Changeling Talents

From what I understand from the Player's Guide, the Changeling's DC 25 check to notice that the pony they're disguised as isn't the real thing, and not to see that a pony is a Changeling, specifically The existing Changeling Utility Talent is also evidence towards this. Therefore, if a Changeling has an imagined, established identity, rather than pretending to be somepony else, it should be a lot harder without hard proof. When I talked with Lapis Lazily on Skype a few days ago, he came up with this:

Lapis Lazily wrote:Unique Disquise
Your Changeling may take on the form of exactly one unique pony disguise with no preparation time. They gain an automatic +5 to the DC for enemies to see through this particular disguise

While this is something useful, it's not quite what I had in mind. While this may be on the strong side, I was thinking that unless you can uncover them by finding a discrepancy (Birth records and such), you'd either have to know the very specific idiosyncrasies of Changelings, or else catch them in the act.

Then I had a thought. What if that was a follow-up talent? It would probably read something like this:

Covered Tracks
Prerequisite: Unique Identity
Having made sure there is no trail compromising your identity, your disguise cannot be pierced while in your Unique Disguise.

I've mentioned this before, but I like this idea a lot. When we have enough material for a utility talent expansion, both Lapiz's idea and Videocrazy's - featured here - are almost certainly going to have polished versions in it.

Are there any other changeling talents that should exist?

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:I've mentioned this before, but I like this idea a lot. When we have enough material for a utility talent expansion, both Lapiz's idea and Videocrazy's - featured here - are almost certainly going to have polished versions in it.

Are there any other changeling talents that should exist?

Changelings are much like insects. It seems we could do a lot with that.
Hivemind:
You are connected to all other changelings with an empathic link. You can sense the emotions and general locations of other changelings nearby.
Talking Tango:
You can communicate with other changelings/other insects via a complicated series of dance steps.
Metamorphosis: 1/day, Magic
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Using your Changeling Magic, you perform an ancient ritual which will change your place in the Hive. Change one of your skill boosts. (I know that's not what metamorphosis is. It doesn't matter.)
Chitinous Shell:
You cannot take damage outside of combat.

We could also have skills based on other things changelings are known for.
Consume Love:
You may pay Harmony to increase your skill checks.
[That one may be extremely broken, so I leave it up to you to balance it.]
Swirling Form:
You may perform, instead of one change, a series of several changes all at once.
Sticky Webbing:
Your magic, when it contacts the ground, turns into a sticky goo rather than exploding.

Lastly, how about this?
Did Your Homework
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Using careful research, you create a more accurate simulacrum of whatever pony you are impersonating. You cannot be unmasked for trivial reasons, such as appearance, general personality, or basic factoids of knowledge.

AlicornPriest wrote:
Changelings are much like insects. It seems we could do a lot with that.
Hivemind:
You can communicate with other changelings/other insects telepathically.
Talking Tango:
You can communicate with other changelings/other insects via a complicated series of dance steps.
Metamorphosis: 1/day, Magic
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Using your Changeling Magic, you perform an ancient ritual which will change your place in the Hive. Change one of your skill boosts. (I know that's not what metamorphosis is. It doesn't matter.)
Chitinous Shell:
You cannot take damage outside of combat.

We could also have skills based on other things changelings are known for.
Consume Love:
You may pay Harmony to increase your skill checks.
[That one may be extremely broken, so I leave it up to you to balance it.]
Swirling Form:
You may perform, instead of one change, a series of several changes all at once.
Sticky Webbing:
Your magic, when it contacts the ground, turns into a sticky goo rather than exploding.

Lastly, how about this?
Did Your Homework
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Using careful research, you create a more accurate simulacrum of whatever pony you are impersonating. You cannot be unmasked for trivial reasons, such as appearance, general personality, or basic factoids of knowledge.

Talking Tango seems underpowered compared to Hivemind; Hivemind, regardless of whatever range constraints there may be, will always have more range than Tango, which has to be in sight of those you're communicating with.

