Magical Tattoos

[Sugarmouse]

Well, bought Complete Arcane, under the hope that they would cover off Tattoo magic, and tattooed magic items. What do they do? Talk about tattooed spellbooks in a small section, and then reference Forgotten Realms. And neither one covers off the magical tattoos (like potions or permanent spells/effects in tattoo form.) :\

Now, I remember distinctly that there were rules for tattoos as alternate magic items. Does anyone know of any OGL rules for tattoo magic items, or can reference any ruleset in D20 that covers off this area of magic? And, (knowing that this is the House Rules forum) does anyone have any feasible houserules on tattooed magic items/effects?

Thanks for your help!

 

[arscott]

D20Modern has magical tattoos.

Like the other d20M item-crafting rules, they show up as class abilities, rather than feats.

IIRC, they cost the same as scrolls, but are available at 4th level of the Mage Advanced Class (scrolls being available at 2nd, and potions at 3rd).

Basically, they're like potions attached to your body. and you can have up to six tatoos at a time.

 

[fba827]

there was a feat (in Lords of Darkness, one of the early FR supplements for 3e) for making magic tattoos. It treated them similar (but not exactly the same) to potions. I liked that one.

There is also some spell for making magic tatoos.. i didn't much care for that one....

vageuly remember something being in relics and rituals (or was it relics and rituals II?)

i haven't really seen any other options that i recall though...

 

[Nifft]

Various Psionic rules incarnations have had Tattoo rules. The one I use is the version from the old PsiHB: you have 17 "tattoo" slots, and some tattoos take up more slots than others.

-- N

 

[Shallown]

I used magic tattoos in my last game and treated them as potions except they could be up to 5th level and the price was Spell level X Caster level X 37.5 gp. The price is basically half way between a potion and a scroll. I figured it was like a potion becuase anyone could use it but not as good as a potion since only the user could use them.
They drew attacks of opportunity but didn't require a move equivalent to get out or ready.
They also couldn't be taken away but could be dispelled if the person was targgeted with a dispel magic.

That all sort of balanced out to that number and it worked well for me. Keeping them to the Potion rules as far as what type of spell they could hold kept it from being abused.

I was never happy with any of the tattoo magic varients I read in several books. I came up with my own and ot worked though only one character used it much.

later

 

[RangerWickett]

When I was writing Elements of Magic - Revised Edition, I made sure that 'magic items' did not necessarily have to be items. If you want to have a 'wondrous item'-esque effect tattooed onto your body, you can, and it costs the same as a normal item. The benefit is that it can't be stolen, but the drawback is that you can't sell them or give them to anyone else, and they permanently take up a slot on your body. And if you want to get rid of them, well, you don't get your money back.

 

[Twowolves]

About a year or so ago, there was a Create Tatoo feat (or some such) in a Dragon Magazine issue. It was a sidebar to a Greyhawk adventure, if that helps much. If I recall correctly, it was essentially a potion that only you could use, and could not trade (unlike the Psionic Tatoos). Depending on where you had the tattoo placed, it took up a magic item slot; thus a tattoo on your chest took up an armor slot, one on your back took a cloak slot, etc etc.

Relics and Rituals introduced the Scarred Lands permenant tattoos, and more appeared in Relics and Rituals II and Burok Torn (and some more may be in the last book for the line, Lost Tribes). These were more like permenant magic items, where most were useable a limited number of times per day, were restricted by the owner's Con modifier (restricted in number of tattoos and the power of any given tattoo) and almost all had a drawback of some sort when the primary effect wore off. There is even a tattoo-based prestige class in Burok Torn.

Hope that helps.

 

[Sugarmouse]

Thank you all for the interesting replies!

Having a look, it seems that coming up with a balanced approach, blending all of the rules into a synthesis would be the way to go. I like the limiters of only so much body space and level of spell tattoos allowable tied in with your Con mod. This will require some thinking.

If I and Heinrich can come up with something, we'll post it here for all to enjoy.

Once again, thanks!