Changer is one of the twelve power classifications created by the PRT still in modern day use.[1] It’s one of the most recently changed ratings, absorbing the old Shifter classification.[2] As such, the terms Changer and Shifter are often used interchangeably.[3] Changers have the ability to alter their physical form.[4]
Methodology[]
Changers can alter their form, appearance, or natural abilities through some form of manipulation of their own bodies.[5]
Subtypes[]
They exploit this in a various ways, including, but not limited to:
- The power to grow extra weapons[6] or armor.[7]
- The ability to streamline one’s body, allowing for improved movement and evasion,[8] often used for infiltration.[9]
- The ability to alter ones appearance or to alter one's human features, as found in the old Shifter classification.[10]
- The use of self-targeted biokinesis, possibly to heal oneself.[11]
The Changer rating does not include new powers beyond natural weapons, armor, or durability.[5]
Trigger events[]
Changers arise from mental and emotional issues involving identity or body image, or from conflicts involving constraining social expectations.[4]
PRT countermeasures[]
The PRT recommends team use sustained focus fire when dealing with Changers, but considers them a low priority target when all numbers are assumed to be equal, the second to lowest priority classification.[12] Unlike most other classifications, the Changer rating has no additional countermeasures for a rating of nine or higher.[5]
Threat level | Additional measures |
---|---|
2+ | |
5+ |
Known Changers[]
Note: This list describes the Changer classifications and Changer aspects of different parahumans. For a full overview of their abilities, please check their individual pages.
Name | Known ratings | Power description |
---|---|---|
Acidbath | Breaker[13]/Changer (Blaster, Striker, Mover)[14] | Can turn into, sling blasts of, and move as a tidal wave of acid.[14] |
Biter | Changer[15] | Can distort the size of individual body parts.[16] |
Blasto | Tinker 6 (Master 5, Blaster 2, Changer 2, Brute 2)[17] | Produces plant-hybrid minions.[18] |
The Blue Bomber | Changer/Brute[19] | Can assume three different forms. One tall and rubbery, one thin and metallic and one muscular and brutish.[19] |
Crock o'Shit | Thinker/Changer[20] | Sensitive Changer form reacts and evolves to truth and lies heard in either form with consequential ability to tell truth from lies.[20] |
Deviant | Changer[21] | Can manifest changes in reaction to wounds, but the changes are to areas far from the wound site.[21] |
Echidna | Master/Striker 10, Brute 8, Changer 2,[22] Thinker,[23] Trump/Master[24] | Grows larger and stronger and gains more limbs by feeding.[25] |
Fidelis | See: Crock o'shit.[20] | |
Fog | Changer 8[26] (Shaker, Stranger)[27], possibly Breaker[28] | Transforms into mist with varying solidity, with the ability to erode living matter.[29] |
Genoscythe | Changer[30] | Creates scythe blades out of hands.[30] |
Hookwolf | Changer 4, Brute 7[31] | Can replace parts of his body with metal shapes comprised of blades, hooks and needle points, all violently shuffling next to each other.[32] |
Marquis | Shaker, Changer[33] | Capable of manipulating bones, including his and any exposed bone of his enemies.[33] |
Mog | Changer, Brute[34] | Can absorb impacts and utilizes the energy to trigger physical changes, including new features, armor and weaponry.[35] |
Mush | Changer 4[36][37] | Capable of absorbing masses of loose material and debris to form a protective, shapeshifting shell of trash, dirt and loose matter.[38] |
Night | Breaker 9, possibly Stranger 3[26][28] | Can transform into an inhuman creature with enhanced speed and strength and a nigh-invincible exterior, but only when unobserved by conventional sight.[39] |
Oliver | Changer (low)[24] | Has an appearance that changes to match his basic perception of attractiveness.[40] |
Skinslip | Changer[41] | Can manipulate his own skin and staple the skin of others to his own.[41] |
Trainwreck | Changer,[42][36] Tinker[43] | Capable of absorbing material, similar to Mush, but without the ability to reintegrate into human form and the ability to move parts easily.[42] |
Weld | Brute, Changer[44] | Has the ability to absorb metal and incorporate it into his biology, giving him metal flesh and rendering him nigh-indestructible.[45] |
Wendigo | Changer/Breaker[46] | Has a body composed of a space-warping effect, which lingers throughout his general area. Can channel this effect through touch.[46] |
Trivia[]
- Costumes and other clothes are prone to damage if their power isn't sufficiently accommodating.[47]
- The previous Changer WD document used categories based on the Chinese zodiac.[48]
References[]
- ↑ “I do,” Weld nodded. He’d memorized it as a rhyme, as suggested by his old boss. Maybe that had been the intention from the start:
Mover, Shaker,
Brute and Breaker.
