Shapeshift Animal (Action Powers)

Templates for Action

Main article: Powers (Action)

Animal Form

Basic Action

You assume the form of any mundane animal. You keep your own skills and gain attributes typical of the selected animal. You gain whatever natural attacks, armor, senses, and movement abilities the animal has. You also get the Tool Ignorant limitation and suffer from Power Loss while changed, but you can still use your Animal Form powers normally.

Beast Form

Limit Break

You assume the form of another creature decided when you gain the power. You must have created a variant form for yourself using your normal points and limits. If you do not have such a creature description ready, you cannot use this power. This creature cannot have higher value in any particular skill than you do. You can add powers of the same form the creature has and keep schticks and powers you already have, but you cannot otherwise add powers or schticks. This power cannot be used to imitate a specific individual; you remain yourself in mannerisms and detail while changing race, species, and creature type.

You remain in this form for a scene or until you fall asleep or unconscious or will yourself back to your normal form (a Basic Action). You can learn this power several times to learn to transform into several different creatures.

You can only assume the form on an Animal with this version of the power, but this includes all kinds of fantastic animals and beasts.

Balancing Tail

Inherent

You have a tail you can use for balance, like that of a squirrel, monkey, or cat. As long as this is free and unobstructed it allows you to make Maneuver tasks very confidently. Does not apply to opposed rolls or interaction stunts, but it makes unopposed acrobatic stunts into routine maneuvers.

Beast Wings

Basic Action or Inherent

You grow wings that let you fly through the air at your normal Move for the rest of the scene or until you spend a basic action to transform back. The wings are impractically large in cramped spaces, you can stunt to move trough a narrow space but cannot stay airborne unless you have wingroom at some point of your move.

When you take this power, you can choose it to be Inherent instead of a Basic Action, in which case you always have wings and can fly.

Carapace

Stance

You can create a carapace that gives you natural armor, giving you a Toughness equal to your Body +4. Any armor or clothes you are wearing meld into your new form.

Cricket Legs

Stance

When you move, you can do so through the air in great leaps, instead of normal running. You can jump horizontally or vertically up to your normal speed as a part of a normal action, or twice that if you concentrate on leaping to the exclusion of other actions (a full move).

Silent Paws

Basic Action

You can Sneak and make a full move without becoming visible, as well as climb, swim, jump, and perform similar stunts. You still need cover.

Swarm

Inherent

You are not a single creature, but a communal entity composed of about 10 smaller creatures. Swarm is a very invasive power, that changes how your character works in complex ways. It is not generally recommended for player characters, except possibly as a part of a Shape Change. You still act much as a single creature and most normal rules still apply. Incidental component creatures that move away from the swarm normally cannot act on their own - but you might explain other powers (Such as Tentacles as sub-swarms acting under your control.

The following happens to you, and attribute and skill changes apply after any normal limits or limitations. §1-§2 affects your intrinsic values and thus are cumulative with other modifications, §4 does not.

1. Body is decreased by 5, which in turn reduces your Toughness. This is the Body of an individual member of the swarm.
   1. If this would give you a Body lower than zero (and the campaign does not use negative body scores) you cannot take this power.
   2. Your mass and size does not change, but becomes the size of the swarm as a whole. A swarm is somewhat amorph, but assume there is a central hub that takes up about as much space as a regular creature, while peripheral parts of the swarm has about the same reach as a creature of this size would.
2. Maneuver, Melee, and Shoot skills are increased by +3. This represents members of the swarm assisting each other on such stunts.
3. You cannot take Damage Setbacks from attacks that only affect a single individual of the swarm; only area attacks can do Damage Setbacks.
4. Damage resisted by Body or Toughness and that affects only a single creature in the swarm have to be particularly gruesome to have any effect at all; Add +3 to your Dodge against such attacks.
   1. As usual, Dodge bonuses are not cumulative, so this will not stack with other dodge bonuses.

The normal swarm comprises about 10 individuals, but some swarms actually comprise a larger number of even smaller creatures. Taking this power several times multiplies the number of creatures in the swarm by 10 and the effects of §1-§2 increases by +2 each time. Swarms of smaller creatures need to be very large to be a threat - and to avoid the Body zero limitation of §1.

When using a swarm in play, modify the base values according top §1 and §2. There is no need to recall the exact effects of these once they have had their effect on game values. Only apply §3 and §4 in play.

Wallcrawler

Inherent

You can crawl along vertical or inverted walls or surfaces at your normal movement speed and with no penalty to actions. You can ignore difficult ground based on uneven or sticky surfaces.