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Astrozoan power basically is I want to be a male human of mid height brown hair breen eyes and they can do that. But innately they can't go I want to look like george clooney. Now if you are an operative you can use astrozoan power to make yourself look like a general human of the right gender/height and then use your operative ability to look like a specific person.
They both are useful because the astrozoan is so weird looking no amount of special effects/makeup/fake masks an operative could do is going to make a non transformed astrozoan look like george cloony its just a weird starfish thing with a wig. And if you want to be able to look like specific people as an astrozoan you would need a good disguise skill to do the fine tuning.
Specific creature and specific individual mean the same thing in this context. Basically, the Astrozoan Change Shape completely overlaps the Operative Specialization.
EDIT: To be clear, I disagree with kaid and believe the Change Shape ability is clear that you can imitate a specific individual, so long as you have seen that individual (as specified in the text).
I agree that astrazoans can mimic specific individuals. In fact, as written, they can't "choose" their features without mimicking a specific individual, which is interesting in that a PC in my group has two female lashunta identities. (Seems to me one must have been "copied" from a "real" lashunta.)
What has me curious is non-organics. Can an astrazoan alter obvious cybernetics (such as a prosthetic arm) while shapechanged? If it *doesn't* have cybernetics, can it mimic a target's cyber-arm? Can an astrazoan mimic an SRO? I lean toward no in some cases but it's a gray zone.
Does Master of Disguise provide a bonus? Either way, it looks to me like the effects stack, but that you're also guilding the lily - an astrazoan isn't benefiting nearly as much from that exploit as other races would.
My astrazoan character parades around in the form of a big owl, since he's a fan of the wise and mystical giant owls or ye'old Golarion.
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I had some idle time to overthink, and I ended up writing up my table rules for the astrazoan change form ability. While these are based in a literal reading of the rule (as well as the author's posted intentions), it includes my own extrapolations. Change form's limits are somewhat vaguely defined so I found myself with a lot to think about. I organized my notes into chunks to prevent myself from rambling in a stream of consciousness.
1. Change Form is an entirely cosmetic transformation, like an incredibly advanced form of octopus camouflage. When you assume a creature’s form, you look, sound, and feel just like it (assuming a successful Disguise check). I assume you can even alter your scent to a degree, though creatures with the blindsense (scent) ability might detect something off about you. You can mimic internal and external organs, and alter the organs you have, but (unlike change shape) you can’t actually create organs you don’t normally have. You don’t lose or gain any racial abilities while in an assumed form. Some examples of what this means:
a. You are naturally “squishy” but can selectively “tense up” parts of your body to closely mimic a bony skeletal structure. If someone grabs or frisks you, you’ll feel like you have a normal internal skeleton (but an x-ray would reveal otherwise). If you mimic a creature with natural weapons, like a vesk, your claws and fangs are still just relatively soft cartilage that only deals as much damage as a standard unarmed strike.
b. You are always Medium and, even more specifically, always retain the same mass/weight. If you’re in a smaller form (like a khizar, which is exceptionally gaunt), you’ve just compressed yourself; if you’re in a bulkier form (like a vesk) you’ve just swollen yourself up. (Astrazoans are generally fairly lightweight compared to humanoids of the same size, about on par with a slender lashunta; the heaviest astrazoan weighs notably less than the scrawniest vesk.) This isn’t something anyone can notice just by looking at you; they’d have to try picking you up first.
c. You retain your darkvision, compression, and rapid revival abilities even in assumed forms. If you wants to shove yourself through a narrow pipe, you can do that even a humanoid form. (It would just look like something out of the X-Files to an unwary bystander.)
d. You can create organs that look exactly like gills (or other unusual respiratory organs), but they aren’t functional. Likewise if you assume the form of an android or other creature that doesn’t need to breathe, you do in fact still need air. (Creatures with the full change shape ability can physically alter how they breathe.)
e. You can create extra limbs (I personally imagine an astrazoan twisting and reshaping its seven tentacles to form limbs, tails, wings, and even heads), but an astrazoan can only really focus on using two “arms” at a time. If you assume the form of a four-armed kasatha, for example, two of those arms are really just there for show. You can move them around, but they’ll just fumble around and drop stuff if you try to use them to wield weapons or use tools. (You can decide from round to round which two arms to “focus” on though, so it’s not like the same two arms are always just dangling.) Same goes for a prehensile tail, if you assume the form of a species that has that. (You can have a tail and swish it around just fine, it just can’t grab things. Unless you treat it as one of your two “arms” that round.)