Metamorphosis is an interesting option which actually makes Changelings pretty versatile, able to adapt to whatever comes their way... at the cost of a Magic Point, which seems fair.

Not sure how useful Chitinous Shell is, since any out-of-combat damage is likely going to be trivial anyway.

Consume Harmony is quite double-edged, although I would put a cap on it. Maybe 10 Harmony to a +1, with a max being +10. And maybe, if you want to make people agonize over it even more, make it so that they consume other people's Harmony. That's closer to the show anyway, and it certainly brings up dilemnas that would never come up otherwise.

I'm not sure what the point of Swirling Form is.

Sticky Webbing looks pretty good (although I don't recall changeling magic exploding).

Did Your Homework should probably have some other restriction. Maybe you have to observe the pony you're going to imitate for that 20 minutes? It'd make sense.

Actually, I think we shouldn't put in Hivemind. It's too close to Telepathy. But I agree with Many Faces on the other points.

Hivemind might work nicely if you limit what information it actually relays. If it were to relay, say, emotions, rather than a specific message, then a changeling could transmit the feeling of being threatened or excited to any/all other changelings at any range, but unless another changeling were to actually investigate, there would be no actual details. This would also allow Talking Tango to retain usefulness, allowing it to relay a very specific, detailed message, while still being limited by line of sight and the risk of being discovered if the "dance" is not convincingly masked as something else (most likely a normal pony dance). Both could then still be very useful, but not broken, and would have their own unique drawbacks.

Well, that was just me throwing stuff out and seein' what sticks.
The reason why I had both Hivemind and Talking Tango was because one was based off of ants and the other, bees. If one seems more appropriate, we can stick to that. (Although I do really like your idea, Flutterknight!)
Swirling Form doesn't... really have a point. Disorientation, maybe? I just remembered Doomy ("Ooh! Do me! Do me!") doing it in the show.
And yeah, for Do Your Homework, that was probably the idea.

It seems like Changelings need their own... sub-system, almost. Writing down major personalities you've concocted, draining people's Harmony and love, their society. It's all so different and alien from the ponies. Now I want to make the Grimoire de Changeling, but I'm already working on an Expansion as is.

I kinda have Changelings having different tribes. Like, Love feeds on Love, but Sorrow and Rage are out there too.

Masterweaver wrote:I kinda have Changelings having different tribes. Like, Love feeds on Love, but Sorrow and Rage are out there too.

Kind of like the different Lantern Corps! =D

Flutterknight wrote:Hivemind might work nicely if you limit what information it actually relays. If it were to relay, say, emotions, rather than a specific message, then a changeling could transmit the feeling of being threatened or excited to any/all other changelings at any range, but unless another changeling were to actually investigate, there would be no actual details. This would also allow Talking Tango to retain usefulness, allowing it to relay a very specific, detailed message, while still being limited by line of sight and the risk of being discovered if the "dance" is not convincingly masked as something else (most likely a normal pony dance). Both could then still be very useful, but not broken, and would have their own unique drawbacks.

I like this idea.

AlicornPriest wrote:Swirling Form doesn't... really have a point. Disorientation, maybe? I just remembered Doomy ("Ooh! Do me! Do me!") doing it in the show.
And yeah, for Do Your Homework, that was probably the idea.

It seems like Changelings need their own... sub-system, almost. Writing down major personalities you've concocted, draining people's Harmony and love, their society. It's all so different and alien from the ponies. Now I want to make the Grimoire de Changeling, but I'm already working on an Expansion as is.

If Swirling Form has no point, that explains why I couldn't find one. As for Do Your Homework, you might want to edit that in (assuming you haven't already).

I'd personally just let the Faust deal with Changeling details. As was mentioned with the hooved races, putting in details like that makes some people feel like they have to use it even if they don't want to.

AlicornPriest wrote:

Masterweaver wrote:I kinda have Changelings having different tribes. Like, Love feeds on Love, but Sorrow and Rage are out there too.

