They do make a point in Treasure Vault that tattoos are usually locked behind cultural affinity. That might be part of the motivation for the feat tax.

@HowItsPlayed

6 ай бұрын

Good point! I think that maybe the rarity system could handle that too.

@Zuginator

6 ай бұрын

​@@HowItsPlayed But the Rarity system kinda sucks, because UNLESS it's "we want to keep things that can effect game play like Teleport out of Common" it just makes blockers. I don't bother LOOKING at Uncommon and Rare stuff most of the time.

@kevindaniel1337

6 ай бұрын

​@Zuginator I can honestly say rarity system is fantastic for homebrew. Gm: "Elves are Rare in my world." Players: "oh OK."

i think magical tattoos are special not only because they're basically uncommon/regional but also because they're not really items, they're implanting magic in a living creature, iirc beastguns (the other kind of living/organic magic item) also have their own special feat

I think the feat tax is a result that some tattoos can be improved upon later rather than being static

It think the feat tax might be something along the same lines as the Stitch Flesh feat. Somebody in dev thought for some reason you need a feat to treat injuries with mundane methods on the corpses of things you know how to treat even thought you don't need one for literal plant people, robots, stuffed animals, awakened animals, animal companions, household items that have become kami, drakes, fire elementals that are entirely made of flame, etc. Literally when the Tian Xia books come out you will be able to treat wounds on a gd sentient bookshelf. I imagine 90% of people would handwave these kinds of oddities that probably weren't even universally agreed upon internally.

The feat requirement of specialty crafting is probably because tattoos are always artworks and that's what specialty crafting is for iirc. So it would be required for consistency's sake but they made a tattoo crafting feat to circumvent the need to spend two feats.

They probably left tattoos out of the remaster because they are going to reintroduce and expound/expand upon them in the next remaster book.

@AmusementOverlord

6 ай бұрын

I think they left it out because they aren't doing anything more than errata for supplemental books (G&G, SoM, ect...) it also didn't sound like anything needs to change for it to work with remaster material

Magical Items needs you to be an expert in crafting, while tattoos needs you to be Trained only so if you wanna have some kind of magical crafting but you don't wanna spend expertise in Craft, pick tattoos

I think that tattoos are handled differently because they are a type of artistry and crafting. Many players probably want to be tattoo artists just to put regular tattoos on other characters the same way some people want to have a crafting speciality in basket weaving. So, being able to craft magical tattoos was added to them as a cool bonus and also because they considered tattoos to be a separate crafting area just like alchemy and snares (Probably, rightly so, because the rules are slightly different and tattooing has a different feeling that needs to be kept somewhat exotic). As for magical crafters, the allowance of that specific combination of feats is probably to allow some players that somehow ended up with that combination of feats already (I had an artist wizard player that already had artistry for his magical painter concept) to be able to do tattoos, since they will probably argue that they should.

How do magic tattoos work? Are they active all of the time or do you have to say or do something like trace ir to activate the spell?

@HowItsPlayed

6 ай бұрын

The function the same as other magic items, so each tattoo's description should state how it works. For example, there'll often be a section that says "Activate" that spells out how the tattoo is used, how many actions it takes, etc.

I have the feeling that they're embarrassed they let it escape winding up on the cutting room floor - I mean, are there even 4 common Lvl1 and Lvl2 tattoos available to take when you buy the Tattoo Artist Feat? I think they left it out because they're hoping people just forget that it ever existed.

It may be up to the GM, but can tattoos be done in increments? For example if you need 2 days to craft it, could you do 1 hour a day until completed? And how would the skill checks work for that?

My only thought, without looking it up: does the tattoo crafting have any rarity other than common? If it does maybe thats why its separate? If its common then i dont know enough about the lore to be able to come up with anything else.

Ho, first time accidentally clicking on notification is good, i wanted to know how it work

I hate that craft feats are blockers instead of bonuses. It just feels bad that magic crafting which is a REQUIREMENT (you can't even apply runes found without Expert in Craft AND a feat.) This is a HUGE issue at low lvls as you CAN'T transfer runes to your Fighter! Tattoo crafting now requires TWO feats. It's not like they do EXTRA special stuff. Feats aren't things you get a LOT of. (anyone who says "but Rogue" that's BS you shouldn't HAVE to play a specific class)

Would forcing a Magical Tattoo on a Superstition Instinct Barbarian constantly trigger their Anathema? As for the feat tax, I think it should be Magic Crafting allows tattoos, Tattoo doesn't allow items. Maybe if you start with Tattoos then get Magic Items later, it gets a buff of some kind.

You also dont have to be an expert in crafting to gain the Tattoo artist feet, but you would need it to gain the magical crafting tattoo. So tattoos can be a side hussle, if you dont want to invest Skill Increases intom crafting beyond beeing trained.

Not a fan of how magical tattoos are so relatively weak and remove investment slots. Like, a lot of tattoos are purely cosmetic and fun but impact characters mechanically.

Pretty simple answer to your conundrum. The magical tattooist is literally infusing the magic into the tattoo as they are creating the tattoo. All other magical items in the game are basically mundane items that have the magic infused into them after they've been constructed.

@Zuginator

6 ай бұрын

Sure, but it's a fantasy GAME. The mechanics have to be good, and making up reason that are all made up why it needs to be difficult is... bad design.

Hmm… Why would tattooing be different… Maybe because the “material” is different? The same way that alchemical crafting is separated? Carafting: “Dead” material (wood, fabric, metal, etc) Alchemical Crafting: Alchemical ingredients Magical Crafting: Imbuing magic in “Dead” material Mgical Tattoos: “Living” material (??) that is flesh. Maybe because flesh is so deifferent from any other material, it is its own thing? That’s my take 🫡