Currently running a party of changelings. None of them know any of the others are changelings. They didn't coordinate in any way shape or form when pitching the idea to me. Was fun.
@@amateurdoodler428 Not particularly, no. One of the changelings left the game, to be replaced with a wood elf. We're going to finish up the campaign in 2-3 more sessions. Overall, was an average campaign.
The Rule 34 storyline of this has possibilities. If they all discovered each other's nature then suddenly a Changeling team is born. And little Changelings can be made.
Allow me to offer a correction: Humans have the ability to 'do whoopie' with anything with less than six legs. It *can* go further, but thst's getting into fetish territory.
@@tatersalad76 would the one who's family gets killed knew? or not? if he does then thats more for evil parties if he doesn't man that would be some interesting gold digging
@@TheGameDomeGuy he will know, try to tell the town Guards, get called crazy. Then the changlings leave, reveal the dead bodies, and that guy looks crazy and killed his family out of fear of them being changlings!
_hey man, I heard you like character sheets, so we put character sheets on your character sheet, so you can character sheet while you character sheet._
Or you go hexblade warlock (pact of the blade) and ask nicely for the cloak of many fashions. You can now change your apperance, clothing and weaponry as you wish (you go hexblade so that you can use charisma for all weapons).
@The Kiwi Kidd a year and a half ish. I disguised as a Tiefling. We spent many sessions in complete darkness and no one questioned why I didn't have darkvision
@@blankiecat9302 actually, in 3.5 eberron campaign setting they said Changelings are not unisex creature in their natural form, they can shift sex, but they born male or female
Changelings in 5e also come with the ability of Unsettling Visage, which can be perfectly used as a surprise reveal to the rest of the party. Imagine, the elf sorceror is backed into a corner, and their face suddenly shifts to a grey visage that startles the monster and buys the "elf" some time to escape that conundrum. Now, the rest of the party wonders if the elf is using some strange magic, or if they were not who the party thought they were this whole time. Does the party accept the true identity, or do they reject it entirely? There is so much possibility with this race.
Thats how my noble human sorceress revealed herself after a bad fight. You can imagine the shock as even my group mates didn‘t knew it. After the reveal tho my changling had a small identity crisis and searched the world the meaning of life.
alter self whenever you want is fun... picking this as a changeling is a meme, and is unnecessary unless you want special stuff, however disguise self with similar clothing can make you virtually impossible to detect for being a stranger... however why pick that when you can pick half elf and also have 2 of your 6 invocations be used for that... whilst also being ridiculously powerful at being a skill hoarder
@@FRD357 The actor feat is kind of pointless, and I always see people recommend it. Changelings already get advantage to pass themselves off as someone else, and they can allow you to mimic people's voices without the need to sit around and listen to them talk for a minute. Is there something I'm missing?
SILENCE! I had an idea for a Changeling Fighter. Their shapeshifting would have been flavored as being incorporated into their fighting style, allowing them to shift between a multitude of different styles they studied over the years.
@@Nyrufa That would be neat. Would it be one build, or would you need several character sheets to change between? On the flip side of that, it might be cool to have an unique weapon/fighting style that would give you away as the same person.
In my first campaign ever I was SO excited to play a changeling, until my DM forcibly outed me in a world where my race was illegal. He wrote it into the campaign that I had been using the face of an assistant to nobility so when we went to the castle I was outed to the party that had no clue. This really annoyed me because 1, I would’ve never used the face of a well known person. And 2, even if I HAD done that, knowing we were going to the castle, I would’ve revealed myself to the party beforehand. Because I was forcibly outed instead of having the chance to come clean, the party hated me for a long time because they felt I was untrustworthy.
@@louiesatterwhite3885 Depends. Honestly, the DM sounds more incompetent than malicious. If the DM didn't like Changelings, then they have the power to simply ban them. It sounds like they wanted to create inter-party drama, but did so at the expense of the Changeling player's agency.
Not with changeling, but once MG did something the same to me. I played a female that was trying to hide show to the world that she is a HE (lore reasons). First thing MG did was to reveal to our healer because boob ACCIDENTY slipped out when my arm was injured...
