Shapeshifting, Size and Health

[Katana1515]

Apologies if this seems obvious, but since a characters Health Levels are determined by Size (usually 5) + Stamina, what happens when a Life Adept Shapeshifts into a size 30 whale? Does he now have 30+Stamina health levels? That makes some sense to me, since using life 3 to give yourself extra Stamina does give you more Health Levels. I just wanted to check.

[Satchel]

+1 reach to change primary spell factor to 'Scale'

Primary factor is specifically always Potency or Duration.

[Enlightened_Milkman]

Just a reminder that the spell would have to account for that Size so the casting would require a Reach for Advanced Scale and -10 dice to reach that Size.

Couldn't you get around that with aggressive application of reach and mana? Assuming gnosis 4 w/ 1 free reach (casting time): +1 reach to change primary spell factor to 'Scale', an additional +1 reach to change to advanced scale, +1 reach for duration (a scene). That's 3 overreach and six paradox dice but 4 mana and a dedicated tool would reduce that to a chance die and if you have the spell as a Praxis there is a good chance you'll recover the mana afterwards.

[totalgit]

Pretty sure a whale falling say 10 feet will not explode into a bloody mass. I think your overestimating how fragile they are. Sure dropping them from terminal velocity height but flying above them in one form and then changing to a whale 5-10 feet above somebody is enough of a headache i just said it killed the person and moved on. Since it was at this point just a special effect. No way was i going to work out how much actual health levels would be done to both.....its based on the size/speed of the thing colliding so 30+ dice

Even if they were that fragile by the rules they arnt going to take 30+stamina health levels from falling 10ft.

[Axelgear]

At that point, you'd basically see the whale impact, ripple, and erupt into a horrifying bloody mass, in rolling tides of exploding blood, flesh knitting in the same instants as it splits. This is not so much a whale as a shoggoth.

[totalgit]

That would hurt the whale as much as anything beneath it. Whales are surprisingly fragile.

He had mage armor (1e), extra stamina, the stupidly high potency spell that 1/2 healing per potency (thanks ritual casting silly dicepools) cost so he healed like 3 lethal a second. By this point they were just muching around to show how stupid mage is/was. The mastigos crashed a plane into a group of banishers via possession.

I dont think you can shapeshift into a dinosaur, or i least i didnt allow it in that game, i cant remember if i had text to back it up but yeh dont go there, allow only stuff thats mundane and alive now Thats enough...

[Axelgear]

Did one of your players try to dive bomb somebody and turn into a whale like mine did once? He was obsessed with dropping whales on things.

That would hurt the whale as much as anything beneath it. Whales are surprisingly fragile.

[Moinen]

Not yet, we haven't started playing! I was just using an over the top example to make sure my question was clear. It does make shapeshifting an interesting combat tactic. I suppose nothing stops a Life Adept morphing into Dinosaurs or other extinct animals? What about fantastical beasts that don't otherwise exist? (Obviously Disbelief could rapidly become a factor.)

There is a Fighting Style in Werewolf that uses shapechanging to change your ballistic properties. I don't remember the name but it looked fun.
You can change into fantastic beasts, with some Reach. As to extinct animals... it depends whether you assume them being still in Life Supernal Database, Death Supernal Database, neither or both. If you assume that blueprints are no longer available you can either treat them as any other fantastic beast (like charizard or lapras) or do some treasure hunt for blood sample of some Argentinosaur to investigate.

[Katana1515]

Not yet, we haven't started playing! I was just using an over the top example to make sure my question was clear. It does make shapeshifting an interesting combat tactic. I suppose nothing stops a Life Adept morphing into Dinosaurs or other extinct animals? What about fantastical beasts that don't otherwise exist? (Obviously Disbelief could rapidly become a factor.)

[totalgit]

Apologies if this seems obvious, but since a characters Health Levels are determined by Size (usually 5) + Stamina, what happens when a Life Adept Shapeshifts into a size 30 whale? Does he now have 30+Stamina health levels? That makes some sense to me, since using life 3 to give yourself extra Stamina does give you more Health Levels. I just wanted to check.

Did one of your players try to dive bomb somebody and turn into a whale like mine did once? He was obsessed with dropping whales on things.

[Tessie]

Just a reminder that the spell would have to account for that Size so the casting would require a Reach for Advanced Scale and -10 dice to reach that Size.

[Moinen]

Yes.
(characters)