Quote:
Originally Posted by NorthernKnight
Having old grey skin is status, and fresh, more "camouflage" skin is less status.
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Chameleon is 5 CP / level. Social Regard is 5 CP / level. So, this looks like an opportunity to use a stacked Alternate Ability: AA { Chameleon or Social Regard } [6/level]. You might have, say, 2 levels, and have +2 Chameleon, or a bit later +1 Chameleon and +1 SR, and later yet +2 SR. You can voluntarily reset to the all-Chameleon state by shedding your skin.
Normally you can switch between abilities in an AA at will, whereas here you can't willingly shift toward Social Regard, or even increment back toward Chameleon. So that's probably worth an additional limitation. I'm tempted to go with -20% just to cancel out the 1/5 AA cost :) As for the clock to automatically shift to gray skin, just decree it to be so as part of this custom Limitation. (That's not going to be easy to build.)
The original description -- taking on the coloration of your surroundings -- seems to me to imply that you can't change your coloration later. Shed in the forest, you get no Chameleon bonus in the city or later in the desert. This might be worth a Limitation on the Chameleon component as the Chameleon bonus often wouldn't apply, but if characters can re-Chameleon at will, then not.
The SR part of the AA also likely rates a Limitation, as the SR presumably only applies to members of the chameleon race that are impressed with your grey skin. That would be normal price if the chameleons are the "reference society" for the campaign -- most of the people the PCs interact with -- or it might rate a discount if chameleons are just occasional aliens in a human society, most people aren't impressed by that gray skin, and society as a general rule doesn't particularly respect such chameleons.