GRAFTED AGENT
Salorras Paragon: Grafted Agent · Base Path: Legatee · OSE build: custom essencer-variant class A custom OSE class for the legatee operatives whose bodies the Citadel Researchers have rebuilt with the grafted organs of the monsters of Salorras — the secret soldiers of the Abominable Brigade of Braora, terrifying and unpredictable, shaped one surgery at a time. Played from 1st level; the character’s implantation and service to the Brigade are part of their background.
The grafted agents are powerful secret operatives who carry the legacy of the legatees, on whose bodies the geneticists of the Citadel Researchers have performed abominable experiments. The mage-scientists look on this new kind of soldier as the ultimate evolution of the legatee, exploiting to the full the potential of their charismatic blood — for the unique blood of the legatees makes their bodies an ideal canvas, able to receive surgical implants of foreign grafts that, though drawn from monstrous or magical beasts, become compatible with their bearer and grant new powers.
It is known to the world that these monster-shaped soldiers were made by Braora to reinforce the armies that still resisted the demons invading from the Saragoth Continuum. Yet most of the world could never grow used to the idea of such monstrosities living among them; after the war many were put to death, and others driven to remote corners of the world. The survivors, and the new grafted agents alongside them, now serve as Braora’s state secret service — the Abominable Brigade, itself an arm of the Citadel Researchers. Some agents count themselves a superior, evolved kind; others perceive their own existence as an abomination of nature and a puppet of their makers.
The tyrant of Praecaria, Kyrthan Kane, has ordered these unholy works dealt with without mercy, and the eyafen hold their very creation an unnatural product of the excess of mystic magic. So the grafted agents live a secret life beneath the veil of shadows — met, when at all, with awe and fear for their hideous shape. All who become grafted agents must be heirs of the pure charismatic blood of the legatees; a blood-mutated essencer of any other origin, even a true legatee, cannot receive the grafts.
Class Overview
Requirements: Human of the pure asaar’adin (legatee) bloodline; the Abominable Brigade’s implant; minimum CHA 13, minimum CON 9 Prime requisite: CHA Hit Dice: 1d6 Maximum level: 14 Armour: Leather or chainmail; shields permitted Weapons: Any Languages: Alignment, Colloquial
Grafted agents are monster-grafted essencers — legatee operatives whose flesh is rebuilt, surgery by surgery, with the organs of the beasts of Salorras, until they are as versatile as they are horrifying. A prime requisite of CHA 13–15 grants +5% to experience earned; CHA 16–18 grants +10%. Only a human of the true asaar’adin bloodline can bear the grafts — the pure charismatic blood is the one canvas that will take them. A grafted agent who defects is never truly free of their makers (see below).
The Grafted Agent
The columns E1–E3 are produced essences per day by essence level — the capacity of the agent’s thalamus.
| Level | XP | Hit Dice (1d6) | THAC0 | D | W | P | B | S | E1 | E2 | E3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 1 | — | — |
| 2 | 3,750 | 2d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 2 | — | — |
| 3 | 7,500 | 3d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 4 | 15,000 | 4d6 | 19 [0] | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 3 | 1 | — |
| 5 | 30,000 | 5d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 6 | 60,000 | 6d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 7 | 120,000 | 7d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| 8 | 225,000 | 8d6 | 17 [+2] | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 9 | 450,000 | 9d6 | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 10 | 675,000 | 9d6+1* | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 11 | 900,000 | 9d6+2* | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| 12 | 1,125,000 | 9d6+3* | 14 [+5] | 6 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| 13 | 1,350,000 | 9d6+4* | 12 [+7] | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| 14 | 1,575,000 | 9d6+5* | 12 [+7] | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
* Modifiers from CON no longer apply. — Saving throws: D Death/Poison · W Wands · P Paralysis/Petrify · B Breath Attacks · S Spells/Rods/Staves. The agent burns essences as a legatee of their level; the XP column is the Abominable Brigade’s elite track (half again above the plain legatee’s).
Class Abilities
Combat. Grafted agents may wield any weapon and wear leather or chainmail with a shield.
Essences. Like the legatee, the grafted agent produces and burns essences across all three essential cores. Essences are not spells: armour does not hinder them, and they cannot be dispelled. The agent’s thalamus and reactor woke with the gift; they know one more essence of each level than they can produce per day, and burn from the same essence catalogue as the legatee. From 2nd level their foreseeing vitality grants essential grace (a +1 bonus to all saving throws, +2 at 10th level), and from 6th level they may burn an essence catalytically, as the legatee does.
Beyond the essences, the grafted agent gains a new graft as they rise — each a permanent monstrous organ fused into their flesh, chosen from three at each graft level. A graft is bought from the Researchers or cut from a freshly slain monster and surgically installed over hours of work; once fused, it can never be removed or exchanged.
Agent’s Implant. At 1st level the Researchers implant a pentagonal magical device in the agent’s brain — the thing that makes their charismatic blood take the grafts to come. It can never be removed; to cut it out is instant death. It has three functions: Telepathy — the agent may speak mind-to-mind at will, within a mile, with any other bearer of the device; Misdirection — once per day the agent can foil divinations that seek them, throwing false readings to any scrying eye; and the Researchers’ Nark — the makers can locate and scry the agent at any distance whenever they wish, for the implant answers their magic. This is the leash the Brigade never lets slip.