Changeling Druid. The true faceless one character build. Wild shape forms and humanoid forms in your disposal. You legit have no reason ever to turn back. And no one will ever know your name
Once my DM ran a one shot in the same world as our regular campaign, just in a different part of the kingdom. The royal bard had been eaten by a dragon and the queen was hosting a 3-day tournament to choose the new one. The Battle of the Bards. The first round was a 6v6 battle. The second, a series of 1v1 musical performances. The third, a battle with the dragon that ate the last bard. Only 2 people and me from our group of five went to the one shot. Of course, so did 9 other people. This of course meant that we had a 12-player BARD ONLY D&D session. So of course, what race is the best at intrigue? Nothing other than a changeling of course! So I played as a half-elf bard, a rich painter. Of course, he was often seen slipping away into the shadows, and when he came back, one of the other contestents usually had some huge problem with the guards. Some things I did with the changeling powers: Slipped away, transformed as one of the other contestants to a popular tavern and played a song mocking the queen. Transformed into one of the contestants and accused the two with the highest points. A few other things I can't remember as I have 8 INT in real life. Never the less, Varis Liadon, the defintiently-a-half-elf-painter, was made the Royal Bard. And the only other people who had any suspicion about anything were either reduced to ash by the dragon or ruined socially. Now, as this was in our campaign world, I'm wondering what nightmare this is going to cause for us in the future.
This sounds SUPER FUN. A changling who has to continuously run from town to town to not make attachments, due to one friendship they made years ago that went poorly for them giving them the detached outlook on life. And slowly through life with an adventuring party they learn attachment and sincere trust again.
I actually went for a Changeling Necromancer who's persona was that of an undertaker named Gen and I find it to be quite fun. Plus I made his big hang-up where he has to get the permission of the owner of the body to use it before he does. Plus I homebrewed an idea where a Changeling can't change the color of their blood, so everytime he gets hurt, he has to roll a deception check to maintain his look.
My dream character is a Changeling with the wayfinder's guide item Shiftweave. Meaning in just 2 actions, you can change not only your appearance, but clothing too.
Imagine the horror of having to run a campaign with all PCs as changelings. Using every one of your NPCs against you. They saw your BBEG, his minions, powerful NPC? Good now they can ruin everything.
That would be insane, but I like it. I like the Changelings myself, but in some ways, I am glad they aren't as popular as say Elves. I think the fact that they have to come up with two characters to flit between kinda gets on their nerves. Me I love to act, so I found this to be a lot of fun.
@@vasudean smol brain play is only making 2 characters. make like 5, one is your true identity, one is your cover, and 3 are disposable commoner personalities that you use most of the time. play a rogue or whisper bard to get proficiency in stealth and deception, and use both to just tail the party without them ever noticing your presence. use whatever face walks by to completely avoid recognition, and sneak where you cant simply hide in plain sight. be part of the party without them even knowing you're there.
I've been writing an organization that could be interesting for changelings - The Faceless Alliance. The Faceless Alliance consists of changelings and other shapeshifters. They act as a kind of secret police - trying to uncover plots of changelings and preemptively stop them. Possibly by assassination. Specifically, they don't let changelings replace kings and other leaders. The logic of the Faceless Alliance is: if a changeling were outed as having replaced the king, people would freak out. Maybe attempt a genocide. So the Faceless Alliance tries to make sure no changeling is overly ambitious. The emblem of the Faceless Alliance is a d20, but in place of numbers, it bears the tragedy and comedy masks. And similar masks bearing other expressions.
That's reeeaaally cool! I thought of something like that too... A wizard or someone who knew changelings passed away, but showed a changeling his form. So, this changeling shows the wizard's form to others, so they basically can "clock in" as this guy, making a safe place for changelings. They write all conversations, actions and clock in times, so they can always be the same person. A plot could involve one die as this persona, and not write his death down (for obvious reasons).
