Pattern Trump Art JofJ Trump Tricks Logrus
Power Words Sorcery Power and Fatigue Conjuration Inscription
Abyss Items/Artefacts   Chi Powers Shape Shifting

Shadowlands

Shape Shifting

Powers and Partial Powers

Prerequisites:

Contents


B: Basic Power; A: Advanced Power; E: Exalted Power.

Basic Shifting to Known/Basic Forms (20 points)

You can shape shift into any basic form, of comparable mass, that you have studied, i.e. that you have a full Psychic impression of. In this context, "basic form" means an organic non-vegetable form. Forms that you are not practiced in will be clumsy and seem disoriented. Typically there is no significant effect on attributes. You get the locomotive abilities of the studied form (flight, swimming, etc), but other abilities such as poison, or fire breathing, are beyond the scope of this ability and are part of more advanced shape shifting abilities. 

The character may have one or more Basic forms that are considered more or less native for them. One is the human form and is typically worn on a day to day basis, at least for an Amberite. Another form is the Demon Form,[Optional] not available to Amberites unless they have mixed Amberite/Chaosite parentage, and is the basic an typically normal form of a Chaosian. Lastly, each shapeshifter possesses, know or unknown to them, something called a Primal Form. This form is an unconscious manifestation of their innate shapeshifting ability and may take over in times of extreme danger. It is an extension of the characters true nature and can almost instantly shift to meet most survival needs. The danger is that the character may lose himself completely to the form. If this ever happen, his true self will remain dormant until his psyche is somehow able to regain control. For more on this, refer to the Amber DRPG. 

I will leave it up individual GMs as to whether they implement the following or not:- 

Primal Form - Optional:. The Primal form is a form to ensure the survival (if possible) of the character. It should be aligned along one of 2 principle characteristics – fight or flight. A flight primal form cannot necessarily fly although most can to a greater or lesser extent. The principle factor govering a “flight” form is that is is designed to flee the scene and get as far away from danger as fast as possible. As such it should be highly agile, exceedingly quick, and as a result exceedingly lightly armed and armoured. It may have a single, potentially debilitating offensive capability, such as a flash discharge, which used as the form is assumed to provide a momentary distraction to enemies to increase the chances of being able to flee. A “fight” form is exactly the opposite. It is heavily armoured, treat as 4 point armour, and exceedingly resistant to damage. The form has a high rate of regeneration which can only be sustained for a very short period, End:Phys seconds, does significant damage (in terms of force not penetration – treat as +1 level on the characters normal damage potential ), but is slow and clumsy. 

Demon Form – Optional: Demon forms have the potential to have wings, and therefore the potential to bestow the ability to fly. Since Demon forms are not built along the same guidelines as birds and do not bestow the power of magical flight, the wings must be of sufficient dimensions to lift the body. Allowing for a +/- 15% size change between human and demon form, if the human weight is greater than the 40% of the normal weight for height band the demon cannot actually fly, even with a huge wingspan – note even at this sort of weight the wing span will be 3 times the characters height with each wing having a spread of half the characters height. The character can glide however, the distance being inversely proportional to the characters weight – the heavier the character the shorter the distance. 

Basic Form (Amberites) – Optional: In the original books the only Amberites that exhibit any form of shapeshifting abilities are Dworkin, who is technically a full blooded Chaosite, and Corwin, although he only uses Blood Creatures. Removing the demon form for Amberites, unless they have mixed parentage is logical, but does make this ability less worthwhile as a result. Therefore instead of a “demon” form Amberites gain 2 additional forms, the first is an animal, usually a big cat (cougar, panther) or a wolf, and the second is a second human form, either that of an adult twice their current age or a child half their current age and of significantly different appearance – although the eyes are always their own. Note that these forrns are the same gender as the character.

