Noppera-bo and nonhuman ancestries (spoilers to book 1 chapter 4)

[Shai2e]

Noppera-bos are described as faceless humans, which makes me wonder about their ineraction with nonhiman ancestries, especially ones who are significantly different like tengu or kitsune, or leshi who are not even humanoid.

1. Mechanically, can noppera-bos disguise themselves/steal faces from such ancestries?

2. In chapter 4 of book 1 it is mentioned that a lot of the noppera-bos in the lumber camp might assume the PCs are noppera-bo tricksters. Would that still be the case if the PCs are playing as one of those nonhuman ancestries?

[James Jacobs]

Spoiler:

1) Noppera-bos can steal faces from any thing that has a face. Their ability to Impersonate Shape allows them to take the form of any Small or Medium humanoid. Tengu and kitsune are both humanoids so they can be impersonated. Leshys are not humanoid so they can't be impersonated, but they can still have their faces stolen.

2) If your entire party is playing as non-humanoid ancestries (remember that tengu and kitsune ARE humanoid) then you as the GM are running an unusual group that isn't the expectation for most groups. In this case, the noppera-bo would not assume the PCs are tricksters and your PCs would have a trickier time infiltrating and would likely have to fight.

[Shai2e]

Making sure I understand: So noppera-bos can impersonate kitsune or tengu (and thus vice-versa)?
Also, I understand the noppera-bos have hearing as an accurate sense, but would a faceless one be able to tell if one of the PCs is a leshy?

[James Jacobs]

Shai2e wrote:

Making sure I understand: So noppera-bos can impersonate kitsune or tengu (and thus vice-versa)?

Also, I understand the noppera-bos have hearing as an accurate sense, but would a faceless one be able to tell if one of the PCs is a leshy?

Yes, they can. Look at the kitsune or tegu, and you'll see they both have the humanoid trait. Having the humanoid trait and being Small or Medium is the only restriction on that impersination.

Hearing as an accurate sense only lets you pinpoint things with your hearing, essentially letting you "see" with your ears. Whether or not that lets one tell if a PC is a leshy or not is up to the GM, but my suggestion is yes it would work just like seeing the leshy... unless the leshy was disguised.

[Sibelius Eos Owm]

If it helps, you might imagine precise hearing looking something like echolocation for bats, albeit without the need to make a high pitched ping every few seconds. It's basically as good as looking at people to see their features.

Additionally, to help picture what a noppera-bo version of a non-human would look like, there is a faceless tengu art in one if the books of this AP. I can't remember which one, but I suspect it's book 2

[Shai2e]

Thanks for the answers!