FAQ: Changelings

This is a time to think of all the things we’ve thankful for, and I for one am thankful that I haven’t been replaced by a changeling. So it seems like a good time to address a few of the questions I’ve received about changelings, the shapeshifters of Rising From The Last War.

First, let’s take a quick look at the foundation of the changeling:

As an action, you can change your appearance and your voice. You determine the specifics of the changes, including your coloration, hair length, and sex. You can also adjust your height and weight, but not so much that your size changes. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. You can’t duplicate the appearance of a creature you’ve never seen, and you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have. Your clothing and equipment aren’t changed by this trait. You stay in the new form until you use an action to revert to your true form or until you die.

A question that comes up quite often is given the threat posed by changelings impersonating people, what steps do Eberron’s factions and governments take to deal with them?

The everyday magic that drives the civilization of Khorvaire only goes up to around 3rd level. So you don’t have guards stationed with true seeing at every important location. Which is good, because from a metagame perspective, changelings should be able to fool people. That’s the point of playing a changeling. We don’t muzzle dragonborn to keep them from using their breath weapons or make wood elves wear cement boots to negate their extra movement. If you play a changeling, you should be able to fool people.

With that said, that doesn’t mean it should be EASY. The people of Khorvaire are very aware of the existence of changelings, and after centuries of coexistence have a very good idea of their capabilities. So let’s consider those for a moment.

  • As a changeling it is assumed that you can perfectly replicate the appearance of a creature you’ve seen before (just like someone using disguise self). No roll is required to duplicate basic physical appearance.
  • However, this doesn’t provide you with any knowledge of that person and their quirks. It’s taken for granted that you sound like them—the voice comes with the shape—but you don’t know their mannerisms or their vocabulary.
  • Likewise, the most crucial limitation on changelings is that clothing and equipment don’t change. You can look like a guard, but you don’t get the uniform for free.

So: People of Khorvaire know there are people out there that can duplicate their appearance… but that they can’t steal their memories or copy their belongings. One immediate impact of this is that people make a conscious effort to develop unique mannerisms and accessories. People establish in-jokes and call-and-response phrases. They will often have at least one unique, personal accessory—a piece of clothing, jewelery, even a pet—that they carry all the time as an identifying factor. In part, this is simply about developing a personal style; but in Eberron, it also has the absolute concrete underlay that “If you see me without this accessory, you should be suspicious.’

So in my case, I have a hat that I wear all the time. Everyone knows me by that hat. If I every show up without the hat, my friends will notice. They won’t automatically assume that I’m an imposter, but they WILL probably try out one of our shared jokes or stories and see if I respond to it. This same basic principle applies to institutions. Guards will have distinctive uniforms. They will have SOME sort of ID object—whether it’s identification papers, a brooch of rank—that will stand out if it’s absent. And they WILL have a system of passwords or phrases that they use to test people suspected of being imposters. Because after all, changelings aren’t the only threat; anyone can get a hat of disguise. In a high security location, this system could have more layers to further confuse people. The ID item could change regularly. Imagine an ID brooch that’s a common magic item, enchanted so you can change its color by touching it and saying a command word. The appropriate color could vary based on the current time and day of the week. So an imposter with disguise self could duplicate the appearance of the uniform; but if they don’t know the system, they won’t know what color their brooch should be.

While this isn’t foolproof, these sorts of systems can make it very difficult for a changeling to fool people. However, this is where DECEPTION comes into play. You don’t have to make a skill check to duplicate someone’s appearance. You have to make a skill check when you do something that makes them suspicious… and if you are successful, it means you’ve managed to allay their suspicions. If you duplicate my appearance and don’t have my hat, a successful Deception check means you’ve recognized that people are suspicious and done SOMETHING to convince them that nothing’s wrong. Perhaps you make an excuse about what happened to the hat. Perhaps you never even know the hat is the issue, but you’re just so skilled at putting people at ease that they forget about the hat. It’s the same principle with a password or an ID badge. The fact that you don’t know the password doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for you to get past a guard; an excellent Deception check means you’re able to convince them there’s a good reason you don’t have the password, or to otherwise get them to ignore it. On the other hand, there can also be inanimate security systems that can’t be fooled. An alarm could be tied to that common magic ID badge; if you enter the chamber without one, it will trigger the alarm. Which means you CAN still pull off this job; but you are going to have to somehow get one of those badges to do it.

In general, if you’re playing a changeling bard with expertise in Deception, you are SUPPOSED to be a master deceiver. You SHOULD be able to fool people. On the other hand, you’re not going to be able to simply walk into the Kundarak vault and steal all the treasure because you’re wearing someone’s face. They will have passphrases, and they will use magic that’s available (up to 3rd level); so you will have alarm, and in the case of a Kundarak vault you might even be questioned under a zone of truth. People KNOW changelings are around. They are PREPARED. But it’s always possible to overcome these with enough work and preparation.

One key point to bear in mind is that an easy way to not get caught is to not impersonate someone in the first place. The whole idea of a persona is that changelings will CREATE unique identities for their purposes. If a family of changelings created the identity of “Keith Baker,” they’re the ones who came up with the hat in the first place; they KNOW all the recognizable quirks of the character. The traveling changelings often don’t duplicate the appearance of outsiders; they simply use the persona best suited to the situation.

Another question that’s come up is can a changeling impersonate a warforged? This ties to a second question, can a changeling appear to be wearing a mask, but it’s actually just their face?

The answer to both of these hinges on the phrase your clothing and equipment aren’t changed by this trait. A mask is a piece of equipment, so no, you can’t make a fake mask. Likewise, you can duplicate the appearance of a warforged, but you can’t replicate armor—and most warforged are always wearing armor. So you could be a “naked’ warforged, which means you’ve just got the livewood musculature exposed, but that’s not normal for warforged and you’ll draw a lot of attention.

If a Changeling transformed into someone/thing with webbed hands and feet, or claws, would they have any benefit, even if it’s not a lot?

No. A changeling gains no mechanical benefit from their disguise. As suggested in the comments, I could imagine granting a Stealth bonus to a naked changeling who wants to shift the color of their skin to hide in a snowbank, but the key points there are “naked” and “snowbank” (IE, not a complex background). A changeling can make it LOOK like they have sharper teeth or claws, but this doesn’t actually give them natural weapons; it’s a deception. Essentially, it is a form of disguise self, NOT alter self.

Having said that, Exploring Eberron will have a few options that allow changelings to improve their natural shapeshifting abilities in order to get mechanical benefits from it.

Could a particularly skilled Changeling pull off a Cuttlefish impression?

No; the ability states “you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have.” With that said, I have in the past suggested the idea of a Changeling Menagerie—a changeling who is mechanically a Circle of the Moon druid, but who explains their class features as being derived from their mastery of shapeshifting as opposed to druidic traditions.

I’d love to know more about Changeling Culture. I do have a question, and it might be addressed in your book already, but here it is: In your Eberron, how would Changelings view love and romance? Would they stick with their persona the entire time they’re with their significant other, or show their true nature once they decide to commit to each other?

Exploring Eberron does go into more detail about changeling cultures, and the key point is that this isn’t a simple answer because there’s more than one changeling culture and the common answer (as there’s always exceptions in love!) would definitely vary by culture.

  • Stable changelings live openly as changelings and wouldn’t need to hide their true nature in the first place. I’d expect them to use personas as part of courting, but not to deceive the lover—rather to show them all the different facets of the changeling’s personality, to explore all the possibilities of their relationship. This could be confusing for a non-changeling lover, but between changelings it would be an important part of learning about one another. A final aspect of this could be developing an entirely new persona that is used ONLY with the lover: this is who I am with YOU.
  • Passers—lone changelings blending into non-changeling communities—might chose to share their true nature with a lover because they want to be completely honest with them. But there are passers who deny their own changeling nature and consider their chosen persona to BE their true identity; so they might believe they are BEING honest in using the persona. But part of the point is that passers aren’t really a culture; each one deals with unique circumstances.
  • Where the static changeling might create personas to show their facets to a lover, for the traveling changelings personas are important tools and stories. Many personas are shared, and any change you make to the core story of the persona would have to be followed by anyone else using the persona. If Tel-as-Bronson takes Jesse as a lover as Bronson and their cousin Dal also uses Bronson, then it’s Dal’s job to love Jesse when they are Bronson. So essentially, the question is are you taking this lover yourself—in which case, once you are certain about the relationship, you would DEFINITELY want them to know your true face—or is the persona taking this lover—in which case you’d never want to let them see your true face. This doesn’t mean the persona-lover would be any less intense or real; but it’s not part of YOUR story, it’s THEIR romance.

And these are just three of the more prevalent changeling cultures. So there’s a lot of possibilities.

I would think changelings must have some kind of internal law system for dealing with malcontents.

Remember that just like elves or for that matter drow, “changelings” don’t have anything as a whole. They aren’t a monolithic force; they have different cultures, and each culture will have their own traditions. With that said, yes, there would definitely be punishments for those whose actions threaten the community. Also bear in mind that theft of identity is a crime under the Code of Galifar; obviously casual actions can be hard to prove, but it’s an issue a changeling had best be aware of if they are going to be going before the law of the Five Nations.

