Stitcher - Graftmaster Supreme

The Stitcher is a rogue barber-surgeon willing to use a dash of magic to 'improve' his patients. Banned in most places, incredibly useful for those at risk of limb loss. The issue with these replacements is the risk of picking up elements of the previous holder.

Progression as Magic User, with the addition of a First Aid skill which progresses like that of a halfing.

Things a Stitcher can Do

- Pickle wizard brains. A wizard brain takes days equal to the MUs level to prepare, and when done can be eaten by a magic user to gain knowledge of any spells stored within. Save Vs Poison (at a penalty equal to the brain's MU level) or else you've got another wizard riding in your skull, yelling at you most likely.

- Temporary grafts. Attach temporary additional limbs/organs or give them a leg to walk back to town. Takes 30 minutes. These last d4 hours, and give a -4 to the corruption roll. (explained below)

- Permanent grafts. As above, but permanent.

Grafts and Grafting

You can only support grafts equal to your constitution modifier +2, unless you're replacing something with an example from your own species. Eye for an eye.

Grafting takes a day, with another day for recovering and getting used to the additional body parts. When the craft is complete, the graftee must roll under constitution + grafter level or else try again with a new body part. A good, clean place for surgery gives -2 to the roll, and exceptionally dirty places +2.

After the graft is complete, make a Corruption roll, modified as below.

Situation	Modifier
Replacing a lost part	+0
Replacing an existing part	+2
Additional part	+4
Fingers / Toes	+0
Hands / Feet	+1
Arms / Legs	+2
Ears	+1
Eyes	+2
Genitals	+2
Internals	+4
Brains	+5
Same Species	-1
Natural Creature (Animals etc.)	0
Magical Creature (Unicorn, dragon etc.)	+2
Unnatural Create (Aberrations, created things etc.)	+4
Outsiders (Devils, demons, angels and worse)	+6

The Corruption roll determines how much the replacement is going to effect you in unintended ways, and is made on a d20.

Roll	Severity
>0	Absolutely nothing happens. Perfect surgery. Good job, doc!
1-5	Some minor changes. Nothing noticeable.
6-10	Manageable changes. Friends and family will notice.
11-15	Moderate changes. You've become someone similar, but different.
16-20	Significant changes. You (might) look the same, but something is wrong.
21-25	Huge changes. You’re more different than the same.
26+	A New You. The old you is dead. Long live the new you.

The changes wrought depend on the source of the transplant. Example - Goblin Eyes.

At a minor level, you like steak a bit rarer than before.

Moving up slightly, you start getting urges to skulk or steal things. Nothing too serious.

Or perhaps you were less lucky. You can't resist picking up things now, and have a big thing for raw meat. The light hurts your eyes too.

You just don't feel right these days. The sun is too bright, the humans are too loud - wait, you did it again. Oh dear.

You keep trying to fit into spaces too small, you can't stand light and hate cooked food. You sometimes think in Goblin, although you don't understand it.

You're actually a big Goblin. The biggest Goblin. Travelling with humans is a lark.You love stealing, raw meat, torture and hatehatehate the sun.

Corruption effects within the same species would be more about taking on elements of the donors personality.

Of course, any natural benefits of the new body part are also inferred. Darkvision, increased strength, you name it. You should get used to bribing the GM or being able to bullshit about the anatomy of the things you're cutting up and splicing onto yourself/your patients. 

The Beauty of Bastards - Sandboxes to Burn

Two of my campaigns are founded upon a single commandment - get rich or die trying. This had led to both games being the chronicles of a team of utter bastards wreaking merry havoc across the land (see the early LotFP write-ups for the origin of the Six Bastards), and I honestly find it to be the most satisfying thing to DM. The principle motivator of money explains the group sticking together, and lets you realistically plan what they're going to do. What with this being a role-playing game, things are guaranteed to get interesting when the characters are choosing between riches and non-monetary gains.

The mindset of trying to take the world for a ride also means the players are going to examine everything for potential gain, both within dungeons and within settlements, leading to some fun world building and some excellent (and not so excellent) plans, including dungeoneering for political funding, organised smear campaigns against noble houses and the blackmail of armed forces. A well-thought out sandbox with interesting scenarios for the players to get embedded in works wonderfully, especially when they cause things to backfire on themselves.

The only potential issue is ensuring players aren't too eager to betray each other - so far, it's mostly been the shared knowledge of atrocities and honour amongst thieves. Running LotFP, alignment isn't an issue for this sort of play.