New class: Shapechanger

[PowerWyrm]

A fighting class with the ability to polymorph into monsters, sharing most of their abilities...

- Shapechangers need to kill (monsterlevel) monsters of a race to be able to polymorph into a monster of that race
- Shapechangers share the hps, ac, damage and speed of their current form
- Shapechangers get a bonus or penalty to stealth depending on the weight of their current form
- Shapechangers get corresponding branded attacks if their current form has one of the POISON, DISEASE, ACID, ELEC, FIRE or COLD attacks
- Shapechangers get confusing attacks if their current form has one of the BLIND, HALLU or CONFUSE attacks (blinding/hallucinatory/confusing attacks in PvP)
- Shapechangers get fear attacks if their current form has the TERRIFY attack
- Shapechangers get stunning attacks if their current form has the PARALYZE attack (paralyzing attacks in PvP)
- Shapechangers get hold life if their current form has one of the EXP_xx attacks
- Shapechangers get the corresponding resistance if their current form has one of the RES_XXX or IM_XXX flags (in particular: IM_WATER will give sound and confusion resistances, RES_PLAS will give sound resistance)
- Shapechangers get permanent wraithform if their current form has the PASS_WALL flag
- Shapechangers get perfect digging skill if their current form has the KILL_WALL flag
- Shapechangers get fast regeneration if their current form has the REGENERATE flag
- Shapechangers get a bonus to INT if their current form has the SMART flag or if their current form is able to cast spells with a frequency of 1_IN_3 or better
- Shapechangers get a penalty to INT if their current form has the STUPID flag
- Shapechangers get confusion resistance if their current form has the NO_CONF flag
- Shapechangers get fear resistance if their current form has the NO_FEAR flag
- Shapechangers get free action if their current form has the NO_SLEEP flag
- Shapechangers get sound resistance if their current form has the NO_STUN flag
- Shapechangers get an antimagic field if their current form has the ANTI_MAGIC flag
- Shapechangers get an extra shot per round if their current form has one of the ARROW_XX flags
- Shapechangers get shards resistance if their current form has the HURT_ROCK flag
- Shapechangers get permanent invisibility if their current form has the INVISIBLE flag
- Shapechangers get resistance to amnesia attacks if their current form has the WEIRD_MIND (effect reduced by 25%) or EMPTY_MIND (effect reduced by 50%) flag
- Shapechangers are not able to move by physical means if their current form has the NEVER_MOVE flag (they are still able to move by magical means and attack by pressing a direction key)
- Shapechangers get erratic movement if their current form has the RAND_25 (10% chance) or RAND_50 (20% chance) flag (and they will not be able to run)
- Shapechangers can open doors/chests and close doors only if their current form has the OPEN_DOOR flag
- Shapechangers can bash doors only if their current form has the BASH_DOOR flag
- Shapechangers get susceptibility to fire or cold attacks if their current form has the HURT_FIRE or HURT_COLD flag (dangerous: damage from such attacks is doubled, and the multiplier is cumulative with any permanent or temporary resistance multiplier)
- Shapechangers get susceptibility to light attacks if their current form has the HURT_LITE flag (dangerous: damage from such attacks is doubled, and the multiplier is cumulative with any resistance multiplier)
- Shapechangers get the corresponding resistance if their current form has one of the BR_XXX flags (in particular: BR_INER will give free action, BR_GRAV will give feather falling, BR_PLAS and BR_WALL will give sound resistance)
- Shapechangers are not able to use melee attacks if their current form has the NEVER_BLOW flag
- Shapechangers are polymorphed into their player form when they die and become a ghost
- Shapechangers are able to use a breath attack if their current form has one of the BR_XXX flags (each breath attack costs them 1/20 of their max hps, doing a damage equal to 1/3 of their current hps)

[Emulord]

YES!!! This is what I've always wanted! Next weekend I'm so trying this.

[Emulord]

Oh, not being able to run with a erratic monster would be ANNOYING!
Maybe you should have erratic movement have speed penalties, such as -5 speed for being erratic and -10 for extremely erratic. This would probably work since erratic creatures are faster on average, without pissing Shapechangers off (not running hurts dungeon exploration).
This also works in a theme standpoint since the player has to concentrate to move properly, slowing down their movement.

[schroeder]

Heh, yeah. You are running. However your concentraiting, so the speed that would be doubled cus your running is now less. Wouldn't make a very big difference to run at low lvls, but it would at higher lvls, when you have speed rings!!