One of the simplest but most severe punishments would be an indelible mark—a magical tattoo that cannot be removed by shapeshifting. The technique of the indelible mark is a secret held close by the elders of the Children of Jes, used only in severe situations. An equally severe punishment for serious offenses is removal of all or part of a limb; as noted above, changelings can’t create limbs with their power. With both of these punishments, the message is simple: if you abuse your gift, it can be taken from you. A lesser punishment would be the destruction of the criminal’s personal personas (through other changelings adopting the person and taking actions that can’t be undone).

Do changelings sometimes use their shapechanging artistically or outlandishly? Wild hair colors, patterned skin, strange eyes?

This is a question of culture. In stable changeling communities where they live openly as changelings, they absolutely use shapeshifting artistically and as a form of expression. The Queen of Stone has a changeling dancer changing patterns on their skin as part of the performance. Page 18 of Rising From The Last War notes that changeling names often incorporate a minor degree of cosmetic shapeshifting—Jin-with-vivid-blue-eyes. Traveling changelings and passers hiding their changeling nature obviously won’t use shapeshifting in this way, but still use it subtly to convey messages to family members.

Can all changelings get pregnant? Are they biologically asexual and just choose their current sex with shapeshifting?

Yes. What’s been stated in the past is that changelings set their sex with shapeshifting. Prior canon has said that a pregnant changeling actually loses the ability to shapeshift during the pregnancy. This seems extreme to me, but I could see the idea that they need to maintain a female form in order to maintain the pregnancy (and that shifting form very early in the pregnancy would simply end it, so changelings have a very easy form of birth control). The idea that changing sex is an instinctual thing, like flipping a light switch, and that a normal changeling couldn’t, for example, assume a male form but keep the uterus. With that said, if you had a changeling called out as having greater control over their abilities (for example, the Changeling Menagerie druid I’ve mentioned elsewhere) I might allow that.

Can changelings mate with non-changelings, and are their children full-blooded changelings?

What we’ve said before is that changelings can mate with most humanoids; if the child is born to a changeling mother they’ll be a changeling, while if the mother is another species there’s a 50/50% chance for either species. A changeling child is born with the apparent species of their mother, and the shapeshifting ability doesn’t set in for around a year. This is the origin of the name “changeling” — because when someone’s previously human child suddenly becomes a pale thing, it was once thought that the original child had been taken to Thelanis.

Having said that: while changelings CAN mate with other humanoids, I’d say that it is RARE for them to impregnate creatures of other species. It can happen, but the fertility rate isn’t that high. It’s quite possible that humans and other human-compatible species are the most viable. With that said…

Are changelings biologically compatible with other changelings or are they parasitic with humanoids?

Changelings are biologically compatible with changelings. Most changeling cultures are relatively insular, precisely because many traditions of the culture are tied to shapeshifting and a fluid outlook on identity, and it’s difficult to integrate a single-skin into the community. There certainly are changelings who choose to pursue relationships with members of other species —see the changeling romance answer above—but it’s not the common practice.

Can they disguise injuries, like if a guard cut your face and you escaped but they try to track you by the cut?

It would depend on the extent of the injury. There is no mechanical benefit to changeling shapeshifting, so they can’t actually heal themselves. However, I’d personally say that they can conceal minor injuries. If it’s a specific story point—an especially grievous wound inflicted for the express purpose of marking the changeling—I’d probably have the changeling make a Wisdom (Medicine) check to simply seal the wound. If they failed that, I’d still likely let them minimize and conceal it, but if someone was explicitly looking for an injured changeling it would be grounds for requiring a Charisma (Deception) check to conceal it.

What if you cut off a changeling’s arm?

Changeling shapeshifting provides no mechanical benefit, and as a changeling “you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have.” The ability to regrow a lost limb would certainly be a mechanical benefit. So as noted above, this is a particular brutal form of justice in a changeling community.

Can changelings fake convincing dragonmarks? Can changelings be tattooed?

Yes and yes. A changeling can duplicate the appearance of a creature they’ve seen; there’s no exception stating “unless that creature has a dragonmark.” With that said, dragonmarks glow when used; if the character is attempting to make it appear functional, I’d definitely require a Charisma (Deception) check, and for them to have seen the mark used before. And note that this sort of fake dragonmark won’t let you use a dragonmark focus item.

As for being tattooed, changelings can definitely be tattooed, and they can just as easily erase the tattoo with a moment’s thought. As mentioned above, the Children of Jes have a curse known as the indelible mark which can only be removed using a spell that would remove a curse, but a mundane tattoo can be easily faked or removed.

What’s up with doppelgangers? We know changelings believe they’re a kind of insane changeling, but how true is that if doppelgangers seem to come from Khyber?

Under 5E lore, doppelgangers are changelings twisted by the daelkyr Dyrrn the Corruptor. A general belief is that this change is actually primarily psychological. Doppelgangers have a fundamentally alien outlook. They are predators who so paranoia and chaos when not working for a specific Cult of the Dragon Below, but there’s often no apparent motive for their actions. This is largely about the horror of a creature who knows your thoughts, who can kill you with its bare hands and steal your face, but that you don’t know WHY or what it wants.

One possibility is that doppelgangers are biologically distinct from changelings. Another possibility is that they are physically identical, and that the doppelganger’s superior abilities are simply unlocked by its alien psychology. With this said, it’s possible that changelings can also unlock these same abilities—but that in so doing they will lose their original personality and become doppelgangers.

Would a scholar be able to tell the difference between a changeling and a doppelganger? Would a changeling be able to recognize a doppelganger if they saw it using its abilities?

In their natural forms, doppelgangers and changelings are quite different. Just take a look at the picture in the Monster Manual! Doppelgangers are hairless and less human in their proportions. If you embrace the idea of the changeling becoming a doppelganger, once it underwent the psychological transition its “true form” would change to match the hairless doppelganger form.

With that said, a changeling could DISGUISE itself as a doppelganger (if it had see one in its true form), and vice versa!

As for recognizing it, the BASIC shapeshifting action is identical. You don’t see someone shift faces and say “That’s not a changeling, it’s a doppelganger!” You recognize it by its ability to read thoughts and by its deadly unarmed attack.

Does the 2nd level Moonbeam work against changelings? If so, wouldn’t this have large implications in the viability of hiding as a changeling? Likewise, are changelings immune to the polymorph spell, which fails when used on shapeshifters?

WotC has confirmed that changelings are considered to have the Shapechanger subtype. So they are indeed immune to polymorph and can be affected by moonbeam.

With that said: Moonbeam isn’t a particularly effective changeling test. It’s a 2nd level spell, so it is in the world, but that’s still not something people use all the time. It’s also a druid spell, and druidic magic isn’t common in the Five Nations. Most important, it inflicts 2d10 radiant damage, which is MORE than enough to kill a normal person. So using moonbeam to check if someone’s a changeling is like shooting them in the face to see if they’re a vampire.

To what degree are 4th (Private Sanctum), 5th (Geas), and 6th (Forbiddence) level spells available to high end buyers (eg Royalty). I know the 3.5 Dreadhold write up had antimagic, which is 8th level, but I don’t have a sense to grade from “Standard enclave” to “The most impenetrable prison of all time”. I know greater marks go up to 5th, but are 5th level spells that aren’t on a Spells of the Mark list available for the ultrawealthy?

This isn’t strictly a changeling question, but it ties to the general topic of detection. First of all: one of the general principles of Eberron is that only magic of up to 3rd level is commonly available — employed by magewrights, etc. This article discusses a range of options that fall under that umbrella, based on alarm, glyph of warding, and arcane lock.

Spells of 4th level and above can be available, but they are rare and expensive—not services you should take for granted. The Spells of the Mark tables are good guidelines but are NOT complete. These are spells heirs may be able to CAST, but the direct powers of a mark are not as important as the ability to use focus items – and for example, I have a focus item in Exploring Eberron that allows a dwarf with the mark of warding to cast guards & wards. Effects such as forbiddance and true seeing are POSSIBLE, but they should be RARE, not something anyone would take for granted. It’s the sort of thing where a commoner might have HEARD of a Kundarak houseward but never seen one.

Meanwhile, Dreadhold is the most secure prison in Khorvaire. It is LEGENDARY. Yes, it employs forbiddance and antimagic—but that doesn’t mean you should find these effects in a typical city jail.

Doesn’t the Shapechanger ability of the changeling invalidate the 9th level Infiltration Expertise and 13th level Imposter ability of the Assassin rogue? Isn’t that too powerful? I assume that a changeling should get advantage on Deception checks because of its disguise, but that’s what Imposter does.

I don’t see the conflict between these abilities. ANYONE can get the ability to change their appearance as a changeling does. Disguise self is a 1st level spell and the hat of disguise is an uncommon magic item, and both of these are BETTER than the changeling’s Shapechanger power because they allow the user to change the appearance of their equipment and clothing. It’s been called out in the past that hats of disguise are standard issue for elite members of the Royal Eyes of Aundair; if this uncommon item entirely negated the 9/13 abilities of the assassin, it would be pretty sad for the assassin.

