Make Others Copycat

[BoloOfEarth]

So, Shape Shift has the neat adders for Cellular and Imitation, allowing a character to alter her/himself to look / feel / smell / detect exactly the same as someone else (depending on the Sense Groups affected).  However, you can't use Shape Shift, Usable on Others -- you're supposed to use Transform.  And maybe I missed it, but I don't see anything under Transform about using it to make someone look exactly like someone else.

 

Does it seem balanced to simply use the Adders for Cellular (+10) and Imitation (+10) with Transform to make it so Person A can make Person B look, sound, smell, and feel exactly like person C?  I'm thinking something along the lines of:

 

Copycat Spell:  Minor Transform 8d6, Cellular, Imitation, Improved Results Group (any human; +1/4); Limited Target (humans; -1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Required Roll (Magic Skill; -1/2).  75 AP, 30 RP.

 

I went with Minor rather than Cosmetic Transform in case the person you're transforming your target to appear to be has more than 2 levels of Striking Appearance.

 

Does this seem okay, or are there problems with this approach?

[Chris Goodwin]

Those look fine to me.  I myself am not 100% satisfied with the way Transform, Shapeshift, and Multiform are different, but I've never been able to come up with anything better. 

[Christopher]

17 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

So, Shape Shift has the neat adders for Cellular and Imitation, allowing a character to alter her/himself to look / feel / smell / detect exactly the same as someone else (depending on the Sense Groups affected).  However, you can't use Shape Shift, Usable on Others -- you're supposed to use Transform.  And maybe I missed it, but I don't see anything under Transform about using it to make someone look exactly like someone else.

It sounds like this should either be a Usable By Others. Or Useable as Attack.

UBO is easy, as the target has control over who he immitates.

UAA has the danger of throwing all kinds of Friend/Foe detection out of the window. Transform would have the same issue.

 

For Transform the effect can be anything from "Cosmetic" to "Major" Transform (flipping around Faction association, including associated Perks and Disadvantages).

It could even be a Severe one, transformign one Faction leader into his opposite in the middle of his base.

 

This is the kind of power that is really hard to balance, as it can have effects from "nothing" to "game ending" depending how and where you use it.

[BoloOfEarth]

2 hours ago, Christopher said:

It sounds like this should either be a Usable By Others. Or Useable as Attack.

UBO is easy, as the target has control over who he immitates.

UAA has the danger of throwing all kinds of Friend/Foe detection out of the window. Transform would have the same issue.

 

To clarify, Shape Shift very specifically says (6E1:280) that you can't add Usable On Others (either UBO or UAA) on Shape Shift, and that you have to use Transform to change another person's shape.

 

As to whether the Transform is Cosmetic / Minor / Major / Severe, that has nothing to do with the situation in which it's used, but rather with the amount of changes being made to the target.  If you have a Transform spell in a FH game to make someone look / sound / smell like an orc, that's going to be at most a Minor Transform whether you plan to use it on a friend to infiltrate an orc village, or a foe in the middle of a human city.

[Christopher]

25 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

To clarify, Shape Shift very specifically says (6E1:280) that you can't add Usable On Others (either UBO or UAA) on Shape Shift, and that you have to use Transform to change another person's shape.

I do read that as "do not use it as UAA". I do not see how "granting the [controlled by reicpient] ability via UBO" would be an inherent rules issue. It suffers all the usual UBO issues with balance, but that is it.

 

You need to be clear here:

Do you want to grant someone the ability to shape shift?

Do you want to force someone into a specific shape with their will?

Do you want to force someone into a specific shape against their will?

[Christopher]

4 minutes ago, Christopher said:

I do read that as "do not use it as UAA". I do not see how "granting the [controlled by reicpient] ability via UBO" would be an inherent rules issue. It suffers all the usual UBO issues with balance, but that is it.

 

You need to be clear here:

Do you want to grant someone the ability to shape shift?

Do you want to force someone into a specific shape with their will?

Do you want to force someone into a specific shape against their will?

I looked and you are misquoting it:
" Characters cannot purchase this Advantage for Shape Shif to force another character to assume a different shape. To change another person’s shape as an attack, buy Transform."

This prohibits "Shape Shift, UAA". Not "Shape Shift, UBO" and similar forms of "Recepient controls the power" cases. As I said, there is a big difference between those cases.

[BoloOfEarth]

My apologies.  That's what I get for reading gaming stuff and posting at work.  I didn't notice the words you bolded (or rather, didn't think about their significance).  You're right, that makes a difference.

 

For my current purposes, Shape Shift UBO would work, as one NPC wants her "body double" to be able to fool stuff like fingerprint / biometric tests and Tracking Scent.

 

I do think if I ever need to force someone else into a specific shape against their will, however, I'll use the Cellular and Imitation adders on Transform.