Homebrew Doppelgänger Species Details

Shapeshifters

Doppelgängers are shapeshifting monstrosities who slink through every echelon of humanoid society. Never comfortable in their true form, doppelgängers are constantly shifting from persona to persona, disguising their evil nature and longing for acceptance. However, some doppelgängers will develop a preference for one or a small handful of identities, which they can then occupy for years at a time, building connections and friendships, all the while living a lie. The identities the a doppelgänger inhabits are invariably stolen from real people, which means that a doppelgänger must be careful when adopting a persona, and often wait until the original is dead, or arrange their death themselves, or otherwise the doppelgänger travels very far away before becoming that person. Doppelgängers can supplement thier adopted personalities with information gleaned through reading other peoples thoughts. They can become so invested in the personalities they learn about and develop, that doppelgängers can sometimes become lost in the characters they play. Because they recoil from their genuine form, a doppelgänger never develops a true sense of self. Known to be capricious and greedy,  these pseudo personalities hatch schemes involving their shapeshifting talents to dupe others into giving them money and other pleasures. When one con is over, they change form, and move on to the next one. Because they cannot transform their clothes with them, one indication that someone might be a doppelgänger is that they travel with a variety of markedly different outfits, such as clothing appropriate for different races, sexes, and personalities. 

A few doppelgängers were born good aligned, and these rare individuals put their shapeshifting abilities to productive purposes. Some example professions these anomalies might adopt are entertainers, spies, and adventurers. There are organizations in faerun composed entirely of doppelgängers who have banded together in pursuit of a common goal, and welcome wayward doppelgängers as a safe haven and means to earn a real living.  Even more rarely, a doppelgänger becomes comfortable enough in its own skin to pursue an ordinary career in its purplish form, such as a blacksmith, adventurer, or an inn-keep. Although even these doppelgängers would  be unable to resist entertaining their associates with impressions and mind reading every once in a while.

Appearance

Doppelgängers can adopt any humanoid form, changing their race, sex, and all corresponding characteristics on a whim. However the doppelgängers true form is an ugly purplish hue, with malformed skin stretching across their bodies, and jaundice yellow eyes. This ever disguised ugliness contributes to a doppelgängers insecurity surrounding its true self, and many doppelgängers regard their unsightly exteriors as evidence of their inherent ugliness within. It compels them never to reveal or even discover who they really are. 

Origins

Nobody knows where the first doppelgänger came from. Perhaps they were the product of an awry magical experiment. Some speculate they were once a race of ordinary humanoids, cursed by the gods for their incorrigible deceptions and schemes to be forever shrouded in untruth. Wherever they came from, they have percolated through society for as long as history has been recorded. Doppelgängers are seldom interested in raising their own children, preferring to adopt attractive male forms to seduce women, and leaving them to raise their young. This union always produces a baby doppelgänger, who discovers their true nature around teenage-hood.

Doppelgänger Names

Doppelgängers will most often accept the humanoid name that their mother assigned them at birth, and then reassess how they should be called according to the particular deception they are engaged in. However occasionally an unusually self possessed doppelgänger will come up with a new name for itself later in life. These names are typically monosyllables, such as Niq, Mix, Jack, and Pox.

 

 

Doppelgänger Traits

Doppelgangers are schemers whose duplicitous shenanigans are abetted by certain racial traits

Shapechangers

You can use your action to polymorph into a small or medium humanoid you have seen. Your statistics, other than your size, are the same in each form. Any equipment you are wearing or carrying isn't transformed. You reverts to your true form if you die.

Read Thoughts

You can magically read the surface thoughts of one creature within 60 feet of you. The effect can penetrate barriers, but 3 feet of wood or dirt, 2 feet of stone, 2 inches of metal, or a thin sheet of lead blocks it. While the target is in range, you can continue reading its thoughts, as long as your concentration isn't broken (as if concentrating on a spell). While reading the target's mind, you have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) and Charisma (Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion) checks against the target.

Ambusher

 Doppelgängers are experts at taking advantage of their enemy's confusion. Beginning at the 6th level, you have advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised. If the you are able to hit such a creature during the first round of combat, the target takes an extra 10 (3d6) damage from the attack. 

Size

Small and/or medium

Languages

Doppelgängers can speak common and one other language of your choice.

Speed

30ft

Age

Doppelgängers to not have a standard age. All doppelgängers live to at least 30, but after that, they could live anywhere from a few more years to centuries. Some speculate that the frequency or type of physical transformations that they undertake have a direct impact on how quickly a doppelgänger ages. 

Darkvision

You have darkvision for 60ft

Ability Score Increase

Doppelgängers often have to charm, lie, intimidate, or otherwise use force of personality to get out of trouble. Your charisma score increases by 1.