Gold’s Guide to Alter Ego

Summary

A master of a single form, the Alter Ego excels at being a singular, powerful threat… or perhaps something different?

The Alter Ego is a specialized Transformer, sacrificing the versatility of multiple forms in exchange for a powerful single form. While you do lose the versatility (and trust me, that hurts), the form easily can become the single strongest member of any party it is a part of, especially when you hit that power spike in Tier 3. It’s also surprisingly customizable. However, as always with transformers, there’s a hefty learning curve, and you should ideally be comfortable with creature creation. GM Permission will likely be needed for whatever transformation you pick.It also suffers from downsides in some of its options.

Get through that, though, and the Alter Ego will provide you unfathomable strength!

Sub-Archetype Statistics

Ease of Use – ★☆☆☆☆

Offensive Ability – ★★★★★

  • Single Target – ★★★★★
  • AOE – ★★★★★
  • Disabling – ★★★★★

Defense – ★★★★★

  • Passive Defense – ★★★★★
  • Active Defense – ★★★★★
  • Healing – ★★★★★

Support – ★★★★★★

  • Offensive Support – ★★★★★
  • Defensive Support – ★★★★★
  • Miscellaneous Support – ★★★★★

Skills – ★★★★★

  • Social – ★★★★★
  • Physical – ★★★★★
  • Mental – ★★★★★
Use this Sub-Archetype if you want to…
– Have a powerful signature transformation on par (if not better!) with a Player character that can be flexibly customized.
– You want to have two different forms you can rely upon.
– You think having a cool signature transformation is just NEAT.
Consider avoiding this Sub-Archetype if…
– You don’t want to lose the flexibility of regular transformations.
– The downsides of each of the T2s is too much to swallow.
– You aren’t very familiar with the creature creation mechanics.

Features

Tier 1 – The Other Me

Choose one Transform Ability you know that can transform you into a creature and one Boss creature of a creature type that that Ability allows you to transform into. You can no longer transform into any other creature through an Ability that you used. Instead, you can transform into the chosen Boss creature by using the chosen Ability. The Boss creature is of Grade 1 and does not automatically gain advantage on DRs.

Choose a Transform Ability you know and a Boss Creature of an appropriate creature type. You lose access to all other transformations, but can change to that Boss Creature instead. It’s Grade 1 and doesn’t gain advantage on DRs.

Holy moly, where to START?!? Okay, first off, let’s get the bad out of the way: you lose access to all traditional transformations. That is legitimately PAINFUL, and heavily restricts your flexibility, especially by Transformer standards. Fortunately… that’s kind of where the bad news ends!

In exchange for that nasty sacrifice, you get a BOSS TIER TRANSFORMATION. Do you realize how CRAZY that is?!? Normally, Boss Transformations are locked behind Fusion, which comes with a number of downsides and restrictions, not to mention being unavailable until Tier 2. With this, you get a Boss Transformation at TIER 1 with not many other strings attached other than the loss of other transformations. That’s amazing. Let’s go over all the big upsides you get from a Boss Transformation:

  1. 1 Creature Talent a Level: Unlike Normal Transformations, you get a whole CREATURE TALENT per Level, which means Boss Creatures scale VERY fast. This is easily the best benefit here.
  2. Ability Gain on Par With PCs: Your transformation gains Abilities at the same rate as PCs, which is GREAT, and enables a lot of versatility.
  3. 9 Skill Points at Level 0: You benefit from getting a full Skill Specialist supply of Skill Points to play with, compared to the 3 Skill Points from Normal creatures.

The power this grants you is absurd, but you aren’t a TRUE Boss. You’re stuck at Grade 1 for life. Despite this, The Other Me is an insanely powerful feature that can be well worth the sacrifice if you build into it.

Tier 2 – Transformation Type

Choose one of the following transformation types: Crouching Dragon, Curse, Second Nature, or Unleashed Potential. You and your Transformation gain the following changes depending on the chosen type. Crouching Dragon: You have disadvantage on all of your rolls, and all rolls that you force others to do have advantage in your original form. This effect is reversed while you are transformed. Curse: When you transform back to your normal form, you gain either 1 Level of Exhaustion or 1 Level of Madness. Your transformation gains 2 Greater Talents. Second Nature: You can change between your forms instantly with no WP cost. You do not trigger any secondary transformation effects, like gaining Temporary Vitality, when you do so. Unleashed Potential: The Transform Ability gains the upcast options “add 1 Lesser Talent for 2 WP” and “add 1 Greater Talent for 4 WP”.

