#i love shoh so much goddamn

[mirandaputsherbestbuttforward]

David Gaider dropping the fact that Shohreh Aghdashloo was originally cast to play Flemeth in Origins... I love Kate Mulgrew but Shohreh?????

[shepherds-of-haven]

For #tellmeeverything: I had some questions regarding shifters! So we know more talented shifters can change their whole bodies into animal forms (like MC turning into a peregrine falcon in chapter 7) so my 2 questions are:

1. Is that kind of transformation concentration based? Like in terms of dnd would they have to make a concentration saving throw every time they’re hit?

2. If a shifter was gravely injured and shifted their body into a different form, do they maintain that injury or is like wild shape in dnd (I really hope you know dnd so all of this makes sense lmao) where you get a whole new set of HP until you shift back?

Thank you! I love ShOH so much 😍

Hi anon, I swear that Tumblr ate this ask, so I never saw it when I was answering the Q&A on Patreon and only just saw it now (a few days later)! (This actually happens daily; I'll load up my inbox, give it a brief glance-through, then refresh it and there will be "new" messages peppered through that didn't load the first time... Truly awful stuff lol, but maybe it's because I have thousands of messages in my inbox at this point! I don't know how normal that is or if the site accounted for that 😅)

Anyway, I feel bad that I genuinely didn't see this, so I'm breaking protocol/crossing streams to answer this now!

Yes, Shifting magic, like almost all magic, is concentration-based, so a Shifter can only "hold" their new shape or form so long as they're actively maintaining it with their mental concentration and willpower! You can get around this by using something passive, like an amulet or talisman with Shifting magic bound into it, but this also requires Binding magic, you're limited to only what shape is "programmed" into the spell (whereas a Shifter can choose and discard shapes on the fly), and it can be broken by removing the object from your person. Hope that makes sense!

It depends on the nature of the injury! Unless the Shifter knows Healing magic, the wound will still exist when they revert back to their normal form. As for what happens when they change shape, it depends; the greater the transformation, the more energy and concentration it takes, so if the pain or severity of their injury saps up too much of their strength, the injury will typically show up in their new form because it's too much effort to try to maintain the scaffolding of an uninjured form while in pain. So if you have a broken arm and shapeshift into a falcon, you'll probably have a broken wing; or if you've been stabbed and shapeshift into a bear, the bear will likely be limping or bleeding in pain, simply because it costs too much mental effort and strain to maintain an intact body when you're not really that intact. However, it's also not impossible to do so: if your magic, willpower, and mental resilience are greater than that of your injury, you could technically soldier through and maintain an uninjured form if you needed to. It's just not that common/it depends on the injury! (Notably, this isn't the case with Changelings, whose ability is more physical/biological rather than temporary/concentration-based. If they're injured in humanoid form, they're also injured in bird form, etc.)

If you want a weird analogy for it, I think of it like, um, a person in a mascot costume or one of those performers who puppeteer a giant dinosaur suit from the inside...

If the person in the suit gets their arm broken, maybe that reflects itself in how they puppeteer the dinosaur's arm, because their ability to do so is inhibited, both physically and mentally (pain-wise)... So maybe the dinosaur arm also flops around like it's broken. Or maybe they're able to soldier through the pain and injury and keep it together long enough to act like the most convincing dinosaur that ever lived, and you'd never know they were actually injured inside, because they're fully inhabiting that form and selling it until that kid's birthday party is over, goddamn it!

...Something like that. I hope that makes sense! :'D