One of the trickier spells, and monster abilities, is that of polymorphing. If a mage or some monster can change its form, then it can wring advantages. Because of that the rules in the original AD&D for polymorph self, polymorph others, and shape change were a bit tricky. Shape change lets you do anything, but it was incredibly high-level. Polymorph self was, essentially, the ability to reskin your appearance except for minor points, like growing wings to let you fly. Other sorts of changing, like lycanthropy, were tightly proscribed. In Realm of the Powers we try to resolve this by breaking up the abilities into glamour, which only changes appearance and alternate form, which requires specific alternate forms. A more powerful form of glamour lets you change your physical form, somewhat, but in general we avoided the issue. In this post we add one additional type of shape change that appears in some games, but often in a murky form. The clearest form is the mis-named evolution of Pokemon ™.
The difference between Pokemon evolution and polymorphing is that the shape change into the new evolved form is irreversible. There are a number of such irreversible transformation in the extant monster literature.
The barghest is a creature from the netherplanes that, in its immature form, looks like a goblin and lives with goblins. As it kills and consumes human victims it gains power and matures, returning to the netherworld when it achieves full maturity. This is a simple metamorphosis that expresses itself as a change in size and color.
A bodak is a traveller in the netherworld that is transformed into a horrible monster with a death gaze by some unspecified horror. The original character is lost and the life-destroying monster is all that remains.
A bogart is the immature form of a will-o-the-wisp.
Ghouls are humans transformed into undead through the act of cannibalism. This is an example of a transformation that involves a divine law or a curse. The power of ghouls ranges from two-hit-die undead to really excessive forms like a wendigo.
A tenebrous worm matures into a gloom wing. There is endless possibility for metamorphosis of one form of annoying giant arthropod to another.
A whole sequence of transformations in a type of air elemental from the endless sky lead from a small furry ball to huge sky dragons.
Metamorphosis in horror
These examples show that the idea of an irreversible transformational shift is sitting there in the fantasy game literature. Coming up with monsters that have a planned or predictable metamorphosis is a largely unexplored game mechanic, though the various versions of the zombie apocalypse are good examples. In the movie gremlins, a cute pet comes with the instructions that one should not expose it to sun, get it wet, or feed it after midnight. Dampening one of the creatures causes abrupt multiplication and feeding them after midnight causes a metamorphic transformation into a much nastier and larger form.
If there is lore about the transformation of a type of monster then it can become a plot device. In the movie Life Force, space-going undead transform humans into small bat-like zombies that briefly resume their humanity if they consume the life-force of other humans, which then turns their victim into the same sort of bat-like undead. The stolen life-force is then sent to the master vampires in space and the restored humans become bat-like undead again. This is an early example of the contagious zombie-apocalypse mechanism. It’s also not a bad mechanic for a hell-spawned undead for a fantasy game.
Metamorphosis as an attack
This is a common feature of fantasy games. Many undead transform slain victims into similar undead. A vampire’s victims become his vampire servants. A character killed by a shadow becomes a shadow. Lycanthropy is contagious and so represents a type of metamorphosis. Many fungal monsters will infect and transform victims into more fungus, like green slime.
Monsters with planned metamorphosis
The barghest was an example of a netherworld entity that matured and transformed by consuming souls. If a demon were to undergo a marked transformation and gain in capabilities when it slays humans, and that were known in the lore, it would provide a ticking time bomb sort of excitement for fantasy gaming. “One more kill and it will transform” the priest yells.
Elementals are a natural target for this sort of transformation. Simply gaining access to a large supply of some form of their element might let them transform. A fire-bug that gets into a huge fire could transform into a flame-beetle. An ice-snake could become a winter dragon if it gets into a lake. A wind-falcon that escapes into a gale and flies to the upper airs could come back as a storm-wing. Designing elementals that get more powerful (and probably harder to control) is a nice game mechanic.
Undead are another natural target. The example from life-force was an uncontrolled harvesting mechanism. A lich might have specific rituals to subsume the power of mortal spell casters, probably by executing them during a time consuming ritual. A shadow-like minor undead might progress up the scale to wraith-like, spectre-like, or worse as it acquired victims.
Finally, the bodak example suggests there may be places, rituals, or substances that are forbidden and cause normal creatures to transform into monsters. Someone might plant a bush whose ripe fruits are delicious and turn people into mindless cannibals a few days later. An evil cult might have a ritual that transforms volunteers into horrible super-ghouls or creatures like the hounds of Torak in the Belgariad. There might be parts of the universe that both drive someone mad and release latent psionic potential. The possibilities that can be gained and lost are endless and some of the processes are contagious. Like rabies, but mystical.
Voluntary metamorphosis
Another possibility is a place or ritual that allows a character to sacrifice their humanity and gain capabilities that permits them to become a sacred weapon. A book that permits an ancient hero to rise again in the body of a volunteer. A transformation into living metal that grants armor and combat capabilities but costs the volunteer’s humanity. The essence of metamorphosis is irreversible, or very difficult to reverse, transformation. There may be two forms or a whole chain. All of these notions are things that could be added to a campaign.
This is Dan of Dan and Andrew’s Game Place. Let me know what you think about this post in the comments. If you get ideas from this post, give us a pointer!
Dan and Andrew's Game Place 