[FOCI]
Godforsaken, Claim the Sky
A shapechanger who can take the form of various animals.
You change into an animal as small as a rat or up to your own size (such as a large dog or small bear) for ten minutes. Each time you transform, you can take a different animal shape. Your equipment becomes part of the transformation, rendering it unusable unless it has a passive effect, such as armor. In this form your stats remain the same as your normal form, but you can move and attack according to your animal shape (attacks from most animals this size are medium weapons, which you can use without penalty). Tasks requiring hands (such as using door handles or pushing buttons) are hindered when in animal form. You cannot speak but can still use abilities that don’t rely on human speech.
You gain two minor abilities associated with the creature you become (see the Animal Form Minor Abilities table). For example, if you transform into a bat, you become trained in perception and can fly up to a long distance each round. If you transform into an octopus, you are trained in stealth and can breathe underwater.
If you apply a level of Effort when you use this ability, you can either become a talking animal or take a hybrid shape. The talking animal shape looks exactly like a normal animal, but you can still talk and use any abilities that rely on human speech. The hybrid shape is like your normal form but with animalistic features, even if that animal is something much smaller than you (such as a bat or rat). In this hybrid form you can speak, use all of your abilities, make attacks like an animal, and perform tasks using hands without being hindered. Anyone who sees you clearly in this hybrid form would never mistake you for a mere animal.
Even if your animal shape has multiple attack types (such as claws and bite), you can attack only once per round unless you have some other ability that lets you make additional attacks on your turn.
A character might be able to take the shape of a creature that is similar to a common animal, such as a unicorn instead of a horse or a basilisk instead of a lizard, but doing so should require applying at least one level of Effort to the change, and the character wouldn’t gain any of the creature’s unusual abilities.
Animal Shape variant: If your character concept is that you always take the same animal form instead of being able to choose from multiple kinds of animals, double the duration of the Animal Shape ability (to twenty minutes per use). The GM may allow characters with this restriction to learn additional animal forms by spending 4 XP as a long-term benefit
Action to change or revert.
Use the following as examples or suggestions of what a character gains when in the shape of an animal. If an animal shape lists two skills, the character chooses which one they want each time they take that shape. The GM can mix up the combinations of skills and other abilities for these animal shapes to create other Earth animals, or create animals in the campaign setting that are native to other planets.
| Animal | Skill Training | Other Abilities |
|---|---|---|
| Ape | Climbing | Hands |
| Badger | Climbing | Scent |
| Bat | Perception | Flying |
| Bear | Climbing | Scent |
| Bird | Perception | Flying |
| Boar | Might defense | Scent |
| Cat | Climbing or stealth | Small |
| Constrictor snake | Climbing | Constrict |
| Crocodile | Stealth or swimming | Constrict |
| Deinonychus | Perception | Fast |
| Dolphin | Perception or swimming | Fast |
| Fish | Stealth or swimming | Aquatic |
| Frog | Jumping or stealth | Aquatic |
| Horse | Perception | Fast |
| Leopard | Climbing or stealth | Fast |
| Lizard | Climbing or stealth | Small |
| Octopus | Stealth | Aquatic |
| Shark | Swimming | Aquatic |
| Turtle | Might defense | Armor |
| Venomous snake | Climbing | Venom |
| Wolf | Perception | Scent |
You can convey a basic concept to a creature that normally can't speak or understand speech. The creature can also give you a very basic answer to a simple question.
You calm a nonhuman beast within 30 feet (9 m). You must speak to it (although it doesn't need to understand your words), and it must see you. It remains calm for one minute or for as long as you focus all your attention on it. The GM has final say over what counts as a nonhuman beast, but unless some kind of deception is at work, you should know whether you can affect a creature before you attempt to use this ability on it. Aliens, extradimensional entities, very intelligent creatures, and robots never count.
When you use Animal Shape, your animal form grows to about twice its normal size. Being so large, your beast form gains the following additional bonuses
+1 to Armor, +5 to your Might Pool, and you are trained in using your animal form’s natural attacks as heavy weapons (if you weren’t already). However, your Speed defense tasks are hindered. While bigger, you also gain an asset to tasks that are easier for a larger creature to perform, like climbing, intimidating, wading rivers, and so on.
or
When using Beast Form, your beast form gains the following additional bonuses: +1 to your Might Edge, +2 to your Speed Pool, and +1 to your Speed Edge.
If you know the general location of an animal that is friendly toward you and within 1 mile (1.5 km) of your location, you can sense through its senses for up to ten minutes. If you are not in animal form or not in a form similar to that animal, you must apply a level of Effort to use this ability.
When using Animal Scrying, “similar” is a broad term. Lions are similar to tigers and leopards, hawks are similar to ravens and swans, dogs are similar to wolves and foxes, and so on.
Action to establish.
You can choose to reroll any defense task you make but never more than once per round.
You move so quickly that until your next turn, you look like a blur. While you are blurred, if you apply Effort to a melee attack task or Speed defense task, you get a free level of Effort on that task; you can move a short distance as part of another action or a long distance as your entire action.
or
You change into an animal, and one willing creature within immediate range also transforms into an animal of that type (bear, tiger, wolf, and so on) for ten minutes, as if they were using your Animal Shape ability. For each level of Effort applied, you can affect one additional creature. All creatures transforming with you must be your size or smaller. A creature can revert to its normal form as an action, but it cannot then change back into the animal form. One creature (whether you or someone else) changing form does not affect any other creature affected with this ability.
A creature that takes animal form with Lend Animal Shape counts as an animal for the use of Animal Scrying.
GM Intrusions: The character unexpectedly changes form. An NPC is frightened by or aggressive toward the shapeshifter. The transformation takes longer than expected.