I'd always thought this was an absurdly expensive way to heal yourself and make cosmetic changes, but then I looked at a bit more deeply.
As long as you have at least 1 Resolve Point remaining, you can spend all your remaining Resolve Points as a full action to surround yourself with an organic cocoon. While enclosed in the cocoon, you are considered helpless. Eight hours later, you emerge having changed your type to animal, humanoid (of any subtype), or your original type, gaining superficial physical characteristics as appropriate. This change does not alter your ability scores, Hit Points, Stamina Points, saving throws, skill points, class skills, or proficiencies. Each time you make this transformation, you are cleansed of all poisons and diseases, are restored to full Hit Points and Stamina Points, and heal all ability damage. You must select a type other than your current type every time you make the transformation. You can use this ability once per day. Once you use this ability, you can’t regain Resolve Points until you rest for 8 hours, even if you have another means to do so.
This actually gives you mechanical abilities of the new type/subtype, right? For example, if you become an animal you get low light vision and nothing else.
An animal is a living, nonhumanoid creature, usually a vertebrate with no magical abilities and no innate capacity for language or culture.
Traits: Low-light vision; set Intelligence modifier to –4 or –5.
Adjustments: +2 to Fortitude and Reflex saving throws.
The reflex and intelligence modifiers are excluded by the second bolded text above, but the low-light vision isn't.
Similarly, humanoid type in Alien Archive grants:
A humanoid usually has two arms, two legs, and one head, or it has a humanlike torso, arms, and a head. Humanoids have few or no supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but most can speak and usually have well-developed societies.
Traits: Must have a subtype that matches its race (such as human, lashunta, or shirren) or that is related to its race (such as goblinoid).
Adjustments: +2 to one type of saving throw.
You can't get the saving throw bonus, but you do actually get the subtype graft, which generally generally match or exceed the PC racial traits.
For example:
This subtype is applied to dwarves and creatures related to dwarves.
Traits: Most creatures with this subtype gain darkvision 60 ft.; if the NPC is of the dwarven race (Starfinder Core Rulebook 506), it also gains the slow but steady, stonecunning, traditional enemies, and weapon familiarity racial traits.
That which is not forbidden by the Guided Rebirth text (weapon proficiencies) you now have.
This subtype is applied to the humanoid aliens known as grays and creatures related to grays.
Traits: Darkvision 60 ft.; if the NPC is of the gray race (see page 56), it also gains telepathy 100 ft. and the phase special ability.
Here we see a situation where the NPC graft is stronger than the PC racial traits. Probably your GM is supposed to give you the actual PC racial traits in this situation, not the NPC subtype stuff, where applicable.
Now some probably think, like I originally did, that the "gaining superficial physical characteristics as appropriate" language indicates you only gain those superficial characteristics, not racial traits. But if that were so, they wouldn't need to have spelled out all the other things you don't get, or they needed to add in racial traits as a category you don't get.
So I'm pretty sure this does change your race, like a daily reincarnate guided where you want it. I'm just unsure if you can get full NPC graft abilities rather than PC racial traits. And I notice they somehow left "feats" out of the things you don't change, which is surely a mistake.
Thoughts?
Do you also lose your own racial abilities? If you don't, can you hop from form to form and pick up all racial abilities then?
Either way, I'm fairly certain you should select PC racial traits if you are a PC.
Do you also lose your own racial abilities? If you do, can you hop from form to form and pick up all racial abilities then?
Either way, I'm fairly certain you should select PC racial traits if you are a PC.
You'd lose yours, unless barred by the text of Guided Rebirth. For example, your skill ranks explicity don't change, so humans wouldn't lose their bonus skill ranks if they transformed into something else; nor would something else gain skill by becoming human.
Similarly, your racial HP and ability scores don't change because they say you don't. But otherwise you have the racial abilities/traits of the humanoid subtype you are presently, not the one you were born as. So SLAs, telepathy, skill bonuses (which aren't ranks), etc.
Leaving feats off was no doubt a mistake and is the big issue. As written you would gain/lose the bonus feat of a human or ryphorian when you switch to/from such a race.
It's an interesting notion, but I doubt this was the intent, or the way it works.
With the 15th level Mystic epiphany Guided Reincarnation now giving a version of easy (negative levels aside) targeted race changes to all Mystics I feel my preferred interpretation is a lot more justified and balanced. I hope they rewrite this ability if the CRB ever gets a second printing.