Homebrew Doppelganger Species Details
Doppelgangers tend to be devious shapeshifters that take on the appearance of other humanoids, throwing off pursuit or luring victims to their doom with misdirection. Few creatures spread fear, suspicion, and deceit better than doppelgangers. Found in every land and culture, they can take on the guise of any individual of any race. Well suited to stealing secrets, infiltrating groups and swindling victims out of riches, they tend to find their lives lived as a wide variety of people. Earning, or more often than not stealing, wealth and power a doppelganger can live a comfy life, if they replace or trick the right individual. However, there are those among the race that seek a life of their own, making their own story rather than stealing one from another. These doppelgangers take on a form to join society as if they were any other average person, working or adventuring across the land. These doppelgangers find an almost euphoric sense of self in living this way, however fighting against their deceitful nature and often solitary tendencies can be a problem for some.
Doppelganger Traits
Although doppelgangers take a wide variety of forms and shapes, all doppelgangers share these traits.Ability Score Increase
Due to your deceptive nature and ability to understand when others are trying to deceive you, your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age
Being too lazy or self interested to raise their own young, doppelgangers have adapted a unique reproductive cycle. As they assume attractive male forms and seduce women of a wide variety of races, before leaving them to raise their progeny. A doppelganger child appears to be a normal member of its mothers species until it reaches adolescence, at which point it discovers its true nature and is driven to seek out its kind to join them. The doppelganger will live for half the length of its mothers natural lifespan, and as a result the length a doppelganger may live varies wildly.
Alignment
Doppelgangers tend towards being neutral in nature as they have no favouring of chaos over law, or good over evil. However, the nature of any individual doppelganger may be effected by their upbringing. For example doppelgangers that are raised in a chaotic environment, before reaching adolescence, may lean towards chaotic alignments. As a result seeing doppelgangers that have an alignment away from neutral is possible, but is often uncommon.
Size
Doppelgangers in their true form range from 5 to over 6 feet tall, reaching this size at adolescence. However, due to their nature a doppelganger may appear to be any size it wishes. As long as it does not exceed the height of its natural form. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision
Thanks to your adaptations to life in the Underdark, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey.
Charmers Immunity
Your races natural ability to trick, deceive and charm makes it easy to spot when someone is trying to charm you. As a result you are immune to being charmed.
Doppelgangers Deception
Doppelgangers are born with the ability to deceive flawlessly, as a result you have proficiency in the Deception skill.
Ambusher
Doppelgangers have an uncanny ability to ambush their targets. Acting quickly to seize the advantage of a well executed ambush, on your first round of a combat encounter you have advantage on attack rolls against any creature you surprise.
Shapechanger
You have an inherit ability to change your form, as a result you can use your action to polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid you have seen, or to revert back to your true form. Your statistics, other than size, are the same in each form. Any equipment you are wearing or carrying isn't transformed. You revert back to your true form if you die.
Read Thoughts
All doppelgangers are masters of impersonation, thanks to their ability to read thoughts. As a doppelganger you are able to read the thoughts of a creature within 60 feet of you. Allowing you to better understand and imitate that creature, gleaming their name, desires, fears and sometimes even scattered memories.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and the language of your mothers race.
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Posted Feb 15, 2020Hi, since this versions release I have considered these few changes to balance the race out, I am yet to fully playtest this content so use at your own risk. At the end of the day DnD is about having fun so go wild and change what you need to for this to fit your campaign, character and your DMs rules. These changes are to be utilised (or not) as you and your DM see fit, you may find your own more fitting changes outside these few guiding prompts:
Charmers Immunity: Nerf to resistance not flat immunity (Charmers Resistance)
Ambusher: This comes more from the Doppelganger as a monster, its a fun advantage but could easily be removed if you are not happy with it.
Read Thoughts: As this is an integral part of the race and is essential to a good impersonation, it is hard to flat out remove this feature. However it is very powerful especially with unlimited usage. I have, as a result, considered the following limitations you may wish to put on the ability (similar arguments could be made for the Shapechanger ability, however the ability to Shapechange is a core part of being a Doppleganger and I would advise you alter it only sparingly):
X times per day usage (1-3 seems fitting)
Must have physical contact with a creature to use the ability to read their minds
This ability can only tell you a creatures: name, age, habits/mannerisms, and maybe a few key motivating desires/fears as you see fit (all in the name of learning how to impersonate a person properly)
(With a bit of RP and story telling this ability could be removed if absolutely necessary however. Say a Doppelganger never learnt how to properly read into a creatures thoughts as it is yet to meet another of its kin that could show it how this skill works, perhaps this ability is a genetic mutation some of the species lack and this caused you to be isolated from your community and begin your own life as an individual with your own identity, or maybe it was taken via some good old fashioned Mind Flayer shenanigans to further their research or aid them with a greater mind reading and melding goal from which you escaped).
Like I said, have fun and go wild!?!