The Book of Metamorpho

[IAmBatman]

Maybe we should disconnect Shapeshifting from the other three powers and just let the other three powers be always on.

[IAmBatman]

So like this, basically:

NAME = METAMORPHO
SECRET IDENTITY = REX MASON

SPECIES = METAHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = INTERLOPER
PERSONALITY = DISCONTENTED
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5
MOVE = 7
RANGE = 5
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 320

SHAPESHIFTING
Start the game with four white Shapeshift Markers. At the start of the round you may place or remove any number of Shapeshift Markers on this card. Add one to Metamorpho's Attack and Defense values and subtract one from Metamorpho's Move and Range values for each Shapshift Marker on this card. A maximum of 4 Shapeshift Markers can be placed on this card.

SOLID FORM
Metamorpho never rolls for molten lava or lava field damage, and may not be moved by any special power on an Army Card unless the player controlling Metamorpho allows him to be moved.

LIQUID FORM
Metamorpho does not stop his movement when entering a water space. After taking a turn with Metamorpho, remove 1 Wound Marker from this Army Card.

GASEOUS FORM
Metamorpho can move through all figures and obstacles such as ruins, is never attacked when leaving an engagement, and cannot be targeted by opponents’ non-adjacent figures for any attacks or for any special powers that require clear sight.

SUPER STRENGTH
FLYING

[Arkham]

When I was originally going to suggest an alternative, that was the approach I was going to take. At the very least, I see him as a dude who can shapeshift, but has all sorts of elemental capabilities at will, so that in itself could be neat.

But you do what you're passionate about. I was just inserting some possibilities, not trying to steer the ship.

[IAmBatman]

And don't think I'm not considering all suggestions that come my way. My reservations were laid out in detail on the last page and had more to do with the big picture of the project than anything else.

People aren't loving his slow, plodding transformations, though, so maybe the above is the best compromise. It's much less tactical, but still stays consistent with Igor while being a better simulation of Metamorpho in practice.

[Yodaking]

I think having access to any of the benefits as needed without tying it to the number of markers is a good approach. I'd just say you then might need to reign in some of the benefits. For example, if he can't be hit from range at all times, then why bother ever not having all 4 markers on the card? Your opponents will have to come to him to attack so he no longer needs to drop markers to increase move as part of a pursuit. 7 defense with the ability to heal 3 times per round makes him pretty hard to defeat for a decent chunk of our cards. I'd just bump up his life instead of giving his a steady healing power.

[Yodaking]

Here is a stab at it.


SOLID FORM
Metamorpho never rolls for molten lava or lava field damage, and may not be moved by any special power on an Army Card unless the player controlling Metamorpho allows him to be moved.

LIQUID FORM
Metamorpho does not stop his movement when entering a water space and when he is attacked by an opponent’s figure, the most wounds he can take for this attack is one.

GASEOUS FORM
Metamorpho can move through all figures and obstacles such as ruins and is never attacked when leaving an engagement. After rolling defense dice with Metamorpho, you may move Metamorpho up to 2 spaces.


Those seem balanceable with 7/7 stats.

[johnny139]

In that draft, the Slither effect is really just taking up space, since Flying is always on. And I think it gives you less reason to explore the full spectrum of Shapeshifts, since you're going to want to get in there and swing over to 7/7 stats.

I think it's fine, but he's pretty much a straight beater at that point, and plays more like a Martian Manhunter or Vision type. Less of a "different forms" character and more of a toolbox. Which honestly isn't untrue for his role on teams in my experience.

[IAmBatman]

Yeah if this is the approach, I’ll probably just cut the Liquid Form as the slither effect is redundant and there’s not enough liquid theme left after it’s chopped.

I’ll definitely go with Yodaking’s Gas Form approach, though. The previous version was just retitled Intangibility.

Maybe we should cut Shapeshifting and just give him static stats since it seems like with this version there’s less reason for him to really change stats?

