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D&D 4th ed: Lost Dyathi Tattoo Magic

The magic of the long dead Dyath race focused on the manipulation of living things. While druids and shaman live in harmony with primal forces, the Dyath bent natures natural forms to their will, and thought nothing of crafting plants, fungus or flesh to suit their purposes.

The legacy of Tattoo Magic has survived their race and is widely practiced, but there are two other schools of the art that have long remained forgotten, or if known, they are kept very secret, for good reason.

The principle attacks and defense of the Dyathi warrior was through the use of magical tattoos inscribed on the warrior's body. The school of Mind Tattoos and of Death Tattoos both utilized raw life force to empower the magical effects the warriors employed in combat.

There are many designs that once existed and have been lost, not just from the forbidden schools of Mind and Death, but from the other, known schools. Finding a new magic tattoo design and the ritual formula for inscribing it is a rare event, more often an artifact is found that has been charged with one of the ancient designs, and can be applied only once to a single person, as the designs are so rare, it is impossible to assign a gold piece price to them.. their value is more likely to be measured in lives.

Here are four tattoos from each school.

The Black Star (level 3, Death tattoo).
Touch attack, Wisdom or Charisma (whatever is higher) vs Will on a bloodied foe, drains one hit point per round (save ends) and heals the character of one hit point per round, if the character is at maximum hit points, they may gain temporary hit points, up to their constitution score above their maximum hit point total (these points will remain until the end of the encounter if not otherwise depleted).