The 9th level Infiltration Expertise ability allows you to “establish the history, profession, and affiliations for an identity… For example, you might acquire appropriate clothing, letters of introduction, and official-looking certification…” The changeling Shapechanger ability doesn’t give you ANY of these things, specifically NOT letting you change your clothing. Infiltration Expertise is the perfect tool for a changeling who wants to create a new persona. The Shapechanger ability changes their face, but Infiltration Expertise creates an IDENTITY that will hold up if the disguise is questioned.

Meanwhile, the basic idea of the Shapechanger ability—like the hat of disguise or disguise self—is that the disguise is PHYSICALLY perfect, but that the changeling will have to make a Deception check if there’s reason for someone to be suspicious. Imposter gives a changeling—or an assassin using a hat of disguise—advantage on any Deception check, which is extremely useful.

A key point here: You suggest “The implication to me would be that a Changeling would have an advantage on deception for casual disguises.” I disagree. The disguise itself is physically perfect and requires no roll (again, like disguise self and hat of disguise). If there is a reason that the disguise would be questioned—they run into a close friend of the person they’re impersonating, they don’t know a password or have an important identifying object—they have to make a Deception check. They don’t inherently get advantage because of the disguise; they are MAKING the check because the disguise is being questioned. To get advantage they’d have to have something else that shifted the odds in their favor — they’d done extensive research, someone provides a distraction, or they’re an expert assassin with the Imposter ability.

So in short, being a changeling is like having a hat of disguise that doesn’t affect your clothing. It lets you change your personal appearance, nothing more. If the disguise is questioned you have to make a Deception check. If you have the Imposter feature you get advantage on this check; and if you have Infiltration Expertise, you ALSO have the proper clothing, identification, and background connections for the role… which reduces the chance that your appearance will BE questioned in the first place.

I’ll be writing more about changeling culture in my upcoming book Exploring Eberron. In my next post I’ll talk about my plans for PAX Unplugged and The Adventure Zone: Bureau of Balance!

And thanks as always to my Patreon supporters! I hope to do more with the site in the future, and support will help determine what’s possible.

If you have questions or thoughts about changelings, post them below!

141 thoughts on “FAQ: Changelings

  1. To what degree are 4th (Private Sanctum), 5th (Geas), and 6th (Forbiddence) level spells available to high end buyers (eg Royalty). I know the 3.5 Dreadhold write up had antimagic, which is 8th level, but I don’t have a sense to grade from “Standard enclave” to “The most impenetrable prison of all time”. I know greater marks go up to 5th, but are 5th level spells that aren’t on a Spells of the Mark list available for the ultrawealthy?

      • I can’t make an original comment so I figured I’d reply to you. If a changeling has a child and was shifted to the same race of the person they were making babies with, would the child be born a half breed, or pure blooded? For instance, if a wood elf and a changeling shifted as a wood elf had a child, would it be/appear fully like a wood elf, or would it look/be a half-breed between the two?

        • It would appear it’s a pure blooded wood elf, until his/her Skin gets pale, hair gets white and eyes get void-black. when this happens, that Half-Changeling, Half-Woodelf unknowingly do this change, and aren’t very profficient with changing his form, so everyone that sees it, should know it’s a half-Changeling…
          Then, it can and will start shapeshifting

  2. I’d love to know more about Changeling Culture. I do have a question, and it might be addressed in your book already, but here it is: In your Eberron, how would Changelings view love and romance? Would they stick with their persona the entire time they’re with their significant other, or show their true nature once they decide to commit to each other?

    The way I see it, at least in my Eberron, is that a changeling dropping their disguise around someone they love is an ultimate sign of trust– no deceptions or lies to be had. It makes sense to me, given that if they ever have kids it will likely be obvious who they really are if their race turns out to be a changeling, but I’d love to hear your take on it.

    • I may have forgotten to mention it – good question, and I’ve answered it in the main post. In short, for some changelings the true face is the sign of ultimate trust; some see a persona as their true face; some CREATE a persona that is who they are when they are with their beloved; and for some, the relationship may actually be between the persona and the lover, not the core personality.

    • I think I can answer part of this question because this was mentioned in the Eberron Discord some time ago– I mentioned having a session where my Changeling had to disguise herself by turning her skin snow white and laying low in the 3 inch deep snow while one of our party members (a Hobgoblin) was trying to negotiate with some bugbears. Keith said that he would have granted advantage on her stealth check if she were either naked or had matching attire.

      So in terms of pure disguise, depending on your DM, it’s reasonable to be given advantage on your stealth check if you made your appearance a lot like your surroundings– however, you can’t form anything that would add a mechanic in the game– claws that can deal more damage than a normal unarmed hit, or armor from a warforged (as mentioned in the post.) People would likely know right away if you have shifter claws but can’t claw the heck out of paper.

      • Ah.
        fair enough.

        Still, stealth is still rather useful…
        i’m imagining a Changeling Rouge blending in with statues in a museum, or making their skin green and full of flaps in order to hide in a bush…

        • If the changeling turns rouge, that’s pretty much the opposite of camouflage for hiding in snow, statuary, or pretty much anywhere besides an abattoir.
          It might be a popular color if there’s an equivalent to ‘Rule 34’ for certain establishments in lower Sharn,

      • Other than the mechanical benefit of having (or not) a uterus depending on your mood? Sounds a l like a bit of a mechanical benefit to me.

  3. Could a changeling lycanthrope disguise themself as a different type of hybrid animal? A werewolf posing as a werebear?

    • It’s an interesting question. Personally, I think I’d allow it, but I think it’s a DM’s decision. But it wouldn’t provide any mechanical benefit; it wouldn’t change your natural weapons, for example.

      • Scent detection might be a thing. Changelings commonly alter their visual appearance, and they might be excellent voice mimics by reshaping their vocal apparatus, but I think changing their pores to the point of altering their skin oil scent could require some training and preparation. To a creature with olfactory senses like those of a wolf, having the wrong scent could be the equivalent of it being the wrong color to us. Imagine a colorblind illusionist creating vibrant carnelian trees and wondering why so few viewers believe them.

        • But by the same token, the Shapechanger ability doesn’t SAY that it’s ineffective against creatures with an acute sense of smell. The ability is SUPPOSED to be reliable, and if you could just train a dog to sniff out any changeling, Kundarak would have changeling-sniffers at every vault and you wouldn’t get very far.

          My counter would be that a changeling inherits the BASIC smell of a creature when it duplicates it, but it may not be a perfect match. So you can’t train a dog to smell ANY disguised changeling. But if you’re trying to convince a dog you’re its beloved master, your inability to precisely match their scent would call for a Deception check… just as a human would notice that I’m not wearing my usual hat. It’s a sign that something’s wrong and will raise suspicious but it’s not an absolute counter to the ability, but it’s not immediate, absolute exposure.

          • Fair enough, that’s what I was going for with the idea that it could take some training or preparation. You could use the general scent of a humanoid/canine to pass in most situations, but being accepted by a specific pack of werewolves might take a fur or clothing sample to get just right.
            As to the Kundarak vault hounds, you probably only need to get the race right, in most cases, It would be pretty expensive to train & maintain a specific hound to recognize a small set of individuals (family) by scent profile, but maybe that could be a part of an extreme security package for the very wealthy and paranoid?

            • Certainly! The idea that a loyal dog would be suspicious of a changeling or that it would be especially hard to fool a pack of werewolves makes sense to me. It’s simply that I’d still allow the changeling the opportunity to make a Deception check to overcome it—it would be a CHALLENGE that would make it difficult for them, but not an insurmountable one.

              I could also imagine a changeling being able to overcome this with clever preparation, if they could come up with a clear reason WHY they smell wrong… fall into a vat of vinegar, and be able to say “Sorry about the smell — vinegar accident, y’know!”

            • I’m also not adverse to the idea that Vadalis might be able to magebreed some sort of animal with truesight as an extreme solution (I feel that there is a monstrosity with truesight out there) — I’d just want it to be an extreme solution that is only available to the extremely wealthy or in places like Dreadhold. It’s an option, but not something commonplace that makes changelings (or rakshasa) obsolete.

          • I could see Vadalis magebreeding Tressyms for it, sine they already see through invisibility passively and have a Keen Senses variant for advantage on Perception checks that rely on smell, and their lore says they’re the result of wizardly experimentation as well.

            • Tressyms are an interesting question. It certainly seems possible for Vadalis to be the source of tressyms in Eberron. However, they are fundamentally CATS, which says to me that they are going to do what THEY want to do when they want to do it.
              Human: “Tressym! Why didn’t you warn us about that invisible assassin?”
              Tressym: “You didn’t ask.”
              There’s also the ongoing question of how Vadalis deals with INTELLIGENT beasts, such as tressyms and giant owls. An average tressym has an Intelligence of 11 and understands Common, even if it can’t speak it. If Vadalis is breeding and selling them, that’s essentially a form of slavery. With giant owls, the general implication is that Vadalis maintains communities of giant owls and that they WORK for the house; it sells their services, but you can’t just buy a giant owl. It could be that you can buy a tressym, but only if the tressym chooses YOU; the payment is less about buying property, and more a fee for matchmaking services.