Imagine if a changeling was democratically elected, like they just competed in the election as one of their identities and just fairly won. Then, the looser of the election tries to pass false information to the faceless alliance, saying that the real winner had been replaced by a changeling; and now due to a misunderstanding, the faceless alliance is trying to kill the innocent(at least in that instance) changeling. That could be a cool plot.
@@jinxtheunluckypony I feel you. Thankfully my DM is pretty open to stuff like that. In our current campaign, one PC is playing a Changeling Monk and it looks so fun. I'm playing a Shifter Abjur Wizard with high Con (16) which is also super fun. Strangely, with my endless HP, I'm still going down in every fight. Maybe I need to stop running into the heat of the battle and playing my Wizard like he is a fighter with magic lol
I played a changling rouge with multiple personalities that would change randomly and with that his appearance. It mad for some fun encounters when I was trying to impersonate someone
Personally speaking I like the lore that the earlier iterations and homebrew versions of the race came with that had them living for 200-400 years Made more sense as they could literally live out full lifetimes as other people and really enjoy that shapeshifting ability. (Also darkvision was cool).
This is a really interesting race! I've got this concept for a Changeling detective, called Noir, whose "Divergent Persona" gives them proficiency and expertise with the Disguise Kit. The thing is, their coworkers all know the secret, and they are the force's secret weapon. The mole, the femme fatale, the guy who knows a guy. They're staunchly noble and straight as an arrow; they'd be out of guise 24/7 if they could walk down the street without getting accused for some crime or other. That said, I also like a character who's granted the power of "Changing" through blessing or curse. If I were to remake my Dungeon World druid, Secret, in 5e, they'd almost certainly be a Changeling Moon Druid (though unless I can reflavour enough spells to be a form of shapeshifting, the 5e Druid doesn't quite fit the flavour).
Okay, LOVED the "Changeling: The Dreaming" reference at about 2:21. Bless your heart. That was the first RPG i really got into back in the day. Also, the Changeling: The Lost ref at 3:45, but that game (while awesome) is less nostalgic for me. XD
"Life without consequences also becomes life without reward for acting" This implies that the only reward for acting is the avoidance of consequences which is a very depressing outlook Some might say a life without consequences is its own reward
But that comes from the perspective of consequences mattering more. You can't just essentially make your current life vanish and leave town to start again nearly as easily as a Changeling. It's rewarding when those actions matter,they probably still find joy in them but for a different reason
What's fun about Changelings is that you can think of multiple backstories, characters, and equipment and all connect them to one character. I once played a game where I kept it secret that I played a changeling and me and the DM would often during encounters or in towns have my character walk off to do her business and he and I would have one of her personas meet them (played by the DM to keep it hush hush of course). It was awesome and i got so much interesting character interaction from that and when it was revealed the emotion was almost palpable
One of the funnest things I've done with a changeling is having her connect so deeply to her masks and personas that feeling a sufficiently strong emotion can induce a compulsive change into a different form. For example, if she's extremely scared, she is compelled to change into a tiefling wannabe bard character who is rather brave and cocky. Or even getting extremely emotionally intimate compelled her to take on the form of her closest friend, a wood elf, from her home town.
Tbh, the changeling's shapeshifting can bring up some rather interesting character concepts and moments. For example, I had a changeling that didn't like being a changeling, or more accurately, didn't feel as if he *had* a real identity, and so often stayed in his true form and hated shapeshifting and betraying people's trust.
Changling inquisitor rouge: pump primary into INT for those sweet insight points, because of the insightful fighting ability that can grant sneak attack. You defeate your enemy by making them question if they are really themselves, (i.e. that you are them and they are a copy) thus giving you the advantage.
I am very dissapointed that you skipped a lot of very important culture details detailed in the eberron guide about changelings having different "mask" and having some of this be their favourite ones becoming personas which in my opinion is the MAIN reason I decided to even play one
I had a player who played a changeling sourcerer and I thought that this would get interesting with the permernent change of appearance and stuff like that ... he died in the first round Mercy to Arthur's soul
The ability doesn't mean that they have to look like a single person that they have seen. It means that they can look like any race they have seen provided that it is in a basic humanoid shape.
