Partial Transformation

Ability Type: Spell, Difficulty 15+
Provided By: Limited Metamorphosis

Spell Type: Essence, Metamorphosis
Form: Contained
Function: Utility
Power Cost: Special (equal to one third of your natural Physique, round up)
Duration: Maintainable
Notes: Cloaked, Ritual (number of turns equal to spell's final Difficulty /5, round down)

This flexible spells allows its caster to manifest one of a wide variety of physical Features: developing anything from thick fur, to scaly skin, to working wings for as long as the spell is maintained. Any Natural Feature can be mimicked by the spell, with the spell's Difficulty equal to 15 + one quarter of the Feature's points cost (round up). Multiple Features can be created by a single casting of the spell, in which case their points costs are added together when determining the spell's difficulty. In addition to any other changes, Partial Transformation can also change the caster's sex – at the cost of increasing the Difficulty by 2.

Shape-changing is a fundamentally traumatic process, causing pain and disorientation and weakening the natural bonds between body and mind – in effect applying Strain to the caster throughout the period of change, both when he initially transforms, and when changes are reversed at spell end (although not between those times). Fortunately this penalty is of Stun Strain type – meaning that it is very unlikely to kill the caster.

Rather than appearing suddenly, the Features provided by Partial Transformation gradually develop during the course of the spell's ritual casting – only becoming fully-formed and functional once the spell is complete. If the spell fails or the ritual is interrupted, the partially-formed alterations to the caster's body rapidly reverse and have no game effect – although the caster still suffers half the normal Transformation Strain (round up).

When the spell ends, the Features it provided cease to function, but take a little while to completely fade – gradually sloughing off or being reabsorbed by the caster's body over a period of time equal to the length of the casting ritual. Any actions that are dependant on these features are heavily penalised in this period, starting at -2 in the turn after the spell ends and worsening by 2 for every turn after that, until the Feature vanishes completely.

Effect: Manifest one or more Physical Feature
Transformation Strain: Stun Strain equal to the casting ritual's length in turns