  4. The book, RftLW, covered about The Tyrants, but it never touched about the Cabinet of Faces. What’s like to be for a changeling under their employ?

    • That’s a little beyond the scope of what I can answer in this article; the Cabinet is a good topic for a full article of its own, when I have time.

  5. So Changelings can’t change into a form with multiple extra limbs, but what about something with fewer limbs? Say they want to impersonate a veteran of the last war who lost his legs, or an arm and a leg, do they have issues with compensating for the loss?

    • The text of the ability is “You must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have.” I’d personally read this as “If you have four limbs, you can only assume a form that has four limbs.” Your bones may be more malleable than a normal humanoid, but you can’t just get rid of your arm. So in my opinion, a changeling with legs wouldn’t be able to impersonate a veteran who has lost their legs.

      • This has reminded me of the fact that RFTLW has added in prosthetic limbs as magic items. I am starting to wonder if “While the prosthetic is attached and attuned to you, it functions identically to the body part it is replacing” includes being able to be shapeshifted by a changeling who is using one. Does the prosthetic limb count as an actual limb for all intents and purposes, or does it count as equipment for this ability? And in the case of it being alterable through shape shifting, does change back when it is detached or when it becomes unattuned? Is the changeling that’s replaced each of their limbs with prosthetic ones seeing their shapeshifting options expanded or limited?

        The description of the item neglects to mention the appearance/realism of this fake limb, so I don’t know how obvious the use of one is meant to be, or for that matter, how easily a changeling could fake having one up until the point someone asks them to take it off.

        • To me, the logic is pretty simple. The limb is a magic item. Magic items are equipment. The shapechanger ability doesn’t affect equipment. Thus, you can’t change the appearance of the limb, just as you can’t change magic gloves or a suit of armor. I could certainly imagine a limb specifically enchanted to be able to change its appearance, but I wouldn’t allow it by default.

          Likewise, I wouldn’t allow a changeling to fake having one any more than I’d allow them to fake wearing a pair of gloves or a mask. It’s a piece of equipment; changelings can’t replicate equipment.

          But that’s me!

          • I just now noticed that the image to the right of the prosthetic limb’s description shows an example of one. I was under the mistaken impression that they looked just like the real thing. I guess a rich enough character might be able to get one that passes for the real thing though. I was also under the impression that their limb replacement ability was much like that of the Arcane Propulsion Arm, but being able to be applied to legs as well, such that one being used for a foot could be switched to being an entire arm.

            I suppose that a changeling villain that got a prosthetic that passes for an orc’s limb might be fun to chase through Sharn. Their checks of various orc NPCs gets interrupted when they overhear a random person telling a friend about the weird elf they saw that had one arm double, no, TRIPLE the thickness of the other.

  6. With widely available magic up to level 3, and moonbeam being a second level spell that can reveal shapechangers, does Moonbeam work against changelings? If so, wouldn’t this have large implications in the viability of hiding as a changeling?

    • Given that the Changeling ability is called “Shapechanger”, I’d imagine that it’d be ruled that way most of the time (though I’m certainly no authority).

      However, bearing in mind that it’s a leveled spell with a very short duration, I wouldn’t be too worried; it’s also the sort of thing that could easily kill most people so it seems unlikely to be used to scan for intruders. In addition, it’s only available to Paladins (of the Ancients) and Druids, so you’re unlikely to see it as a ritual or as part of security in any given city. Essentially, if they’re using Moonbeam on you, they’re already going for the kill so losing your disguise isn’t a huge concern; the disadvantage on the check is another matter.

      I wonder if that spell should be opened up to Clerics of the Silver Flame, perhaps instead of “Flaming Sphere” as part of the Light Domain. It’s very much a spell that a devout member of the church that stands against Supernatural Evil should be able to cast, especially in a world where “Supernatural Evil” is usually a disguised Rakshasa or, rather personally to the CotSF, fiendish Lycanthropy. That bit’s not related to Changelings, oops; they’re only supernaturally evil if they choose to be. Just a thought on the spell.

      • These are essentially the same points I make above; even assuming you have access to it, you don’t want to use a spell that will easily kill an innocent just to check whether they might be a shapechanger.

        In my answer I call out that it’s druidic as a reason it WOULDN’T be seen in the Five Nations, but I agree – it makes a lot of sense as a spell that would be granted by the Silver Flame, and I could see it replacing either Flaming Sphere or Scorching Ray in the Light domain.

        • Ah, yes, sorry! I hadn’t seen your response (page was open for a while), so I just said what immediately came to mind. Definitely didn’t mean to just parrot.

          Also, cool! Or, the opposite, I suppose. Radiant! Thank you very much for the response.

      • Yes, I agree that changeling PCs would be treated as “shapechangers” mechanically – if they didn’t want that to be the case, they wouldn’t have renamed the racial trait from “Change Appearance” to “Shapechanger”. The NPC changeling having the “shapechanger” tag further supports this.

        • I have confirmed with WotC: Changelings ARE supposed to be considered shapechangers. As such, they are indeed immune to polymorph and vulnerable to moonbeam.

            • That’s really interesting, and seems like a great alternative to moonbeam for sniffing out changelings. If you can’t turn them into a frog and back, they’re a shapechanger.

              Unless a changeling could choose to suppress that immunity and allow themselves to be polymorphed. But I think that’d have to be a homebrewed thing, don’t think there’s anything to allow it in RAW.

          • So then just one quick question. I’m planning a Changeling Lore Bard in the near future. So can a changeling bard or druid for that matter, cast polymorph on themselves?

            • The rules as written simply say “The spell has no effect on a shapechanger.” It’s up to a DM to decide how to interpret the rules at their table. PERSONALLY, at MY table, I would say that a shapechanger has the OPTION to resist the effect… that if they choose to resist, they will automatically succeed on the saving throw, but that they can CHOOSE to change. But that’s MY house rule; as written, I’d say the answer is no.

  7. I would think changelings must have some kind of internal law system for dealing with malcontents. I mean, just imagine the harm one rogue changeling could do to a community if they took their personas and took it for a metaphorical joyride. (that’s rogue changeling, not changeling rogue). What kind of trials and punishments do you think changelings carry out on their wayward brethren?

    • I would think changelings must have some kind of internal law system for dealing with malcontents.

      Remember that just like elves or for that matter drow, “changelings” don’t have anything as a whole. They aren’t a monolithic force; they have different cultures, and each culture will have their own traditions. With that said, yes, there would definitely be punishments for those whose actions threaten the community. Also bear in mind that theft of identity is a crime under the Code of Galifar; obviously casual actions can be hard to prove, but it’s an issue a changeling had best be aware of if they are going to be going before the law.

      One of the simplest but most severe punishments would be an indelible mark—a magical tattoo that cannot be removed by shapeshifting. The technique of the indelible mark is a secret held close by the elders of the Children of Jes, used only in severe situations. An equally severe punishment for serious offenses is removal of all or part of a limb; as noted above, changelings can’t create limbs with their power. With both of these punishments, the message is simple: if you abuse your gift, it can be taken from you. A lesser punishment would be the destruction of the criminal’s personal personas (through other changelings adopting the person and taking actions that can’t be undone).

      • Ultimately a lot of this is down to DM interpretation, but how does “the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have” apply to situations like the removal of an arm? If I tried to change my appearance to emulate a one armed elf, does it *fail* or do I look like that elf but with both arms intact? Conversely, If I’m missing an arm and try to look like Gimli, is that no-longer possible, or would I appear to be Gimli missing an arm?

        Following from that, if I want to fake a Thri-Kreen, or Centaur, can I choose to be a two armed Thri-kreen, or a Two-Legged Centaur? Etc. (I’m estimating that a Centaur missing 80~90% of the horse body would be medium sized)

      • You have provided some very effective punishments for changeling criminals who get caught. But changelings are not so easily caught; they can commit a crime in a convincing disguise and then evade the law by assuming different personas, even posing as a bystander and giving misleading information. How does law enforcement go about catching changeling criminals when they are so naturally evasive? Might they carry magic items that can temporarily suppress shapechanging?

  8. In my home game I’ve always portrayed doppelgangers and changelings as the same race. Doppelgangers are born as normal changelings, but as they grow up they become especially talented in shapeshifting, and with training can easily attain a flexibility in form far surpassing most changelings. I have an NPC doppelganger who recalled not having control over this power as a child, somewhat reminescent of an X-Men mutant — shrinking when scared, turning red and growing fangs unwillingly when angry, etc. How valid would this be as a depiction of a doppelganger, especially since the reveal that they’re actually changelings corrupted by Dyrrn?

    • What you’ve described is the 4E approach to changelings and doppelgangers: that the only thing differentiating them is expertise. In 5E, the most important difference is psychological. Dyrrn changed the MINDS of the doppelgangers; we don’t understand how they think or want they want, but they aren’t driven by the normal desires of changelings or humans. They are fundamentally ALIEN. They generally use their abilities to cause sorrow and misfortune—but like the mind flayers and the daelkyr themselves, we generally don’t know why.

      The purpose of this is to amplify the inherent horror of the doppelganger. It knows your thoughts. It can kill you with its bare hands and steal your face. And yet its motives are an utter mystery.

