast this spell, you may have it affect up to one creature per caster level.