2. There is absolutely nothing magical or supernatural about your change form ability. This means it cannot be dispelled, and divination magic like true seeing treats it as an (exceptionally detailed) mundane disguise—which means it’s very difficult to magically detect.
a. This also means that worn, carried, or wielded gear, clothing, armor, weapons, etc. never changes with you or gets absorbed into your new form (as druid wildshaping would do, for example). This is really only a problem with clothing and armor. When it comes to clothing, reconfigurable outfits (Starfinder Armory) are an astrazoan’s best friend. It’s a standard action to use change form, and a move action to reconfigure the outfit, so you can do both of those simultaneously in a single round. When it comes to armor, you can adjust any suit of armor to fit any assumed form with 10 minutes and an Engineering check. Shiftskin, a specific type of armor manufactured by reptoids, can change between two programmed shapes.
b. If you stay within the same species and general body type when you change form (changing from one damaya lashunta identity to another, for example) your armor and clothing will still fit well enough that it won’t impose any penalties. If you change into a different-but-similar race or body type (from a damaya lashunta to an elf or human, say, or a korasha lashunta) I might impose penalties as if you’d donned the armor hastily. Change form to any significantly different body type (a shirren, vesk, or something stranger) and your armor and clothing probably won’t fit at all without adjustments. In general, for an astrazoan PC, whenever you buy armor or clothing, you should note somewhere what form it’s designed for.
c. Along these same lines of thinking, I just have real trouble wrapping my head around the idea of cybernetic limbs being able to change form along with your organic bits. To try to be really clear about this, an astrazoan can have any kind of cybernetic augmentations they want, but if those augments are visibly obvious (like dermal plating or a prosthetic) they’ll always be obvious (barring additional disguise efforts). Biotech, on the other hand, is integrated into the recipient’s own genetics and physiology, so those augments can change form with you, and adaptive biochains can be used to duplicate any cybernetics. So basically, long story short, you can have any cyberware you want, but you should pay the extra 10% to get it as biotech if you don’t want it sticking out like a sore thumb regardless of your form.
3. When you assume a form, you can remain in that form indefinitely. You retain your form even when asleep, unconscious, drugged, etc. That said, anything that affects your Charisma modifier (like Cha damage) would affect the effectiveness of your mimicry (since it modifies Disguise checks).
a. An astrazoan’s change form ability can withstand some very close scrutiny (you could probably easily maintain a relationship with a humanoid without your partner ever catching on), but on the cellular level, you’re pure astrazoan. Bioscans, blood samples, DNA tests, and similar microscopic studies can automatically detect that you aren’t the species you’re posing as (though note that most bioscan tech—like a hand panel to open a door—doesn’t actually “care” and is just measuring your hand print against stored biometrics). However, you immediately revert to your true form if killed, and any tissues or body parts that get severed also immediately revert to dead astrazoan flesh. (There are certain nasty weapons that can sever limbs with a critical hit, but keep in mind that an astrazoan’s hair in humanoid form is just fibrous extensions of their skin! A haircut would hurt, bleed a bit, and maybe even ding them for 1 or 2 Hit Points!)
4. An astrazoan can mimic any Medium creature they’ve seen. Although you’re best at mimicking aberrations and humanoids, your change form ability includes creatures like animals, constructs, dragons, plants (plant creatures, specifically), and even oozes, fey, corporeal undead, and some outsiders. Regardless of your form, you must have a contiguous anatomy, so no swarms or robots with limbs hovering near their body.
a. You can take the form of constructs (robots, SROs, etc.), but you’re still a fully organic creature. If someone tries to “unscrew the access panel” on your back, that just means sticking a power drill in your back and trying to pry off a hunk of your stiffened skin. If you’re cut, you still bleed. However, this does suggest that an astrazoan can mimic inorganic textures, so you can mimic a copied subject’s visible cybernetics, for example. Likewise, I assume you can mimic armor and clothing, but said clothing is always still just a cosmetic change to your skin. It can’t be removed or adjusted, doesn’t provide any actual protection, and is visibly fused to your “real” skin if someone looks closely at the edges. Mimicking clothing or heavily cyber-augmented creatures will probably negate some or all of your ability to ignore changes to major features on Disguise checks, so best to do it only when you must.
