. A Look at Body Implants
A Preview of Chaositech

One of the most interesting sections in Chaositech is Chapter Three: Betrayal of Flesh. Here we learn about living chaositech devices ready to be grafted, implanted, or otherwised attached to a host creature. They live off their host, but at the same time provide unique benefits. To see what we mean, here's a preview of nine types of implants. Each one makes use of Chaos Surgery, a new skill from the book.

Body Implants
Body implants are additions made to a creature’s physical form through surgical procedures. They are always additions, never replacements. Body implants are usually made of grown flesh components, but they sometimes incorporate steel plates, wire, tubes, or other inorganic parts.

Arachnid Covey: This implant fits just under the host’s skin, leaving a hemispherical lump about 3 inches across. The lump has a small opening, from which crawl tiny spiders. The spiders instinctively obey the host’s telepathic commands. The most they can do, however, is swarm over one creature that the host touches. A swarmed foe who fails a Will save (DC 16) suffers a –2 circumstance penalty on attacks, saves, and checks from the revulsion and distraction, assuming he is size Huge or smaller (larger foes go unaffected). Further, after a full round, the foe must make a Fortitude save (DC 16) from the cumulative poisonous spider bites. Primary and secondary damage is 1 point of Dexterity. No matter how long the spiders swarm over a foe, the poison is a threat only once. A foe can jump into water (or do something similar) to rid himself of the spiders. Likewise, if he spends a full 3 rounds doing nothing but swatting and brushing away spiders (and defending himself), they are gone. Spiders expelled in this way are gone and no longer respond to the host. If the host does not order them back before the foe deals with them, it takes one week to spawn new ones. To command the spiders to return, the host must touch the target they are swarming. The host cannot have them swarm a new foe until they have returned to the covey for at least 2 rounds. A host can have no more than one arachnid covey.

Chaos Surgery DC 19; Procedure Time two hours; Recovery Period five days; Price 8,000 gp

Back-Up Organ: This implant resembles nothing more than a large slug placed within the body cavity of the host, where it lives like a parasite until needed. When the host sustains a wound so terrible that one of his organs is damaged (a wound that puts him over his massive damage threshold), the creature secretes powerful healing fluids to help heal the wound, then transforms itself into a relative facsimile of the damaged organ, moving into place to replace it. The wound is healed instantly, as if it had never happened, and the host need make no saving throw for the massive damage. The back-up organ functions once, and a host can have only one at a time.

Chaos Surgery DC 22; Procedure Time one hour; Recovery Period two days; Price 3,000 gp

Bone Lacing: The surgeon laces the host’s bones with metal and hardened, living tissue in a series of four long and painful procedures, requiring a week of recovery time in between each. When finished, the host gains an inherent Strength bonus of +2 and 20 bonus hit points. Further, the host gains damage reduction of 10/slashing or piercing* (his bones are very difficult to break, thus he takes less damage from bludgeoning, crushing, and even falling damage).
* Under previous rules, he would take half damage from bludgeoning attacks.

Chaos Surgery DC 26; Procedure Time six hours (¥4); Recovery Period one week (¥4); Price 90,000 gp

Breathers: Implanted in the throat of the host, this set of organs breathes for the host—he no longer breathes through his mouth at all. The breathers can safely process toxic gases of all types. The host becomes immune to inhaled poisons and other attacks that involve dangerous inhalants. Breathers cannot breathe water.

Chaos Surgery DC 20; Procedure Time eight hours; Recovery Period one week; Price 25,000 gp

Claws: Implanted within a clawless creature’s fingers, paws, tentacles, or other extending limbs, these deadly sharp claws usually measure about 4 inches long (for a Medium creature). Made of both organic materials and steel, they can be retracted or extended as a free action. The host is still limited in the number of attacks he can make in a round, although he can use the claws on his off hand to make an off-hand attack. Damage inflicted by implanted claws varies by the host’s size.

Chaos Surgery DC 17; Procedure Time six hours; Recovery Period one week; Price 15,000 gp

Claws, Poisonous: These claws are just like those described above, except they each bear a small venom sac and venom reservoir, enabling each strike to also inject a dose of poison in the target up to six times per day per claw. The price of the procedure depends on the type of poison (the poison’s DC and damage).

Chaos Surgery DC 18; Procedure Time six hours; Recovery Period one week; Price varies

Disease Destroyer: A surgeon places this small organ near the heart. It activates when a virulent disease enters the host’s system, destroying the disease (the host need never even make a saving throw against it). It pumps special disease-fighting agents into the bloodstream with great speed. The organ can live within the host for six months and can function up to 20 times during that period before it withers.

Chaos Surgery DC 28; Procedure Time 10 hours; Recovery Period one week; Price 25,000 gp

Disease Incubator: This implant is often used by the cultists known as the Plagueborn (see “The Cults of Chaos” in Chapter One). It rests within the host’s chest, collecting any and all disease-bearing contagions that enter the host’s system, even those the body normally would ignore as insignificant. The host is thus rendered immune to disease. Meanwhile, the disease incubator fosters and nurtures the diseases within it. After a month, the host gains the ability to inflict these diseases on others as a touch attack, usable once every two days. With each use of the ability, the DM should randomly choose a disease from Chapter Eight: Glossary in the DMG. Further, if the host is slain, all within 10 feet of him at the time of death must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 18) or fall victim to a random disease as the incubator bursts open.

Chaos Surgery DC 28; Procedure Time 10 hours; Recovery Period one week; Price 60,000 gp

Dragon: Similar to a serpent implant†, the dragon implant is usually embedded in the host’s shoulder or back. It looks like a dragon head and neck, about 3 feet long. The host controls this new appendage, which can bite at foes. The host makes a single attack in a round, using her normal base attack bonus. A dragon attack is a standard action, which can be part of a full attack action, but all the host’s attacks suffer a –5 penalty (regardless of any feats she may have). The dragon inflicts 1d6 points of damage (critical hit on a 20/x2), with no bonus for Strength. Even more devastating, three times per day the dragon can breathe a line of fire up to 50 feet long that inflicts 5d6 points of fire damage (Reflex save, DC 15, for half). The dragon implant does not have a poisonous bite.

Chaos Surgery DC 25; Procedure Time six hours (x4); Recovery Period one week (x4); Price 23,000 gp

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