      So I see nothing wrong with saying that in 5E, a changeling could potentially develop the abilities of a doppelganger. The question is whether doing so means opening your mind to the alien CONSCIOUSNESS of the doppelganger—whether it’s possible to wield these powers and not become an agent of Dyrrn.

      But as with all things, that’s up to player and DM.

      • That’s a good point. Although if the two ideas are combined (it’s never mentioned HOW Dyrrn makes doppelgangers after all), it means that any changeling child might bear the taint of Dyrrn and grow up to become a doppelganger…in that way the horror element applies as much to the changeling community said doppelganger arises from. A child that appeared not just normal, but GIFTED, becomes more and more alien as he grows up, eventually abandoning all sense of humanity and becoming a monster…

  9. In your Thorn of Breland book series, Thorn wore a “shiftweave” garment that had changeling qualities. Would it be entirely conceivable that a Changeling could acquire this (I presume quite costly) clothing item to have quite the upper hand in being able to mimic both appearance, AND their clothing? It’s something I’m considering in my photo-novel that features the custom figures(approx 4″ tall) that I’ve created of many of the various races. I want to give the female changeling character a garment with said “shiftweave” ability.

    • Shiftweave is a common magic item described on page 279 of Rising From The Last War. It’s definitely useful for changelings, but it can only assume five specific forms, so it’s not entirely unlimited. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything also has the Cloak of Many Fashions, which would be useful for a changeling.

  10. Following up on questions about moonbeam and such, this could have strange implications for Polymorph. It fails automatically on Shapechangers, but if any race seems like it would be receptive to Polymorph it would be Changeling. This also has the problem a taking away a pretty fun spell for changeling bards or similar classes.

    • It’s important to note that only an unwilling creature makes a save against polymorph, and that a shapechanger automatically succeeds at this save… they aren’t immune to the spell, they just get to choose if they want to allow it or not

  11. Are there any specific differences in how halflings, gnomes, small goblins and kobolds feel about changelings (whose size they cannot assume)? A halfling could be fairly sure the stranger on the plains is also a halfling in that case, no? In Sarlona are the only people the Thousand Eyes can’t impersonate dromites?

    Would this lead to fewer ingrained “identification tells” culturally? I can already imagine gnomes are paranoid enough anyways to still do it…

    Or are changelings and doppelgangers (who can assume small size) so associated in the minds of people that the defense against magical shapechanging also exists among the small people?

    Also, do changelings sometimes use their shapechanging artistically or outlandishly? Wild hair colors, patterned skin, strange eyes? Assuming such an out and out reveal wouldn’t lead to exile and lynch mobs I mean

    • Also, do changelings sometimes use their shapechanging artistically or outlandishly?

      This is a question of culture. In stable changeling communities where they live openly as changelings, they absolutely use shapeshifting artistically and as a form of expression. The Queen of Stone has a changeling dancer changing patterns on their skin as part of the performance. Page 18 of Rising From The Last War notes that changeling names often incorporate a minor degree of cosmetic shapeshifting—Jin-with-vivid-blue-eyes. Traveling changelings and passers hiding their changeling nature obviously won’t use shapeshifting in this way, but still use it subtly to convey messages to family members.

      As for small creatures, this is still a world where disguise self and alter self exist, not to mention fiends, dragons, and other shapeshifters; changelings are by no means the only concern. And doppelgangers can become small creatures. If anything, these cultures would be MORE paranoid about shapeshifters, because if you’re being impersonated by a fiend or a doppelganger, it’s much more likely to be a threat than if it’s just a changeling. And let’s face it, the Zil gnomes are extremely detail conscious purely as a matter of principle, and make up secret languages and call-and-response phrases just for fun.

  12. It occurs to me that travelling changelings with shared personas would sometimes find themselves in romantic situations like that found in THE PRESTIGE. I assume it’s down to individual psychology as to whether they’re able to handle it better, but overall it’s more likely to be the case – especially if you’re already culturally used to assuming shared personas.

  13. What about a changeling with an aberrant dragonmark? can they hide it’s existence easily? or would it show up every time they used it while in another form? Could a changeling with an aberrant dragonmark more easily fake a different dragonmark (since it would likely glow much like the real counterpart when used)?

    • MECHANICALLY there’s nothing that prevents an aberrant dragonmark from being concealed using magical effects (such as changeling shapeshifting or disguise self). It would such if having an aberrant dragonmark meant your changeling shapeshifting was useless. So I would allow a changeling to hide their aberrant dragonmark, yes. I’d PERSONALLY say that the mark manifests when it is used, overriding any form of disguise – but that’s me.

      Could a changeling with an aberrant dragonmark more easily fake a different dragonmark (since it would likely glow much like the real counterpart when used)

      The idea of making your aberrant dragonmark look like a true dragonmark is interesting. But the issue is that aberrant and true dragonmarks aren’t similar in appearance and the behavior of an aberrant dragonmark DOESN’T resemble the manifestation of a true dragonmark. It might fool people who have little experience with true dragonmarks, but if you’re dealing with, say, a dragonmarked house I’d think it would raise MORE suspicion.

  14. Grateful you haven’t been replaced by a changeling? Sounds like something a Changeling would say!

  15. Do you believe objects and magical experimentation have been done to amplify or alter the changeling’scapabilities? As it is done with dragonmarks.

    What kind of objects or developments you think would be?

    (Even if they are uncommon and not widespread)

  16. Changelings can’t imitate halflings and gnomes due to size difference. Is this limitation known in-universe? Seems like something Sivis and Ghallanda would take pride in. Can a Changeling copy someone’s makeup or is this another defense?

    One piece of art shows a Changeling copying a portrait. Does this allow them to, if a competent artist or helped by one, make original forms not copied from any particular person (as they could do in 3E)? Can these original forms be outside the natural? Non-natural hair colors (though what’s “non-natural” is in question with sorcerers and manifest zones is another question)? A race that doesn’t actually exist (but has the right body structure)?

    • Regarding the Changeling with the portrait, just wanna say it seems to me a tribute to Dorian Gray…
      That is all.

    • Keith addresses a similar point to the one in your first paragraph in another comment:

      “As for small creatures, this is still a world where disguise self and alter self exist, not to mention fiends, dragons, and other shapeshifters; changelings are by no means the only concern. And doppelgangers can become small creatures. If anything, these cultures would be MORE paranoid about shapeshifters, because if you’re being impersonated by a fiend or a doppelganger, it’s much more likely to be a threat than if it’s just a changeling. And let’s face it, the Zil gnomes are extremely detail conscious purely as a matter of principle, and make up secret languages and call-and-response phrases just for fun.

    • Someone’s already quoted my answer to the first question. The second question is answered in the main article, in response to the question “Do changelings sometimes use their shapechanging artistically or outlandishly? Wild hair colors, patterned skin, strange eyes?” In my opinion, yes: a changeling has to see a thing to IMPERSONATE it, but in my Eberron they can absolutely change their form in ways that are entirely unnatural – creating unique shapes that aren’t impersonating anything.

  17. If a changeling’s true form is having the race with silver-white hair, does it mean that they are not considered hairless and can have facial and body hair to differentiate themselves from other changelings?

    • Changelings aren’t hairless and can differentiate themselves from other changelings with facial and body hair. With that said, a changeling can CHANGE their facial hair or body hair on a whim. And while their NATURAL hair is silver-white, they can MAKE it whatever color they want. Changelings in stable communities may not conceal the fact that they are changelings, but that doesn’t require them to wear their unaltered true form at all times; they can and in my opinion do use their shapeshifting powers in cosmetic and social ways.

      So Dal may wear their true FACE most of the time, but they usually have red hair when they’re happy and blue hair when they’re sad, and the length of the hair indicates the intensity of the mood.

      • Still, normal humanoids can assume that they are changelings from their pale gray skin color and white eyes, if they appear in public as themselves in their true form, with/without hair?

        • Yes, most people have an understanding of what changelings look like, and if they see one in its natural form they’ll know what it is.

  18. Can a changeling put the floating +1 ability score increase in Charisma? That would make them be the first race where it is possible to start the game with a +3 increase in a single ability score.

    • Yes, WotC has confirmed that this is the design intent. I wasn’t personally involved in this decision, so I can’t go into any more detail about the reasoning, but that is correct: they ARE the first race that can get a +3 in a single ability score.

  19. Hi Keith!

    I don’t remember if you addressed this in the Discord server, but if you haven’t: regarding the phrase “you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have”, there has been some disagreement tails fall afoul of such. By the strictest definition, a tail isn’t a “limb”, but in practice its a significant deviation from the changeling default body structure that it could be ruled as an extra “limb” in practice. My personally take is that tails are fine, and that changelings can change into humanoid forms with tails, such as tieflings and lizardfolk — provided that they’ve seen one before and have that as a reference to go off of. Would you rule the same or differently?

    • I think the big question to be is whether the tail is a prehensile tool. I don’t believe lizardfolk can DO anything useful with their tails, I think they are just THERE. Essentially, I’d probably let a changeling fake a tail but say that they can’t DO anything with it and that it probably has a more limited range of motion than a proper tail for the species; if they got pulled into a traditional tiefling tail-dance, that would trigger a need for a Deception check. (“Oh, sorry, my tail was paralyzed at Starilaskur — it hasn’t been the same since.”)