b. An astrazoan can produce bioluminescent cells, which allows them to mimic features like the glowing seams in an android’s skin, or even blinking lights on a robot or cyberware. The bioluminescence is dim, though; not bright enough to illuminate your surroundings. Conversely, an astrazoan can negate all the pigment in their body to make themselves slightly translucent, which helps them mimic oozes.
c. You can take the form of otherworldly creatures like fey, undead, and outsiders, but you can’t replicate—in video game terms—“particle effects.” If you mimic a fire elemental, for example, you can’t actually generate heat or flames, so you’re really just sort of trying to be a fire-colored, bioluminescent blob. Ditto for, say, a lich whose eyes are always smoldering; you can’t produce the smoke or a chilling aura.
d. You can’t mimic Large creatures, but you could mimic the young (Medium) version of a Large creature if you’ve seen it. You can’t mimic Small creatures either—you can try, but you can’t compress your body enough, so the results will be distorted and horrific. (Imagine a bulging replica of an ysoki with half an astrazoan slopping out of her back.)
e. It’s safe to assume that you’re very familiar with the physiology (if only on an instinctual level) of all of the Pact Worlds “core” races (androids, humans, kasathas, lashuntas, shirrens, vesk, and ysoki) as well as elves, formians, and other common fauna native to your home world. When it comes to other species native to the Pact Worlds, play it by ear. Anything from Near Space or the Vast you’ll need to see before you can copy it.
f. You can copy individuals you’ve only seen in passing or in recordings (like a 3D trivid projection), but the less data you have to work with, the greater the chance of error. For example, if you try to copy a passing guard to infiltrate some evil den, and that guard has a tattoo or a scar you couldn’t see because it was buried under his armor, then people who know that guard may notice if the distinguishing feature turns up conspicuously missing later. Likewise, you can’t mimic someone’s voice if you’ve never heard them speak. If you copy someone based on nothing but a mugshot of their face, you’ll be stuck with a default “average” physique for the rest of their body. Just in case it ever comes up: for deep, deep “undercover” work, a physical examination of the subject you intend to mimic is your safest bet. Long story short, if you’re working with limited information about a creature, you may incur a penalty to your Disguise check to mimic it.
5. Since your transformation is entirely cosmetic, carries no altered abilities, and comes as naturally to you as flexing your muscles, I’m fine with saying that with a single use of change form (a standard action), you can change your entire body into a new form—or any portion of it. Want to “relax” your arm to turn a hand into a squishy tentacle poking out of your sleeve? No problem. (Maybe that’s the “astrazoan handshake.”) Want to freak someone out by suddenly having eyes open up in your kneecaps? Easy! While in your true form, want to quickly meld two tentacles together into the form of a humanoid head to talk in her voice? Fine. Basically whatever you want to do. But it’s an instinctual process; an astrazoan isn’t the Thing, so they can’t mix forms together. One copied creature (whether whole or in part) at a time. (No making yourself into a shirren with a vesk’s head, or swapping arms for legs, or having one humanoid identity’s head sprout out of another humanoid identity’s back so “they” can talk over each other.)
6. Normally, in Starfinder rules the DM rolls Disguise checks secretly for you, so you can’t automatically tell how well you did. For a “core” humanoid or aberration identity, as GM I’d house rule that you may take 10 when assuming that form, if you wish; it’s like slipping on an old sock. I would call for a check whenever you assume any other form, though. You can make very minor changes to a base form (such as altering the length or color of a lashunta’s hair or whatnot, but that requires a fresh Disguise check for the first day or two before settling into a take 10 result again. But remember that only people who are on alert actually make Perception checks to try to pierce your disguise. Most people—virtually everyone—just makes passive Perception checks (taking 10). In other words, most people have no reason to suspect alien shapechangers are in their midst and, even if they did, the average person really has no chance of beating an average astrazoan’s Disguise check.
(For the record, the above was originally written for the benefit of a player running an astrazoan PC from Castrovel. I intended to strip out all of the individual-specific language, but overlooked a bit here and there. Section 4e in particular should basically just say that you can assume you're familiar with all of the core races and common fauna from your home world.)