Kind of like the different Lantern Corps! =D

Added to personal headcanon!

Still, Consume Harmony works as an interesting universal ability.

I could see a few purposes for Swirling Form, though obviously only in situations where the Changeling isn't trying to hide that they are a Changeling for whatever reason. Perhaps you've just been discovered as a Changeling by an enemy, but they don't look all that strong to you. You could use Swirling Form to rapidly shift between several large or dangerous looking creatures (within reason, obviously) as an intimidation tactic. Maybe you're trying to join a party or such, and for whatever reason you can't or don't feel the need to hide your Changeling nature from them. You could use Swirling Form as a quick demonstration of the versatility you could bring to the group. The second scenario would, of course, either require a party that's already discovered your identity as a Changeling, a future setting where the Changelings have reconciled with the ponies and are no longer automatically viewed as "the enemy" (although possibly still not entirely trusted), or some other situation along those lines, but it's certainly a possibility.

I edited Hivemind to make it more an emotional ability, rather than full-bore communication.

Hmm... are we drawing from fanon as well? I know Visionary gave Changelings that rune/sigil magic thingy, and it also determined how Changelings grow and change with their magic. (Zarkoj would also be pretty sweet...)

Metamorphosis is full of win. Great job on that one. It's a unique talent and totally fair. I'll definitely be polishing that one for inclusion too.

The only thing about Hive-Mind-Like-Talents is that I'm not entirely sure we want to endorse that as how Changelings work. Some DMs might want to keep the options open for Changelings being a more individualistic race. However, I'm fine with it either way - thanks to the fact that flavor is so malleable in this system.

Nice job on the other ideas too. There's a lot of great options here.

One thing I would like to point out about the idea of Changelings having a hive mind is that it goes against canon. During the fight scene in the second season finale, the Changelings are fooled by both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and the fighting in the area seems suspiciously large for a fight against 6 ponies, no matter how spread out they are.

At any rate, getting fooled by RD and Fluttershy means that they can't tell the real thing from a fellow disguised Changeling, which in turn means they can't tell if a pony is a fellow Changeling or not, which shoots the idea of a hive mind out of the water.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Metamorphosis is full of win. Great job on that one. It's a unique talent and totally fair. I'll definitely be polishing that one for inclusion too.

I'm so proud. :,) But it might need a name change. True metamorphosis and... whatever I created are totally different.

Videocrazy wrote:One thing I would like to point out about the idea of Changelings having a hive mind is that it goes against canon. During the fight scene in the second season finale, the Changelings are fooled by both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and the fighting in the area seems suspiciously large for a fight against 6 ponies, no matter how spread out they are.

At any rate, getting fooled by RD and Fluttershy means that they can't tell the real thing from a fellow disguised Changeling, which in turn means they can't tell if a pony is a fellow Changeling or not, which shoots the idea of a hive mind out of the water.

...somehow I had never noticed that. Oops. XP

It's not necessarily true. Being fooled by a "dead" drone (I.E. one that got disconnected from the hive) could explain a lot.

Videocrazy wrote:One thing I would like to point out about the idea of Changelings having a hive mind is that it goes against canon. During the fight scene in the second season finale, the Changelings are fooled by both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and the fighting in the area seems suspiciously large for a fight against 6 ponies, no matter how spread out they are.

At any rate, getting fooled by RD and Fluttershy means that they can't tell the real thing from a fellow disguised Changeling, which in turn means they can't tell if a pony is a fellow Changeling or not, which shoots the idea of a hive mind out of the water.

Well, in the manner of hive mind I put forth, with just emotional information, and the sheer number of Changelings involved in that fight, it's entirely possible that there would be so much information coming in from every direction that it could easily be very difficult to try and pinpoint where information is *not* coming from, so as to distinguish who is or is not another Changeling. Though if you take the original concept with full, detailed communication, then yes, it could be a bit at odds with canon to have a hive mind structure.

