Vizier's Turban

It resembles an ordinary turban, any hue, fastened by two bright jewels that are really its eyes. Its cloth-like skin shifts color to match its partner's outfit, and it can reshape into a veil or scarf. From its host's head it watches everything and talks telepathically.

It never attacks; host and turban act as one being, and it advises only when asked.

Its power depends on the hit points its wizard gives it, permanently, at most one per level gained and no more than 10 in all. Totals vary with sacrifice and timing (an 11th-level wizard may have a 10-point turban, a 9th-level one a 2-point one). Points given past 10 are lost like wounds and heal normally.

The turban saves as a wizard of a level equal to its hit points and grants its host 5% magic resistance per 2 hit points, to a 25% maximum. Each hit point also adds spell capacity, up to a total bonus of one extra spell per day of each level from 1st through 5th. It knows no spells, grants none the wizard lacks or may not cast, keeps school and elemental limits, never helps priest spells (even for a wizard/priest), and cannot bond with or aid genie-callers.

Weapon damage, normal or magical, passes through the turban into the host, even when aimed at the turban itself; side effects such as a sword's electrical discharge are treated as magical attacks. Single-target spells (charm person, say) and non-damaging area spells (chaos, say) never affect it, even if it is the target. Against a damaging area spell, the turban must save vs. spell only if its partner fails both the magic resistance roll and the saving throw. If it fails, it is hit as a separate creature and will almost surely die. If it succeeds, it is treated as part of the host, its hit points the last to go.

Example: a 24-hit-point mage gives his turban 2, leaving 22, then fails his resistance roll and save against a 23-point fireball. The turban saves and takes only the 1 point beyond the mage's total, surviving to seek a new host. At 24 or more damage it would die; at 22 or less it would be unhurt. Had the mage made either roll, the turban would be untouched even if the mage died from accumulated wounds.

With more than 1 hit point, it can return all but one to a host reduced to half hit points or less, which heals like a healing spell. Once fully healed, the wizard must give them back, taking that much damage, which heals only by magic, and permanently losing 1 hit point that nothing short of a wish can restore.

Origins are debated: punished or purpose-made lesser genies like tasked genies, magical headgear that woke, or, the favorite theory, a kind of familiar. No mated pairs exist; they may split by fission. Two that meet are politely indifferent. Sexless, they mirror the host's outlook, and an unbonded turban has 1 hit point.

It copies its host's personality and alignment (true neutral when unbonded), never disagrees unless asked, cannot read spells, and savors its wizard's feelings while studying and casting. It needs no food but loves baths, restyling, and philosophy if the wizard starts it. It reacts with wonder, not logic: a charging lion earns delighted staring, not a warning.

It grieves when left behind. Long neglect makes it depressed until it departs with half the hit points it was given; those are gone from the wizard forever, the other half returning.

Finding one takes dedication. Detect magic misses it, but life or alignment detection works. Eyes closed, it is just cloth, hiding in wardrobes, rag bags, cloth markets and caravan bales, and it enjoys wizards' frantic searches, perhaps testing whether a seeker is clever enough to deserve it.

It affects nothing but its wizard and fills a niche of its own. None has ever been seen to die of age; they may be immortal.