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

[MarioMD]

I feel like any Mystique vs Wolverine fight here would be a fine comparison. ie Mystique gets in a fight with wolverine, mystique transforms into wolverine, wolverine cuts off her claws or stabs her and she screams and or is permanently injured without the benefit of actual adamantium claws or a healing factor. Just because you look like a thing, does not mean you are a thing.

 

[SkidAce]

I need to figure this out. It has ramifications for my slaadi* > doppelganger > changeling ancestry "tree" as it were.

In my current set up, I figured doppelgangers were better shapechangers than changelings, since the ability was diluted.



* I know slaadi normally only have one human form, but in my campaign the ability was enhanced and turned into the doppelganger ability (by the spawning stone...or STOPPED by the spawning stone...muhahhhhaaa).

 

[Chocolategravy]

Like any other decisions, pursuing and achieving the default goals of play require us to ask, "Is this going to be fun for everyone at the table?" and "Is this going to lead to the creation of an exciting, memorable story?"

You know those 6-8 fights/day your characters are supposed to be having, which soak up huge amounts of play time, many of which are rated as "easy"? How many of them are memorable stories?

You're evangelizing this one point far too hard. It doesn't support a person choosing to not use a racial ability because it might possibly maybe, although very unlikely, have some negligible impact on other people's fun.

 

[iserith]

You know those 6-8 fights/day your characters are supposed to be having, which soak up huge amounts of play time, many of which are rated as "easy"? How many of them are memorable stories?

That depends on whether you and your fellow players are engaging with those conflicts in a way that is fun for everyone and creates memorable stories. In my group, no matter the scene, no matter the conflict or the difficulty, we keep the goals of play in mind and make everything as awesome as we can.

You're evangelizing this one point far too hard. It doesn't support a person choosing to not use a racial ability because it might possibly maybe, although very unlikely, have some negligible impact on other people's fun.

Sure it does. And if you're not sure, you ask. The Basic Rules tell us that having fun and telling exciting, memorable stories are the "win conditions" of D&D. When you keep the goals of play in mind, it is very easy to know what to do in the game, from character-building to making decisions during play to adjudications made when DMing. All the other niggling concerns just fall away when you have a table full of people who agree on the goals and pursue them together.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You know those 6-8 fights/day your characters are supposed to be having, which soak up huge amounts of play time, many of which are rated as "easy"? How many of them are memorable stories?
.

Seeing as how you said you don't even play 5e, I guess my answer is "more than yours."

But seriously, it's not the difficulty of an encounter that makes is it memorable, it's what's going on during the game, which can be a million things. A memorable interaction, three fumbles in a row, that moment when you find the answer to a puzzle, etc.

 

[Paraxis]

The best work around for the whole you can't become a generic member of another race but instead the form being limited to other humanoids you have seen, the fact your character has been around for probably 20 years or so before the game begins.

The form of some random human you saw when you were five years old is now 15 years older so even if the two of you were in the same room people might remark on how you could be related but that is it. I mean it is like with wildshape but so much more open ended counting all the people that one encounters over their lifetime. With all the refugees, the dead that died on the day or mourning or just in general missing or dead people from the last war, a single changeling could have thousands upon thousands of faces to mimic that are either old or gone that you might as well just allow them to look like a generic member of said race.

Sharn for example has a population of 200,000+ and is a major port hub of international activity, that is home to members of most of the humanoid races in Eberron including gobliniods, kalashtar, and harpies. Spend a single day out people watching and you have a ton of faces, let along a childhood growing up on the streets and using faces from over a decade ago.

 

[Rejuvenator]

Given how challenging it can be for, say, a right handed person to effectively wield a weapon in their left hand, I'd feel fairly comfortable roleplaying a changeling disguised as a thri-keen who fumbles while fighting with his new 3rd and 4th arms. And expecting to taking flying lessons before trying to seriously fly like an aarakocra. As a guideline though, not as a rule.

 

[Jester David]

RAW, you might think the term "polymorph" suggests this works like the spell, giving you extra HP. But familiarity with the race, and the last sentence about dying, make it clear that the intent is that you don't gain extra HP from shifting this way. So, okay. Maybe work on that wording before any "official" release.

I could go on. Shapechanger clearly lets you take any of these forms, and any reasonable interpretation of the ability would probably let you fly, breathe water, jump high, etc. if the new form can do those things. And since shapechanger doesn't mention concentration, you can use those new abilities in conjunction with concentration spells.

Am I missing something?

The spell polymorph explicitly says you replace your statblock. This power says nothing of the kind.
So I read it as a completely cosmetic change.
You might grow wings or gills but they don't function.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

On its own, turning into a mermaid does sound pretty cool and might lead to a fun story. But turning into a mermaid every single time water is a challenge? That gets a little old and the player, I believe, should be more creative than that so as to better achieve the goals of play.

In general, the story where you turn into a mermaid and none of your allies die is preferable to the story where you engage the opponent on equal terms and you (or one or more of your allies) could very well die. Either of those stories is preferable to the story where you really think you would have died, but something unexpected happens and now you're just taken prisoner or something.

Any reasonable action which can reduce the chance of suffering a horrific death (or even worse, some sort of deus ex machina ) is something which advances the goal of play.

 

[iserith]

In general, the story where you turn into a mermaid and none of your allies die is preferable to the story where you engage the opponent on equal terms and you (or one or more of your allies) could very well die. Either of those stories is preferable to the story where you really think you would have died, but something unexpected happens and now you're just taken prisoner or something.

Any reasonable action which can reduce the chance of suffering a horrific death (or even worse, some sort of deus ex machina ) is something which advances the goal of play.

That is not necessarily so. To quote the Basic Rules (page 2), "Together, the DM and the players create an exciting story of bold adventurers who confront deadly perils. Sometimes an adventurer might come to a grisly end, torn apart by ferocious monsters or done in by a nefarious villain. Even so, the other adventurers can search for powerful magic to revive their fallen comrade, or the player might choose to create a new character to carry on. The group might fail to complete an adventure successfully, but if everyone had a good time and created a memorable story, they all win."

So for a given group, character death might actually be preferable to seeing the changeling turn into a mermaid for the umpteenth time (or the druid turning into a brown bear or someone summoning pixies that turn the whole party into T-rexes or...).