[IAmBatman]

Maybe something like this:

NAME = METAMORPHO
SECRET IDENTITY = REX MASON

SPECIES = METAHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = INTERLOPER
PERSONALITY = DISCONTENTED
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5
MOVE = 7
RANGE = 3
ATTACK = 5
DEFENSE = 5
POINTS = 320

GASEOUS FORM
Metamorpho can move through all figures and obstacles such as ruins and is never attacked when leaving an engagement. After rolling defense dice with Metamorpho, you may move Metamorpho up to 2 spaces.

SOLID FORM
Metamorpho never rolls for molten lava or lava field damage, and may not be moved by any special power on an Army Card unless the player controlling Metamorpho allows him to be moved. When Metamorpho attacks an adjacent figure or rolls defense against an adjacent attack, add two dice to his roll.

FLYING
SUPER STRENGTH

[IAmBatman]

Or, possibly, less of a buzzsaw approach:

NAME = METAMORPHO
SECRET IDENTITY = REX MASON

SPECIES = METAHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = INTERLOPER
PERSONALITY = DISCONTENTED
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5
MOVE = 7
RANGE = 5
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 320

ELEMENTAL METAMORPHOSIS
Start the game with four white Shapeshift Markers. At the start of his turn, you may place or remove any number of Shapeshift Markers on this card. Add one to Metamorpho's Attack and Defense values and subtract one from Metamorpho's Move and Range values for each Shapshift Marker on this card. A maximum of 4 Shapeshift Markers can be placed on this card.

SOLID FORM
Metamorpho never rolls for molten lava or lava field damage, and may not be moved by any special power on an Army Card unless the player controlling Metamorpho allows him to be moved.

LIQUID FORM
Metamorpho does not stop his movement when entering a water space. After taking a turn with Metamorpho, remove 1 Wound Marker from this Army Card.

GASEOUS FORM
Metamorpho can move through all figures and obstacles such as ruins, is never attacked when leaving an engagement, and cannot be targeted by opponents’ non-adjacent figures for any attacks or for any special powers that require clear sight.

SUPER STRENGTH
FLYING

Maybe the rest of it still works if you just make it so you can change forms once per turn instead of once per round?

[IAmBatman]

I've lost my compass on this one. Any strong feelings @japes as you're probably the most invested in this faction and design other than me?

[Scapemage]

I'm also in favor of retaining some sort of time constraint on shapeshifting. I resonate a lot with what Bats is saying that we've built up ideas about what shapeshifting means in our game and we should play ball within the realms of that. With the original design (which I am still in favor of the direction), we're still pushing the envelope some by attaching additional abilities to each stat line.

Changeling is a really cool character and we've done other always-on designs like that before (Animal Man is one I can think of, he has 4 animal powers all the time), but at the very least I think Metamorpho should have to choose a form each time he reveals an Order Marker or some other indicator (after each time he's attacked might be cool). Arkham's ideas about utilizing various elements intrigues me and would go along with what I was suggesting previously of making the middle stat lines more interesting, but I don't know that there would be space on the card for that. Here's a stab at it:

SHAPESHIFTING (straight from Igor)
...

ELEMENTAL FORM
While this Army Card has:

• 0 Shapeshift markers, Metamorpho gains the Flying special power.
• 1 Shapeshift marker, Metamorpho cannot be targeted for non-adjacent attacks.
• 2 Shapeshift markers, Metamorpho may attack two figures within range when attacking, rolling attack dice once for all affected figures.
• 3 Shapeshift markers, when Metamorpho defends against an attack, two shields will block all damage.
• 4 Shapeshift markers, when Metamorpho defends against an attack, if he rolls 4 or more shields, the attacking figure receives one wound.

The details would need to be worked out, but this is a compromise which keeps the shifting stat line and the abilities tied to different stat lines, while also having each ability be shorter and sweeter.


EDIT: I am invested in this design. I was planning on running him if you didn't.