GRAFTED AGENT — LEGATEE SUBCLASS
Salorras Paragon: Grafted Agent · Path: Legatee · Subclass type: Legatee Paragon Tradition, chosen at 3rd level
The grafted agents are mighty secret operatives who carry the legatee inheritance — and whose bodies have been made the subject of abominable experiments by the geneticists of the Citadel Researchers. The order’s mage-scientists proudly call them the ultimate evolution of the asaar’adins: the unique constitution of a legatee makes the perfect “canvas” to accept surgical implants of foreign grafts, harvested from the monstrous and magical beasts of Salorras, that a lesser body would reject. Made compatible by the carrier’s singular blood, those grafts grant terrible new powers.
The world knows them as creations of the state of Braora, forged to bolster the armies still resisting the demon invaders out of the Saragoth Continuum. But the world never made peace with the idea of such horrors living among them; when the war ended, many were put down and others driven into far corners of the world. The survivors and the new agents now serve as Braora’s secret service — the Abominable Brigade, an arm of the Citadel Researchers. Their grafts make them ferociously versatile and unpredictable in war. Some embrace their place as a higher evolved species; others see themselves as abominations and puppets of their makers. The tyrant of Praecaria, Kyrthan Kane, has decreed they be shown no mercy, and the eyafen loathe them as unnatural products of overreaching arcane craft.
Becoming a Grafted Agent (roleplay, not a mechanical prerequisite)
You choose this tradition at 3rd level with no in-game prerequisites. In the fiction a grafted agent must be born to the pure asaar’adin blood — in canon a human legatee (no other lineage can bear the grafts) — and must be implanted by an expert Citadel Researcher geneticist, willingly or by force, then monitored by their “creators” for ten days before their first mission.
Canon note. As with the whole legatee path, the asaar’adin’s powers are not magic in canon; as a legatee tradition, the grafts read as extraordinary gifts of the essence-blood, turned to body-horror by monstrous and extraplanar flesh.
Agent’s Repertoire
Your implant and grafts grant a spy’s arsenal of innate powers — extraordinary, not magic, and shaped from monstrous and alchemical flesh. Charisma is your ability for them, and you need no spell slots or components. You gain each as you advance:
- 3rd level: Disguise Self (at will, the implant reshaping your seeming) and Detect Thoughts (once per long rest).
- 6th level: Alter Self (once per long rest).
- 14th level: Fear (once per long rest).
- 18th level: Mislead (once per long rest).
Grafted Agent Features
| Legatee Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 3 | Agent’s Implant, Horrific Appearance, Monstrous Graft |
| 6 | Hybridization, Monstrous Graft |
| 14 | Major Hybridization, Monstrous Graft |
| 18 | Extraplanar Graft |
Level 3 — Agent’s Implant
The Researchers seat a pentagonal arcane device in your brain — it can never be removed without killing you, and it makes your blood accept every graft to come. It grants:
- Telepathy. You can speak telepathically to any creature you can see within 30 feet that shares a language with you. With another implanted agent you can reach across vast distance, regardless of range. (Misdirection-grade secrecy is yours: you always have Disguise Self prepared, above.)
- The Researchers’ Nark (story hook, not a buff). The device is a beacon to your makers: any divination or scrying a Citadel Researcher turns on you ignores all range. You are never truly off the leash — a roleplay anchor, not a mechanical effect.
Level 3 — Horrific Appearance
The grafts mar you into something dreadful. You have Advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks, and once per turn when you would frighten or menace a foe you may bare your monstrous form to do it. The flip side is flavor: while your grafts are visible, the DM may impose Disadvantage on Charisma checks that depend on seeming harmless or comely.
Levels 3, 6, 14 — Monstrous Graft
At each of these levels you receive a new graft. Choose one option you don’t already have from the Graft Menu below; its benefit is permanent. (In the fiction each is an 8-hour surgery by a Researcher, the graft cut from a fresh monster corpse or bought from the order.)
