To what extent can a shifter or casterly mage change superficial things about themselves? Can a sorcerer change hair color at will should they want to waste their energy doing so? Can a shifter change hair or skin color until they're forced to unshift (death, resting, etc)?

In addition: Shifters and mages often merge armor into whatever they become and regain it when they come out of the form, so can a mage or shifter change/polymorph clothing without assuming a new form? I'm assuming illusionists can do something like all of these things, but they are not changing the physical properties.

Those questions depend on a couple of things really. If you wanna take a technical look at it, our Polymorph Self, for mages at least, is based off of D&D's Polymorph. Which itself in turn is based off of Alter Self, which indeed allows you to change superficial aspects about yourself pretty easily.



I would assume the same is capable for a Shifter, who are masters of such things. I know when they Shift into their forms, they can keep certain trademarks about themselves, like a certain scar or symbol in their fur.

But, that is looking at it technically. In reality, Polymorph Self on our server only allows you to take those 5 forms, and I imagine anything more or less than that would require a request or DM oversight to perform it.

Now, if your sorcerer simply wants to change their hair color there are easier ways of doing that, rather than physically altering yourself. My sorc in the past has used Prestidigitation to dye his hair. Considering it lets you perform minor magical tricks like coloring or such each round, you could reasonably say your PC's hair color changes every few seconds if he uses the cantrip, if changing at will was your goal.

Edit: As far as the clothes-changing thing, I don't know. It again seems like a complicated way to do something rather simple: change your outfit. Not that that isn't in the wizard/sorcerer spirit, mind you! I would suggest there is a cantrip that allows for the quick change of clothes, even without the evidence for one. NWN lets you equip a Full Plate, mundanely, in like 0.2 seconds flat. I don't see anyone begrudging a mage over snapping his fingers to change robes, magically.

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