I'm pretty sure that the answer varies by type of shape changer. Puma people are not hsunchen, that much seems pretty clear.
I think the way that it is intended is that the puma people's shape change is an inate, natural, not learned, not teachable, magic that does not interact with other magics at all. i.e. it does not take the difficult magic modifier, it does not limit their ability to concentrate their magic, etc.
This is very different from the Hsunchen, who from every reference have to master the spirits to change shape, although they can partially accomplish this with the use of spirits.
We were told that integration of spirits is yet to be described, and maybe that will tell us more later on. But in teh meantime, it would seem reasonable to model it as a secret. Like all other anamism secrets it would require "follower of <spirit name>" and two other relevant abilities at 1W2. As a swag, I'd treat the secret like that of Yinkin, letting them change shape, and they use the secret like an affinity (although it is not one) to augment whatever they are doing in animal shape, so they will be tougher than the typical racoon, elk, or whatever.
So long as you are just using them as NPC, this isn't a big deal, you can just fudge that the most powerful of them can shape change.
If you want to use them as player heroes, then obviously you have to let the players know what the other two abilities are. I think making one them an ability that they can only use when partially shape changed works--i.e. antler fighting, crawl through small spaces, etc. The third could be spirit face (showing that they can take on big spirits), or could be something else magical. There may also be a requirement to have spirit fetishes for all of the transformative spirits.
Alternatively, of course, if you just have the transformative spirits at high enough levels, you can effectively shape change anyway, so who needs a secret?
--Bryan
>
> I'm more familiar with the case of Hsunchen, so realy this is about
> them in the main, but the only rules example of a shapeshifter we
> have is a Puma Person
>
> I think the rules on this are not ideal, and here's why.
>
> Hsunchen are animists and they worship their ancestors. Their most
> important ancestor is their totem spirit, e.g. Basmol for the
> Basmoli. They have magic to change their shape into their totem
> animal because of their descent from the animal ancestor. Therefore
> this magic is inherently a form of animist ancestor worship.
>
> In rules terms I think this would be best represented as a power
> gained from shamanic ancestral spirits using the normal animism
> rules. Therefore I wuld say that a Hsunchen who converted to
> monotheism and concentrated their magic on wizardry would
definitely
> lose their shape changing powers.
>
> Of course player characters can be different. If I wrote up a
> Hsunchen character and put a shape changing ability into the totem
> animal in the 100 word essay, then it becomes an innate power . It
> would not be lost if the character concentrated on wizardry, but I
> think it could still cause them a lot of grief. After all the magic
> is still linked to basmol, and so although they nolonger worship
> Basmol, Basmoli spirits will still be able to sense them from the
> spirit plane and be attracted to them.
>
> Phil disagrees and thinks that if its either common or animist
magic,
> they should lose it when concentrating on Wizardry. I am
sympathetic
> to this view, but for narative reasons think letting the character
> keep the ability but give them grief over it is more fun.
>
> I'm new to the Puma People, so they may well differ from the normal
> Hsunchen way of doing things, whatever that may eventualy prove to
> be. The way they are presented in the rulebook does seem odd
though.
> Their shape changing magic is listed as beign seperate from their
> common and animist magic, so maybe it realy is just an innate
> biological ability, albeit a magical one.
>
> Where does the threshold between innate magical abilities and other
> magical abilities lie? Is Trolish digestion magical? Intuitively
I'd
> say a slave collar would stop a puma person shape changign, but
> wouldn't stop a troll's magical digestion ability. Yet I can't
think
> of a realy solid technical justification for that.
>
> Hopefully the rules for Hsunchen will eventualy clear some of this
> up, at least with respect to them.
>
>
> Simon Hibbs
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