Graft Menu
- Ogre Muscles. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d8 + Strength modifier bludgeoning damage, and you count as one size larger for carrying capacity and for grappling or shoving.
- Ettercap Tendons. You gain a Climb Speed equal to your Speed and Advantage on checks to escape a grapple or restraint.
- Beholder Eye. As a Magic action you fire a negative-energy ray at a creature within 60 feet (ranged spell attack); on a hit it takes 3d8 necrotic damage. You can use this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum once) per Long Rest, or by expending one stored essence.
- Aranea Web Gland. You always have Web prepared, and can cast it without a slot a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier per Long Rest (Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it).
- Troll Heart. While you have at least 1 Hit Point and aren’t reduced to 0 this turn, you regain 5 Hit Points at the start of each of your turns. If you take acid or fire damage, this regeneration doesn’t function until the end of your next turn.
- Displacer Beast Skin. Light bends around you: attack rolls against you have Disadvantage unless the attacker can locate you by senses other than sight, or unless you’re Incapacitated. The effect ends until the end of your next turn whenever you take damage.
- Carrion Crawler Tentacle. As a Bonus Action you can lash a creature within 5 feet (melee spell attack); on a hit it takes 2d6 poison damage and must succeed on a Constitution save (your essence save DC) or be Paralyzed until the end of its next turn.
Level 6 — Hybridization
Your grafts fuse fully and your nature is remade. You become an aberration (augmented humanoid): you are unaffected by effects that target only Humanoids (such as Hold Person), and you have resistance to psychic damage and Advantage on saves against being Charmed or Frightened. In addition, as a Bonus Action you can expend one stored essence to reshape your flesh for 10 minutes, gaining one mode of your choice (changeable each time): a Swim Speed and water breathing (kuo-toa gills); a Fly Speed equal to your Speed; Darkvision 120 ft. and the ability to see Invisible creatures; or the ability to squeeze through any space at least 1 inch wide.
Level 14 — Major Hybridization
The Researchers bind you to one of the outer Continuums. Choose Alsidora, Saragoth, or Ylaana; you gain its boon, and you may add the native outsider nature to your hybrid form:
- Alsidora, the Change of Seasons. You gain resistance to cold and fire damage, and you always have Conjure Animals prepared, castable once per Long Rest without a slot.
- Saragoth, the Everlasting Bloodbath. You gain immunity to poison damage and the Poisoned condition, and once per Long Rest as a Magic action you can call a lesser Saragothan demon to fight beside you for 1 minute (treat as Summon Fiend, demon form, your Charisma for its spellcasting).
- Ylaana, the All Knowing Circle. You gain resistance to fire damage, and you always have Scorching Ray and Wind Wall prepared, each castable once per Long Rest without a slot.
Level 18 — Extraplanar Graft
You receive your seventh and final graft, harvested from a denizen of your bound Continuum — the capstone of the Abominable Brigade’s art. You gain the graft matching your Major Hybridization choice:
- Noble Faye Hand (Alsidora). One hand becomes a noble faye’s. You gain resistance 10 to one element (chosen when grafted, matching the faye), and once per Long Rest you can unleash the Blood of the Ancients — a surge of that element through your strikes for 1 minute (your unarmed strikes deal an extra 2d6 of that element’s damage and count as magical).
- Saragothan Demon Teeth (Saragoth). Your jaw becomes a demon’s. You gain a Bite natural weapon (1d10 + Strength piercing, magical); once per turn when you hit with it you can deal an extra 2d8 piercing damage. You can Bite as a Bonus Action when you take the Attack action with another weapon.
- Pyrearchon Claw (Ylaana). One hand becomes a pyrearchon’s talon. You gain a Claw natural weapon (1d8 + Strength slashing, magical) that also deals 2d6 fire damage on a hit, and it scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.
Ability Note
The Grafted Agent is a Charisma essencer, but leans on Constitution (and Strength, for the muscle and natural-weapon grafts) more than any other legatee — a body built to bear and wield its monstrous augments on the front line.