IM thinking of getting Feng Shui 2 but have a question before I buy.
I read in the review there a group of shape changing animals called the Descended who want to rule the world. But one of my potential players wants to play a Fox from the Green Hills( In Chinese dramas we watch, Green Hill Foxes tend to be portrayed as the Good guys). So can a player choose to play a Fox or maybe a snake or is it only humans?
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You can play as fox BUT there's something to consider, namely that you'll need to do the work on it yourself.
In regards to shapeshifting animals there are only rules for crabs and dragons for player choices (as well as a "beast" choice but that's more of a man-monster-hybrid kind of creature) and so you will need to essentially create an archetype yourself.
I totally support you in doing that however and the crab and dragon can give you some pointers in regards to how to go about it. And lore-wise there's nothing I know that should prevent you from playing a Fox from the Green Hills.
But you will need to put in some work yourself to get this into your game.
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Sounds neat!
I think the way that I'd approach this would be to pick an existing fully human based archetype that already uses the 'Path of the Fox' skill list and swap out one of the shticks. Replace the shtick with a transformation shtick that consumes some amount of chi and if done during a fight takes 3-6 shots
In the animal form they'd have a different character sheet but keep their previous chi and health levels. The new character sheet would have mostly Transformed Fox shticks (there's a section on former animal abilities). They'd likely have faster speed, but lower defence than their human selves and martial arts attack similar to the human form.
I'd probably use some kind of token such as a jade bracelet that when removed frees the animal form. In animal form they wouldn't be able to hold onto the token so they'd need to keep it safe or give it to another party member for safe keeping. Perhaps it's a pendant that hangs from their neck but they need to blow on it without interruption as a concentration shtick for 5 shots.
It could also be something like a cultivation pill that's extremely rare and costly. If they eat it, it causes an explosion of chi that refills their chi stat but also explodes through their first and second meridian barriers causing the transformation to animal form and costs 10 health points. In animal form they last for 2-3 hours until their chi wave dissipates and they revert to human form. In animal form perhaps they can speak to other foxes and they can sniff out transformed animals.
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As you probably know by now, the Ascended are not so much shapeshifters, as animal souls in human bodies - changing back is more of a one-way thing to be avoided.
There are already schticks listed for the Ascended Foxes on p179, with suggested stats for a PC one on p178.
But if you're going with an actual shapeshifter rather than an Ascended, you might want to combine a couple of those Fox schticks, and maybe offer the Fu Path of the Fox as a possible advance route. And include the Transformation schtick from the Creature Powers list? @norith has some good suggestions, too.