      Again, the guiding principle is that a changeling gains no mechanical benefit from shapeshifting. If the tail provides no mechanical benefit, I’d probably allow it. But they couldn’t create a prehensisle tail that could hold a dagger.

      • A similar question, in an upcoming game a player has asked to what extent he can mimic an animal. Knowing that limbs have to be the same arrangement and given your answer on tails to what extent would you allow someone to mimic a bear for example? How much could their weight or size change?Rising From the Last War does say they cant increase or decrease there “size” to large or small but what would you consider a reasonable limit? Would they convincingly look like a bear albeit a small permanently bipedal one?

        • By the rules, the answer would be No. While the racial trait is slightly unclear, if you look to the changeling NPC in chapter 6 it says:
          The changeling can use its action to polymorph into a Medium humanoid it has seen…
          Humanoid, not beast. If they want to be able to shapeshift into beast forms, they could play a changeling druid.

          Now, that’s the INTENT of the rules as written. As a DM, you could change that and say “A bear is close enough to a shifter that I’ll allow it.” But that would be up to the individual DM; by default, changelings can only impersonate humanoids.

          • Thank you for the response! It was my feeling as well that if they wanted to shapeshift as animals they should play a druid or flavor it as the menagerie changeling I’ve seen mentioned here.

  20. Hi Keith, love your work!

    I was wondering if changelings have a name for non-changeling humanoids.

    • There’s no universal term because changelings aren’t a single monolithic culture; different changeling communities may have different traditions. The term that’s come up in canon is “single-skin.”

  21. Great article! I can imagine changeling homes having an embroidered motto (to paraphrase the line oft attributed to Abraham Lincoln): “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but fooling all of the people all of the time takes WORK!”
    On to my question: Per The Rules, a changeling can imitiate perfectly the look of any humanoid they’ve seen, as well as their voice (presumably having heard it.) But what about senses which are underdeveloped or absent in most humanoids? The most common and obvious example is scent: Could a changeline deceive a dog about the identity of its master? Or a guad dog trained to recognize dwarves employed at a Kundarak bank? Or, for a much less common case, couldl a changeling deceive someone with blindsignt?

    • This is a case where things are up to the DM, but the default is to say that a PC shouldn’t be penalized unless the rules specifically state that they should be penalized. As I say above, the changeling is SUPPOSED to be able to fool people, and the ability doesn’t say “This has no effect on loyal dogs.” I could see a case that an ESPECIALLY loyal dog that has a close relationship with the person being impersonated would give you grounds to make a Deception check; if the changeling succeeds on the Deception check, that means they’ve somehow convinced the dog that the smell is close enough.

      But again, if a guard dog was all it took to counter changelings, it wouldn’t be that much fun to play a changeling. A creature with True Seeing, on the other hand, would be a different story.

      • Perhaps if one wanted to have a particular locale guarded that way, one could say that there are unique (and ridiculously expensive) Vadalis mage-bred dogs used for such purposes. But, yeah, one should then allow the PC changeling to try to come up with a cliever way to, ahem, throw the Vadalis guard dogs off the scent – the cleverness of the ruse providing a modifier to the Deception roll needed to get past.

        • Certainly. Consider that True Seeing is a 6th level spell, which means it’s not IMPOSSIBLE for it to be found in the Five Nations, but it should be very rare. Again, places like Dreadhold and the Kundarak Vault in Sharn can have this sort of security, it just shouldn’t be casual.

          Setting aside changelings, a key point is that we’ve established that there are shapechanged dragons and rakshasa manipulating society and they’re supposed to be getting away with it. There SHOULDN’T be a common, reliable way to expose shapeshifters, because if there was, we’d spot the Lords of Dust. Again, true seeing EXISTS – but it isn’t everyday magic.

          • Not only is it a sixth level spell, it has an expensive material component. This stops it from being an everyday casting.

            It’s more economical to use Planar Binding on an Avoral and have it guard the place for you. I imagine some place like Flamekeep or a major holy site of the Sovereign Host* does.

            *Actually that’s a good question: Are there sites typical worshipers of the Sovereign Host would consider “Holy” (beyond just “under the effect of Consecrate spell”) or is the religion too non-centralized for that?

  22. What happens if a changeling has a child with a member of one of the Dragonmarked houses? Could you have changeling offspring capable of manifesting a Dragonmark? Specific scenario I’m envisioning is a member of the Tyrants in Sharn seducing a member of one of the houses as part of a job and ending up pregnant as a result.
    Question could also be applied to the human and elf Dragonmarks with half-elves/half-orcs/etc

    • Nope. Canon lore is very specific: dragonmarks only manifest on members of specific races. A mark tied to a human bloodline won’t be passed to a changeling or half-elf offspring. Meanwhile, a mark that manifests on a half-elf—such as the Mark of Detection or Storm—can’t be inherited by a human. There’s a genetic component to dragonmarks, but at the end of the day they’re magical and connected to the Prophecy, not simply genetic.

      Of course, in your campaign you can CHANGE canon lore if you want this to be possible. But If changelings COULD inherit dragonmarks it would be a big deal; I could imagine the Cabinet of Faces working to collect dragonmarks. But again, by canon lore it is impossible.

    • There are two mechanical ways I know of to get a Dragonmarked Changeling. The Racial Emulation (Races of Eberron) feat Racial Emulation to take a Dragonmarked feat and Cataclysm Mage (Explorers Handbook) prestige class’s capstone. Racial Emulation is best paired with Chameleon (Races of Destiny) since the Dragonmark feat would be useless if you became non-human and Chameleon gets a bonus feat they can change greatly. Cataclysm Mage says Dragons hate you for this, and that bit of lore likely applies to Racial Emulation Chameleons.

  23. Great post, made me interested in Changlings as a race to play or include in my campaign.

    Is weight/mass conserved in a change? E.g. would a changling elf be as heavy as the same changling as a lizardfolk? Might that be used as a method of detection?

    Can changlings learn about species/individuals from each other? If changling Alice has never seen a Valinar elf could changling Bob transfer teach those such that Alice could now make a hypothetical Valinar elf? Only the one Bob knew? A whole host of new Valinar elf forms/personas?

    What about mixing and matching? Could a changling who has encountered an Arenal elf make a hypothetical (and grossly heretical) Arenal dwarf?

    How mutable are personas? I know it will vary from group to group and individual to individual, but could the persona of Bob be a Cyran in Breland and a Thrane in Aundair? Or would those just be similar personas, BobA and BobB? Is there a sense of how far details can be stretched before it stops being the same person(a)? Obviously personas are not (usually) themselves changelings, but to (some) changlings feel free to use their abilities to tweak a persona or would that be untrue to that person’s experiences and limitations?

    • From the post itself: As an action, you can change your appearance and your voice. You determine the specifics of the changes, including your coloration, hair length, and sex. You can also adjust your height and weight, but not so much that your size changes.

      So that indicates they can change their mass to a very limited degree. But that’s still enough that weight itself can’t be used to detect changelings. It’s supernatural, not biological, and I’m pretty sure magic doesn’t care about the conservation of mass and energy.

  24. I suppose this is a question with shapechanging effects in general, but what does a disguise kit do for a changeling? The kit is described as a “pouch of cosmetics, hair dye and small props”, of which the first two components seem kind of redundant with a changeling’s abilities. How would you describe using the kit to use your proficiency bonus?

  25. Indirectly a changeling question: The Vestment of Many Styles from the 3.5e handbook Races of Eberron specifically mentions it doesn’t change or disguise any armor worn, but could it simulate the look of armor? If not with actual armor pieces, then something like tin painted to look like steel or steel so thin as to be worthless as actual armor?

    • Also re: the Vestment of Many Styles, Races of Eberron lists its cost at 500gp, but the Magic Item Compendium has the much more limited shiftweave at the same cost.

      >Vestment of Many Things: This suit of clothes transforms itself into different fabrics and designs, allowing the wearer to alter her outward appearance with a command word. The vestment grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Disguise checks in any situation where clothing is part of the disguise (so that it wouldn’t help disguise a sorcerer who had shapechanged into a red dragon, for example), but does not change or disguise any armor worn. Moderate transmutation; CL 9th; Craft Wondrous Item, creator must be a changeling; Price 500 gp. (RoE page 175)

      >Shiftweave: When you activate shiftweave, it changes your garb to resemble any of five specific outfits designated during its creation. Shiftweave has no effect on any armor you wear (nor can it mimic armor) and does not change the effect of any magical clothing you wear. Lore: Though originally created for wealthy socialites who wanted to avoid wearing the same gown to the gala, shiftweave is also useful to spies and assassins (Knowledge [nobility and royalty] DC 10). Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item,
      disguise self. (MIC 133-134)

      Does this mean changelings are just better at making shiftweave or is there another explanation for the Vestment being so much stronger for the same cost?

  26. My apologies for possibly repeating myself, I can’t see that my last post went through and I wanted to add to it/change it’s format. I’m going to describe my understanding of some situations, and I’d appreciate if you would correct me.

