Cosmetic Shapeshifting Questions

[AlexanderHowl]

In the case of Cosmetic, Basic (p. 85) specifically says 'This limitation includes Mass Conservation, but not Retains Shape', so it is possible to look like anything (you just keep your same abilities and mass). You could make yourself look like an elephant, but you would still have the abilities and the mass of a human. A perfect disguise ability would have Cosmetic (-50%) and Retains Shape (-20%).

[transmetahuman]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

In the case of Cosmetic, Basic (p. 85) specifically says 'This limitation includes Mass Conservation, but not Retains Shape', so it is possible to look like anything (you just keep your same abilities and mass). You could make yourself look like an elephant, but you would still have the abilities and the mass of a human. A perfect disguise ability would have Cosmetic (-50%) and Retains Shape (-20%).

Yeah, the implication is that you *don't* need to maintain a humanoid form with plain Cosmetic (because that's all that Retains Shape explicitly does). Which means the racial template *has* to change of there's a physical change at all, which is obviously against the spirit of Cosmetic. I don't see any way Cosmetic Morph can work as RAW except as an illusionary ability.

I never did like Polymorph Self in That Other Game, for the same logic-breaking reason.