Master, Tinker,
Blaster and Thinker,
Striker, Changer,
Trump and Stranger. - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.1 - ↑ Other classifications have existed and been folded into the ones we have now. Shifter is a recent collapse. - reddit comment by Wildbow.
- ↑ The PRT used to have far more than the 12 classifications, but reduced them down. Shifter was folded into Changer and the two are now used interchangeably. - reddit comment by Wildbow.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Changer - Shapeshifting and alteration of one’s physical form.
Changers arise from identity/body image issues, or conflict of role vs. social expectations. - WD Rulebook: Character Creation - Trigger Capes: Classifications - ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Can alter their form, appearance, and/or natural abilities through some manipulation of their bodies. Does not include new powers beyond natural weapons, armor, or durability.
Sustained focus fire is recommended. Low-ish priority, all numbers assumed to be equal.
Threat level 2+: Team is notified as to Changer classification. Basic ‘eyes on’ protocols initiated, with team members maintaining constant eye contact with one another, and eyes on the changer. Changer is never assumed to be unarmed.
Threat level 5+: Full eyes on protocols and verbal passwords put into effect. No facility, locked down or otherwise, is assumed to be impregnable.
Threat level 9+: None - PRT Master Reference - Classifications - Changer - ↑ Weapon Horror - Change into an amorphous horror of natural and melee weapons. Dealing damage and rampaging fills a rage bar, with the parahuman gaining additional changes and benefits while in the rage form. - Detail Generator - LIST, spreadsheet by Wildbow
- ↑ Ox Strength, passive natural weapons - Detail Generator - Changer, spreadsheet by Wildbow
- ↑ Ferret - Can change configuration of body on the fly, giving faster than normal movement, including run-speed sneaking, double normal movement while moving through confined spaces, and half effect & duration from environmental slows and physical confinement effects. - Detail Generator - LIST, spreadsheet by Wildbow
- ↑ Changer-stranger powers often involve changing one’s physical appearance, mimicking others, or using altered shape to slip in where an ordinary person couldn’t get. The stranger and changer aspects thus blend together seamlessly (for much this reason, the changer category is sometimes referred to as shifter, an old designation for this specific eventuality). Examples include stretching limbs, liquid form to seep through keyholes, or the ability to alter one’s face and mannerisms to match another individual. - STRANGERS, document by Wildbow.
- ↑ Monkey Copy appearance, steal faces, proper 'changer' as opposed to 'shifter' - Detail Generator - Changer, spreadsheet by Wildbow
- ↑ PIg Biokinesis, healing, health, durability - Detail Generator - Changer, spreadsheet by Wildbow
- ↑ “Why Changer?”
“Because it makes sense. I can sell it. I can fake it. And because changers are second to last on the good ol’ PRT priority list. Everything else being equal, changers get left alone while the thinkers and masters get gunned down first, tinkers are probably next in line if they can’t be disarmed, and then you get rid of the bog-standard break-shit types. Changers come after all of that.” - Excerpt from Interlude 10.y II - ↑ Black Kaze alternated attacks with Acidbath, very proper, measured in her movements, compared to Acidbath’s flailing, reckless, hurried scramble to keep out of Scion’s line of sight. Acidbath moved with surprising quickness, faster than a typical car might. A peculiarity of his breaker power. - Excerpt from Speck 30.2
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Acidbath Could turn into, sling blasts of, & move as tidal wave of acid Independent Breaker/Changer (Blaster, Striker & Mover Sub powers) - parahumanList, bolded edit by Wildbow.
- ↑ Someone who could alter their appearance to look like another person/alter their human features vs. someone who could physically take on another form.
Biter would have likely been a shifter vs. a changer. - reddit comment by Wildbow. - ↑ Biter Distorts the size of individual body parts - parahumanList, bolded edit by Wildbow.
- ↑ Blasto, Real Name Unknown
Classification: Tinker 6 (sub: master 5, blaster 2, shifter 2, brute 2); plants.
