Curse Marked

Creatures who bear the curse mark are set on a path that leads them to become more and more animalistic, while at the same time filling them with the power of natural energy.

### **Creating a Curse Marked**

*“Curse marked”* is an acquired template that can be added to a living, corporeal creature of the Aberration, Dragon, Humanoid, Monstrous humanoid or outsider types with an Int score of 4 or more. This template is only gained through the "Senjutsu Curse Mark" jutsu. A curse marked creature uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

**CR**: A stage 1 curse marked has a challenge rating adjustment of +1 and a curse marked able to reach stage 2 has a CR adjustment of +3.

All curse Marked begin with only access to stage 1, however upon dying they gain access to stage 2. Generally this is of little benefit, but if the curse Marked finds a way to return from or endure death they will be able to access this second stage thereafter.

**Alignment**: Any

**Type**: The creature’s type is unchanged.

**Abilities**: A ninja bearing the curse mark permenantly reduces their wisdom score by 4, but gains significant power when using their cursed form ability.

**Special Abilities**: A curse marked gains the following ability:

#### **Cursed Form (Su)**

As an immediate action the curse marked can activate the power of their mark and enter their cursed form. Once the Curse Marked uses this ability they may not do so again until they meld their chakra. In either case the curse marked maintains the form for 1 minute at the end of which they may choose to take 2 points of constitution damage to extend the duration by another minute. A Curse Marked that has access to “stage 2” can choose whether to enter stage 1 or 2 as they see fit and may choose to progress from stage 1 to stage 2 at any time, which resets the duration. Entering cursed form, taking con damage to extend it’s duration, and progressing from stage 1 to stage 2 all count as using the power of their curse mark jutsu, which causes the user to become more and more subserviant to the person who cursed them as per the "Senjutsu curse Mark" jutsu.

**Stage 1**: Upon entering this form the curse marked heals 1 hp per HD, gains +4 to str, dex, and cha, a +10 ft increase to base land speed and a +2 natural armor bonus to armor class.

Additionally, while in this form, the curse marked gains chakra equal to 50% of their normal melded chakra, this can allow them to exceed their normal melded limit. This is essentially a temporary source of chakra in addition to their normal chakra. A curse marked may choose how much chakra to spend from this bonus pool and how much of their own to spend whenever they use chakra, but when all bonus chakra has been spent the cursed form ends as well even if the duration has not expired.

While perfectly safe for the curse marked, this excess chakra is incredibly dangerous to someone untrained in its use. Anyone, besides a Sage or other curse marked, who steals chakra from the curse marked in this form puts them self at great risk. They must make a fort save DC 10+1 for every 2 chakra they stole or permanently become one with nature. generally speaking this means being wholly transformed into a plant, animal, or rock.

**Stage 2**: In stage two the curse Marked gains even greater power and a prominent change to their appearance. The curse marked heals 1 hp per HD if advancing from stage 1 or double that if they were not previously using curse form. Additionally the bonuses to strength, dexterity and charisma increase to +10 and the increase to speed increase to +25 ft. The natural armor bonus increases to +5. The Curse Marked also receives the Protean benefits and chakra enhanced attacks abilities as explained below.

Protean benefits: On first obtaining access to stage 2 the curse marked may pick and choose abilities from the Protean system that are worth chakra equal to their character level. They gain these abilities constantly while in stage 2 without paying chakra for them. For example a 10th level curse marked could choose: +2 to str (4 points) Grow one limb to be able to wield a two handed weapon (4 chakra) and gain two claw attacks (1 chakra each), and each time they enter this form they gain those abilities. The curse marked continues to gain new protean abilities if they gain more levels thereafter.

Chakra enhanced attacks**:** While in stage 2, all of the curse marked’s attacks and jutsu deal damage 1 step higher than normal and have +2 to their save DC’s.