Choose one:

  • Crouching Dragon: You have disadvantage on EVERYTHING, and all checks you force grant the target Advantage. However, REVERSE this when transformed (you have Advantage, force Disadvantage on forced checks)
  • Curse: Your transformation gains 2 Greater Talents, but you suffer 1 Level of Exhaustion or Madness when transforming back.
  • Second Nature: You may switch between your forms instantly at no WP cost, but you never gain Temporary Vitality when transforming.
  • Unleashed Potential: You may use the following upcasts on your transformation:
    • Add 1 Lesser Talent for 2WP
    • Add 1 Greater Talent for 4WP

HOOOO boy… this is arguably even MORE complicated than The Other Me! You have a big choice to make here, and one that will affect you for the rest of your career. Choose wisely.

Crouching Dragon causes your base form to become downright AWFUL. DISADVANTAGE ON EVERYTHING, CHECKS YOU FORCE ARE MADE AT ADVANTAGE. That is terrible, and renders your base form basically ineffectual at any task that requires a check. However, in exchange… your transformation effectively becomes a GOD. They have ADVANTAGE ON EVERYTHING, and DRs YOU FORCE ARE MADE AT DISADVANTAGE. Oh my GOD. This makes you a menace to society. Ironically, despite the Trope this is playing up, you’ll actually want to try and be in your transformation frequently. That’s because not being in your transformation leaves you vulnerable to so much, and that’s dangerous. This makes it a good choice for those who want to remain in their transformation more often than not. There is some ways to make the base form useful, though… see Synergies.

Curse is the designated high risk, high reward choice of the group. In exchange for inflicting a level of Exhaustion or Madness, your form effectively gains 2 Creature Talents on top of what it already grants. That downside is ROUGH, but it can be mitigated with some Synergies, and the power gained is amazing, enabling so, so many options that just weren’t possible before. If you’re willing to manage your risk, this can serve to be a very powerful option.

Second Nature is arguably the most interesting of the bunch. While it doesn’t directly improve your transformation, it enables you to change back and forth AT WILL. No AP, RP or WP Cost required. It just works, and can be done at anytime. It also has the side consequence of making your Boss Transformation have an unlimited duration. This enables some truly awesome builds, like having a form that does well with support and another that does the damage, or a form that does out of combat utility and another that handles in combat! The possibilities are, as they say, endless. Losing secondary transformation effects is a small price to pay for this benefit… as well as the lack of increased power compared to the others. This is great for if you want to switch between two forms on the regular.

Unleashed Potential is the simplest of the four, and the only one without any written downsides. It just enables you to upcast your Transformation to get additional Talents. Simple as it can get! It’s very effective, though, especially with some possible Synergies later down the line. This is the safe choice, and enables a wide range of build possibilities. It’s also the best user of Path of Transformation, since it spends the most WP of any choice.

Overall, your choice of Transformation Type will define where you will go from here. It isn’t an easy path ahead… but it’s one that will lead to defined strength.

Tier 3 – Hidden Tiger

The Level of the creature you can transform into through your The Other Me feature can be higher by an amount equal to your Tier. Treat the Tier of the new form as if it were the Tier of your normal form.

Your The Other Me transformation can now be up to your Tier levels higher. Its Tier is still the same as your normal form.

A mercifully straightforward Tier 3, but one with some massive ramifications. Higher transformation level is very strong, and grants WAY more Creature Talents, Abilities, Core Statistics, and much, much more. The only catch? Your transformation’s Tier is still effectively the same as your Base Form. This prevents you from getting higher Tier Features and Abilities, and limits Path scaling.

This limits the potential of your Transformation to some degree, but it isn’t too bad, you still get all the other normal level benefits, including Creature Talents, Stat Points, Skill Points, and Abilities, which can still make you incredibly effective. Enjoy!

Tier 4 – Evolving Transformation

You gain additional benefits depending on the type you chose for your Transformation Type feature. Crouching Dragon: You can add 1d4 to all your rolls and subtract it from all rolls you force others to do while transformed. Curse: You can choose to gain an additional 2 Greater Talents when transforming, but you gain an additional level of Exhaustion or Madness when you transform back. Second Nature: Your Ability WP cost is reduced by 1 in both your forms. Unleashed Potential: Your WP upcast and turn limit increases by 2 and you can deal an additional 1d6 damage with weapon attacks while transformed.