    My understanding/take on the shapeshifting of the changeling is that it is a form change based on the *perception* of the changeling and limited by the changelings “same basic arrangement of limbs.” Ergo: a one armed changeling can change into the form of a man it knows has two arms; and the form the changeling assumes will be that same man, but missing an arm. Conversely, a two armed changeling can change into the form of a man it knows has one arm; and the form the changeling assumes will be that same man, but with both arms.

    If the changeling attempts to look like a someone, for all of the hidden/unseen body parts, it will make the best guess of what they look like. So while Sergeant Colon fills his breastplate like a jello-mold and Captain Carrot is actually even more buff without the breastplate on, a changeling passing as either of them would have the same approximate torso shape.

    A changling can try to imitate forms with incorrect limb arrangements, but will only be able to approximate them/do what limbs it does match and not the rest. So a changeling attempt at a Thri-kreen would only have two arms; an attempt at a centaur would look something like a satyr.

    • I’d agree with that. A changeling cannot use its shapeshifting ability to replace a limb it has lost, and it can’t get rid of one of its existing limbs. But yes, I would allow a changeling to replicate the appearance of a one-armed man and do it perfectly except for the fact that they have 2 arms.

      • Could you put the ‘extra’ arm into a small Bag of Holding and wrap both the bag and ‘stump’ in bandages? Back in 2nd edition days I once used a trick like that to sneak weapons into a place, but maybe a BoH was less defined in the rules of the time or we just of didn’t understand them well.

  27. Wouldn’t a Changeling be able to manifest a Dragonmark?

    Descriptions of Changelings say that they live as the race they were birthed from, and only after puberty, they change into Changelings.

    Descriptions of Dragonmarks say that they are tied to specific race bloodlines.

    So with all that in mind, wouldn’t a person growing up as a Halfling, and at puberty, could they not only change into a Changeling, but also gain a Dragonmark tied to Halflings?

    • This article notes “The (changeling) child is born with the apparent species of the mother, and the shapeshifting ability doesn’t set in for around a year.” So the changeling child reveals their changeling nature within a year of their birth—long before puberty. The article also says “What we’ve said before is that changelings can mate with most humanoids, and that the child is always a changeling.” It doesn’t matter if a changeling child LOOKS human for the first year of their life; they’re NOT human, and they can’t inherit a dragonmark that only appears on humans. Bear in mind that half-elves can’t inherit the dragonmark of a human or elf parent, nor can humans inherit Khoravar dragonmarks from their parents.

      So by these principles, you couldn’t have a halfling discover they’re a changeling a puberty, because their changeling nature would have manifested long before that, and a changeling with a halfling parent still couldn’t manifest a halfling dragonmark.

  28. Would a Changeling have any physical traits they can’t see from the target? Tattoos, birthmarks, and scars hidden under clothing for example.

    • It depends how you interpret the ability. If you view it as a conscious activity where the changeling personally adjusts each detail, then there’s no way to justify them adding details they don’t know about. But consider that a changeling changes shape in six seconds. One option is that it’s NOT conscious—that when a changeling sees another creature, they take a magical imprint of them, and when they transform they simply activate that imprint. So they WOULD get the scar or birthmark, because it just comes with the imprint; they might not even know they have the birthmark until they undress.

  29. I’m pretty sure my character now has a useless class feature, but I might as well ask.

    A changeling transmutation wizard couln’t use his lvl 10 class feature to target himself with the polymorph spell, right ? Since changeling are shapechanger and thus polymorph has no effect on them.

    • That is true by the rules as written. Your DM could always decide to make a house rule for this case.

      • I recall from 3e/3.5e days that a creature can voluntarily ‘fail’ saving throws, or that they could even choose to resist benign and helpful effects cast by allies. Maybe they never specified that in 5e, but it makes sense.

        Then again, immunity is mechanically different from saving throws. Maybe it’s like trying to polymorph a tree; the spell finds no suitable target. Changelings have likely run into this problem before, and could have come up with an adjusted form of the spell for very specific targeting. It could require a drop of their blood soaked into a mobius strip as an additional material component and their childhood name for the verbal.

  30. Can you say more about the Children of Jes? I am playing a changling that has been given an indelible mark and would like to be able to expand on this part of their backstory.
    I’ve read that in lore, all changlings are considered to be one of Jes’ children, whoever she was. But the way you refer to it here makes it sound as if this is some kind of council or order. Who are they? And do you have a sense of what this indelible mark might look like?

    • They’re discussed further in Exploring Eberron, which should be out next month. It’s not a order or a council; it’s a culture. By the lore, all changelings are children of Jes; the Children are nomadic changelings who follow a specific set of traditions. As for the appearance of the mark, the main question is whether it’s intended as a warning to other changelings or as a punishment to prevent effective impersonation. If the former, I might imagine a distinctive symbol on the palm of the hand that is related to the crime in question. This can easily be concealed from outsiders, but Children of Jes know to look for it, and palms are often used for Skin Cant. On the other hand, a more punitive mark might be a distinctive facial tattoo, which would prevent the bearer from effectively impersonating others.

  31. I learned something new from this FAQ and seem Changeling really doesn’t inherit anything from their their non-Changeling/Doppelganger parents

  32. What would happen if a changeling’s hair was cut while in a disguise? Disappear? Change to White hair? Stay disguised? What if they change their appearance again?

    A changing can’t change their appearance to a type of creature they’ve never seen, but to what extent does that go? Say they saw a drawing of a mind-flayer, could they then look like a mind-flayer? (perhaps only one that obviously not a mind-flayer should someone know what they actually should look like)
    Could they wear a persona of a creature of their own invention that they drew, as a form of expression? (that obviously has the same arraignment of limbs)

  33. Thank you so much for this post. I’m building out a Changeling Bard for an upcoming campaign and this has been a huge help as I come up with my backstory and personas.

  34. Hello Keith

    I have a question regarding following case.
    My Changeling is the child of a Succubus (Incubus: It is not fixed yet) and a Changeling. She doesn’t know about this yet.
    From the technical perspective I imagined she could be a Changeling but with the true form of a Succubus, so in this scenario she would not be able to use the wings or get any other special abilities from her heritage other than the true form appearance.
    Her Changeling true form she assumed to have would be a psychological thing, because she assumed to be a normal changeling.

    The new interpretation of 5e DnD with Doppelgangers being the result of twisted Changelings is an interesting aspect which adds to the background story of my character. She has a Daelkyr Symbiont Whip attached to her, while she was unconscious and since then been in a high security magical prison, alone, where she nearly transitiontioned to being a monster, just to survive.
    It adds up to her history of being despised and seen as a monster, even when she never did anything wrong.
    Her innocence and pacifistic ways now being questioned by her nearly monstrous acts she was doing. Her doubts now growing stronger again, of being the monster everybody was seeing in her, just because she was a changeling.

    Now I am babbling around, because I got excited again. I love changelings and the possibilites.

    Regards,
    Celeste

    • What’s your question? All this sounds reasonable, given that a) player characters are supposed to be exceptional and can thus be very unusual and b) you’ve specified that the character doesn’t gain any mechanical benefits from their unusual form.

      • I am sorry. My question is, if it is reasonable for a Changeling to have a different natural form and not knowing what exactly the natural form is.

        • It’s not NORMAL. However, player characters don’t have to be normal; by their nature they are exceptional. Given that, if I had a player who came to me with a compelling request and a good story, I’d probably allow it. But it’s not typical, certainly.

  35. Hello there !

    A small question about. . .
    “You can’t duplicate the appearance of a creature you’ve never seen, and you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have.”

    What is with Lizardfolk , Kobolds, Minotaurs, Gnolls and all the other Races who have Tails and such.
    Can a Normal Changeling take on those Shapes ?
    (I assume no cause it was stated changelings cant grow or regrow limbs with their ability)

    but what about changelings “Born” from those Races ..they take the appearance of their Mothers until a certain age no ? so would those Changelings not always have Tails and have the need to shrink and hide them for lets say a Basic Human shape ?

    thanks already for answering that one 🙂

    • Looking at the picture of the gnoll in the PHB, I don’t see a tail. Minotaurs don’t have tails that I’m aware of; they have horns, and a changeling can’t create FUNCTIONAL horns, but a DM could say that they can create horns that APPEAR real; they just don’t have the density for a functional goring attack. And as I noted in the previous discussion, I doubt changelings can reproduce with reptilian creatures, so lizardfolk are off the table.

      BUT, to answer the original question: A changeling loses its birth form the instant it becomes a changeling for the first time. If you COULD have a changeling from a lizardfolk mother, it would appear to be lizardfolk until the day it became a changeling, and at that point it is 100% a changeling, meaning no tail. It doesn’t keep any element of its birth race, and its birth race isn’t its “true form.” When it dies, it becomes a CHANGELING—not a lizardfolk.

      Of course, a DM can do whatever they choose, but that’s how I’d rule it.