Shape Shift Features/Body Parts (05 points)

You can only accurately substitute yourself for another person if you've had close contact and the opportunity to practice. Partial shifting of features, like moving your facial proportions around so that you are no longer recognizable is easy. However, doing this analytically at the basic level, for example, trying to turn your hair red by picturing the colour you want, doesn't work. Instead, you should try imagining some other redheaded character, someone you know well, concentrate on their hair, and then imitate the person. Note: Similar restrictions apply, at basic level, to similar changes such as changing your skin tone, eye colour, or gender. At an Advance level (>=+5) the restrictions, except for the outward appearance of Gender are no longer applicable. At very advanced level (>=+15) the character can change gender completely sufficient to pass all but a Chromosome test. 

Alternatively, characters may choose specific parts of their body to shift. This could allow them to grow an extra finger, claws, toughen their skin, or even sprout a pair of wings. However, simply adding a feature to the body does not give them the ability to use it. So a character that grows a set of wings would still not be able to fly, conversely, using a simple feature such as an extra finger is a simple matter.

Mould Non-living Non-self Matter (05 points)

On touch the shape shifter extends their shape shifting to inorganic and non-living matter, changing it to their will. This takes considerable concentration. They can only change the shape of a thing, not its molecular composition. This part of the power allows the shifters clothes to change with them.

Shape Shift Others (05 points)

Characters who possess this ability are able to impose their shape shifting on someone else. The character must make psychic contact, and if the subject resists, he must be completely dominated by the character's Psyche to proceed. On the other hand, if the subject of the Shape Shifting is willing, the process can be quick and simple. You can not do Advanced Shifting abilities on others. This includes the ability to form Blood Creatures from another's blood (if the shape shifter has that part of Advanced Shapeshifting), and to heal the wounds of others

Absorb & Eject Mass (05 points)

Many forms cannot be adequately done with the mass possessed by a Human sized character. It is for this reason that a character with Shapeshift can use his/her power to absorb mundane Shadow Material into him/herself to take on sufficient mass for the desired form. For example, when the Demon Servant, Gryll, came to Merlin to take him back to the Courts he lacked sufficient mass and size to carry Merlin on his back. Gryll then proceeded to absorb some furniture from Merlin's room in order to gain the desired size and mass.

The Shadow Material that the character absorbs cannot be living material, nor can it be magical. It must be considered generally mundane in the Shadow in which the material exists in order for the shape shifter to be able to assimilate it into himself. This process increases the time required to shape shift greatly, adding up to 15 minutes to it. If he wishes to then go to a form with less mass/size he or she will have to expel the absorbed matter first, which will take twice as long as absorbing it. Note that the character may not decrease their mass less than their smallest Basic Form's original starting total.

Automatic Shape Shift/ Primal Form (05 points)

You let your involuntary control of shape shift take over. Your body will change into a form that has a greater chance of survival. Useful for surviving a number of awkward situations. You can consciously will yourself into Primal Form or you can stop your subconscious from forcing you into Primal Form. However, you still have no control over yourself while you are in Primal Form.

Shift Wounds (05 points)

This allows you to use your shape shifting ability in order to heal wounds. Consult the table below to determine how long it takes to heal a particular wound category. Each wound must be healed seperately

Points to note:

Open wounds are wounds that bleed profusely but are not in themselves life threatening, typically requiring stitches to get them to close properly. Minor breaks or fractures to key bones (leg/arm/ribs) fall within this category. The more serious the wound the longer it takes to stop it from bleeding before the wound can be healed. The time taken is the time to completely remove the effect of the wound. There is no scarring.

Deep wounds may bleed profusely and are often life threatening without rapid treatment and often require surgery to fix. Major breaks to key bones also fall into this category. As with Open wounds the more serious the wound the longer it takes it to stop bleeding. It is not advisable for a shapeshifter with a deep wound to go attempt to move until the wound is staunched (use open wound time as a guide).

