So I'm working on a character for an upcoming mini-game set in WWII. The character I'm currently looking at is essentially a Doppleganger, able to steal the form, abilities, powers, skills etc...of anyone he consumes. A lot of this can be done with the existing rules but there were certain things that could not be done and after discussing things with the GM and some others we started talking about variations on powers and such and I finally sat down to write up the ideas into a cohesive and balanced (I hope) Power and below is what I have come up with.
[-Varies] Zoophagus Mimicry (Doppleganger)
Description: You are able to mimic the abilities of another person, at least to an extent.
Musts: Like the Mimic Ability and Modular Ability Powers you must set aside a number of points of your refresh equal to the maximum total refresh value of any mortal stunts, skills or supernatural abilities that you wish to copy from a target. You must also take at least the Inhuman Recovery power, if not greater, with a [+4] Catch of Cold Iron.
Skills Affected: Many
Effects:
Feeding Dependency – As the Power, requires regular consumption of fresh meat and blood.
Human Guise – As the Power.
Mimic Form – You are able to perfectly mimic the appearance of a target, but in order to do so you must consume the Skin and eyes of targets face. Otherwise this works the same as the Mimic Form Power (+4 to disguise checks).
Shapeshifting – You may gain the ability to take the form of any beast if you consume the beast’s Heart. This otherwise works exactly like the Beast Change power, however you must take a moderate physical consequence as a result of the change. All others powers are still retained from Mimic Power, except for any Beast Powers which are now replaced by the Beast Powers of the new form. Like the Mimic Power ability below, you can swap back to a previous beast-form by taking a moderate physical consequence, but you can only do so if you do not currently have a moderate physical consequence.
Mimic Power – You may gain the supernatural powers or mortal stunts of a target by eating the target’s Heart or Brain. This will naturally kill the target dead and is generally considered bad form. Like Mimic Ability you may keep a current Power Configuration as long as you like, but if you consume another Heart to gain a new set of powers the existing set will be replaced by the new set.
In addition you may take an Extreme Consequence (Your choice of Physical, Mental, or Social) to permanently learn that power configuration, but the aspect change you gain becomes permanently attached to that power configuration. You may change to any previous power configuration, by taking the same extreme consequence that you took for that set of powers the last time you gained them. When swapping tin this way the extreme consequence aspect attached to the new configuration will replace the aspect gained from the old configuration. So keep track of whom you’ve eaten and the powers and skills they had.
[Note: The Extreme Aspect for this use of the Power will never go away, as such characters with this Power may take as second Extreme Consequence of the same type for mitigating damage etc…however it also counts as an additional taggable aspect for those who know it exists]
Skill Shuffle – Anytime you consume a Targets Heart or Brain to gain their Stunts or powers you may also opt to shuffle your Skills around to match the target’s skills. The new set of skills becomes part of the current power configuration and will change when the power configuration changes.
True Form – A character with this power may revert to their True Form at any time, losing all existing power configurations (Though they can still revert to previously learned configurations at the usual cost later on), without taking any consequences.
I'm posting this up here for commentary and review to see how potentially broken this could be. I think I built in enough Consequences (Literally) for using the power (Societal consequences aside) that I think it's self-balancing and possibly over-correcting, but that's why I'm posting it here.
Yes this is a gruesome ability and most GM's may not want to allow it on that basis alone, but given the additional societal consequences and stigmata involved...and it makes for a nice power for an NPC as well.
As a note; the name I chose comes from the psychological condition "Zoophagus Mania" which is the condition Renfield Suffered from in the original Dracula Novels. It was a condition in which the victim believes they can gain power from eating animals and occasionally people, so highly apropos.