Default Shapeshift spell question, how specific is the spell?

[Copperhead]

Basically Shapeshift (Ursidae/Bear/family) or Shapeshift (Ursina/Black+Brown+Polar+Sloth+Sun/genus) or Shapeshift (U. arctos/Brown Bear/Species) or Shapeshift (U. a. middendorffi/Kodiak Bear/subspecies) or (Bear, Grizzly/animal template)?

[johndallman]

Moved to the GURPS forum, since that's what the question seems to be about.

[vierasmarius]

This question is tricky to answer because of the Magic book's use of the term "Form," which to my knowledge isn't used in this way throughout the rest of GURPS. My initial interpretation is that it basically means "stat block" - ie, the stats of one specific example of that creature. So Black Bear is different from Grizzly Bear, and Large Boar is different from Small Boar. Also, Black Bear Cub would be different from the adult version.

That interpretation may be overly restrictive. It's up to the GM to decide how strict or flexible a spell like this should be, based on the fantasy of the particular setting.

[Anaraxes]

I've always taken it as one spell variant per creature template. Masters of shapeshifting might well spend dozens of points on different creature types.

GURPS doesn't use "form" as a term of art, with all creatures tagged with one of some defined set of terms for the sake of classifying them, like the "aberration, beast, construct, elemental, fey, outsider, etc" list from That Other Game. The intro to the Animal Spells section defines five categories of animals (Vermin, Fish, Reptile, Bird, Mammal) for purposes of that college. That intro also notes that "some" spells only apply to a single type of creature.

The main obvious use of the category list is in (Animal) Control. The parens are used elsewhere in the rules to indicate a variable placeholder to be replaced by some specific instance of the type, e.g. Bird Control or Mammal Control. (For another example , Requires (Attr) Roll comes to mind, where (Attr) is replaced by ST, DX, IQ, etc.) The chart of FP costs for (Animal) Control says that the spell is per category, and the chart at the top of M10 makes the five separate spells very clear. The categories are also used to determine whether a creature is a "Hybrid" (gryphon, hippocampus, etc) for purposes of spells with "Hybrid" in their name.

Shapeshift lacks any of those hints that it's not a single-type-of-creature spell. It's not called "Shapeshift (Animal)", for instance. And there's the Great Shapeshift spell, which exists specifically to allow a mage to take on a wide variety of shapes, even within the duration of a single cast.

See the example animals on B456. "Black Bear", "Grizzly Bear", "Polar Bear", and "Cave Bear" are all different creatures with their own templates / stat blocks. Four single types of creature. The Cats section that follows has even wider distinctions in the range of examples (house cat to lion). Yet either of those two is far smaller than "Mammals".

GMs that wanted fewer spells to cover the gamut might just go for using the five M10 categories. Great Shapeshift also suggests the notion of having five "Good" Shapeshift spells, one for each Animal Spells category, which allow any shape within their category, shifting between as per Great Shapeshift. GMs are, of course, free (and intended) to define whatever categories suit their game.

(And of course there's always Morph (B83/84). Mages might have Advantages other than Magery and IQ.)

[David Johnston2]

You could also get a perk that lets you manipulate the spell to shapeshift into closely related creatures.

[Donny Brook]

The phrase "animal form" also appears under Permanent Beast Possession describing a magic item for that spell:

Cap, crown, helmet, or other headgear.
The item must bear a picture of
the animal form it is usable on. Usable
only by mages.

I think this implies that 'animal form' is not a single individual specimen, but a category.

The description for (Animal) Control limits it to a "category" of animal, while the Item description says a "single species".

The item description for (Hybrid) Control specifies "one particular type of hybrid".

The item description for Beast Summoning gives the options of any animal or one "species".

Repel (Animal) uses "category" like (Animal) Control, but the item description merely says an area can be designated to repel the animal.

So what to conclude from all of this?

1. The regular Magic book continues to be embarrassingly low quality and in desperate need of revision.

2. The implication of its appearances is that "animal form" means more than just one single animal specimen.

3. The only usefully specific term used in any Animal spell description is the occasional appearance of "species". Accordingly, if I were running a game using regular Magic (which I will never do) I would rule that "animal form", and "category" of animal both refer to a species.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

You could also get a perk that lets you manipulate the spell to shapeshift into closely related creatures.

Sort of a roll-your-own "Greatness" of shifting. Seems promising.

Think it's a good place for the "5x base cost = everything" recurring-concept-that's-not-a-rule? Here, 1 point gets you a species. Perhaps 5 points gets you the whole M10 category, and 5x5=25 points gets you Great Shapeshifting. 5x5x5=125 could be anything, not just animals; it's not terribly far from the cost of Morph.

[Anthony]

Given that the cost for shapeshifting references the point cost of the form, it's clearly shapeshift into a template.

[jackcelso]

complete exemples of shapeshift spells are given in gurps dungeon fantasy 5 - allies pgs 5 to 10 from bears to insect swarms with cost for spells.