Serious wounds are wounds which are immediately life threatening, either causing the shapeshifter to bleed out, or suffocate, or die due to a major organ failure (including broken neck and/or spine). Note: Any penetrating wound which punctures both the pericardial sack and the heart , will kill in 15 to 30 seconds and result in unconsciousness in half that time!! To deal with this level of wound the shapeshifter must divert all their concentration and attention to fixing the wound (equal to 10 times the Open Wound Time) after which they cannot move for a period equal to 5 times the Open Wound time. If the wound would result in their death before it can be treated to the point it can be healed, this will trigger a reversion to Primal Form if they have one (with its own implications for their ability to shapeshift thereafter). One the wound has been fixed to the point it could be healed, the shapeshifter can move slowly and carefully without dying but any undue exertion is likely to kill them. If they rest for a further period equal to 5 times the Open Wound time, then they remove the risk from dying from undue exertion, but extreme exertion or engaging in combat is still likely to kill them. As with other wound categories the total healing time is the time to completely recover, with no ill effects from the wound.

To staunch wounds the character must both concentrate and actively try and hold the wound together. The time taken to staunch it depends on the severity but is between 3 and 10 times the heal time for the wound level below, so staunching an Open wound uses the Minor wound time, staunching a Deep Wound uses the Open wound time, etc.

Wounds heal twice as slow when the character is not in a Basic Form and 5 times as slow when not concentrating. Both effects are cumulative.

  Endurance Minor Open Deep Serious
  Human 1-5 hrs 5-20 Hrs 20-60 hrs 60-300 hrs
  Chaos 1-5 min 5-20 min 20-60 min 60-300 min
  Amber HR sec 5-10*HR sec 40-80*HR sec 5-20*HR min

HR for Amber rank is calculated as 120*(End:Gen + End:Heal )/(End:Gen*End:Heal) rounded up to the nearest integer. Healing Minor Wounds counts as Normal Exertion, Open wounds as Light Exertion, Deep Wounds as Medium Exertion, and Serious Wounds as Heavy Exertion. See Endurance for Details.

Fluid Flesh (Shape features/body parts + 05 points)

Faster and easier shifting. More drastic changes for the same effort, or much easier shifting into learned or easy forms. Only with this enhancement can Shapeshifting be controllably used in combat. It also allows the shape shifter to make essentially permanent changes much faster than normal, and heal wounds at a greatly increased rate. Usually this makes shape shifting twice as fast (time is divided by two, or by one-fifth your endurance conflict points, whichever is greater).

Shift Aura (05 points)

This shifts the mind's Mental Structure so it takes on a completely different Psychic aura. Note that it doesn't change the ability, the Psyche, or anything else. It just changes the appearance of the mind, so that a Psychic touch will not detect the difference. Some of the possible auras include that of a plant or animal, the lesser Psyche of a normal human, or the imitation of any person's Psyche known to your character. This power can also be used to cloak the presence of the Logrus or Pattern in a person, or to make either of them appear in a greater/lesser magnitude than is truly the case. However, it cannot cloak the power of a Pattern or Logrus Champion, unless it has been first reduced to the equivalent of a "normal" imprint.

This process usually takes several days. To enact this change requires a ritual meditation of up to an hour for oneself and up to a day for another. It deflects trumps, temporarily de-attunes stuff.

Selected Directional Multiple Psyche Emulation (05 points)

Using multiple psychic signatures and power taints emulated at one time, you can present a different type of Psychic aura to different sorts of detection such as pattern sight, Logrus sight, magical vision, or another scanning method available.

Psychic Mimicry (05 points)

The power to mimic another character's psyche signature or taints to the point that when trump artists try to make a trump of the psyche signature of the character utilizing this power, they instead create a trump of the entity the character was imitating.

Lynchpin Avoidance (05 points)

This is the ability to evade intrusive spells, either by changing your psychic aura after the target was named, or by making yourself "invisible" to these spells. It must be implemented before the spell is completely cast or as the last linchpin is put into place, and is less effective against spells which works with "line-of-sight" type of target identification. Consider it to generally add up to six ranks in Psyche Finesse when determining if you're affected by the spell, three against LOS spells, and only half that if you're not prepared (respectively three and one and a half rank).