Horrific Appearance. Also from 1st level the agent’s body grows repulsive with each monstrous surgery. They gain an escalating edge to cow and terrify foes (reaction and morale) but an equal penalty to friendly reactions from those who behold them; the gap widens by one step with every new graft they receive.
Muscle Graft. At 2nd level the agent takes their first graft, remaking muscle and tendon — choose one: Choker Gland (their legs quicken; movement rate rises markedly, at the cost of a permanent nervous twitch); Ettercap Tendons (a spider’s agility; their Dexterity rises, sharpening their Armour Class and missile aim); or Ogre Muscles (an ogre’s strength; their Strength rises, deepening their melee blows and their might at doors and burdens).
Eye Graft. At 3rd level the agent’s eyes are replaced — choose one: Beholder Eye (twice per day a ray of negative energy to 100 feet, ~2d8+8 damage, save versus Spells for half); Nymph’s Eyes (three times per day a stunning glance at a foe within 30 feet — save versus Paralysis or stunned 1d4 rounds); or Sea Hag Eyes (once per day a withering stare at a foe within 30 feet — save versus Spells or be dazed for a day, and then save versus Death or die of sheer fright; the fearless are immune).
Organ Graft. At 4th level a vital organ is replaced — choose one: Aranea Web Gland (three times per day spit a web to 30 feet, entangling a target up to Large until it struggles or cuts free); Kuo-toa Gills (the agent becomes amphibious, breathing water freely); or Troll Heart (once per day, regeneration for half an hour — 2 hit points knit back each round, though lost limbs are not regrown).
Skin Graft. At 5th level the agent’s skin is remade — choose one: Displacer Beast Skin (light bends around them; attacks suffer a 25% miss chance, lessened as their own armour grows heavier); Doppelganger Skin (colour-shifting camouflage; a great bonus to hiding, likewise lessened in heavier armour); or Treant Bark (bark across the body granting natural damage reduction 4 against every blow).
Minor Hybridization. At 6th level the grafts settle so wholly into the agent that they are no longer truly human — their nature becomes that of an aberration (their old kind lingering only as an echo). Spells and effects that single out humans or humanoids — a hold person, a charm person — no longer find purchase on them.
Limb Graft. At 7th level the agent grows a new limb — choose one: Arrowhawk Tail (once per round a ray of lightning to 30 feet, 2d8 damage, no save); Carrion Crawler Tentacle (a touch that forces a save versus Paralysis or paralysis for 1d4 rounds); or Rust Monster Antennae (a touch that corrodes metal — 4d6 to any metal object or construct, magic items saving versus Spells for half; it cannot harm flesh).
Brain Graft. At 9th level a piece of monstrous brain is grafted to the agent’s own — choose one: Mind Flayer Brain (a suite of mind-powers, rendered as spell-like abilities: once per day charm, dimension door, levitate, and a stunning mind-blast; several times per day to cloak and clear the mind); Ogre Mage Cerebellum (spell-like abilities: once per day cone of cold, gaseous form, invisibility, and sleep; often per day darkness); or Darkfallen Neuron (once per day each, the alien assaults of the darkfallen — cerebral shock, nervous-system division, and their piercing insight; see the darkfallen entry).
Major Hybridization. At 11th level the Researchers bind the agent to one of three Continuums, adding to their nature that of a native outsider — choose one: Alsidora (resistance to cold and fire; speak with animals often, and once per day a summoning of nature’s beasts); Saragoth (immunity to poison and resistance to lightning; once per day a chance to summon a lesser Saragothan demon to fight at their side for a short while); or Ylaana (strong resistance to fire; twice per day a searing ray and a wall of wind).
Extraplanar Graft. At 14th level the agent takes their seventh and final graft — one only their bound Continuum can make compatible, the crown of the Brigade’s work. Choose the graft matching the Continuum chosen at 11th level: Noble Faye Hand (Alsidora) — a hand of the noble faye, granting the agent the eyafen’s Fayen Blood, Blood of the Ancients, and resistance to a chosen element, its unarmed strikes counting as magical; Saragothan Demon Teeth (Saragoth) — the jaw and teeth of a great Saragothan demon, a savage biting weapon (2d8 + Strength, keen for grievous wounds) that strikes as a magic weapon; or Pyrearchon Claw (Ylaana) — the enormous hand of a pyrearchon, a claw dealing 1d6 + Strength plus a searing 1d6–2d6 fire, striking as a magic weapon.
Ex-Grafted Agents
A grafted agent who defects from the Abominable Brigade loses none of the powers their grafts grant — the monstrous organs are fused into their flesh and cannot be removed without killing them. But neither can they be free of their makers: the pentagonal implant is the Researchers’ Nark, by which the agency can scry them at any range, and to cut it out is instant death. So an apostate grafted agent lives forever hunted, carrying both the monstrous gifts and the leash of the Citadel Researchers wherever they flee.