Formweaver (3.5e Class)

Summary::Formweavers are life and chaos made flesh. Length::20 Minimum Level::0 Base Attack Bonus Progression::Good Fortitude Save Progression::Good Reflex Save Progression::Good Will Save Progression::Poor Class Ability::Active Traits Class Ability::Stored Shapes Class Ability::Stored Abilities Class Ability Progression::Other

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Formweaver
Formweavers are biological change, life, and chaos made flesh. To be a formweaver is a pseudo-divine calling - many among their loosely-organised number make mention of hearing a “unifying song” or resonance within all living things, and the more religiously-inclined Weavers have started a “Cult of the Song” or “Unification Cult.”

Some see their gifts as a way of unifying all life, others see them as useful - if bizarre and a little horrendous - tools. Formweavers tend to hear the call around their adolescence, and they’re usually made most aware of it when horns erupt from their head, or their mouths widen into flesh-tearing maws or beaks, or their right arm splits into a slithering bouquet of 4 razor-suckered tentacles. Waking up in a cold sweat from a dream that walks the edge of nightmares and finding oneself encased in a smooth, dark exoskeleton is also a bit of a giveaway.

Any race can be a formweaver. Most civilised societies are likely to shun a formweaver walking about openly and obviously displaying their gifts, but races naturally inclined for shapeshifting nonsense are nowhere near as bothered.

Making a Formweaver
Formweavers, to crib terminology from a deceased mummorpuger, are what regen tanks would be. They're not proficient with any weapons or armour, but their innate natural armour bonus and natural weaponry helps shore that up somewhat. With their base class features alone, they're passable melee fighters, but their true special qualities come to the fore once they start utilising their Biogenic Touch and manifest Traits - the shapes (senses, movement modes, and natural attacks) and abilities (supernatural and extraordinary) of living enemies they kill and absorb with their biogenic touch.

Abilities: Physical stats are quite important - constitution helps boost the fast healing afforded to the class, dexterity helps deflect incoming blows to die less, and strength helps shred foes with stinger-arms and murderclaws. High wisdom can help shore up their poor will saves, charisma helps monster-hating NPCs hate them less, and intelligence always helps grant more skills.

Races: In the Whorlbound setting, the awesome sharky Carcheids and the Changelings are the most likely to become a formweaver. In other settings, pretty much anyone can be a mutant, but humans are probably more likely, after shapeshifting races.

Alignment: Any, though nonlawful is more likely.

Starting Gold: 2d4&times;10 gp (45 gp).

Starting Age: As rogue. It's not very hard to learn to be a freaky body-stealing mutant.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the formweaver.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Formweavers are proficient with only their natural weapons and no armour.

 : A signature ability of formweavers is their ability to disrupt and tamper with the biological processes and existences of others via flesh to flesh contact. Biogenic touch deals 1d6 untyped damage per character level through a melee touch attack. Upon being struck, faint vein-like red lines radiate outward from the point of impact, then promptly appear to “cave in” as the damage is dealt and a devastating pile of involuntary apoptosis occurs.

Biogenic touch requires at least a standard action to perform and can’t be used in a full attack. The damage of biogenic touch bypasses damage reduction, but is only effective on living creatures with metabolic processes to disrupt - Aberrations, Animals, Dragons, Humanoids, Magical Beasts, Monstrous Humanoids, Oozes, Plants, and Vermin are included in this list. The weaver can opt to deal nonlethal damage with this attack.

 : Formweavers start off with one primary natural weapon of any type - horns, stings, tentacles, a widened maw and teeth to match, claws, blade-arms... The power and choice is yours. The weaver's first natural weapon improves one damage category at level 5, and an additional primary weapon is grown at level 6.

 : Formweavers have +4 Natural AC at level 1, represented by either a subdermal layer of protective, strange new flesh, hardened skin/scales/carapace on their body’s surface, or something else entirely - use your imagination! This increases by a further +1 for every two character levels the weaver has. If the formweaver ever wears armour, she only gets half the bonus from this ability, rounded down.

 : One of a formweaver’s most signature abilities involves melding her body with various other parts, abilities, and aspects of creatures and things she’s tasted of with their biogenic touch. Altering oneself takes concentration and roughly five minute’s time and is probably equal parts fun and horrific to watch. The formweaver is vulnerable while transforming and is flat-footed, no matter what wacky roguish tricks she has, while she's transforming. In addition to these facts, formweavers also gain the [Shapechanger] subtype.

