Shapeshifters

From LSWiki

The Shapeshifters are a guild of kentaurs who have discovered the secrets of altering their forms, through a principle known as morphic resonance. There are a number of shapes available to the guild at different levels of capability in the metamorphosis skill. These are:

[ Form ]      [ Skill ]
 Kentaur          0
 Parakeet         0
 Snake           10
 Hedgehog        20
 Bear            40
 Panther         60
 Giant Scorpion  70
 Crocodile       80
 Chimera         120
 Dragon          200
 Bezhuldaar      250
 Shoggoth        350
 

For more information on a shape, type 'help <shape> form'. To change into a given shape, type 'shift to <shape>'. Note that you may only shift to your alternate shapes from kentaur form, and must return to it to go between them. All of the forms are very difficult to maintain for long periods of time, and the shapeshifter must therefore change forms quite often. The length of time you can maintain a form improves with both your metamorphosis skill in general (slowly) and how far your metamorphosis skill is above the minimum required for the form (quickly). If you stay in a form more than half the maximum time you can maintain it, you will not be able to re-assume it until some time has passed. This time depends on how long you were in the form in the first place, but becomes significantly shorter for those highly skilled in metamorphosis.

A question people often ask regarding the process of shapeshifting is: What happened to the things the shapeshifter was carrying, and how in the world is it that he has them again upon returning to his natural form? This is a very interesting matter indeed. According to the most learned sages of metamorphosis, your possessions are affected by an entanglement with your natural morphic resonance, and actually pass into it when you shapeshift; when you return to kentaur form, they return from the morphic resonance field.

One of the greatest benefits of assuming alternate forms is the fact that damage to those forms that would ordinary kill will only force you back into your natural kentaur shape. You will still be in extreme danger, as this forced transformation is draining, exhausting, and painful in the extreme, but at least you won't be dead.

Shapeshifters also develop a certain homing sense that they can use to fly unerringly back to Kentaur Isle; use the command 'fly home' to do this. Naturally, you can only do this when you are capable of flight; normally this is a result of being in parakeet, chimera, dragon, or bezhuldaar form, but other means of flight (such as magical items) will suffice to let you use this ability.

All of the powers available to you drain your spiritual and physical energy to varying degrees; this varies from ability to ability and must be discovered by experimentation.

As of change 5285[1], the alignment restriction has been removed from this guild.