You gain additional benefits depending on your Transformation Type:

  • Crouching Dragon: +1d4 to all your rolls and -1d4 to rolls forced on others when transformed.
  • Curse: You may gain an additional 2 Greater Talents while transforming. If you do, gain double the Exhaustion or Madness you would’ve normally.
  • Second Nature: -1WP Cost of Abilities you use in both forms.
  • Unleashed Potential: Your WP Upcast and Turn Limit increase by 2, and deal +1d6 damage with weapon attacks while transformed.

An expansion of Transformation Type, Evolving Transformation provides each type some additional benefits! Let’s break ‘em down.

Crouching Dragon makes your transformed state even more absurd. An extra 1d4 on EVERYTHING you do (including DAMAGE!!!) and reducing rolls you force opponents to do by 1d4 is utterly ridiculous, and makes your transformation even more of a GOD than it already is. Simple, but effective… enjoy.

Curse is far more interesting. You can gamble another level of Madness or Exhaustion in exchange for another 2 Greater Talents. This can be a very powerful boon, especially since you likely have access to Exhaustion and Madness Cleanse by now, which can help mitigate the worst of it (especially if you have a Crafter who can make these on the regular). It can be worth it, but you need to keep in mind the downside.

Second Nature is another simpler benefit, and probably the weakest of the batch. Reducing Ability Costs by 1WP is certainly a solid benefit, and it applying to both your forms is nice, but it isn’t likely to be overly game changing. The flexibility is why you took this Transformation Type, though, so think of this more like a nice bonus than anything.

Unleashed Potential arguably has the single strongest effect in a vacuum, though. A PERMANENT +2 to both your Limits and an extra 1d6 Weapon Damage is a powerful boon that will help everyone. It’s not fancy, but the power to cast 1 Tier Higher is a great boon, and extra weapon damage will ALWAYS be relevant.

Overall, while these run the gamut in usefulness, they’re all great additions to your toolkit, and will all be helpful.

Tier 5 – My True Face

The Tier of the creature you can transform into through your The Other Me feature is no longer set to that of your original form.

The Tier restriction imposed by your base form on Hidden Tiger no longer applies.

WOAH. That’s AWESOME. While on paper, it wouldn’t seem that useful, now that you’re at Tier 5… it actually does more than you might expect. A lot of features scale off your Tier, and this provides more of it for your Transformation, a valuable trait. Some of these can be very powerful, and worth looking into… and this serves as a great capper on this Sub-Archetype.

Synergies & Tips

Synergies

  • ANYTHING: Yes, I’m DEAD serious. Due to how flexible the Alter Ego is, you can kinda build your base form to be whatever you want. Below are some useful options regardless of playstyle, but seriously… do whatever you want!
  • Path of Transformation: Most of the options here heavily incentivize transforming regularly. This allows you to transform for cheaper. It’s good. Avoid this if you decide to go Second Nature; it does absolutely nothing for them.
  • Resource Talents: As always, more resources to play with, even while transformed is amazing! Increasing your overall Resource pools is a good call for any transformation, especially if you want more bulk.
  • Polymorpher: Polymorpher is such a scrappy little boy, and can be even more effective for Alter Ego, who can carry some of their strengths over to their singular transformation.
  • Shifter: A really useful toolkit for providing a little more oomph to your initial transformation and making them a bit cheaper. It isn’t crazy, but if you’ve got space… Oh, and for Curse and Crouching Dragon… Tier 4 is a god tier feature that basically completely negates their primary downsides. You just have to get there first.
  • Anything That Carries Over to Transformations: As always, these are worth consideration for any transformation user, though they are generally somewhat niche.
  • Enhanced Duration: Increased duration of transformations is paramount for both Crouching Dragon and Curse, both of which really want their transformations to last as long as possible. Unleashed Potential clashes with this a bit, since they typically want to spend their upcasts on making transformations more powerful, and Second Nature can skip this entirely.
  • On Transformation Talents: Not as good here as with other transformers, but still worth consideration if you intend to come in and out of your transformation regularly. Some prefer when you transform a lot (Explosive Transformation), and others don’t mind as much (Ultimate Transformation). Second Nature cannot benefit from these, which is a crying shame, but it’s for completely fair balance reasons.
  • Off-and-On Transformation: THE RETURN OF THE HYBRID TRANSFORMER. Firstly, get Multi-Action, as always, and AVOID USING THIS WITH CURSE. You’ll thank me later. It also doesn’t help Second Nature at all, and Crouching Dragon probably won’t want to use this much. The real user of this is Unleashed Potential, who can make use of both their base form and a juiced up Boss Form in a similar fashion to Second Nature, though not nearly as flexible.
  • Infused Transformation: Not as useful for Alter Ego, due to only having a single transformation, but granting an extra Creature Talent to your form can be useful for Crouching Dragon, Curse, and Unleashed Potential Alter Egos.
  • Back From The Death: Sometimes, you’ll go down, especially with a Mental Vitality Pool, and this can get you back up with your Transformation intact. Like always, not very useful for Second Nature. Second Nature is just a weird boy.
  • Panicked Manifestation, First to Act, Ambusher T1: You might be vulnerable outside your transformation. These can ease that issue somewhat, allowing you to get it off before things get ugly.
  • Goof: Surprisingly good for Crouching Dragon! Base form fails more frequently due to have Disadvantage, thus getting more resources to make Goof work! The only downside is that entering your transformation will cause you to lose those benefits… but that may not be a big deal if you plan for it.
  • Fool’s Luck: A fantastic tool in any Crouching Dragon’s kit, Fool’s Luck enables you to flip around your forced disadvantage to forced advantage. For your Base Form, this can allow you to actually be surprisingly competent when you need to be.
  • Limit Increases: For Unleashed Potential Alter Egos, accept no substitutes. Being able to spend more WP equals a stronger Transformation, so get on it!
  • Endurance Adept: For Curse Alter Egos, this is virtually mandatory, allowing you to transform a few times without downside. It can take a long time to recover without the appropriate Abilities, though, so make sure the Transformation lasts as long as you can get it.