Aat level 1, a formweaver may have 3 traits present at a time. Traits are supernatural and extraordinary abilities, and parts of the cosmetic appearance of monsters she's touched, their movement modes, special senses, shit like water breathing, and extra limbs and other such fun things that she's taken with the “Absorb Aspect” mechanic. The number of active trait slots increases by 1 for every 3 levels - so it’s 4 at level 3, 5 at level 6, etc. Hiding natural weapons and armour uses a trait slot - so if a level one weaver wanted to hide her tentacles and carapace but activate telepathy and poison abilities she’d absorbed, it would take up all three of her slots.

 : The earliest thing formweavers learn to do is how to absorb the shape and abilities of a creature. Absorbing a creature’s shape, supernatural, and extraordinary abilities requires that the weaver deal damage to the intended creature with her biogenic touch. Generally, only one ability is absorbed per touch, while the whole of the creature’s shape may be learned with one touch. Formweavers have an uncanny inherent insight into the nature and abilities of living creatures, and can generally get the gist of what a given creature is capable of with a raw Intelligence check with a DC equal to 5 + the target's hit dice.

A formweaver can only passively remember [CON mod]+CLVL shapes and a number of supernatural and extraordinary abilities equal to 5. Abilities and shape-factors inherent in her native race do not count against this limit. She can opt to forget stored abilities and shapes at will.

A formweaver starts off with the abilities and shape aspects of one rules-legal creature whose CR is equal to or less than her starting level. Don't be a dick.

 : The weaver is bristling with life energy, giving her fast healing equal to her character level + Con mod. This persists when she's dropped into negative HP.

 : Through amazing feats of concentration and slight self-alteration, formweavers are able to pull off magnificent physical feats. The formweaver is, via a swift action, able to use concentration to provide bonuses to endurance-related, swim, jump, balance, and climb rolls. She checks concentration vs a DC of 5 and gains a +2 bonus to the roll for every five above the DC she rolled.

 : As a swift action, the formweaver can opt to reduce the total damage of her next biogenic touch by 50% (rounding up) in order to gain the damage dealt as health. If the weaver is "overhealed" by this health gain, the excess health is granted as temporary hitpoints with a duration of one hour. If a weaver holds a number of temporary hitpoints from this ability that are equal to or greater than her base maximum hitpoints, she runs a risk of exploding in a burst of life energy as if she were hanging out in the bad neighbourhoods on the Positive Energy Plane.

 : The formweaver's body is tough and resistant, gaining a +3 bonus to resist the effects of poisons and diseases. In addition to this, she has the ability to use her concentration skill rather than fortitude save versus ongoing and secondary damage from poisons and diseases. These changes apply to most magical poisons and diseases as well, though there can be exceptions.

 : The formweaver can opt to, as a swift action, inflict great pain with her next biogenic touch, dealing 67% damage (rounding up) with it in order to cause the target to take a -6 penalty on rolls for the next round. This scales up to a -10 at level 12. Repeated applications of aching biogenic touches extend the duration of the penalty. This is a pain effect, for anything and anyone that cares.

 : The formweaver gains greater control over her body. She can use a single trait slot to increase or decrease her size; she can use up to two slots in this way to increase or decrease her size by up to two categories total. She can also use a single trait slot to take a creature’s whole shape that she’s absorbed, gaining the appearance of the creature absorbed. She retains her mind, sense of self, and motivations while transformed, though she may not be able to communicate through normal means - snakes are poor conversationalists, after all. All but her mental stats are replaced, and Mercurial Form may be used to alter a whole shape taken in this manner. The weaver’s natural weapons and armour are still visible on her new body, though they can be hidden as per the normal rules in Mercurial Form.

 : The formweaver is able to use her next biogenic touch to ruin another creature’s senses. Her next biogenic touch deals no damage, but causes the creature to take a fortitude save equal to half the damage rolled, rounding down, to avoid being blinded and deafened. This can cause blindsense and the like to stop working; the progression goes from simultaneous blindness and deafness to the disabling, one by one, of the creature's other senses.

 : The weaver can now use her biogenic touch on corporeal outsiders, as well as use it to destroy corporeal undead. Weavers cannot take abilities and shapes from the undead.

 : The formweaver has mastery over her twisted form's pain receptors. She's immune to nonlethal damage from outside sources, but she can still suffer from environmental circumstances, suffocate, and starve just like other people. She also gains damage reduction equal to half her character level, penetrated by Acid and Vile damage.