Total Aura Cloak (05 points)

The ability to completely nullify the character's psyche signature and taints, making oneself immune to all kind of psychic detection. One must concentrate to keep up the shield, and only simple actions can be performed while this power is in operation.

Shift Persona (05 points)

Part of the problem with trying to imitate someone else, regardless of whether you look, sound, smell and feel like them, is that you can still give yourself away by not acting like them. Shape Shift Persona lets you change your personality so even slight, subtle mannerisms can be imitated. In order to do this;, you must have a Psychic Imprint of the person you're trying to copy.

There are dangers to Shape Shifting Persona. If you attempt to Shape Shift into the personality of a particularly powerful mind, you run the risk of it overwhelming you. In essence, you actually become that person, and may totally lose control over your character. Usually this ends with sleep or unconsciousness, when your own natural Persona will come back into existence.

Exalted Persona Shapeshift (10 points)

You have mastered the art of the shape shift to such an extend than you can have two minds: you take on the personality of who you impersonate, all the while keeping your own thoughts and secrets. You can perfectly imitate any Amberite or Chaos lord, so long as you've had a psychic contact with him.

Blood Creatures (05 points)

The blood of an individual possessing this Power has very special properties. Cut yourself, bleed out a few drops, and you can shape the blood into a creature of your desire. This creature will have a measure of your own powers. So, for example, if you have the Blood of Amber, your blood creature will have a bit of power over Pattern as well.

Corwin's 'bloodbird' is a prime example of a creature made of Shape Shifted blood. In this case the bird has the power to fly through Shadow and has an innate "homing" connection to Corwin. It's also important to note that the bloodbird is a non-player character. It operated independently of Corwin, delivering Oberon's package, then leaving, and then returning to rescue Corwin at that moment when his life was in grave danger.

This can be combined with Empowerment or the 'Mimic Intrinsic Powers' advanced Shapeshifting ability to create enhanced blood creatures. All blood creatures have an all-over coloration, which is the same as that of the blood of their creator; this cannot be changed. Obviously a shape shifter cannot create too many blood creatures, or ones which are too large, without starting to suffer from the effects of blood loss.

Infectious possession (10 points)

This creates from your own blood an organism which will attempt to take over and possess another organism, effectively bonding him to you, just as if he was one of your Blood Creatures. An Endurance conflict is nonetheless required. It also allows you to absorb mass from a living organism you've infected, as in Absorb & Eject mass.

Shift Anatomy and Structure/Acquire Form's Abilities (05 points)

Instead of having to shift into animal form to gain the animal's ability, you can simply change your own form to add the ability. For example, you can have your character sprout wings like a bird or a bat, or develop claws or armored scales. In addition, you can move around, change, duplicate, and augment the body's internal organs. Aside from the obvious benefits of generating two hearts, or a sub-brain, you can use this ability to regenerate lost body parts, which takes about a week of total concentration. However, this is extremely difficult, requiring precise medical knowledge about how your body and your organs work and are constituted. This also gives you the ability to radically shift your metabolism and biochemistry and to maintain non-regular metabolisms on the fly. In effect, this power gives the player immunity to most mundane and non-magical poisons.

Berserker (Shift Personna + 05 points)

Shapeshift-enhanced ability to just keep going, with a process similar to automatic Shapeshift, but geared to fighting rather than self-preservation, primarily by overriding the normal 'cuts-off'. Everything is seen as a matter of combat. This will kick in when the shape shifter is hurt and generally runs until everyone else has fallen down or run away. A wound has no effect unless it is enough to kill the berserker at a stroke; other than this it will heal essentially instantly. Chopping off parts of the berserker deprives the berserker of that part until it grows a new one (which will not take very long); merely cutting deep into it won't even reduce its co-ordination, as the berserker is running on Shapeshift, rather than its nervous system. However, chopping off parts does allow the berserker to be 'whittled away'. Endurance has some effect on when one stops, but if there are still things to hit, the berserkers will probably push themselves until they fall unconscious. Note that berserk combat style is not at all geared to self-preservation; the berserker will generally fight in fully offensive mode at all times. Their ability to distinguish anything other than 'target' is limited, especially as they are under the control of their unconscious, not conscious, minds. Stuff is relevant here, but the character is generally out of the players' hands while using this ability...