Disposition: Villain (B)
Last Known Location: Boston (Allston area, east). - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ Power: Blastocyst - Produces plant hybrid minions. Minions cannot communicate (this includes clones and humanoids), are lumpy/misshapen, and have social scores of 0. They suffer one additional wound of the same type (without any attached effects) every time they take fire damage. Creations are loyal. They follow simple instructions, 20 words or less, and obey a pheromone-laden Blasto so long as he is in earshot. - Playtest Capes, document by Wildbow.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 ◈ BLUE BOMBER; Dexter Schucandy
Classification: Changer/Brute
Rating subject to change. Seen in three forms: Tall and rubbery; thin and metallic; and muscular and brutish. - WD Helena, document by Wildbow. - ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 “Crock. She was Fidelis, once. Ex-marine who left the service to be a Protectorate heroine. Louisiana PRT.”
[...]
“Before your time,” I said. “Took on a position where she’d spend six months of the year with the Lousiana team, six months going from town to town in one of the dead zones without any nearby departments. Helping police with weird and tough cases. She’d work as a lie detector, then if there was trouble she’d mutate into an eerie, beautiful, ten foot tall woman.”
“I’ve seen hints of what she becomes and she isn’t beautiful and she’s barely [...] a woman,” Ashley said.
[...]
“Her lie detection’s a thinker power, technically, but in actual application it’s changer. She feels it in her gut because her gut morphs and mutates in response. About a year or two into the routine I was talking about, she gets dropped from official PRT stuff. Gets the same treatment as capes who are too vicious, ugly, or problematic to market. Essentially becomes nameless, the only reports of her are her turning into a ten foot tall woman that’s more unsettling than eerily beautiful.”
[...]
“When she detects lies she absorbs them, or some… some of the ugliness and intent, makes them part of the changer form she carries with her. She went from being a heroine who turned into a beautiful giantess to being nameless and disfigured. She got pretty into her investigation of something big that she’d uncovered, a conspiracy, taking down a crime ring. I don’t know because I don’t think she was communicating much with her bosses then, so the paperwork is a big question mark.”
[...]
“She took a leave of absence and dove into her investigation, and she… never surfaced, I guess. What came out the other side was a dark version of her, mean, tattooed, filed teeth, and blood on her face because she’d torn into some crime lord’s neck and the blood was still there after the mutations receded.”
“That’s what I saw,” Ashley said. “It wasn’t very crocodile.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.12 - ↑ 21.0 21.1 ► Database Ticket: Don Fraser
Ticket came in re: our systems check on Mr. Fraser. We can add the following to what we know:- Cape name confirmed as Upperhand.
- Targeted and defeated a blaster/striker cape called Facet. The cape was powerful, and highly sought after by the San Francisco team, creating crystal growths with a touch and dismantling them for catastrophic artillery-level sieges. Facet was pulverized beyond all recognition.
- Targeted and defeated two capes in one confrontation:
- A shifter villain by the name of Deviant. The cape could manifest changes in reaction to wounds, but the changes were to areas far from the wound site. Deviant was shredded.
- A weapon dealer Blaster capable of ‘machine gunning’ endless sprays of needles, punching through concrete, was torn in half, midsection pulverized.
- Protectorate member by the name of Hydrofoil was targeted. A brute/mover cape with a personal shield that produced torrents of water in reaction to breaches, traveling by means of a personal tidal wave, was found in an apartment. The floorboards of the apartment apparently shattered, and Hydrofoil’s shattered remains were piled within the ensuing depression. A note (handwriting suggestively similar to Don Fraser’s) pointed the PRT to Hydrofoil’s illegal side business. - Department Sixty Four, PRT Quest thread iii p18
- ↑ “Tentative ratings, based on what we know, we have her down as a brute eight, a changer two and a combination of striker and master with a rating of ten.” - Excerpt from Queen 18.4
- ↑ “Chevalier, take your team, follow after my Wards. If she can detect capes, we’ll need to assign her a thinker classification, and we’ll need to assume that any isolated groups are at risk. Undersiders? Take Myrddin’s Wards and pursue Flechette and Parian. Ensure they aren’t intercepted. The rest of us will track down Noelle. Any indications about her location from the video?” - Excerpt from Queen 18.5
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 She’d be a Trump/Master hybrid.
Oliver would be a low-level shifter. - Cell 22.6, comment by Wildbow. - ↑ “Don’t know. Haven’t had cause to believe it. In terms of raw material, raw mass? Yeah. She eats, she grows. But here’s the thing. If she absorbs something alive, she clones it. More clones if she’s angrier, we think. We don’t have a large sample size of incidents.” - Excerpt from Queen 18.2
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 “And this second group, The Pure, is the second offshoot of that Aryan group, I take it?”
