Do Doppelgangers have genders?

[NotMousse]

That's the main question, but, it brings with it a host of other questions.

If Doppelgangers have naughty bits are they fixed, or mutable as the rest of their forms are?

Do they spawn with each other, by themselves, need a partner of another race?

Gestation times? Odds of multiple births?

Many questions, and the Bestiary only gives that they do have young, but, neglects to point out the means.

[Lifat]

Doppelgangers are monstrous humanoids so they do have genders unless otherwise specified, but they can indeed change gender when they are in other forms.

The question really is, what happens if a pregnant doppelganger shapechanges into a male human (or other race)?

That is left up to the GM. Personally I like these two explanations:
1) The reason there are so few doppelgangers is because they lose their child when they shift into a male form.

2) They supernaturally get to keep the pregnancy even when shifted into male forms, and the reason for their low numbers are adventurers and low chance of a coupling in the first place.

Of course a GM could change all the rules on this and if he doesn't want to explain it, he could go: It's magic, deal with it!

[LazarX]

Doppelgangers are asexual. or omnisexual. They do not have a fixed gender. A GM can interpret this to mean that Dopplegangers reproduce as he or she sees fit.

Personally I suspect that under normal conditions, they reproduce asexually, but can mix genetic material with each other the way bacteria do.

[Bob Bob Bob]

Doppelgangers are Ditto, the pokemon. Featureless blob, but the perfect <whatever> when you need it. Need to breed something? Throw it in with a Ditto. Male, female, animal, robot, plant, whatever, out pops a baby.

They probably don't generally breed because it locks them in to one form for a long time and prevents them from playing their power games. Even more so if it's another doppelganger (competition). They're all about wealth and influence and the only time they settle down to pop out a baby it's probably for (humanoid) royalty.

Of course, the alternative is this mostly SFW Oglaf. If you don't want to go there, the short answer is that doppelgangers don't recognize each other, so doppelganger babies are just accidents from when two doppelgangers hook up in other forms.

[David knott 242]

I recall reading a novel based on Norse mythology that I at tempted to use for inspiration. In that story, Loki took the form of a mare to distract a stallion that was helping a giant build Asgard so that the giant would fail to finish on time and the gods wouldn't have to pay him. The stallion chased Loki in mare form and caught him/her. Loki became pregnant and was stuck in mare form until he/she gave birth.

[Owen KC Stephens]

Weirdly I was JUST talking to Rob McCreary about this a couple of weeks ago. while it's not official, the conclusion we came to is that dopplegangers have gender, that gender does not limit what genitalia they can form, and while most dopplegangers have a gender identity they prefer to present as but A: It doesn't limit their actual options and B: it's likely on a spectrum at least as wide and varied as humans.

[Ambrosia Slaad]

In the 3.5e Races of Eberron book, changelings--the descendants of humans and dopplegangers--were equally fertile with either chosen genitalia. Or they could choose to be infertile. And if human-doppleganger hybrids have that much control, I'd assume that regular dopplegangers can any genitalia (or none) that they could imagine.

We can assume Eberron changelings probably have chromosomes, epigenetics, hormone levels, brain structures, and reproductive systems (when they limit themselves to only one or the other ends of the spectrum) similar enough to the range of the human spectrum because they have demonstrated fertility with humans. Regular dopplegangers throw many of those assumptions out the window, especially when the variability of magical environments and magically-influenced evolution get involved... depending on your GM and setting, they might reproduce via budding or spores or hermaphroditically or parthenogenetically or infecting other humanoids/"doppelthropy" or a eusocial hive (fertile queen, limited fertile males, many asexual drones/workers/soldiers) or temperature-dependent sex. Heck, they probably have more than one option; several non-magical Earth reptiles can reproduce via normal male-female coupling, but the females can also reproduce parthenogenetically when local males are scarce/non-existent.

[Calliope the Doppelganger]

My "gender" has nothing to do with what I do with my "parts", dangerous, dangerous subject, people things.

[Lifat]

LazarX wrote:

Doppelgangers are asexual. or omnisexual. They do not have a fixed gender. A GM can interpret this to mean that Dopplegangers reproduce as he or she sees fit.

Personally I suspect that under normal conditions, they reproduce asexually, but can mix genetic material with each other the way bacteria do.

Where did you read that they are asexual? I looked for it and couldn't find anything outside type and the type suggest that they do have genders.

[Thanael]

Check out Van Richten Society's Guide to Dopplegangers

[zza ni]

as Ambrosia Slaad said ,in 3.5 the changlings who decend from Dopplegangers and humans could switch race. in the races of the destiny book wich expand the rae abilites and info(also had Dopplegangers there) it mantioned that a changling who takes on a female form and get pregnent can still cahnge form BUT ONLY to female froms (and asumingly the inborn child changes with her) this kinda fixs it all. they can be any gender they want most of the time. except when pregnnet.

[Four Dollar Dungeons]

Owen KC Stephens wrote:

Weirdly I was JUST talking to Rob McCreary about this a couple of weeks ago. while it's not official, the conclusion we came to is that dopplegangers have gender, that gender does not limit what genitalia they can form, and while most dopplegangers have a gender identity they prefer to present as but A: It doesn't limit their actual options and B: it's likely on a spectrum at least as wide and varied as humans.

This is broadly speaking the approach I took in Journey to Cathreay. Since Dopplegangers are principally interested in infiltration, seduction is going to be a powerful tool, and why limit yourself to only one of the sexes.

Richard

[Marroar Gellantara]

Lifat wrote:

Doppelgangers are monstrous humanoids so they do have genders unless otherwise specified, but they can indeed change gender when they are in other forms.

The question really is, what happens if a pregnant doppelganger shapechanges into a male human (or other race)?

That is left up to the GM. Personally I like these two explanations:
1) The reason there are so few doppelgangers is because they lose their child when they shift into a male form.

2) They supernaturally get to keep the pregnancy even when shifted into male forms, and the reason for their low numbers are adventurers and low chance of a coupling in the first place.

Of course a GM could change all the rules on this and if he doesn't want to explain it, he could go: It's magic, deal with it!

Well 3.5 changelings would be "locked" as female while pregnant. They could still change race. The changeling was a changeling for the purposes of what the child inherited regardless of the changelings form.

I think half-Doppelgangers are normally changelings, but I am unsure.

[Ughbash]

There was an Ecology of the Doppleganger in an old dragon magazine YEARS ago. I believe they said a Dopplegnager could not get another Doppleganger pregnant, instead they got pregnant when having relations with creatures of other races when they impersonated that race.