Cutting it Close
Thoughts on Reversing Crossbreeding
Crossbreeding is a horrific punishment for the very worst of one’s enemies. Or it’s a great way to create new, horrifying monsters. Or maybe it’s a way to give yourself some neat powers; perspectives vary.
Mechanically, crossbreeding is simple, thought not at all ‘breeding’ in the mundane sense. Start with two creatures, then decide which of the two the end product should take after in different ways, with other statistics downstream of that. In some cases, intermediate values or forms can be taken, or are taken by default barring effort to make, e.g., the creature’s lifespan resemble one progenitor. The bigger and more powerful the resulting creature, the longer, more expensive, and more difficult the project is.
Existing creatures are crossbreeds. The classic chimera, with its three different heads, is a classic example. The ACKS II Monstrous Manual additionally describes various other creatures as crossbreeds: dire wolves and efreet to create hellhounds, men and boars to make orcs, and so on. Some iconic new to ACKS monsters like the skittering maw are the product of of crossbreeding, directly tied in as examples of how those rules work in example text.
What would it mean to reverse crossbreeding? I’m considering approximately:
produce the two creatures (components) used to create the crossbreed (composite).
each component creature has its mind, attributes, etc as it did previously. New memories of events experienced after crossbreeding are present in both.
If the targeted creature was born normally, but of a species created by crossbreeding:
produce two creatures of the component species.
As no prior mind existed, each will have a mind typical of its kind. Both will retain the memories of the composite form, though they may not be comprehensible depending on the form taken (such as a centipede re-derived from a skittering maw, which has negligible intelligence).
If the composite creature had noted attributes (STR, INT, etc), divide those between the produced creatures, then randomly determine the other attributes of each creature (or assume neutral attributes).
These seem simple enough to do, though the question of how this process occurs is left open. Crossbreeding magic research, at the same cost again, to decompose a creature? Less, maybe, if only one progenitor’s survival is required of the process? Or maybe it’s best left to the field of ritual magic. A wish can cross-breed any 2 creatures without error, so ritual magic being able to undo such a thing makes sense. An example follows, including the strange case of using an anti-crossbreeding effect on a creature that is not in any way crossbred.
Soul Shears
Base Cost 100,000gp: Single charge 8th level ritual effect. Apparent Value: 2,000gp, but obviously magical.
These heavy platinum shears have detailed depictions, one of a human form and one of a hellhound, hammered into them in gold. Each depiction is both anatomical and mystical, detailing the various places in which the a life’s essence resides in the body. Opening the shears causes the images to change: two similar men now stand on the two blades, familiar in appearance but with slight differences, while the hellhound is now a wolf opposite an efreet.
The shears can be used once to separate a living creature into two. To do so, a portion of the creature must be cut off with the shears as the word ‘cut’ is spoken by their wielder. Unless the subject is willing or helpless, a successful attack throw is required to cut him, with the shear’s magic wasted on a miss. After use, successful or failed, the shears are left dull in blade and finish, nonmagical.
A crossbred creature cut by the shears is returned to its original constituents, regaining their prior minds, physical forms, etc; any memories gained while combined are retained by both constituent creatures if able. A creature of a species created by crossbreeding can likewise be split; the Judge should divide its attributes, if noted, between the two forms and determine the rest randomly as needed.
If the shears are used to cut a creature that was not crossbred, such as a regular human, a similar process occurs. Two creatures of that kind are created, close enough in appearance to be taken for siblings. Each retains half the original creature’s statistics, with the remainder determined randomly. Each has half the experience points of the original creature. Memories are retained by both, but proficiencies and spells known are split, and personality traits may differ as statistics do. In some cases the resulting creatures may be of a different class than the original creature as a result of separation, such as an elven spellsword being decomposed into a mage-like elf and a martial, non-spellcasting elf.
When not reversing direct crossbreeding, wielder of the shears who has an Art or Craft proficiency relevant to the use of such tools, or a Knowledge proficiency relevant to the species in question may exercise a degree of control (Judge’s discretion) over which aspects of the original creature end up on which side of the split, i.e. deciding that the creature which bears the original’s high CHA retain its diplomatic training. A wielder with 3 or more ranks in such a skill can cut in such a manner as to create an unequal pair of resulting creatures, splitting statistics, proficiencies, experience, etc at will. No matter the skill available, both resulting creatures will have a scar at the site where they were cut apart, or at an equivalent location in their new form.
Anyone who’s read Pact probably recognized this as soon as I said ‘shears’. These are a bit more neutral than that diabolic tool, and don’t leave any pieces of the creature on the cutting room floor. This is still probably a horror movie item, unless you’re exactly trying to reverse horror movie outcomes that have already come to pass. I think it’d also be reasonable to allow a ritual like this, in sufficiently skilled hands, to remove an ‘alien body part’ Tampering with Mortality effect.