Mines Malingerer
Posts: 42
Joined: Monday, 16th May 2011, 16:04
New Species: Shapeshifter
you are a shapeshifter. all weap/armor slots in your basic, unshifted form are disallowed, as they would interfere with your ability to shapeshift.
you are given a few very basic forms to start the game with. after, you may shapeshift into the form of any monster (excluding undead and demons) you have previously killed in the game, as long as that creature's total HD/HP are lower than your current HD/HP. yo may shapeshift to another form during or outside of battle, as long as the new form's HP does not exceed your current HP (if it does, you get a message like 'you feel too weak to manage the transformation')
in shapeshifted form, you can pick up/use any type of equipment that they could use, at their skill level (or an approximate). this also includes spells, if you have the appropriate books. spells would have to be relearned when you shapeshifted to a casting form though, and would be forgotten immediately if you left that form.
in shapeshifted form, you slowly consume mana (or, maybe, simply not regenerate it by normal means?). when your mana is completely depleted, you revert back to a basic 'shapeshifter' form, whereupon you begin to regenerate mana.
would this work?
possible variants:
you have to commit to certain forms by committing a percentage of your total HP to each form you want to use (the percentage would be the average total of that creature's HD), and those forms are then 'locked' in your memory, you can change between any at will. shapeshifter HD would be higher than normal. you would 'store' forms like spells, and require a scroll of amnesia to forget a form and 'free up' the HD for another form.
do not use monster skill levels, but rather keep your own, training based on whatever you use in your different forms? (might be really tough though since your skills would likely be very spread out. could be compensated by quicker learning?)