D&D 5E Changeling (from the UA article): crazy broken?

[lkj]

I suspect that when the polished Changeling gets released, the shapechange will be defined in purely cosmetic, skin-level "disguise self" types of terms, and that you gain no physical features or abilities that come with your new form. No flying, no swimming, no additional perception or breathing types, etc. And were I to have a player select changeling for their PC, that's also pretty much how I would rule that ability of theirs right now.

Their skin is malleable and can change color and stretch... but their actual physical body on the whole (inside and out) doesn't morph.

Yeah. This is my read on the intent based on the various twitter exchanges. You keep all your game stats, presumably all your physical limitations as well. Sure, you look like you have wings, but you can't actually fly.

Which will be really embarrassing when you are using your disguise to try to pick up Aarakocra at the local fly bar.

AD

 

[gyor]

I would have just given the changeling alter self spell at will, simple and easy.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I think the restriction that the changeling has to have seen members of these races is (or could be) the balancing factor.

I agree. It's similar to the moon druid, and a very real factor that a lot of people seem to gloss over. What are the chances your PC has seen a merman or Aarakocra? Probably not very high.

Do you ever start reading a thread from the beginning, get excited to answer an early post--only to find that someone else has already answered exactly what you were going to post?

Then you're too lazy to go back and unclick the check/plus quote button so you post a reply anyway, even though it adds nothing constructive to the thread?

 

[Sailor Moon]

This reminds me of the 3rd edition Druid and Wild Shape where it specifically said you had to be familiar with the creature in order to change into it, but people swore that familiar meant seeing one in a book or they heard about it.

 

[Minigiant]

I'd let a changeling change into an aarakocra.

Just make the wings incapable of flight.

Same as a merfolk. You have the tail but normal swim speed and no water breathing.

Turn into a gnoll. Sure. Just don't try to bite anyone or "crack".

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I'd let a changeling change into an aarakocra.

Just make the wings incapable of flight.

Same as a merfolk. You have the tail but normal swim speed and no water breathing.

Turn into a gnoll. Sure. Just don't try to bite anyone or "crack".

The whole Twitter interpretation about the transformation being "purely cosmetic" just makes me more curious, really.

So you turn into a thri-kreen. You've got extra arms that give you no new stats or abilities. Can you move them? Can you carry stuff with them? If you turn into a merman and your legs get replaced by a fin, can you use it to swim at all? And if your stats really don't change, does that mean you can still move with a speed of 30 feet on land despite your tail? How does THAT look?

I'm more curious than criticizing here.

 

[iserith]

A simple call on that would be that you can move your additional arms when you've taken the form of a thri-kreen, but you gain no additional object interactions on your turn (if you're in a turn-based situation) or the like. You can swim as a merman, but you don't gain a swim speed and probably are hindered in some fashion when you're out of water.

The DM's ruling on what's going on in the fiction is what matters here, not how the rule works exactly. And one DM might rule differently from another.

 

[BrockBallingdark]

I would have just given the changeling alter self spell at will, simple and easy.

I did that for my home-brew Eberron world. Now in seeing the UA version, I will go with this version, I understood what they meant with polymorph for the Changeling. It will be cosmetic only in my world, no extra limbs, no wings, just cosmetic.

 

[damnbul]

People can rule how they like in each game. To me ruling it is not polymorph and only cosmetic makes it very weak compared to the other 2 races provided, as well as any race in the PHB. That is fine.
But really they use the word Polymorph and if you look at Doppelganger (mm pg82) is states "Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form" But they didn't add that with shapechanger ability on the changeling.

 

[Parmandur]

But they intended to, and will likely do so more clearly in subsequent iterations. As a role playing vehicle, the ability as just disguise is astoundingly useful in the right hands. Maybe boost the stat to +2 char, but otherwise very useful race...