 : The weaver's natural weapons are now considered magic weapons with an enhancement bonus equal to her level divided by 3, rounded up.

 : If the formweaver deals a killing blow with biogenic touch, she can opt to absorb the whole thing, leaving no remains behind and gaining all (as opposed to simply one) supernatural/extraordinary abilities possessed by the creature.

In addition to this, if she inhumes a unique creature - like, say, the King of Town - she'd be able to use her Metamorphosis ability to take his shape perfectly.

 : The formweaver grows a strange, tiny, hard, and disclike growth inside her chest and/or abdominal cavity. Bezoars tend to be incredibly smooth in texture and dark in colouration. They store a number of shapes and abilities equal to 3 × the weaver's Constitution modifier. A weaver is aware when her bezoar fills up, and she can make it slowly and painlessly erupt from her body whenever she wants. A new bezoar is formed within one round as soon as the weaver's body contains no bezoars. Swapping a bezoar is as simple as willing one out of one’s body as a full-round action, then pressing the the desired one in until it's drawn inside via a full-round action. A weaver is automatically aware of the contents of her own bezoars, and may take a Knowledge(Nature/Religion) check to learn the contents of another formweaver’s bezoar, with a DC equal to 10+the other weaver's character level.

Swapping or copying the contents of bezoars may be done by holding one in each hand and taking a minute to encode them, and an additional minute to verify them.

 : The weaver’s control over her own body improves, conferring a +3 to resist effects that alter/negate senses. If these rolls fail, she may take a swift action to take a concentration check with a DC equal to 10 + that of the effect that caused the sensory deprivation. Success negates the effect.

The formweaver may also, as a swift action, take a DC 10 concentration check to apply the measure of success to her next spot or listen roll as a bonus. Failure does not apply a penalty.

 : The weaver has advanced her gifts to the point where “shape”-type alterations to herself only take up one slot. This means that darkvision [shape, sense], dragon wings [shape, flight/transport mode], a Marilith’s six arms [shape, extra limbs], the gills from a shark [shape, water breathing], and making her lower body into a smaller appropriation of a dire whale’s rear half [shape, swim/transport mode] would all only take one slot, as opposed to 5. The weaver is also immune to any transmutation/shapechange/polymorph effects she has not willingly accepted.

 : The formweaver is now able to regrow lost limbs over the course of 3d6 minutes, though if she can pick the limb up and hold it against her stump, it reattaches instantly. As an extra bonus, she heals ability damage at a rate of 4 points per 24 hours (i.e., 1 every 6 hours), and negative levels are guaranteed to regenerate at the rate of 1 per 24 hours, plus an additional 1 depending on if she makes the fortitude save. As a super extra bonus, should the formweaver be mangled and nearly-dead, as long as she has her head intact, she can regrow her body. Gross.

 : The weaver can use her biogenic touch as a heal on others as a standard action, mending bones, clotting bleeds, and revitalising tissue. It feels goddamned weird and also mends the lifeless, rotting flesh of the undead. This is usable 4+CHA mod times a day.

 : The weaver’s scales/carapace/exoskeleton/tough hide take(s) on a strange lustre as she gains spell resistance equal to 10 + her character level. She also gains two types of energy resistance, each equal to 5×Con mod. She can alter these resistance types as she likes, though it takes a full round. She cannot ever opt to be resistant to vile and/or acid damage. Sorry.

 : The weaver no longer loses a level when she's resurrected. In addition to this, she gains a +3 to saves vs physiology-related spells (cysts, enfeeblement, etc), as well as +1 HP per HD.

 : The formweaver gains 2+STR mod uses of a newer, meaner biogenic touch. It deals its damage as Vile damage in addition to causing 2d3 STR, CON, and DEX drain. Degenerate tends to look like biogenic touch’s vein-like outlines spreading across the target’s body, which then erupt into malformed, cancerous flesh.

 : The weaver's natural weapons can grow enchantment(s) in addition to counting as enhanced magic weapons. Changing the enchantment takes anywhere from one day to one week as well as something relevant to the nature of and equal to the value of the enchantment - often planar currency or something quest-relevant which will be consumed by the the action. Weapon enchantments gained in this way count as abilities for the purposes of bezoars.

 : The weaver’s control over her body improves, granting a further +3 to metabolic/control save bonuses. She also no longer ages, cannot die of old age, and age penalties go away.

