Have you ever played a shapeshifter?

Once. Lead to me being banned from playing bards surprisingly.

>>47934827
Heh shark tits

>>47934827
I played a kenku once. Does that count?

After he died, I played his brother. Also a kenku.

>>47934827
My first D&D character took a level of druid the same session our party all bought mounts. The rouge missed that session so when he showed up again I turned into an elk so he didn't have to run behind a horse, a camel and a giant panther on foot.

>>47934827

Two abilities I'd abuse to the best of my abilities for utility in social or mechanical tests rather than game-breaking purposes; shape-shifting, and limited flight.

Need to be somewhere that's too far or removed to get there by walking, running, jumping, or climbing? Fly there.

Need to be somewhere you're not usually allowed, to do something that you're no suppose to do? Impersonate someone or something that's supposed to be there so you can do the thing you're not supposed to do.

>>47934880
sounds like story time to me

>>47938044
Not much to tell, I had a tendency to turn into people after killing them, or as their family members to give them a good mind fucking, The one that had me banned from bards is when I wanted to interrogate a nobleman so I knocked him out and dressed the fighter up to look like me, changed into his loved ones one by one with a shit ton of spells for ambiance or mechanical bonuses. Ended up being an hour long scenario in which I made the guy watch 'me' kill everyone he ever loved slowly all while he was seeing things like demons, hellscapes, purgatory, PTSD inducing war zones, and enjoying a brief illusion of being buried alive then eaten by maggots.

Oh and the game before that I was banned from wizards by being too creative with spell usage. Its not official but its sort of unspoken that the only caster I can play is a paladin now.

>>47938125
Sounds like an effective way to get things done. Too good at casters then?

Next you need a creative way to break paladin

>>47938144
Working on that still. Using Pathfinder now, and I haven't found many creatively usable spells, its all straight forward bonuses or worded to prevent tricks.

>>47938125
Were you one of those guys that'd try and create water inside someones heads?

Because you sound like one of those guys.

>>47938272
No, I read the rules like can't conjure inside of someone or summon a creature on top of them. I'm more fond of illusion spells which have soft limits.

>>47934827
WOOO! SHARKTITS!

>>47936267
But trivializing exploration and social encounters is game breaking!

>>47934827
Which would be harder to deal with, assuming you need to maintain a constant mass/density?

>Large shapshifter who has to hide bits of himself like an anglerfish to look like smaller races
>Smaller shapshifter who can only manage, say, the torso up of a larger race

I just got done with a space game in which two out of five party members were shapeshifters.
They were members of an alien race that the (not) Evil Human Empire purged for being a security threat.
All those two accomplished was proving the Empire right by being just as evil and dangerous as the propaganda claimed.

>>47939105
Because I DM in adventurers league, I'm allowed to take a magic item from a previous campaign for a new character in 5e, as well as start at a higher level. Last session was my first, and I started as a Druid with shapechange and a hat of disguise. I built my character around the idea that she'd lost The power to shapechange freely, and was searching for that power once again.

>>47938872
>Smaller shapshifter who can only manage, say, the torso up of a larger race
Just make it hollow

>>47934827
Yes, 3 changelings in 3.5. First one was a rogue who used guile and subterfuge to get what he needed. He died when he failed to "cast" a spell to trick a king that he was the court wizard.

Second one, and my most favorite, a bard who saw the world as a play and s/he was the star actor. S/he had a chest full of clothes, a full make up set, and a mirror set up in the wagon. S/he would seduce, intimidate, assassinate most any target, and while that character never died, my DM got tired of me making the encounters less about combat and more about me flirting/intimidating everything. It ended with my character with amnesia while in his elf girl persona, being rescued from a group of orcs by the half orc of the group.

And finally, Spakel, the changeling factotum that prestiged into that one class that can become almost all other classes. Also didn't die, but everyone called him broken, even when I kept separate personalities for each class Spakel became. At the end of it, Spakel had only 10 personalities, ranging from brute half orc barbarian, to old human wizard, and everything in between. It was fun pretending that our small party had a rather large list of people.