Friday, April 22, 2016

The Beast Boy- Animal Superpowers

I've long thought shapeshifters to be a relatively weak character build, especially those keyed to animals. When you're taking the shape of other humans, or mimicking powers, your possibilites are unlimited, but I've rarely seen an animal shapeshifter be more than a gorilla or an eagle, or maybe a mouse. But perhaps I've not been fair.

Many animals have enhanced strength relative to size (Ants/Dung Beetles) or great leaping ability (Fleas), or Flight, or the ability to climb, or breathe water. Many animals (Cuddlefish) can camouflage also. Then there are shelled animals which could provide protections. Then there's plenty of poisonous or venomous animals (poison = ingested when you eat the animal, venom = delivered by stinger or bite).

Of course, eagles have superior vision, and being very large or small can carry some strength or dex bonuses.

Below are actual superpowers (innate!) possessed by animals:

Bombardier Beetle: The ability to shoot boiling gas at enemies:

Hyenas: Can digest diseased and rotting food with no ill effects. (Iron Stomach).

Horned Lizard: Can shoot blood from its eyes.

Platypus: Has a venomous stinger (if male) and can "see" electrical currents (precise: can tell the difference between an animate and inanimate object). Their venom is resistant to morphine.

Chitons: Their iron-like teeth can act as a compass giving them absolute direction.

Bats: Using sonar to "see" sound, and of course, flight.

Hairy Frogs: Break their bones and push them out their skin to make claws (like wolverine).

Mantis Shrimp: Can see the entire light spectrum, including infrared and ultraviolet. They can also punch with the same acceleration as a bullet.

Pistol Shrimp: Can create a 218 decibel blast (enough to kill small fish), and the cavitation bubble gets to be 4700 degrees celcius.

Narwhals: Have a unicorn horn, perfect for goring. Also rams, rhinos, etc.

Dragon Millipedes: Can shoot cyanide.

Sea Cucumbers: Can liquify themselves (insubstantial 2)

Geckos: Can walk on walls and ceilings.

Skunks: That awful stench spray.

Eels: Poisonous blood.

Spiders: Web-spinning.

Starfish and Salamanders: Regeneration

Fireflies: They create light via bioluminescence.

Lyrebirds: Can perfectly mimic any sound, even human sounds (speech, crying babies, chainsaws)

Electric Eels: Can produce electricity and shocks similar to a stun gun.

Turriptosis Jellyfish: Can make themselves young again, restarting their life cycle.

Tardigrades: Can survive in space, vaccums, extreme temperatures, the bottom of the deepest part of the sea, be dehydrated for 10 years, not eat for 30 years, withstand radiation 1000x more powerful than that which would kill other animals- they are practically indestructable.

Now granted, many of these animals are not suitable for combat- a tardigrade is half a milimeter long, and many of these are tiny aquatic animals- but if you can change their size, or adapt their powers into some kind of amalgam form, you can do very well as an animal based shapeshifter!


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