Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 glowinghyren Jan 11, 2012 19:00:09	If I were to cook up an NPC or enemy for the PCs to interact with what should I consider when I'm deciding if I want this particular shape-changing character to be a changling or a doppleganger? Do they typically do things differently? Does one have a different subset of powers that the other doesn't? I've got access to MM1 the monster vault and the 2 core Ebberon books and I'm not sure I see what a doppleganger gets in terms of powers and traits that a changling couldn't also have. Or am I just totally missing something obvious like there being no dopplegangers in Ebberon or something? (Though that seems unlikely unless they all died out as changlings are supposed to be decendants of dopplegangers) Thanks!
#2 Gilo Jan 12, 2012 17:36:53	Maybe this thread will aid you: I know that they ret-conned Changelings into Doppelgangers in their race description for Eberron and the core. But what does this mean for the chronology of Eberron? Has there always been a race of shape shifting tricksters living among the population of Eberron? I was just wondering if the Baker has chimed in on this at any point. Actually, the 10-page Eberron proposal submitted in the Fantasy Setting Search had dopplegangers as a PC race, using a Savage Species style monster class. The idea was that it took time for a doppleganger to hone its telepathic gifts. WotC didn't want to do a monster class or ECL player race, so changelings appeared as a LA +0 compromise. As I see it in 4E, this remains the case. "Doppelganger" is term used for an aggressive or dangerous changeling, one who is seen as a threat. "Changeling" is a more friendly term. As such, it is still the case that you may get a changeling when a doppelganger infiltrates a village and impregnates a local. It just happens that father and child are the same species as opposed to having a watered-down hybrid... but the principle is the same. And again, doppelgangers/changelings have a natural gift for telepathy, but it's something they have to work to develop... which is to say that you'll see NPC doppelgangers with abilities like "Cloud Mind", and if a PC wants something like that, he could become a psion... which in his case reflects drawing on his innate potential as opposed to a purely learned talent.
#3 glowinghyren Jan 12, 2012 20:54:14	So it's essentially all a matter of attitude then. Ok that's not too bad.