I play a Changeling Valour Bard who's vowed to never change his form again, because he wants to discover what it means to be loved and valued as an individual and not just an imposter. He plays an axe guitar and is themed after a heavy metal musician
One of my best characters, Isaac, started out as a rouge, got some levels in wizardry, drew the Moon card from the Deck of Many Things and gained at-will invisibility because of it. Then he got burned to a crisp by a red dragon. Thought he was done for until someone used a Scroll of Reincarnation. He came back as a Changeling. So I ended with a Rouge Wizard who could Hide in Plain Sight (+20 Stealth) and transform into a Small or Medium humanoid. Like I said, one of my best characters.
Changeling Bard. because you do need that Proficiency bonus added to all your skill rolls to make people believe you really are what you say you are. that said, a Changeling city would be the best place for your players to get lost in!
I know I read that there is atleast Changlings settlements/societies. Think of a village, you've gone to visit the general shop owner. But with time, the adventurers find out that the all changlings that love there take upon themselves a personality of that specific shop-keep with that said a whole town or village of as simple folk only to find out it's a group of doppelgangers, changlings and mimic who travel around to set these trap towns up for adventurers
I like to treat changelings like the Faceless men, from A Song of Ice and Fire. They can only change their face once a day, and must prepare the new faces to be ready for it to be used.
I am playing with an evil changeling that killed a noble and took her place. Really it's fantastic...i got even the trinket of human perfection to make sure that even if she die,no one will know that she is an changeling.
Hey, Davvy, it's not only humanoids, it's just anything that's your size and has the same amount of limbs. " You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. You also can’t appear as a creature of a different size than you, and your basic shape stays the same; if you’re bipedal, you can’t use this trait to become quadrupedal, for instance." You could totally turn into that something freaky if that's your thing
I once entertained a campaign setting where all races were the descendants of changelings who lost their shapeshifting powers one way or another (I didn't get too far onto the worldbuilding process, so I didn't have an exact reason why that happened).
I had a player play a Changling. He was planning on shapeshifting into a dead guard and going to a funeral home the party was staying at after they got kicked out. Let me repeat: he was going to shapeshift into a guy that died recently and ask to stay at a funeral home!
Gonna play a changeling swashbuckler name Con (party will think name is spelled Khan) in the guise of a human airship captain. Can't wait to mess with them with the reveal!
Currently playing a Changeling Mastermind Rogue/Eloquence Bard. Probably my favorite character, he was introduced by taking the guise of the party's monk to give the town guard the slip. Unfortunately, he didn't realize the monk primarily communicated telepathically (i think the monk's part GOOLock, or had some other feature that allowed for telepathy) and so when my character started talking, that gave it away and the monk punched my character so hard he demorphed XD
Imagine a changeling warlock Entity that gave the warlock powers: Yo where my payback Changeling:What?Who?I never made a pact with you Entity that gave the warlock powers:You have that curse that I give everyone of my patrons Changeling:Nah that's something else. Entity:*Glares* Changeling:*chuckles nervously* *sweats nervously*
Here’s a Changling character persona I want personal opinions on. A half elf who constantly wears a mask who was raised by Changlings after being left out on the streets as a child, most likely using the basterd rout, they sort of adopted him for a number of reasons. Sympathy, could make it so they seem like a actual regular family, and a sort of practiced or their actual children to disguise themselves as. He would constantly play a Changling game with his adoptive siblings using a plain mask. Practicing acts as different people and scenarios with it on. Later in years the Changling family is discovered and skinned by wizards/hunters to make disguise self items, shout out to Monty on unexpectables, except for the half elf boy. They just beat him to a near bloody pulp, red hot poker to the eye, scaring across the face and body, maybe a missing ear or toe, and slit of the throat scar. Then thrown into the gutter to die but saved by a cleric. And now continues the way of life of his adoptive family of impersonation, spying, forgery, and such; class is rogue assassin. Constantly wearing a mask to hide he scars and a reminder of his family. Personality: Hides pain and sadness with a smiling optimistic actor, with a little sadistic side, kinda feel. Truth be told half that