Which is which? - 2/day
You can quickly grab another pony, pulling him next to yourself and quickly shifting into their form, obscuring both of you momentarily with swirling magic. The target gets confused and dazed momentarily, unsure what just happened. If anypony else witnesses this, they will know that either the caster or the target is a changeling, but will be unable to tell who. You have a grace period of 2 checks to attempt to pin the blame on the other pony to all onlookers. You can use other utility talents to assist you in this. If you fail, the target regains its composure and you must then make an opposing persuasion check against it, at a -5 penalty, or higher/lower, depending on how well you impersonate them. If you succeed, your target is mistaken for a changeling and is dealt with appropriately. Otherwise, you're caught red-hooved.

Aberrant alteration - 2/day
Preparation time: 1 minute
You can alter your body to messily copy only a specific unique trait of another race, creature, monster, or a specific pony. While the transformation is in effect, seeing through your disguise is lowered to a DC15, due to the aberrant look you have and general "uncanny valley" effect. You can copy only one small aspect of another creatures biology, and you must have some knowledge of it, or have seen it in action. If the copied parts come in pairs (like eyes), you copy both. Depending on the part copied, this can either give you a single utility talent (e.g. "Nightwatch", by copying cat eyes), boosts to specific skill checks (e.g. +10 stunts, by copying an athletic pony's legs to make a difficult jump), or other unique abilities, at the DM's discretion. Taking this talent multiple times allows you to maintain several "aberrant" transformations at once, and further reducing the DC check by 5 for extra alteration. All copied parts maintain themselves for thirty minutes, but can be extended by 30 minutes with an endurance check.

Biological Byproduct - 3/day
Preqrequisite: Metamorphosis
Preparation time: 2 minutes
You can secrete a glob of disgusting slime, a byproduct of metamorphosis. It will naturally stick to surfaces or creatures, but not to yourself, allowing for throwing. The composition of this glob can vary, and is chosen by the player when made:
Noxious - Slowly secretes an invisible, noxious fume. Anyone affected by it suffers -10 to skill checks. This cannot affect you, but can affect non-changeling allies. If ruptured it stops producing any more. The slime emits fumes for 10 minutes before it shrivels up and crumbles to dust, leaving no trace of it.
Smoking - On contact with a surface, emits a large cloud of obscuring, tear-inducing smoke, making perception checks impossible. You are not affected by the smoke, but you can't see through it. If ruptured, it stops producing any more. The slime emits smoke for 10 minutes before it shrivels up and crumbles to dust, leaving no trace of it.
Volatile - Explodes violently if ruptured by any means, causing a miniature shock-wave and spray of disgusting slime. The effect is strong enough to damage rocks, wood or dirt if applied directly. Steel, gems, metals and stronger materials are unaffected, unless more than one glob is applied. If a pony is caught within 10feet of the blast, they make a endurance check to see if it knocks them out (they are otherwise unharmed). If the globule is stuck and ruptured to them directly, they are automatically knocked out. The resulting slime spray is harmless, but icky, smelly and hard to clean. This slime can affect you. The overall strength of the explosion is compareable to a SWAT door breaching charge.
Disruptive - This slime has an aura that will cause any magic cast within 30 yards of it (excluding your own) to fail unpredictably or be disrupted. If ruptured, a magic shockwave renders any magic effects within 50 yards dispelled or disrupted (Including your own disguises!). Non-changeling, magic-using ponies affected by a ruptured slime will be unable to cast magic for two minutes.
Sentient/adorable - An adorable looking (for Changelings at least) slime. Can move on it's own accord, and acts as a personal pet. It can move slowly, is very resistant to damage, and can collect items it crawls over. It can also climb walls and shift its appearance to match a common pet of it's size, like a rat or a cat. It feeds off of your love for it, or tiny animals that it absorbs. You can have only one of these at a time, as they often fight amongst each other over you. Other ponies cannot discern it's "identity", but other animals will react violently to it.

