[DF] Playing a dragon as an adventurer

[Carlos]

Pyramid Magazine #3/72 brought some monster templates for Dungeon Fantasy, including a 250 points Dragon template. Considering it's size (SM+1), it seems to be a very young dragon.

My first thought was using Alternate Form (p. B83), but that doesn't work because this Dragon template does not contain a Dragon racial template; this template is similar to what Kromm did to Elves and Dwarves in the Race As Professions article presented in Pyramid Magazine #3/50.

That said, how could I play as a dragon who disguises himself as a human and walk in town?

[Anders]

Buy the Dragon as the base form and then add Alternate Form (Human) for 15 points.

Or get an astronomically high Disguise skill.

[Gumby Bush]

1. Bundle your dragon physiological traits into a package called "Dragon Racial Body Template" or whatever, as you will. (I get a total value for this of 176 plus however many of the "25 points in..." wind up in physiological traits)

2. Take Alternate Form (Human; Probably costs less than your dragon body). To make it fit in the typical 250-points, take the alternate form out of the 25 points in additional advantages allotment (leaving 10 behind for other fun stuff).

Depending on the concept, your human form may include "racial" modifiers to ST and DX (I would list these completely separately for the two bodies, since they're subject to different modifiers), social advantages inaccessible in Dragon Form, and strange human cravings.

I expect all skills will reside outside of either template. You may want to skip the "25 points in..." altogether, use 15 points for AF (or use a power modifier, like Magical, to bring it down to 14), and the remainder for human skills.

[Carlos]

What about the Transform Body spell (Magic, p.43)?

From what I can see, that spell could transform even a SM+8 Dragon into a SM-2 Halfling.

[Gumby Bush]

Yes, but to get there you need:

GM permission to take Charm (Transform Body (Halfling, human, or whatever))
or
13 other spells.

Plus:
Energy/skill enough to keep it going while you are in town: energy cost of 5/2 with a duration of a mere hour makes that hard if you plan on spending much time in town, and it'll lapse if you take a nap. With 12 FP, you can hang out for 4hrs before being forced to drag yourself out... slowly. To stay above 1/3xFP, you can only stay for 2hrs. Dragons aren't really built to be strong spellcasters starting out: too many points are in being a big strong dragon.

You also won't be able to define the traits of your target body as having above average ST, DX, etc., so... you probably lose that cool Dragon ST et al. temporarily.

Alternate Form (Human; Magical -10%; Immediate Preparation Required, magical ritual, 1hr, 75%) [3]; is way cheaper if you can convince the GM. I might well tell you that you must first obtain Transform Body for the target race, then let you take Alternate Form for an advanced body, and I'd be unlikely to let you off the prerequisite count hook, although I might let you have access to a special Dragon Magic style offering alternate prerequisites to get there.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Carlos

That said, how could I play as a dragon who disguises himself as a human and walk in town?

I never actually played it but when I first got Gurps 1e and Fantasy 1e there were Racial Templates for Dragons and I noticed if you gave your Dragon Dwarfism it went from a 2 hex creature to a 1 hex creature (this was before SMs).

After that you just used an Illusion shell combo (whose costs to cast had just gone down) and passed yourself off as an eccentric Mage (possibly from Sahud) who knew the Breath Fire spell. I think it would all still work in 4e.

[Alden Loveshade]

We had a PC who was a dragon disguised as a human. I believe the player used Alternate Form, but I'm not positive.

I have a PC who can do the opposite, turn into a dragon using Transform Body from GURPS Magic. You could give the character a magical item to do that.

Permanent Illusion might work.

Morph and variations are also possible if you wanted more than two forms.

Finally, if you have GURPS Banestorm, look at pp. 145-146.

[OldSam]

Originally Posted by Anders

Buy the Dragon as the base form and then add Alternate Form (Human) for 15 points.

Nice solution! I'd like to play that myself :)

[OldSam]

PS: One thing I'm wondering about, though, is the "disguise" factor: For instance, if a mage wants to analyze the "true nature" of the character (being a dragon with alternate form Human). How would you roll for that?

I'd think by RAW the alternate form advantage would mean the character has TWO natural forms, regarding rules of the advantage, "nothing hidden", both forms are "THE" real form if you'd look at it, right? Or different opinions?

If that assumption is true, I wonder how it would be priced (as a little limitation) if the alternate form is a kind of illusion which could be revealed by a powerful magic user for instance...?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by OldSam

If that assumption is true, I wonder how it would be priced (as a little limitation) if the alternate form is a kind of illusion which could be revealed by a powerful magic user for instance...?

Be careful with this. If the dragon-in-human form breaks staircases and can't fit through narrow doors, it's quite a big limitation.