Polymorphism is the art of transforming living creatures into other living creatures. It is costly, but can be very powerful. Unlike [Sorcery/Schticks/Enhancement, Polymorphism effects radical changes it is actually harder to make a small, subtle change than a radical one.
Magic Point Cost
Many aspects of Polymorphism cost Magic points to invoke. To avoid confusion, a summary of all these costs are given here:
| Lasting change | 1 Magic | |
|---|---|---|
| Inappropriate change | Fish on land | 1 Magic |
| Radical or Timid change | Sex change | 2 Magic |
| Each Creatures Schtick Empowered | 1 Magic | |
| Each new skill added | Requires Mind Change | 1 Magic |
| Increase Sum of Attributes | Per Primary attribute point, body counts half | 1 Magic |
| Mimic | Immitiate someone | 1 Magic |
| Mind Change | Shift skills | 2 Magic |
| Soul Change | Change Chi or Mind | 3 Magic |
| Create Life | Give life to the inanimate | 2 Magic |
Lasting: Changes usually last only for the scene. They can be made to last until a set time, such as midnight, dawn or until the target or sorcerer next awakens from sleep with a Magic point.
Inappropriate: Polymorphism is heavily dependent of belief. As long as a change makes a good story, it is easy, but a shape shift of something inappropriate to it's juncture or environment (a fish on land, an abomination in 69 AD) costs an additional Magic point.
Radical or Timid: A radical change in a way that doesn't resonate, such as transforming a boy into a girl, a normal man into a snail or a fast man into a tortoise, costs two extra Magic points. The same applies to timid changes, where you change something into almost the same thing, only with altered attributes. Changing a fast, weak man into a slow, strong one is a timid change.
Empowerment: You empower somebody with Creatures Schticks. You must explain the new schtick with a physical change; their form and looks must be changed to accommodate the new ability. Obviously, some abilities will be harder to justify than others. This costs one Magic point per schtick. Unless they have Powers or a high Magic, they will not be good at using their new powers. This change does not turn them into supernatural creatures.
Attributes: You can shift the target's attributes around in the new form. Changes to Body are easier, as long as size is appropriately changed, and each point switched only gives half a point to put into other attributes and vice versa. Changing secondary attributes is done on a two-for one basis, increasing the highest secondary attribute means both the others go down by one each. If the sum of the primary attributes is increased, you must pay the difference in Magic points.
Mimic: You imitate a specific individual. You must have a magical link to that individual (a lock of hair, drop of blood, true name or whatever is appropriate to your magic tradition). The transformed character will not have the victim's memories unless you also use Soul Change, but will adopt some of his mannerisms. It is almost impossible to tell them apart. Mimic costs one Magic point. If used with Sould Change, the resultant creature becomes a copy of the original in all ways, even getting abilities and personality traits you knew nothing about.
Mind Change: You change your target's personality and outlook, along with his skills. You can shift around the target's skills into new areas more suitable to his new form, or you can add entirely new skills. For example, you could change the Medicine skill of a human shape shifted to a wolf into Martial Arts or Intrusion. Mind Change costs two Magic points, plus one point for each skill you want to add. New skills have a value equal to your Sorcery AV.
Soul Change: This is the most dangerous type of change, where the target's Mind and Chi can be changed, along with personality and outlook. Schticks and limitations of any type can be changed into Creatures schticks and limitations. You can add or remove creature Limitations, including Supernatural Creature. If the total point value increases this way, use Empowerment to pay for the difference. The target will vaguely remember his old self as long as he has not lost control, but it seems remote and unreal.
Create Life: Life can be created out of nothing, or out of some insignificant substance such as a mouse, pumpernickel or pebble. This creates an average specimen of some mundane creature type, with a sum of primary attributes not exceeding the casters Sorcery AV. A number of skills equal to your Magic attribute can start out five points under the sorcerer's AV.
Difficulty
The difficulty of change sorcery is five, but there is an Action Value penalty equal to twice the number of Magic points the changes costs. Very drastic changes often lead to fumbles.
Notes and Warnings
There is a danger. The shape-shifted target must occasionally make Willpower rolls, with a difficulty equal to the number of Magic points spent on the change. If such a roll fails, the new form's personality and mental attributes take over for a time. A fumbled rolls means the character loses his identity and cannot change back under his own power.
Polymorphism Effects
Effects can be combined, to create exceptional or supernatural creatures.
Shape shift
The base effect of polymorphism. You can shape shift any living target into another form. The shape shift effect can be modified a lot, and can do a wide variety of things. The examples below are just that, examples.
Combat Polymorph
Transforming an unwilling target requires Polymorph. If you have both this schtick and that effect, you can use the full range of powers noted here as being restricted to willing targets against a target "killed" with Polymorph.
Daemon Shape
GMs may allow a shapeshiftee to assume the form of a supernatural creature, including appropriate Limitations. In this way, you can get more creature powers at the price of flaws. However, such changes should generally be into creatures that the caster knows of or has encountered shifting into an entirely new type of creature can be dangerous unless carefully researched beforehand. This is very much at the GMs discretion.
Empowerment
By simply adding new Creatures Schticks to someone, you can give them exceptional abilities, like Flight, and in this way you can replicate a lot of other sorcery abilities at a high cost in Magic points.
Polymorphism Duels
A staple of Celtic myth is a duel between two magicians, where they both constantly change shape to gain some advantage over one another.
Playing out such a duel in Feng Shui can be lots of fun. It can be started whenever a sorcerer with Polymorphism encounters another sorcerer who is shape shifted. To change into a shape advantageous against the target sorcerer's current form, a Sorcery roll with a difficulty equal to the target's Perception is required. The now-threatened target can counter this with a shape change of his own, likewise with a difficulty equal to the opponents Perception. For later shape shifts, each form your enemy has assumed gives a -1 Action Value modifier.
If the roll to assume a new shape fails, you took to long to change and you loose. You are now under your opponents power and he has won the duel. He can freely use Sorcery on you once, and the difficulty of this Sorcery check is zero.
There is no Magic point cost to successive changes in a polymorphism duel; only the most costly form must actually be paid for.
Branwen the witch spot Couroun the wizard in the form of a falcon. She changes into a crow (the logic is that crows eat falcon's eggs) to start a Polymorphism duel. Couroun has a Perception of seven, so Branwen succeeds easily. On his action, he changes into a squirrel (again, squirrels eat crow's eggs). Branwen has a Perception of 5, hard not to beat. Branwen then changes into a fox. She suffers a -2 Action Value modifier, because the squirrel is Couroun's second form. Because her initiative is so good, she can act again before Couroun, so she changes again, this time into a flea. Couroun comes next. He now has a Sorcery modifier of -3 (for Branwens crow, fox and flea forms). He tries to change into a robin, but blows the roll. The flea symbolically bites the squirrel, and Branwen can now cast a spell on Couroun with a difficulty of zero.
Ersatz Resurrection
Attempts to use this effect to recover dead friends or otherwise cheat fate usually end tragically. Potentially, it could be done with Mimic and Soul Change, but it is usually more trouble that its worth.