I had some idle time to overthink, and I ended up writing up my table rules for the astrazoan change form ability. While these are based in a literal reading of the rule (as well as the author's posted intentions)
Where might one find the author's posted intentions?
An additional thought to include that my group (which swaps of being GMs) have come to an understanding on; while you can look at an individual quickly an make yourself appear like them, you can't mimic bio-metrics or features such as scent unless you have the means to examine them. This could itself lead to fun role playing and adventuring, as the group or individual tries to find ways to discretely obtain finger prints, retinal scans, etc. of a high profile target they intend to copy so as to infiltrate somewhere.
Yup, Master of Disguise uses an improved version of the "Quick Disguise" exploit which nets you +10 to the disguise skill.
Quick Disguise functions as the spell Disguise Self with different duration and effect limitations, which provides a +10 circumstance bonus, where the astrozoan racial ability provides a +10 untyped bonus. Also, the Quick Disguise/Disguise Self effects cover clothing, which the racial ability does not, so yes, they should stack.
In the case of the Master Of Disguise upgrade, the change is so convincing that a Will save is required to even question the disguise and attempt a perception check to see through it, so as has been noticed, while an astrozoan operative would not benefit nearly as much from the spy specialization, there is benefit there. They might well be better served by taking a different specialization, and picking up those exploits separately.
Where might one find the author's posted intentions?
Elsewhere on the forums here.
I also agree that astrazoans can't fool biometrics (unless they gain the ability to do so via class abilities or such sources).
Elsewhere on the forums here.
I also agree that astrazoans can't fool biometrics (unless they gain the ability to do so via class abilities or such sources).
Thanks for the link! Quite informative.
As to biometrics, basic stuff like fingerprints should be entirely possible, and retinal scans are certainly plausible. Things like high resolution sonograms, or thermal scans, to check vascular structure (an emerging set of biometric scanning tech I read about a while back) would be nearly impossible, however, and fooling DNA scanners innately would be flat out.
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To have fingerprints or retinas to scan as part of a general disguise seems plausible to me, but specific fingerprints to mimic a specific creature not so much.
To have fingerprints or retinas to scan as part of a general disguise seems plausible to me, but specific fingerprints to mimic a specific creature not so much.
Just from a cursory examination? Of course not. Following a detailed examination of the subject specifically to find those details in order to mimic them? Why not, on a mechanical basis? Especially if the party is trying to investigate the data for someone they can't reasonably reach, getting that data would be an intriguing problem to overcome. It could also introduce a number of ways for things to go horribly wrong, such as when the party dusts for fingerprints on a glass the target used at a bar, and instead gets the server's prints, leading to a bunch of alarms and hard questions when the party goes to enter where they are not welcome, probably blowing their cover.
For DNA measures, try watching Gattaca for ideas.
To have fingerprints or retinas to scan as part of a general disguise seems plausible to me, but specific fingerprints to mimic a specific creature not so much.Just from a cursory examination? Of course not. Following a detailed examination of the subject specifically to find those details in order to mimic them? Why not, on a mechanical basis? Especially if the party is trying to investigate the data for someone they can't reasonably reach, getting that data would be an intriguing problem to overcome. It could also introduce a number of ways for things to go horribly wrong, such as when the party dusts for fingerprints on a glass the target used at a bar, and instead gets the server's prints, leading to a bunch of alarms and hard questions when the party goes to enter where they are not welcome, probably blowing their cover.
For DNA measures, try watching Gattaca for ideas.
For the why/why not I'd go with what it takes for a PC of a different race to do so.
If they've put in the effort to get the info they need to specificly mimic another character, sure. Just not out of the gate with no information.
Can Astrazoans mimic specific persons or just appear as generic NPC humans with uncanny valley faces, the greatest thread in Starfinder history, locked after 14,372 pages of acrimonious debate
Can Astrazoans mimic specific persons or just appear as generic NPC humans with uncanny valley faces, the greatest thread in Starfinder history, locked after 14,372 pages of acrimonious debate
Excerpted directly from the Change Form ability: "They can attempt to either mimic a specific creature or look like a general creature of the chosen type."
Yes, they CAN mimic a specific individual. See house rulings above on sanity restrictions of this vis a vis fingerprints and other biometrics.
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I like the term "sanity restrictions."