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So, I've been wondering about Morphic Skin. Specifically, I wanted to ask what is meant by the word "apparent" in the description of the Advanced Morphic Skin:
Found in Armory, pg. 93
"Advanced Morphic Skin offers the same options as the basic model, as well as the ability to change your apparent sex and age, alter your height by up to 1 foot, and gain features of another species of the same creature type (although you don't gain or lose abilities as a result."
Soooooo, here's the thing.
It says "apparent" sex. Does this mean that you alter your sex via an illusion? As in, you gain the primary and secondary sexual characteristics of another sex but close examination reveals otherwise? This seems to be unlikely given that the item's base description (pg. 92) refers to transmutation magic and mutagenic enzymes, implying the change is more substantive than just an illusion. However, what does "apparent" mean in this context? Do you have functional new genitalia, as if you'd consumed a serum of sex change? If the sex you elect to become is capable of bearing young, can you become pregnant? How potent is this mimicry?
I ask because a longstanding player for my campaign has an idea for a character that performs music onstage as a man, but adventures and goes through daily life as a woman. They have so far managed to maintain this by buying serums of sex change in bulk, but I was wondering if this magitech implant could allow them to effectively buy a "permanent" serum (i.e. one that can continue to be customized rather than single-use). And if yes, are the effects superficial or are they faithful recreations like the serum would produce.
Normally, "apparent" implies this is a falsified mimicry. However, given that the primary magic at work here is explicitly transmutation, which produces actual, substantive physiological changes, this seems like maybe the wrong read? What do you all think? Personally I've let the player interpret it however they wanted to be favorable (given that the hopping back and forth between sexes was more a flavor thing and mechanically there is nothing to worry about here), but now I'm more curious from a design standpoint? What do you think was the intent? And how would you interpret this yourselves?
I think it would cover everything but actually being able to reproduce or stand up to the scrutiny of someone jabbing you with a chem analyzer.
