Changeling

Races: Human | Elf | Dracon | Dwarf | Gnome | Halfling | Half-elf | Half-orc | Lupin | Mau'ktarl | Minotaur

Custom Races: Adomkuro | Avariel | Centaur | Changeling | Drangonari | Ghost Elf | Gnoll | Goblin | Half-Dryad | Half-Nymph | Half-Ogre | Kobold | Orc | Shaahesk | Stone Dwarf | Tiefling | Wemic

---

PC Statistics

Base Race: Elf

Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Dex +2 Con -2 Int -2 Wis

Feats:
Alertness
Ambidexterity
Dodge

Special Abilities:
Changeling Special Ability

Favored Class: Rogue

Overview

The changelings are the creation of the unpredictable god Forian. They are one of the nine major races roaming the planet, and although it is likely that they are just as numerous as the other eight races, their existence is shrouded in mystery. This is because changelings possess the ability to change their form almost at will. They can assume the appearance of almost anything that moves, and some things that don't.

As individuals, changelings tend to be very solitary. They rarely gather in large numbers and do not seem to crave the company of other changelings very much. Some are so solitary that they rarely ever come into contact with other sentient beings whatsoever, while others are very curious and travel through populated areas frequently. Their personalities are as variant as their forms. Sometimes they even vary within the same individual.

Geographically, it is thought that the highest concentration of changelings exists in what is now known as The Wastelands. Originally the land making up The Wastelands spanned over parts of Jechran and Drotid. Due to an unknown freak accident or catastrophe, the land was destroyed and infected with some unknown form of magical residue that is harmful to most races. The changelings seem to be immune to its affects, and for this reason, it is thought that they make this area their de facto home, if one could call it that.

Nevertheless, this information, as with any information on changelings, is hard to pin down. Everything known about them is speculation. Few have seen a changeling's true form, for they are often loathe to use it in public, much like other races are loathe to disrobe in front of the opposite sex. For the most part, they are often secretive about their ability to change form alltogether. Some are known to masquerade in one form for years at a time, building up a life with it complete with friends and a trade to make a living.

Changeling physiology is not well understood either. It is thought that they are male and female, and that some form of mating exists, though this has not been proven. They are known to grow to adulthood a bit quicker than the long-lived races, usually within 15 to 20 years, and they are thought to live for perhaps 2 centuries at most. Upon reaching adulthood, they will either adopt a trade and eek out an existance among the other races, or they will strike out on their own as wanderers, or sometimes hermits. Some have been known to carry on the wildly informal and chaotic worship of their god Forian, though few seem to even acknowledge that there are any gods at all. Such things are generally too contemplative and require all too much forethought for these beings, who tend to exist wholly in the moment.

Notes

Changeling Character Creation
- When making an elf to become a changeling, note that there are more head models available to elves than some other races you can copy. It is best to stick to the low-numbered heads. (theory tells me that 8 is the highest, but this has proved hard to test). The "Customise Character" step of character creation defaults to head 1, and the right arrow counts up.

- Tattoos, phenotype and sex all affect changeling appearance when taking some (dynamic) forms... a female changeling copying a dynamic human will appear female, with whatever tattoos were chosen during character generation. You can still take the form of the opposite sex by copying static models. Changelings in natural form are static models (ie they have a set appearance)

- Voiceset, icon and character description remain the same through any form.

In Play:
- Changelings have a 15% penalty to movement speeds compared to whatever they are imitating. (This is being fixed. Currently, though, all one must do is change into a new form or re-apply the old form to negate this penalty.)

- The changeling ability activator is on the radial menu. It takes time to copy a creature and the changeling must be very close to the subject. This ability cannot be used in combat, and hostile creatures will attack if they can perceive the changeling. There are ways to copy hostile creatures. Think about it, and experiment with creatures that can't kill you on the spot.

- Changelings start out being able to memorize 5 forms of Medium size category. This limit increases at +1 form per 3 levels

- Watch your number of total forms memorized. If you are at your limit and go to copy another form, and fail, you may think that the form is of the wrong size for you. When you are full, all you get is a blank line in the right action board. A size failure is stated as such in yellow print.

- It is physically possible to copy forms that are illegal. Banned by the Team are: Undead, incorporeal forms, inanimate objects, and constructs. Stick to living creatures that have a definite form.

- Many available forms have no power of speech. It is cheesing, as an example, to be a talking dog. Of course one may emote the appropriate sounds (*bark* for the dog, and *screech* for a falcon, for example). Note that the engine-generated attack speech ("I'm gonna bathe in your blood") is OOC for changelings as they have no control over that.

- Changelings remain in their current form -- even in death -- unless they choose to change.

- At character creation, the changeling can copy Medium forms. At Character Level 5 you can mimic Small things. At level 10, Large. At 15 Tiny, and at 20 Huge. It's not obvious what forms are what size. Don't assume. You'd think fairies would be Tiny, but actually they are Small. There are many non-humanoid forms available immediately as Medium creatures. Most dogs, for example, are Medium.

- Changeling forms are cosmetic. No special abilities are gained from the new form. However, there are a couple of exceptions:
+ Size bonuses/penalties to AC, AB, weapon wielding, etc. The size of your form has the usual modifiers. (Note that there is currently a glitch where the server won't recognize size changes. This can be fixed by logging/re-logging, or portalling to another server.)
+ There are significant differences in base speed between forms.

- Other characters near a changeling manifesting their power automatically make a Spellcraft check. If the check is successful, they are told that the changeling changed forms. This is the ONLY sure method of changeling detection. A character visually witnessing a form change -- but failing their Spellcraft roll -- may assume they have seen a changeling, but cannot be sure. It is always cheesing to use the 'floaty name' to "Out" a changeling.

---

Custom Race System