Shapeshifing Dragons

[Michael Hopcroft]

I want to create a race of dragons that can shapeshift into human form when the need suits them.

I want to use the base dragons from the Bestiary as my template, but add the ability to assume a human form. I take it this is Multiform, and since the dragon is built on far many more points than the human I imagine it gets very expensive.

These are not potential player-characters we're talking about. We are talking about major adversaries or patrons for the player heroes. We're talking the immortal power behind the thrones of royal houses, influencing for war and peace as it suits them, financing the development of civilization for a price. Are they good? Are they evil? That depends on the dragon. But they all share one trait in common -- they are utterly formidable characters, every one of them. It's hard for them not to view even other immortal races as mere disposable pawns.

[Grymlynn]

I would think the Human form would be the secondary, so it wouldn't be that expensive at all. It is a Dragon that assumes a human shape, not the other way around, so the Dragon should have the power, I would suppose. Now, if you want the Dragon to retain it's STR, defenses, etc... It would be better done as Shapeshift (sight, smell, hearing, touch, and I suppose taste, but we probably shouldn't get into that too deep...) instead of Multiform. In this case, you're just changing the form, not the abilities. You would use Multiform if you plan the tranformation to deny the Dragon most of his innate physical attributes.

[feywulf]

Originally posted by Grymlynn
I would think the Human form would be the secondary, so it wouldn't be that expensive at all. It is a Dragon that assumes a human shape, not the other way around, so the Dragon should have the power, I would suppose. Now, if you want the Dragon to retain it's STR, defenses, etc... It would be better done as Shapeshift (sight, smell, hearing, touch, and I suppose taste, but we probably shouldn't get into that too deep...) instead of Multiform. In this case, you're just changing the form, not the abilities. You would use Multiform if you plan the tranformation to deny the Dragon most of his innate physical attributes.

I agree that the dragon form would be the true form and would pay for multiform if you go that route. The multiform could still retain some of the dragon's defenses and powers, but would make it more expensive.

If you go with shapeshift, the greater dragon on pg 67 in the beastiary has an optional power, assume human form. You would probably want to increase it to cover smell and hearing as well, maybe even mental and radio sense groups too. You would probably want to buy some shrinking linked to the shapeshift so the dragon's human form isn't dragon sized.

Personally i don't like the 5th ed version of shapeshift. It is now sense deception instead of being shape alteration. It seems to me that the new shapeshift could be represented by images with the limitations no range -1/2, and self only -1/2(and of course, no extra radius), and the "real" shapeshift power could have been left alone or altered in another way.

[Thirdbase]

I did something similar for my campaign. The dragoon is the main form, the human the multiform. The mental stats and skill are kept the same, the dragon still has the same mind, the physical stats are changed and most of the powers disappear. They have the same spell casting abilities.