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Old 05-12-2021, 01:05 AM   #1
Crystalline_Entity
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: England
Default Cosmetic morph quick question

I'm trying to come up with an infiltrator android build, and I'm debating whether Cosmetic Morph is the right advantage. I *think* I prefer Morph to Elastic Skin, as judging from my searching of this forum Elastic Skin doesn't include voice.

Am I correct in saying that Morph (Cosmetic, -50%; Retains Shape, -20%) [30] allows you to change things like gender, apparent race, and size modifier?

For example, a male SM +1 ogre could turn into a female SM -1 halfling, but wouldn't have any of the halfling racial abilities and would retain the ogre ones. So you'd end up with an abnormally heavy (as Mass Conservation is included in Cosmetic), fast (as it doesn't have the halfling's reduced Basic Move) and strong (as it keeps the ogre's ST) being that looks like a halfling?

Is that a correct reading of how this works?

Thanks!
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Old 05-12-2021, 06:39 AM   #2
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Cosmetic morph quick question

The basic approach seems sound. In Template Toolkit 2, I worked out that Elastic Skin was fairly close to Morph (Cosmetic, -50%; Retains Shape, -20%). Elastic Skin requires a Disguise roll, and Morph doesn't; this is roughly analogous to adding Flawed, -10% (not actually legal to combine with Cosmetic), for a net -80%, which fits the base costs of Morph (100 points) and Elastic Skin (20 points).

I suppose you could say that not having the right vocal sound, and needing a Mimicry roll to fake the voice, could fall under Flawed as well.

But I'm not sure about your example. Can you change SM?

On one hand, if you change SM, and mass is conserved, then the ogre has turned into a halfling-sized being that weighs as much as a normal ogre. That's a factor of 2 reduction in height, a factor of 8 reduction in volume, and thus a factor of 8 increase in density, making the "halfling" as dense as iron. No organic material is that dense.

On the other hand, if you decrease the ogre's mass by a factor of 8 (not legal with Cosmetic, as you point out), its ST and weight are mismatched. The problems with that show up best if you get bigger. Per Growth, if you go from SM 0 to SM +1, you need a basic ST of 15 just to move your body around; acquiring that extra ST does change your racial template.

I think it's probably best to say that you can't change your SM, unless you also change your build to compensate (becoming a Skinny ogre or a Very Fat halfling, for example). If you don't change your build, what the ogre does is turn into a 7'6" halfling, one with multiple levels of Gigantism.
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Old 05-12-2021, 11:57 AM   #3
Crystalline_Entity
 
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: England
Default Re: Cosmetic morph quick question

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
I think it's probably best to say that you can't change your SM, unless you also change your build to compensate (becoming a Skinny ogre or a Very Fat halfling, for example). If you don't change your build, what the ogre does is turn into a 7'6" halfling, one with multiple levels of Gigantism.
Yeah, I think you're right here. I was going off the wording in Retains Shape which says "This would limit a human Morph to humanoids (e.g. elves and giants)" (B85), and assuming that still made sense when added to Cosmetic. But for the reasons you say that doesn't really make sense to me, and it's not quite what I was after in the build. I think what I really need here is either to say that changing size is prohibited, or use the full version of Morph to allow changes to the racial template instead.

Thanks for your thoughts!
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