      • “and a changeling can’t create FUNCTIONAL horns, but a DM could say that they can create horns that APPEAR real; they just don’t have the density for a functional goring attack”

        I’m imagining a Changeling not knowing that, and trying to use them in combat, only for the horns to end up all bendy and floppy

  36. I’m a bit late to the party, but I have a question: you say that a changeling’s shapeshifting ability manifests at about a year old, but how much control do they actually have at this point?
    Do they one day just awaken to the ability to change at will, or do they start out clumsy and need to develop the skill over time like learning to walk or speak?
    What does shapeshifting look like in a baby barely old enough to say their first words?

    • Part of it is the question of how we understand their ability to impersonate others. A changeling can become a PERFECT DUPLICATE of any humanoid they’ve seen, and they can make that transformation in 6 seconds. In my opinion, that’s not enough time for them to be consciously adjusting each detail; I think it’s largely an instinctive action. Their body knows what to do; they picture the individual, and the change happens. Note that a changeling doesn’t have to make a skill roll to physically duplicate; they only need to make a Deception check if someone may not be convinced by the physical disguise.

      All of which is to say that I think PERFECT duplication is a reflex, and the child simply DOES it—when threatened by another child, they become that child. Or, as mentioned in the article, they revert to their “natural” form. Learning to create UNIQUE faces — to create an identity that’s NOT just duplicating another creature—is the learned skill that takes time to develop.

  37. How much do the true forms of changelings differ from one another? There’s only so much variance you can achieve with pale featureless faces. From my understanding, even in stable communities, most alter their appearance. Even a changeling’s close friends and family probably haven’t seen their true forms very often. So when a changeling dies, how do they identify the body? How can they be sure it’s not a different dead changeling?

  38. I’d love to see more details about the physiology, things like organs and internal chemitry of changelings and other races in the book (kind of like the old Draconomicon and Volo’s (kind of)).

  39. Hello everyone, i hope to receive an answer, even if i’m not sure. How much can Shapechanger ability of changelings modify the aspect of the changeling? I mean, the rule says i can change to a race i’ve seen, but i can also determine the charateristics, so if i want to change to something i can think of? Maybe that’s not specifically a race? For example i want to look like something vaguely human but very horrific, so can i add horns, or some aesthetic sign that is horrific? If this is my purpose, i can just think that having specific charateristics can be considered horrific, even if i haven’t seen them on other races. And how much can i push in charateristics? Can i add some strange effect on my eyes( for example, they expel smoke) or on my skin? And last but not least, if i can change my aspect in something very scary, can i have advantage on intimidate and frighten checks?

    • You can make minor cosmetic changes, but you don’t get any concrete mechanical benefits from them. You can’t grow wings and fly. You could APPEAR to have scales, but it won’t give you a better armor class, and you might be able to grow horns but they won’t be tough enough to stab people with. On the basis that changelings can’t create functioning organs, I wouldn’t personally say that you could have smoke emanating from your eyes; a changeling can look like a dragonborn but they can’t breathe fire, and I don’t see how you’d create a smoke-generating organ. So you can make yourself look scary, sure, but there are limits.

      Crucially, there’s nothing as simple as “I look scary so I get advantage on Intimidate.” In MY campaign, I might give a bonus if a changeling assumes a form that we’ve established has particular significance to an individual. If we KNOW that Captain Lars is afraid of sahuagin and you assume the appearance of a sahuagin, you might get advantage against him — or if you confront a murderer with the face of his victim. But that’s situational. A changeling can’t just get free advantage on Intimidation any time they want it.

      • Oh ok, thanks for the answer. So i can’t gain any real advantage with the shapechange, unless i’m in a very particular situation, and the changes i can make aren’t so big. Thanks for your support!

      • What would happen if a changeling cut their hair as They were transformed? Would it stay the color it was transformed it would it revert?

        • It’s an interesting question with a lot of deep impact. Setting aside changelings, what happens if you cut someone’s hair while it’s been shifted with Disguise Self? Alter Self? A Hat of Disguise? If it immediately changes back, then a pair of scissors because a foolproof way to penetrate magical disguise and you’d expect every high-security post to do a “hair check”. On the other hand, if it DOESN’T revert but changelings can grow hair at will, then the wig industry would be completely overwhelmed.

          With that in mind, my answer is that in all of these examples, the severed hair will dissolve, but it will do so very slowly – in about a day or so. So it is a way to determine that something was wrong, but it’s not a foolproof solution to impersonation. And if you sell your hair to a wigmaker, they’ll wait a day before they pay you.

          Ultimately it comes to the simple question: do you WANT it to be easy to detect shapeshifters? Because if there is a simple, foolproof method it largely eliminates their role in the story. If you WANT a world in which rakshasa and doppelgangers are successfully infiltrating society, the challenge isn’t to create a foolproof method of detection, but rather to figure out why no one’s been able to do it.

  40. Does a changeling HAVE to revert to it’s true form between changes, or can it also choose to use an action to change directly from form A to form B?

  41. In the article you mentioned, “Exploring Eberron will have a few options that allow changelings to improve their natural shapeshifting abilities in order to get mechanical benefits from it.” Did this part make it into the final version of the book? If so, what section would it be in?

  42. Can changelings use bioluminescence? Not bright enough to light up an area since that would be a potential mechanical advantage, but if they wanted to be like glow in the dark bright?

  43. Can changelings be permanently scarred? Say if they were badly wounded or tortured? If so would such scars be visible on all their forms, or only on their true form?

    • There’s no reason a changeling couldn’t be permanently scarred. A changeling’s ability to shapeshift doesn’t allow it to regenerate a lost limb or to heal injury. However, that scar would be a cosmetic detail on the changeling’s true form, and the changeling could choose to conceal the scar when changing into a new form, just as it can change any other aspect of its appearance.

  44. “Essentially, it is a form of disguise self, NOT alter self.”

    I understand that a changeling can’t give itself a mechanical advantage using it’s ability to change, but the change itself is still legitimately physical right? For example if someone casts disguise self and adjusts their height, or changes into something with fur the there would be a disparity between what the see and what they feel if someone tried to touch something that’d been altered. If a changeling decided to be a Tabaxi they would legitimately become furred instead of only seeming furred yes?

    Also in regards to changing sizes, what would you consider reasonable ranges for weight and height? A Goliath for example is still considered a medium creature despite usually being between 7-8 feet and weighing up to 340 lbs according to the monster manual. I understand this is probably a decision to be made at the DM’s discretion, but what would your personal take on the matter be?

    • For example if someone casts disguise self and adjusts their height, or changes into something with fur the there would be a disparity between what the see and what they feel if someone tried to touch something that’d been altered.

      Correct, to a degree… BECAUSE that physical change can’t provide a physical benefit. Which means that a changeling can look like a tortle, but their “shell” doesn’t provide the same protection as the shell of a tortle, which says to me that on close examination it’s not going to FEEL like the shell of a tortle; it’s going to be thinner or softer (though someone who’s never seen a tortle might not know the difference). They can look like lizardfolk, but they don’t gain a bite attack, which suggests that their jaws and teeth aren’t as strong. It is a PHYSICAL transformation, yes — but if the transformation would normally clearly provide a mechanical benefit, the changeling form of it will be a facade.

      Also in regards to changing sizes, what would you consider reasonable ranges for weight and height?
      The rules as written are “You can also adjust your height and weight, but not so much that your size changes.” As I read that, it means that a changeling can duplicate any medium creature. Goliaths or gnolls may be on the large side of medium, but they are still medium.

  45. So changelings and anatomy are a little… weird to say the least. It makes sense for most of the stable ones to be gender-fluid, but what about intersex changelings? Are they more common as well, just cause changeling biology allows them to switch so easily if they would like to, or are they rarer? Would information on changelings be available as readily as other races, such as in textbooks, or would you need to seek out that information? P.S. I really love just how cool changelings are and how weirdly accepting the dnd community is of the LGBTQ+ one???? I’m super new so I thought critrole was the exception but like???? I’m very grateful for it though!

  46. I have a question regarding the Changelings ability to shapeshift. Would a changeling be able to shapeshift into an ape (if they have seen one)?

    BTW, changelings are my favorite race. They are my go to race to play in campaigns, and the warforged are my #2 favorite.

    • I noticed your response concerning changelings taking on the form of a bear wouldn’t work because they can turn into humanoids, so I got my answer there.

  47. My changeling was born in and about to return to Sharn. What would you say the general public’s thoughts would be on that race considering it only makes up 3% of the population (although that still makes 15,000 according tot he 5E population).

  48. Can a changeling mix and match different races? Like, take some attributes of one and then another?

    • Personally, I’d allow it, but with the usual caveat that it doesn’t affect game statistics.

  49. Thank you for these very in detail and concise articles! Been getting more and more into DND and a friend referred me to some of your articles – extremely helpful for understanding the general concepts and nuances of changelings that will be helpful for my first time playing as one.

  50. I’m considering making a Changeling that has the option to cast disguise self. I’ve looked over the Height/Weight Chart for all of the available races. Goblin at their tallest is 4’1″ and Hill Dwarf are 3’10” at their shortest.

    Would I be able to shapechange into a Hill Giant at their shortest height and follow up with a disguise self to appear as a goblin at it’s tallest or relatively close to it?

Comments are closed.