Forbidden Shape shift (05 points)

You are well beyond the ordinary limits of the ShapeShift, and dwell into forbidden knowledge. For example, you can modify your brain in order to have multiples brains simultaneously active, which allow you to cast spells much more quickly (See the Mandor entry in Shadow knight) or act in multiples bodies. So long as two of your "brains" are in the same shadow, they can communicate telepathically. In fact, they are one. In different shadows, an empathic link subsists (which can be used against you), but that's all until they're in a mental link anew. The danger, of course, is that if your "brains" are sufficiently far away, or in a shadow that doesn't allow psychic communication, the link can be broken, and they may become different individuals, each believing to be the real one… Another problem is that your imprints are lessened, so the endurance cost of any Pattern or Logrus ability is multiplied by the number of copies of yourself that you've made. This problem disappears for each of your clones that gains the Pattern or Logrus Imprint, but this breaks the link between them and the other clones, and they become separate individuals.

Mimic Intrinsic Powers (05 points)

Essentially the 'creatures of power' ability, but it also allows the mimicry of abilities which can only be found in inanimate objects (for example the power to rack spells). This power allows the shape shifter to, for example, have intrinsic armour, spell rack capability etc., as long as they have studied something with the desired ability. The number of such abilities that can be incorporated into oneself at once depends on ones Psyche (at roughly the rate of 2 point of Power/Quality per Psyche Conflict Point). One can have more abilities than ones Psyche would normally allow by spending earned points; one point spent gives one 1 extra point of Power or Quality; this can never be more than twice the number of points of Powers or Qualities one can manifest at the same time.

Combining this power with the ability to shed mass allows the creation of living things with useful abilities of most kinds from ones body. It also allows the enhancement of ones natural body armor and weapons into higher-level forms (see "Alternate Forms"). If one has Blood Creatures too, this allows the creation of enhanced blood creatures as a similar manner to what can be done with Empowerment, but with the caveat that one must have studied the relevant creature. With the Absorb/Shed Mass ability this can also be used to create empowered items.

Create ShapeShifting Artifacts (Blood Creatures + 05 points)

Just as the others Create (power type) Artifacts, this grants you the power to create exceptionally potent creatures or artifacts, but they must be created as Blood Creatures.

Approximate Advanced Form Ability (05 points)

This power allows the character to a minor extent to mimic an advanced ability of a given form that the character has shape shifted into. These abilities would be such as pattern imprint, Logrus mastery, and magic. Only one power can be emulated at any given time. The character must have met someone with the ability to emulate and then perform a form study on the individual. This also won't really give the power to the character, and a detailed study can reveal the fraud, but it allows you to mimic Basic powers at about half their normal efficiency.

Replicate Advanced Form Ability (15 points)

This is a very potent ability, which allows one to emulate the advanced abilities of a given form that you have studied. You can mimic almost any advanced ability, except those that requires too much skill and practice (and even these can be copied with time). This approximation is never as good as the true power, though, and thus has only 75% of the original power's efficiency.

Total Psyche Emulation (Psychic Mimicry + Shift Persona + 05 points)

The ability to completely be able to emulate the psyche and power signature of anyone the character has previously performed a form study. There is no known way to tell the copy from the original.

Form Assumption Connection (10 points)

Ability to tap into the power available to a form by taking it from that form: This forms a connection between the character and the possessor of the form in question, giving him the same powers. This ability is quite dangerous to utilize if the character takes on the form of a personage or entity that possesses a higher psyche level. The new form will attempt to take over the form of character, replacing their personality with their own until the character utilizing this ability can be made to go back to their true form by force or due to damage. Another possibility is that, by trying to channel too much power, you might hurt yourself, or worse.