Hairy hooves - at will
Your regular and disguised forms have scopulae - Microscopic hairs on the end of your hooves, which allow you to walk on walls and ceilings like a bug. You can stick to the walls with a minimum of two hooves, or with only one hoof, if you succeed a stunts check. No checks are needed if you are in a form that can fly. You can also attempt to strongly root yourself in place (requiring an endurance check to knock you over or move you) on the ground, or the ceiling and roof if you can fly.

Zarhorn, the time and flavor you put into these utility talents is amazing. Now I just need to figure out how to say it in a few sentences rather than a whole paragraph. =)

Btw, this is off-topic but could you figure out how to get the force-field int he Unicorn section down to just a few sentences rather than all those paragraphs? I really like the idea, it's just unwieldy right now.

Zarhon wrote:Which is which? - 2/day
You can quickly grab another pony, pulling him next to yourself and quickly shifting into their form, obscuring both of you momentarily with swirling magic. The target gets confused and dazed momentarily, unsure what just happened. If anypony else witnesses this, they will know that either the caster or the target is a changeling, but will be unable to tell who. You have a grace period of 2 checks to attempt to pin the blame on the other pony to all onlookers. You can use other utility talents to assist you in this. If you fail, the target regains its composure and you must then make an opposing persuasion check against it, at a -5 penalty, or higher/lower, depending on how well you impersonate them. If you succeed, your target is mistaken for a changeling and is dealt with appropriately. Otherwise, you're caught red-hooved.

Aberrant alteration - 2/day
Preparation time: 1 minute
You can alter your body to messily copy only a specific unique trait of another race, creature, monster, or a specific pony. While the transformation is in effect, seeing through your disguise is lowered to a DC15, due to the aberrant look you have and general "uncanny valley" effect. You can copy only one small aspect of another creatures biology, and you must have some knowledge of it, or have seen it in action. If the copied parts come in pairs (like eyes), you copy both. Depending on the part copied, this can either give you a single utility talent (e.g. "Nightwatch", by copying cat eyes), boosts to specific skill checks (e.g. +10 stunts, by copying an athletic pony's legs to make a difficult jump), or other unique abilities, at the DM's discretion. Taking this talent multiple times allows you to maintain several "aberrant" transformations at once, and further reducing the DC check by 5 for extra alteration. All copied parts maintain themselves for thirty minutes, but can be extended by 30 minutes with an endurance check.

Biological Byproduct - 3/day
Preqrequisite: Metamorphosis
Preparation time: 2 minutes
You can secrete a glob of disgusting slime, a byproduct of metamorphosis. It will naturally stick to surfaces or creatures, but not to yourself, allowing for throwing. The composition of this glob can vary, and is chosen by the player when made:
Noxious - Slowly secretes an invisible, noxious fume. Anyone affected by it suffers -10 to skill checks. This cannot affect you, but can affect non-changeling allies. If ruptured it stops producing any more. The slime emits fumes for 10 minutes before it shrivels up and crumbles to dust, leaving no trace of it.
Smoking - On contact with a surface, emits a large cloud of obscuring, tear-inducing smoke, making perception checks impossible. You are not affected by the smoke, but you can't see through it. If ruptured, it stops producing any more. The slime emits fumes for 10 minutes before it shrivels up and crumbles to dust, leaving no trace of it.
Volatile - Explodes violently if ruptured by any means, causing a small shock-wave and spray of disgusting slime. The effect is strong enough to damage rocks, wood or dirt if applied directly. Steel, gems, metals and stronger materials are unaffected, unless more than one glob is applied. If a pony is caught in the blast, they make a endurance check to see if it knocks them out (they are unaffected otherwise). The resulting slime spray is harmless, but icky, smelly and hard to clean. This slime can affect you.
Disruptive - This slime has an aura that will cause any magic cast within 30 yards of it (excluding your own) to fail unpredictably or be disrupted. If ruptured, a magic shockwave renders any magic effects within 50 yards dispelled or disrupted (Including your own disguises!). Non-changeling, magic-using ponies affected by a ruptured slime will be unable to cast magic for two minutes.
Sentient/adorable - An adorable looking (for Changelings at least) slime. Can move on it's own accord, and acts as a personal pet. It can move slowly, is very resistant to damage, and can collect items it crawls over. It can also climb walls and shift its appearance to match a common pet of it's size, like a rat or a cat. It feeds off of your love for it, or tiny animals that it absorbs. You can have only one of these at a time, as they often fight amongst each other over you. Other ponies cannot discern it's "identity", but other animals will react violently to it.

