Androids Morphic skin and what is Normal?

[Halek]

I was reading through the Armory and found a curios little magitech item called Morphic Skin. It has 3 tiers and allows you to alter your appearance.

My little rules question is in regards to androids and how they interact with the basic version of the item.

Morphic Skin:

Basic morphic skin allows you to alter your appearance and voice within the normal bounds for your species, age, weight, and sex. You can adjust your height by up to 3 inches, become broader or thinner, become lighter or darker, alter apparent musculature (although your ability scores do not change), and adjust the shape of your features and the color of your hair, scales, or similar minor features. You ignore any penalties to Disguise checks for altering these major features, but you lack enough control to precisely match a specific individual.

The relevant section from the android race section

"Nearly all androids feature a humanoid body shape and tattoo-like circuits that glow through their skin when operating at full power, but beyond this commonality, variations in physical appearance reflect an android’s design, role, and personality. Some take pains to blend into human society, while others deliberately display their mechanical nature. Though some androids are constructed or customize themselves to look like other races, such models are relatively rare."

So my question is can you use morphic skin to look like an android modeled after a race other than human? You can only alter your appearance within the normal bounds of your race. So could a human choose amber eyes? Can an android have elf ears?

The crux of the issue is relatively rare normal? I think it is normal for humans to have amber eyes. Having amber eyes is relatively rare. It is rarer than blue eyes. Barely anyone has red hair and that is still a normal hair color. So do we consider android's that look like catgirls within the normal bounds of an android race?

I am looking for both opinions and how you would rule it in your games.

[Damanta]

Androids have a humanoid body, so pretty much all humanoids are fair game I'd say.
So if you want your android to look like a Pathra instead of a human, they can look like that, I don't think you even need the Morphic Skin for that.

"Though some androids are constructed or customize themselves to look like other races, such models are relatively rare."

As players are generally the protagonists of the story, why not let them be such a rare model? Adventurers generally are those that don't exactly fit into a standard/average mold.

[Halek]

Damanta wrote:

Androids have a humanoid body, so pretty much all humanoids are fair game I'd say.

So if you want your android to look like a Pathra instead of a human, they can look like that, I don't think you even need the Morphic Skin for that.

"Though some androids are constructed or customize themselves to look like other races, such models are relatively rare."

As players are generally the protagonists of the story, why not let them be such a rare model? Adventurers generally are those that don't exactly fit into a standard/average mold.

No I understand that. What I am getting at is are those rare models considered within the normal range of android appearance. Can an android who looks like an elf use morphic skin to look like a catgirl and then change back?

[breithauptclan]

I don't think that the morphic skin should be able to change the android's appearance more than it could for other races. So an android that looks like an elf could use morphic skin to change things within the limits that an elf could use it for. So it could change height, age, weight and such, but the android elf would still look like an android elf.

[Nefreet]

This isn't really a "rules question"; it's more of a GM purview question.

One GM may consider a "normal" range to be limited to Android-specific variations, another may consider a wider range of physical alterations to be available.

Mechanically-speaking, the rules question answer would be that the augmentation only grants the bonuses that it tells us it does. You can flavor those however you want, but the dice roll isn't modified any more or less because of your flavor.

[Nefreet]

To visualize that better, Disguise DCs include:

• Minor details altered only (DC –5)
• Major feature altered (+2 to +5)
• Disguised as a different race of the same creature type (+2 to +8)
• Disguised as a different creature type (DC +10)
• Disguised as a different size category (DC +10)

Basic Morphic Skin helps with 1) Minor details, and 2) Major features. It wouldn't help with disguising as a different race, creature type or size.

Of interesting note, though, see how the "different race" section ranges from +2 to +8? That's there to give GMs leeway when considering a character's description and flavor. Want your red-haired gnome to look like a red-haired halfling? That's probably just +2. Want your 8 foot Vesk to look like a 135 pound elf? That's probably in the +8 category.