This is confusing me a little. A Hat of Disguise says that you cannot appear as a different type, only a different subtype. So if I am humanoid(elf) I could appear as humanoid(human) for instance, which makes perfect sense, but not as a dog, which wouldn't make sense.
But say I'm an Aasimar or a Sylph or something like that, even though I have only a few minor appearance differences from a human, like metallic hair or skin markings, because my type is Outsider, I can't make myself appear human with the hat. I can however, make myself appear as things with massive differences, like a Barghest and be the aforementioned dog(kinda).
Am I understanding this wrong?
That is correct because it is following the limitations of the spell, and the spell is a low level spell.
I also think part of it is the the assumption, which as you know is not always true is that creatures of the same type are more likely to look alike.
The Aasimar is a core(not from a splat book) creature from the bestiary that was also an outsider in 3.5. Just like the hat of disguise it was copied and pasted from 3.5 mostly. It did not come in way after the Aasimar was created.
There is a way around that for aasimars though.
Some aasimars' heavenly ancestry is extremely distant. An aasimar with this racial trait counts as an outsider (native) and a humanoid (human) for any effect related to race, including feat prerequisites and spells that affect humanoids. She can pass for human without using the Disguise skill. This racial trait replaces the Celestial language and alters the native subtype.
The Aasimar is a core(not from a splat book) creature from the bestiary that was also an outsider in 3.5. Just like the hat of disguise it was copied and pasted from 3.5 mostly. It did not come in way after the Aasimar was created.
I think he is referring to the origins of both back in 3.0e D&D. The hat of disguise was part of the core game and the Aasimar was added later with Forgotten Realms campaign setting I believe.
The size restrictions do a good job of limiting it to outsiders more or less humanoid in shape. It does allow for cool things, like an Aasimar pretending to be a full angel.
The Aasimar is a core(not from a splat book) creature from the bestiary that was also an outsider in 3.5. Just like the hat of disguise it was copied and pasted from 3.5 mostly. It did not come in way after the Aasimar was created.I think he is referring to the origins of both back in 3.0e D&D. The hat of disguise was part of the core game and the Aasimar was added later with Forgotten Realms campaign setting I believe.
They were in the 3.0 monster manual so they were around during the core rules for 3.0 also. They were added to the FR setting books the following year with regard to 3.X.