 : The weaver may roll a concentration check to reduce damage taken from sneak/critical attacks. DC is equal to half the damage dealt. Success reduces a critical hit to a noncritical, and failure reduces the damage taken to the difference between the total roll and damage. Reduction of precision damage is assumed to always "fail" and therefore just reduce it to the difference.

 : The formweaver’s means of natural protection now count as adamantine for purposes that care about what armour’s made of. The weaver is also able to limitlessly alter her size. In addition to this, she gains one type of energy immunity though it, again, can't be vile or acid.

 : The weaver’s natural weapons count as adamantine for all purposes of penetrating hardness and damage reduction and improve their damage category by one. She can also allow them to hold a second enchantment.

 : If a creature takes damage from a formweaver's Biogenic Touch, they must make a Fortitude save or die. The DC for this effect scales with the weaver's strength. If a creature successfully saves, they are safe from this bullshit for 24 hours.

 : The weaver can use her control over her own body to defy death itself. She gains a +3 to her resistance to death effects and, if she is killed under most circumstances, may take a DC 30 concentration check to simply not die.

 : The formweaver is quite seasoned now, and is able to share some of her abilities with others through a touch and implantation of a specially-prepared bezoar. The weaver decides what shapes and abilities she is placing on it - she may choose up to 7 - and simply presses it against a willing target’s body, whereupon it will be absorbed and “activated” over the course of the next several vaguely horrific, fascinating minutes. The formweaver is able to do this to unwilling targets - they get a DC 10+CLVL/2+STR mod Fortitude save to resist.

The results of the bezoar last as long as it’s present, and the weaver can remove it from the target any time she likes.

She’s also able to absorb as many bezoars as she’d like, and activate all shape and ability traits she’d like. The weaver increases one size category for every 13 traits. This transformation takes anywhere from five minutes to an hour.

The formweaver also becomes awe- and terror-inspiring to behold, causing most all others observing her limitless form to take a will save at a DC of 10+0.5(CLVL)+CHA mod. If the target fails and the weaver is particularly cultishly/religiously-minded, they hear the unifying tones and become inspired to join the Cult of the Song. If the weaver doesn’t care about that sort of thing, the target attempts to become her follower, or just increases their disposition by one category.

If the target makes their save, they run off screaming, getting a pitchfork and torch rally ready, because the pseudo-Lovecraftian amalgamation of bodies has made them soil themselves in sheer terror and panic. Luckily, activating most of and/or literally every positive thing she has going for her effectively prepares the weaver for this contingency.

Playing a Formweaver...
Religion: As alluded to earlier, Formweavers tend to have their own unique religious outlook, if they have one at all. All life shares common factors, and they're just doing their part to unify all living beings.

Other Classes: Formweavers get along famously with healbots, because they tend to need less of it. Everyone's honestly just kind of weirded out by them, but they work well with others who can bring them back from the dead, benefit from their enabling of flanking, and hold particularly deadly beasts still.

Combat: Fast-healing punching bag, debuffer, DPS machine, and abilities and utility dependent on what abilities they (and/or your GM lets you) absorb and use.

Advancement: Weavers get a lot from staying within their class, so you should probalby do that.

Formweavers in the World
"Can't you hear every cell in your body screaming for freedom? Hold still, let me liberate your order-caged form..."

Formweavers tend to be wanderers, given their proclivity toward and interest in finding creatures of interest and pulling a Megaman on them ("Now I have your power!"). Wandering and adventuring is also rather common for them because they're likely to be shunned for up and turning into a monster one day, and doing adventuresome favours for people (or proving how good you are at stabbing people in the face) can help that somewhat.

Daily Life: Wake up, eat, decide on what traits to wear today, and then go out and free some more poor unfortunate bodies.

Notables: Double. This is totally serious.

Organizations: If formweavers assemble, they tend to do it religiously, forming up small sects of the Unification Cult or Cult of the Song. The latter of these is named for the "song" some formweavers claim to hear in living organisms, stifled and ruined by the unchanging order of most creatures' bodies.

NPC Reactions: Most formweavers tend to be chaotic amalgamations of monstrous traits - with their own inherent natural protection manifesting as chitin, scales, toughened hide, shells, or other such nonsense, and their inherent weaponry manifesting as things monsters tend to have - claws, tentacles, etc - they tend to be reacted-to rather strangely. Most NPCs are rather likely to treat unconcealed formweavers as monsters, initially, because they pretty much look like them. Once that nonsense is out of the way, they'll still likely be a bit weirded out by the mercurial-bodied formweavers.

Formweaver Lore
Characters with ranks in Religion and History can research Formweavers to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.