story is actually true. Except: he and two of his siblings survived because they were rescued by a neighboring kingdom, I was kinda thinking a sorta warrior princess kinda deal to add a bit of romance to the character’s backstory and future story plot, and now works as a spy/assassin for said kingdom to repay a the debt that is owed and to give his younger siblings protection and a normal, if not wealthy, life. I couldn’t decide to go assassin or mastermind because both seem similar in their roles of espionage but the assassin had much more perks for that role. By the way the character is not evil or anything mischievous in anyway. If I had to describe the personality he is actually a kind dude, no need to worry about betrayals or stealing from the party. He fits in moral lines gray but leans towards good. Neutral good or lawful neutral is where I would generally put him. I want to play a Changling character that blurs the lines of what is good or evil. Make player characters who believe Changlings are pure evil or selfish question their beliefs. I won’t tell the party that my character is a Changling until I can truly trust them and know how they feel about Changlings and their actual plight. And until I’m sure they won’t immediately murder me for being a Changling, for lying, or for just being a rogue. I’ve heard way to many stories of PCs being murdered for being a rogue or necromancer. Even when they’ve proven that they are not evil in anyway. Think it’s a good persona? Good cover story/disguise from the party believing my character is a Changling? Any suggestions or tips for playing a Changling?
Changlings are fun to play as a PC. I played one in Waterdeep Dragon's Heist. Jin hailed from the city of doors aka Sigil and would up fleeing to Faerun. Jin's Sam form was a little androgynous human and gave literal answers to questions. Jin's other two main forms was Maggie a female elf and Kur the male half-orc.
Is there any easily available way to definitely distinguish changelings in the world? I think it could be a nice premise that a way to identify changelings was discovered, and there would be changelings that want to get rid of it because they don't want to lose power, and there would also be changelings who want the technique to spread so others wouldn't see their kind as suspicious anymore
At 3:50 into this video, I was so delighted to see World of Darkness Changelings, tho they don't fit the 5E system. I really love the WoD Changelings tho, they have such great lore that I really hope Davvy Chappy looks into the systems. (tho there was a fair bit of drama not long ago sadly.)
I can see two additional features a Changeling could get at higher levels. 1) Become immune to Enchantments and can no longer be magically sensed. Even if someone is scrying on the entire party they wouldn't be able to see the Changeling. 2) Able to change into non-humanoids and even into puddles of water or plants. Like Mystique when Apocalypse boosted her power in 'X-Men Evolution'.
I have a Changeling and their alias/persona is a detective dark elf named Nancy Drow. She's legitimately the worst detective ever (so far). First session I rolled a 3, 4, 2, and 12. I got caught on my rope that I tried 3 times to throw through my neighbor's barn window to investigate some strange noises I chalked up to be a "kidnapping". Then slipped, then it started to unravel, and then I lost consciousness (due to a sleep spell). The last thing I remember is feeling the rope around my waist loosen.
I want to play as a pregnant Changeling, who can't change their gender until they give birth. And have the big reveal at birth that I am in fact a Changeling this whole time. Starting my first campaign soon, the next one I will go for Changeling.
in non Ebberon settings, the Changelings are usually attributed to Avandra. the story being that a woman was arranged to be married, and she prayed to the goddess of freedom to save her. so she made the woman into a Changeling, giving her the power to run and hide from this fate. the woman did, but first killed her husband to be. appalled that her gift was used for such violence Avandra sought her out. but could not find her any more. and so swore of directly intervening in mortal affairs ever again. and thus the race of Changelings were born.
The story I read was different. It goes like this: Long ago there was a woman named Jes, and she had one hundred children. Her rivals conspired against her and swore to kill her children. Jes begged the Sovereigns for help, but their only answer was the wind and rain. In the depths of her despair, a lonely traveler took her hand. ‘I will protect your children if they follow my path. Let them wander the world. They may be shunned and feared, but they will never be destroyed.’ Jes agreed, and the traveler gave her his cloak. When she draped it over her children their old faces melted away and they could be whoever they wanted to be. And so it remains. Though the Children are shunned by all, the gift of the Traveler protects them still.