Hairy hooves - at will
Your regular and disguised forms have scopulae - Microscopic hairs on the end of your hooves, which allow you to walk on walls and ceilings like a bug. You can stick to the walls with a minimum of two hooves, or with only one hoof, if you succeed a stunts check. No checks are needed if you are in a form that can fly. You can also attempt to strongly root yourself in place (requiring an endurance check to knock you over or move you) on the ground, or the ceiling and roof if you can fly.

I absolutely love Which is Which; it really captures that Changeling flavor. Biological Byproduct and Hairy Hooves aren't quite so enthusiasm-inducing, but Biological Byproduct is fairly good (I'm not so sure about including an explosion that strong with Volatile, but it's otherwise good), and Hairy Hooves is just plain cool.

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:I absolutely love Which is Which; it really captures that Changeling flavor. Biological Byproduct and Hairy Hooves aren't quite so enthusiasm-inducing, but Biological Byproduct is fairly good (I'm not so sure about including an explosion that strong with Volatile, but it's otherwise good), and Hairy Hooves is just plain cool.

What about abberant alteration?

Regarding volatile glob, edited it a bit: the thing is about the strength of the the explosives SWAT teams use to break open doors. A pony can be knocked out by it if they're about 10 feet away from it, or if its stuck to them (It sticks to non-changeling ponies). It can't hurt them though, other than knocking them out and messing up their manes and coat.

Zarhon wrote:

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:I absolutely love Which is Which; it really captures that Changeling flavor. Biological Byproduct and Hairy Hooves aren't quite so enthusiasm-inducing, but Biological Byproduct is fairly good (I'm not so sure about including an explosion that strong with Volatile, but it's otherwise good), and Hairy Hooves is just plain cool.

What about abberant alteration?

Regarding volatile glob, edited it a bit: the thing is about the strength of the explosives SWAT teams use to break open doors. A pony can be knocked out by it if they're about 10 feet away from it, or if its stuck to them (It sticks to non-changeling ponies). It can't hurt them though, other than knocking them out and messing up their manes and coat.

Oops, somehow I missed that one. XP It looks pretty good as well, given that you only get one trait in particular for each time you take the skill. Definitely much more useful than Swirling Form. XD

Also, that strength for Volatile looks good.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Zarhorn, the time and flavor you put into these utility talents is amazing. Now I just need to figure out how to say it in a few sentences rather than a whole paragraph. =)

Btw, this is off-topic but could you figure out how to get the force-field int he Unicorn section down to just a few sentences rather than all those paragraphs? I really like the idea, it's just unwieldy right now.

How does this look?

Force Field - Daily
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Sustainable Force: 1000-2000lbs
Duration: 10 mins - 4 hours (sustained with check)
Size: Small building
Conjure a spherical, semi-transparent force field at a chosen location, that only you and chosen creatures can enter and exit at will. Holes open for allies and allow others to enter, or can be opened at will. It is considered under the effect of the "Immovable" talent once cast. The shield allows for breathing and can be dug under (if it is on the ground). It will shatter if hit by an object of more than 2000lbs of force, or under repeated attacks. Caster can maintain the shield's duration and repair it from damage with a precision check. If its magic is disrupted, only the affected areas of the shield become disrupted. It is blocked by solid objects in it's cast zone.