Tips

  • Not really! Alter Ego is a unique beast, and is whatever you make it. Go forth and become the Alter Ego you always wanted to be!

Sub-Archetype Build Showcase

Note 1: These builds were made shortly after the big 3.0.0 update. The Character Sheet wasn’t fully updated yet. I might get around to getting these up to date later, but for now, know that these are still faithful to the game’s rules, and that you might have to remove certain modifiers once the character sheet is updated.

Note 2: Due to the unique nature of this Sub-Archetype, I will be including Creature Files as well, as a build is usually built with their chosen Transformation in mind.

Simple Build – Creature File

This Alter Ego focuses on being a straightforward, if not particularly exciting AOE Overhealing Healer in base form. However, the  transformation, Archangel, not only keeps the great healing ability of base form, it also boasts surprisingly good blasting capability and bulk with a mix of Devotee and Bombardier. I’ve simply just included the base form of the Archangel, as Unleashed Potential is very flexible and offers a great degree of flexibility in how you transform.

For downsides, it’s actually a surprisingly squishy build without the healing, with only Barrier in base form and Resist in Archangel form for defense (despite Archangel’s solid 22 Evasion), making getting hit hurt. Likewise, while Path of Transformation makes transforming cheaper, it is more expensive than most, so you’ll need to plan accordingly, especially given how WP hungry healing can be. Despite this, this is a straightforward build with a lot of combat potential if you can manage your WP well.

Experimental Build – Creature File

This pretty sweet Second Nature Alter Ego focuses on a mixture of Crafting in base form and Jump-Based Eagle Strike damage in their second form. Thanks to Second Nature, switching between these forms is incredibly easy, and the flexibility of Eagle Strike’s damage makes it a great pick for straightforward, effective damage. Alongside Running Momentum, Storming Lance, and Quick as Lightning, Jumper provides the combat side of this build QUITE a bit of single-target firepower.

The Crafting part of the build ain’t half shabby either! Swapping Mental Recharge for Technology Crafter allows us to quite easily start with a T4 Weapon and Armor when combined with Craftsmanship, Self-Made, Engineer Craft and Craftsmanship, and Path of Crafting. This makes us quite a solid little crafter with a good amount of versatility.

For downsides… well, we have a bit of a WP problem if we want to use the best Eagle Strike regularly. Likewise, we have a bit of a weak initiative, meaning we could get outsped if we aren’t careful. That being said, though… this is a really fun build, and is just a fun ride.

Conclusion

Overall… yeah, Alter Ego is awesome. Sorry this took so long to get made; life kind of got in the way. Alter Ego has a ton of cool stuff going on, and can kind of be built into whatever you want. Thanks for reading! If you have any fun builds that could help show off Alter Ego more, feel free to send them to me on Discord at goldzephzellian!