Far Realms and Alienists

[TheEscapist]

And a random table of alternate form abilities would be sorta nice—it never quite made sense to me that changing to a mass of tentacles didn't change its attacks at all. The half-farspawn is a nice change to that, but it is significantly more powerful.

It's settled, then! I'll get to work on the random table immediately! Seriously this time, though...

It actually also reminds me of an artifact I designed for 2nd edition that could easily be translated into 3.5, in fact it was actually formed of the last living vestige of a defeated God of Chaos. Sometimes the line between the Far Realms and the planes of chaos gets blurred in my mind (incidentally, a discussion of the difference between the chaos of Limbo and the all-out weirdness of the Far Realms might be good, too, not to mention a bit helpful to my sometimes scattered mind), but I supposed it might be possible to tweak it so it's more Far Realms-aligned.

In the meantime, here's a link to a drawing of my wizard/cleric/mystic theurge/alienist, with one of his friendly summoned pseudonatural centipedes in the background.

And here's his kitty familiar in pseudonatural form.

(just kidding)

[MegasquidMan]

Really? I'd have put it the other way around... it seems like the more powerful the summoned entity is, the more trouble it has keeping the insanity that forms its very being in the semblance of a mortal frame. So even in normal form, a pseudonatural Gargantuan monstrous scorpion looks pretty odd. Once it's transformed, it's no longer even recognizable.

Also, chaos beasts make good Far Realm natives.

And a random table of alternate form abilities would be sorta nice—it never quite made sense to me that changing to a mass of tentacles didn't change its attacks at all. The half-farspawn is a nice change to that, but it is significantly more powerful.

Well, yeah, I kinda... didn't explain myself fully... I figured the Alternative forms would be stark differences than the normal forms... but moreso if the normal forms seem more.. "normaler" the higher you go. Kinda like how a cracked gem isn't a valuable as a refined gem.

And yes, Chaos Beasts make good Far natives, as do Akleu, Kyra, and Xorbeasts (3 out of 6 "Horrors of the Daelkyr" of Ebberon, found in Dragon Issue 348, and yes, you can use them outside of Ebberon campaigns).

BTW, Escapist, that is an AWSM picture of your character. And I like the... Psuedonatural Centipede in the background. I'd scan in an unusual character I drew once, but I don't becuase for those who do know me, and go to this board... I don't want them to know of a secret that I want to hold onto until his premiere (hin't: VERY evil character).

[MegasquidMan]

Hmm, I thought of something... Is there more than one way for a Half-Farspawn to come into existence?

In Lords of Madness, it's explained that they are typically made by a willing/forced "coupling" (much like how any Half-templated creature is formed). However, much like Yuan-Ti, I can see a few other ways on how to have it happen. here are some of my theories/ideas:

#1: A normal creature being introduced into the Far Realms itself, and surviving... for the most part.

Yes, I kinda gotten a cue from seeing two illustrations in the LoM book. The pic of the wizard trapped in the Far Realm, and Akhando, a Half-Farspawn Cleric of Mak Thuum-Ngatha. The two look similar to me. Plus, I do know that that particular plane of existance is highly morphic, so growing tentacles and alien eyes on your arm whilst hopelessly floating in the Screaming Madness could have indeed made Akhando what he is now.

#2: For Clerics/Cultists, make more by some form of Ritual.

Seeing as I saw the Yuan-Ti Cultist Prestige Class do something similar, it only makes sense to me that this could be another way for this to be feasible to add some alien flavour to disciplies, willing (most likely), or otherwise.

#3: Experimentation through genetic altering (usually forced, unless done on yourself).

This one isn't as clearly though-out as the other ones, but I can see a Fleshwarper, or some mastermind whose head of of organization or cult to do these things. Maybe a Nihilistic Human could be in charge, or even go as far as an unusually intelligent Chuul (or some other Aberration), whose ancestral blood still ring commands to bring terror with an unstoppable army. It's all very open-ended, for now.

I know this thread is a little old, and not recently looks at, but I figured I'd bump it with something a little to add to it.