“Small but powerful. Their leader, Purity, is a Blaster 8 and Mover 4.”
“Yeah, there’s a Breaker 9, a Shifter 8 with Stranger 3 and a Master 6 in that group? I buy that they’re powerful.” - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.1 - ↑ Fog is (like many breakers) a sub-class shaker, in that his breaker power has a shaker (and stranger) side effect (the broad cloud of semisolid fog he generates). Much like Shadow Stalker. You can see 9.1 for brief mention of these breaker sub-classes, I think. - Queen 18.5, comment by Wildbow.
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 I have a slightly different take on Breakers than I did as I wrote that part & the comment. The story itself is unchanged because you can effectively flip the two characters around, but I'd call Night a breaker and Fog a Changer (or call them both breakers, depending). I've also left it as is with the idea that the PRT are always going to be a bit wobbly with classifications (and especially numbers) given the lack of complete information they have. - Excerpt from a comment on Reddit by Wildbow.
- ↑ Fog, Geoff Schmidt – Has the ability to partially or wholly become a living mist, with solidity varying depending on his wishes and the ability to erode living matter. - Cast (In Depth)
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 Genoscythe Changer, created scythe blades out of hands - parahumanList, bolded edit by Wildbow.
- ↑ “And it looks like he’s a Shaper 4, Brute 7, with the longest list of homicides or suspected homicides I’ve seen on someone who wasn’t already in prison. Thick file, I take it he has lots of followers?” - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.1
- ↑ Hookwolf – A onetime contestant in underground Parahuman fighting tournaments, he found his way into Empire Eighty Eight after murdering a stadium manager, then formed a splinter group after Kaiser’s death. His journey has led him to the Slaughterhouse Nine. A ‘caniform metalstorm’, Hookwolf is a powerful shapeshifter with the ability to replace parts of his body with shapes comprised of blades, hooks and needle points, all violently shuffling amongst one another. His favored form is a quadruped ‘wolf’, thus his name. - Cast (In Depth)
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 Marquis – Amy Dallon’s father, an osteokinetic, capable of manipulating bones, including his and any exposed bone of his enemy. A powerful Shaker and Shifter, once leader of a villain group in Brockton Bay’s ‘bad old days’, Marquis heads a cell block in the men’s wing. - Cast (In Depth)
- ↑ Mog’s acts as ‘the benefactor’ include financing Tuurngait/Derian, donating to children’s and research hospitals, funding medical research, charity and goodwill programs, and scientific research in general. Only Derian and Dredge know that the melee-shifter brute is the bankroll - to everyone else, Mog is just muscle. - PRT Quest (Villains), document by Wildbow.
- ↑ ➥ MOG; Real name unknown
Disposition: Villain (A)
Last known location: Anchorage
Mog is the apparent leader of the Anchorage faction of Tuurngait. Despite being pure muscle, Mog has maintained a presence in the area for some time. Apparent crimes include robbery, black market trade and assault.
Mog absorbs impacts and utilizes the energy to trigger physical changes, including new features, armor and weaponry. - PRT Quest (Anchorage) - ↑ 36.0 36.1 Mush (Deceased) – Classified as a Shifter, Mush could form amorphous or vaguely humanoid bodies out of trash, mud, dirt and sand. Killed by the Nine. - Cast (In Depth)
- ↑ Weld took the folders and opened the one for the Wards, glanced through it to memorize the faces of his new team. Then he went to the next file, “Then the top priority as far as opposition goes is… the Archer’s Bridge Merchants? Superpowered drug dealers. A Shaker 2, Tinker 2/Mover 3 and a Shifter 4. These aren’t big numbers. Am I missing something?” - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.1
- ↑ Mush – A member of the Merchants, capable of absorbing masses of loose material and debris to form a protective, shapeshifting shell of trash, dirt and other loose matter. - Cast
- ↑ Can transform into an inhuman creature with enhanced speed and strength and a nigh-invincible exterior, but only when unobserved by conventional sight. - Cast (In Depth)
- ↑ But he was still Oliver. Whatever gradual transition his power was offering, it hadn’t changed the person at the core of it; an insecure, socially stunted teenage boy. In a way, it had made it worse. Oliver’s face and body changed according to his basic perception of attractiveness, and that changed a little every time he saw a new face. In little ways, his face changed day by day, to the point that it wasn’t always easy to recognize him. - Excerpt from Migration 17.8
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 Skinslip was a minor regenerator with a changer ability, allowing him to manipulate his own skin. I could see him using it to scale a surface. He extended that ability by flaying people and crudely stitching or stapling their skin to his own. The regeneration connected the tissues and extended his power’s breadth and reach, but it didn’t prevent all rejection or decay, forcing him to replenish it from time to time. He was a newer member, but they’d still cloned him. - Excerpt from Sting 26.5
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 Trainwreck was very similar to the Merchants’ Mush, but without the ability to reintegrate into a human form, and the parts couldn’t necessarily move easily. That said, he was his own power supply. He had tinker knowledge that he used to give his body workable joints and more complicated engineering/weapons. - Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 21.y
- ↑ Trainwreck is a case 53 tinker. No proper limbs/body, had to build it.
