Doppelganger (4e Racial Trait Variant)

Doppelgangers

Strange adventurers, thieves, and assassins who change faces as easily as other men put on hats.

Racial Traits

Average Height: 5'7 - 6'2”

Average Weight: 135-220 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, +2 Dexterity or Intelligence

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Normal

Languages: Common, Elven

Skill Bonuses: +2 Bluff, +2 Insight

Doppelganger Weapon Proficiency: You gain proficiency with the short sword.

Fey Origin: Your current form is a result of fey rituals, so you are considered a fey creature for the purpose of effects that relate to origin.

Free Willed: You gain a +1 racial bonus to your Will defense. In addition, you gain a +5 bonus to saving throws against dominate effects.

Change Shape: You can use Change Shape as an at-will power.

Change Shape	Doppelganger Racial Power
You alter your form to look like some other humanoid.
At-Will  Polymorph
Minor Action	Personal
Effect: You can alter your physical form to take on the appearance of any Medium humanoid, including a unique individual.

A result of ritual magic in an attempt to make a perfect saboteur, doppelgangers are too difficult to control, for even the most magically inclined fey. Doppelgangers are not confined by any barrier, any law, any shred of reason. They are insane.

Play a doppelganger if you want...

• to be the result of foul rituals that changed you forever.
• to change faces just as easily as other men change clothes.
• to talk your way in and out of nearly any situation.
• To be a member of a race that favors the bard, psion, rogue, sorcerer, warlock, warlord, and wizard classes.

Physical Qualities

A doppelganger is of indeterminable height, weight, and slimness, as they can change their forms in even that way. Their natural forms have pure white skin and hair, with pure white eyes like a blind man's. Their hair is long and wild, but they grow no beards. They have little body hair. Often, a doppelganger has a favored form, one which they prefer over others. This form can range from a small, human child to a giant dragonborn warrior. Doppelganger were once humans, and their growth cycle remains like humans' as well. They mature at 18 years old, and can live to 120 years like any human. They usually die young, however, as most spend their lives fighting.

Playing a Doppelganger

Doppelgangers have no society and no shared goals. Rarely are there two in the same city. A small coven might make their home in a city, and a band of assassins might lend their services to a powerful noble, for a price. But groups of dopplegangers are rare, and are regarded by superstitious folk as a bad omen. Doppelgangers as a whole revere no philosophy. An assassin may pay homage to Zehir to gain favor for a mission, or an explorer to Avandra for help in an expedition, but most usually carve their own way, shunning the gods. They despise the fey gods, Corellon, Melora, and Lolth, as the fey are the ones who made them as they are. A doppelganger is fickle and changeable on the outside, like most fey, but is very calculating and emotionless in truth. They are expert actors, taking on any role presented them. A single doppelganger could destroy a civilization for fun. They can often be bitter over their transformation, or believe that their life would be worse without it. Doppelgangers are behind the fall of many civilizations. The empires of Arkhosia and Bael Turath were tricked into war by doppleganger agents for pleasure, and many eladrin houses fell to infighting due to the machinations of bitter doppelgangers. Large empires are prime targets for these crusades, but even small villages are destroyed by these cruel fiends.

Doppelganger Characteristics: Adaptable, bitter, calculated, cruel, cunning, deceptive, free-willed, insane, intelligent, likeable, sinister, spirited, uncontrollable

Doppelganger Names: Typically human names, though they choose anything when changed.

Doppelganger Adventurers

Three sample doppelganger adventurers are described below.

Nine is a doppelganger bard, an actor and identity thief. Her name is unknown to all but she. Her alias, 'Nine', was gotten apparently “'cause that's how many dragons I've slain.” Her dream is to start up a theater in Sigil and charge identities as an entrance fee. Of course, she's going to need a lot of gold for that, so she joined an adventuring group and hasn't stopped going.

Rolen is a doppelganger warlock and a mystery among his kind. His best friend is a drow, and his pact with fey forces. He is also pleasant and kind, acting rashly on impulses. Beneath all this, however, is a hunger for arcane power. He tinkers with constructs, and toys with the idea of necromancy. His unachievable goal is total arcane power.

Quinn is a doppelganger rogue, a pleasure-seeker and trickster. He was abducted by an eladrin court as a baby, and he never knew his parents. All that remains of his heritage is a dagger, with a rose melded on its hilt. After escaping the Feywild, he stole for a living, becoming a professional thief. When he joined a group of adventurers, he left his profession behind, but not his reputation. Now he explores the world with his new allies, hoping to find some hint of who his parents were.

Doppelganger Racial Options

In Progress

Paragon Paths: Faceless Trickster: [[1]]

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