Non-organic Forms (05points)

Allows you to shape shift into non-living beings or items (such as a sword, water, diamond...). Specifics are somewhat messy: Turning yourself into stone is not smart, for example, since it has a significantly higher density than you do in your human form, so you'd end up smaller. You'd also have a lot of problems moving. If you shape shift to a rigid or immovable form you're still just as rigid. By the way, your face usually appears somewhere in the new form, but it doesn't have to. Thus if you were willing to lose the mobility and size you could turn yourself into a rock, indistinguishable from any other rock by normal means. However you wouldn't be able to see or hear...you'd be limited to your natural psychic sense and whatever senses rocks have...Be careful to the risks of loss of identity linked to the shape shifting into a creature too far from the human (or Chaosian, or whatever...) form. You can't shape shift into fire or energy. For this, you must have the "Energy Forms" ability.

Energy Forms (05 points)

You can shape shift into elemental or energy beings, and produce energy (such as light, lightning, fire....) directly from your body. All through Prince of Chaos Mandor and Dara use this, going around as pillars of flame, storms, and so on. The size of the forms you can assume is related to your mass. Now, while you could use this power to give yourself natural attacks, like lightning bolts from a storm, there are a lot of simpler ways to do this. For one thing learning to create such attacks would take a lot of practice in each form. For another, projecting energy is VERY tiring. Amber rank endurance would be prostrated after two or three such bolts (this counts as one hour of heavy exertion per bolt). Chaos rank endurance would last for maybe one. As an aside or two, you can't do this to only part of your body, unlike most forms of Shapeshifting. It's either all or nothing. You can't just turn your left arm into flame. Another thing is that your new form tends to be cohesive. Someone with a sword could damage you in an elemental form (for lack of a better term; the forms don't have to be elemental) by swinging it through you. The presence of a foreign object would disrupt your body and injure you, albeit probably not as much as if you were in human form. If someone managed to detach part of your body, you'd lose that portion of your body mass. And if, for example, you get extinguished while in a fire form you're in real trouble. If your form is totally destroyed you're dead. So sticking in a fire form around a water mage is probably a dumb thing to do. You can use this power to make yourself less vulnerable to certain dangers, but there are usually concurrent risks from the form itself.

Note that this also gives you the ability to produce magical energy from your body, which may be useful in conjunction with Reshaping Magic.

Energy Redirection (05 points)

The ability to redirect most energy forms directed at the character (i.e. lighting, magic, fire, light, radiation...), letting it pass through your body without damage. While this may be possible with some inorganic forms, this power works all the time, even if you're not shape shifted into a specific form. Note that this isn't complete invulnerability to energy attacks, as you won't deflect all the energy. More so, if you're being it at once (or in rapid succession) by two opposite energies, you won't be protected against both attacks, and may even suffer additional damage from the energy you're not protecting against.

Alternate Forms (05 for 02 points of qualities

This allows extra forms with various abilities, each block of 02 qualities points costing 05 points.

Examples:

Minor Demon (10): Extra-Hard Claws and Teeth (01), Resistant to normal weapons (01), Capacity to glide (02)

Major Demon (30): Double damage Claws and Teeth (02), Resistant to Firearms (02), Capacity to fly (04)

Vampire (20): Invulnerable (04), Vulnerability to sunlight (-04), Capacity to fly (04), Rapid healing (02), Sharp Teeth and Claws (01), Tireless (04)

Werewolf (05): Extra-Hard Claws and Teeth (01), Resistant to normal weapons (01)

The basic Demonic form is considered to have "for free" the following: Extra-Hard Claws and Teeth (01), and Resistance to normal weapons (01). These two points subtract from the cost of any Advanced demoniac form.

Pattern Trump Art JofJ Trump Tricks Logrus
Power Words Sorcery Power and Fatigue Conjuration Inscription
Abyss Items/Artefacts   Chi Powers Shape Shifting