The mystery of a chaos child's birth is rooted in its host. When red or blue slaadi infect a trained Anarch with a wisdom of 17 or higher (a rare occurance, given the githzeri's Wisdom penalty), the new birth appears to be a green slaad at first. As it matures, it exhibits odd, non-chaotic tendancies (for a slaad), and seems scrawny. When is first exhibits its first real givaway, its color-changing power, the other slaadi kill it, eat it, or banish it. Those who are banished grow up to be chaos children.

A chaos child is a mix of three things: an anarch's hereditary chaos-shaping talent, a very powerful will, and a slaad. Because of its chaotic roots, its alignment may only be removed one step from Chaotic Neutral at most (which is to say, Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Evil, or True Neutral). It is difficult to identify a chaos child by appearance, as this becomes more and more mutable as the slaadi learns to manipulate its form. It also becomes skilled at shaping the chaos of Limbo, and, at very high levels, learns to shape "law matter" in a limited way. Law matter is, of course, the normal stuff the rest of the planes are made of. It has been proposed that Crolaak was once a chaos child, who underwent the lawful equivalent of a green slaad's wilderness isolation, and returned as an ultra-lawful matter-shaper.

Unlike Crolaak, the majority of chaos children are highly chaotic. Even those who achieve a neutral alignment still must fight to keep their minds from wandering. They lack mental focus, leaving them with less rational ability and mental fortitude. On the flip side, they excell in their physical aspects, inherriting the strength and fortitude of their slaadi origins. This, and the fact that most have a nearly a normal slaad's ability to harm those who offend it, this makes chaos children relatively unpopular in civilised areas of the planes.

ABILITIES BY LEVEL

1ST LEVEL

• Claws do 1d4/1d4 damage. Mouth does 1d8 damage
• Change to any color or vague patterns (polka dots, stripes, and other simple-patterns, but not chameleon skin. Thief bonus to Hide in Shadows related to being able to darken skin)
• Immune to Limbo's chaos matter as if it were native (no need for stable ground)
• 4+1d6% at any given time (roll once for each spell or effect). The chaos child may increase or decrease the resistance by 1% per two levels.
• Movement rate of 6. This rate increases by one point for every two levels.
• Chaos children have a 25% chance to possess a psionic wild talent.

4TH LEVEL

• Chaos shaping for objects only: may shape a piece of chaos matter into an object which fits within the parameters of the create object psionic power.
• Claws may grow at will, doing 1d6/1d6 damage.
• 15% chance to gain a random (additional) psionic wild talent.

7TH LEVEL

• May grow a blue slaad's bone swords at will, substituting claws and doing 1d8/1d8 damage. Mouth may grow to do 1d10 damage.
• May use change self at will, for the purpose of clothing only.
• Immune to Limbo's chaos matter as if it were native.
• 25% chance to gain a random (additional) psionic wild talent.

10TH LEVEL

• Shape Limbo's chaos matter as a trained anarch with a -3 to wisdom.
• Bone swords may grow at will, doing 1d10/1d10 damage.
• 15% chance to gain a random (additional) psionic wild talent.

13TH LEVEL

• Can shape normal matter in a limited way.
• Once per two level gained subsequently, one of the following abilities may be learned: gust of wind, stone shape, pyrotechnics, or lower water. All spells are cast as the chaos child's level, up to once per day, and require 1 round to cast, and, for gust of wind and pyrotechnics, last only as long as the chaos child concentrates.
• Bone swords may grow at will, doing 1d10/1d10 damage.
• Mouth may grow to do 1d12 damage
• 50% chance to gain a random (additional) psionic wild talent.

Copyright 2000 by Greg Jensen