The Simurgh is another case of a tinker as a secondary power. Picked up details from tinkers and executed it via. a thinker/trump sort of approach. - reddit comment by Wildbow. - ↑ He was classified as a brute and changer, classifications meant for the unnaturally tough and strong and for those who could change their shape to some extent, respectively. He never liked the word brute being applied to him, even though he was aware that the labels had originally been intended for the PRT teams to identify and label villains, specifically. It was only later that they had been extended to identifying the heroes as well. - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.1
- ↑ Weld – Once the forerunner of a new phase in the Protectorate’s plan to acclimatize the public to capes, Weld was to be the ‘face’ of the more monstrous or unusual capes, taking over the Wards, with plans to eventually have him lead a city’s Protectorate team. Left the Wards following the revelations about Eidolon and Alexandria’s involvement with Cauldron. Now leads the Irregulars. Weld has metal flesh, a consequence of his ability to absorb metal and incorporate it into his biology. This renders him nigh-indestructible and gives him basic shapeshifting ability. - Cast (In Depth)
- ↑ 46.0 46.1 Wendigo
Player: SCG
Allegiance: Independent
Power: Shifter/Breaker. Body is a space-warping effect. Space-warping lingers throughout his general area. He leaves a trail of breaking/snapping/fracturing space-warp behind him. He can also channel this effect into things he touches. Maintains ability to further warp himself, to use as an attack. - PRT Quest (Villains), document by Wildbow. - ↑ Toasty - This might be a dumb question, but do we know how changers deal with clothing?
Like if you transform into a giant dragon, shouldn't your costume just get completely destroyed?
Wildbow - It does. Most changers in story end up naked, unless their changes are rooted in space warping or something borderline breakerish - Discord Convo,Archived on Spacebattles - ↑ Rat changers can refer to those who change by a process of breaking down. The resultant form may be more condensed, smaller, mobile, or stealthier.
Ox changers refer to those who change by a process of swelling, adding mass from the meat dimension. The resultant form is typically larger, more physical, often with passive natural weapons.
Tiger changers produce weapons or tools from their bodies, with a leaning toward the former. Often a production of non biological material with a lean toward combat.
Rabbit changers change suddenly. The element of surprise or the ability to change instantaneously is often a feature in the form, using surprise or movement modes.
Dragon changers change gradually. The gradual change takes the changer further than other sub-classes do, but offers less flexibility in swapping in parts or utilized the change itself to tackle situations.
Snake changers make calculated, targeted alterations to a body part. The end state may not be as impressive, but may be more varied, flexible, and strategic.
Horse changers utilize a material to change, their altered form shoring itself up with something abundant in the environment.
Goat changers alter themselves by way of fighting, taking damage, or meeting environmental conditions. They might have to put themselves into certain situations to achieve their wanted changes, but are often impressive and resilient.
Monkey changers alter appearance or adjust their own features, often taking on the appearance of other people.
Rooster changers change in the course of movement, and tend to gain form changes that provide them added means of movement.
Dog changers offer an elemental manifestation as part of their change. They become another material, or the material they generate is attuned such that it produces the effect (ie. ‘tuning fork’ biology that produces vertigo).
Pig changers deal with biokinesis. - CHANGER, document by Wildbow
[]
Modern Classifications | Mover • Shaker • Brute • Breaker • Master • Tinker Blaster • Thinker • Striker • Changer • Trump • Stranger |
---|---|
Historical Classifications | Nuker • Shifter |