Doppelganger (starting race)

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Doppelgangers are a starting race added in SLASH'EM, different from other races in that they have the intrinsic ability to change form at will. According to the SLASH'EM guidebook:

Doppelgangers have the enviable ability to change form at will, at a cost of some mystic energy (mana), although what they become may be a bit of a surprise, even for them.

Racial benefits and restrictions

Doppelgangers can polymorph into any permitted monster with the extended command #youpoly at the cost of 20 power - however, a given transformation may fail depending on how much more powerful the desired polyform is. Dopplegangers are still considered human for eating and sacrificial purposes, so you will be considered a cannibal for eating a human.

Doppelgangers' attribute caps combine the best of all other starting races, save for charisma: their strength caps at 18/**, while their charisma is capped at 15 (even lower than that of orcs), and the rest of their stats cap at 20. Low charisma is of little concern in practice - doppelgangers looking to utilize the stat for any reason can simply polymorph into a foocubus or nymph, which both set charisma to 18 and are easy forms due to their low base levels. More pertinently, doppelgangers are restricted in two-weapon combat as a tradeoff for their excellent stats and abilities.

The following table outlines their base form's maximum attribute levels:

Character race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Doppelganger	18/**	20	20	20	20	15

Intrinsics and techniques

In SLASH'EM, dopplegangers gain intrinsics and techniques at the following levels:

• XL 1: liquid leap
• XL 9: polymorph control

In SlashTHEM, polymorph control is instead gained at experience level 25.

Roles

Doppelgangers can be either neutral or chaotic, and can be played as any role that allows for those alignments.

The doppelgangers' high stats and useful ability to polymorph makes it an excellent choice for any role in either variant, since they often get the most out of that role's typical attribute distribution. Physical roles such as the Monk and Undead Slayer benefit greatly from the doppelgangers' high strength; magic-using roles such as Healers, Priests, Wizards, and Necromancers enjoy the high natural power and casting stats that the doppleganger offers, as well as the durability and better combat ability that can come with high physical stats.

However, doppelgangers may occasionally need to put their shapeshifting to use to compensate for the lower attributes, and will also need to keep a close eye on their power, especially when casting regularly. A failed polymorph that rerolls your stats can also be quite detrimental, particularly when in the heat of battle.

Polyself

The #youpoly command can be used at any time as long as you have at least 20 energy and some nutrition to spare. If in your base form, you will be prompted for the type of monster you wish to polymorph into - if already polymorphed, you will return to doppelganger form without consuming any energy or nutrition. Successfully changing form uses up 20 energy plus an additional 5 energy points for each level of your new form; if you lack the energy for this, the excess is instead made up with nutrition points. Dopplegangers cannot polymorph into any restricted monsters, and attempting to do so (or else selecting a non-existent form) will prompt you to select another form up to five times.

Polymorphing this way will cause you to automatically remove and drop any body armor that would otherwise be destroyed in the process, unless they are cursed or beneath a cursed piece of armor. Polymorphing into a strong monster sets your strength to 18/**, and polymorphing into a monster resistant to a status ailment you have (e.g., stoning, sliming, or illness) will cure that ailment.

If you have polymorph control or have eaten the corpse or tin of your chosen monster, you have a ¹⁹⁄₂₀ chance of transforming successfully, with a ¹⁄₂₀ chance to "feel like a new doppelganger" and re-rolling your stats. Otherwise, the chance of being able to successfully polymorph into that form is dependent on the difference between your experience level and the base level of the polyform - the higher the difference, the less likely you are to transform into that specific form, with the probability of failure calculated as follows:

$\frac{\text{Monster level} - \text{Your level}}{5}$

Failure will instead transform you into a random monster or else cause you to re-roll your stats, and you will still remove and drop body armor as usual where applicable. You will remain in your polymorphed form for 500-999 turns, multiplied by your level divided by your new form's level - this is multiplied by 2 if you changed into a monster you have eaten. As with any other polymorph, you can remain in that form indefinitely by wearing an amulet of unchanging.

While polymorphed, you will passively restore HP as is normal for your polyform until you are at max HP - while you are at your maximum polymorphed HP, your base form's HP will regenerate as normal instead, with the usual adjustments for regeneration and healthstones. Your attributes while polymorphed are temporary, and any changes to temporary attributes will be lost when you return to doppelganger form - any exercise counter checks that occur only affect your temporary attributes rather than your base ones.

Feeling like a new doppelganger

Doppelgangers do not experience the typical effects of polymorphing into a new version of yourself - most critically, your level and hit points remain unchanged, preventing abuse and/or undue level loss.

When transforming into a "new" doppleganger, your current maximum strength, dexterity, constitution and charisma are adjusted to within two points - if any changed attribute was previously below its maximum, the new attribute will be adjusted in proportion to the new maximum (e.g., if you strength was 15 (max 16), and your max strength went up to 18, your new strength would be 18 * 15/16).

Extremely low hit points and energy are healed, nutrition is set to a random value between 500 and 999, and sickness and stoning are cured; the sliming process is not cured, but instead reset to the beginning. You will always have a minimum of 10 HP and max HP after the polymorph, and your current and maximum power will have a minimum equal to your experience level.

Role-specific rules

Doppelganger Flame Mages, Ice Mages and Lycanthropes have slightly different requirements for using the #youpoly command, e.g., Flame Mages can polymorph into a red dragon for free if they are wearing red dragon scale mail, and Lycanthropes need to have energy available in order to rehumanize.

Doppleganger Undead Slayers are prevented from changing into an undead monster - additionally, if you attempt to do so while having polymorph control, you take a -5 penalty to your alignment record and abuse wisdom.

Restrictions

The following forms are unavailable to dopplegangers, with most of the restrictions and their exceptions being the same as in vanilla:

• Any unique named monster.
• Angelic beings.
• Humans, including werecreatures but not Keystone Kops.
  • Selecting "human" or "doppelganger" specifically counts as polymorphing into your own race, and thus guarantees feeling like a new doppelganger.
• Other shapeshifters (i.e. chameleons and sandestins).
• Any specific monster corresponding to a valid player race - e.g., drow, dwarf, elf, gnome, vampire, etc. Keep in mind that that their stronger forms (e.g. Elvenkings, vampire lords, etc.) are still valid choices.
• Ghosts, shadows and shades.
• Water demons.
• Djinn.
• Kraken.
• Monsters that are generated in limited numbers (i.e. Nazgul and erinys).
• All types of gnoll.

Unpolymorphing

You will revet back to your base form once your polymorph timer expires, and you can also #youpoly at any time while polymorphed to revert back to your base form - you will retain as many hit points as you had prior to polymorphing, barring certain actions that alter your base form's HP (e.g, eating cursed royal jelly). When reverting back due to a polyform's timer expiring, the game rolls against your constitution - failing this roll causes you to lose half your base form's current HP.

If you die of hit point loss while polymorphed and you do not have unchanging, you will change back to your normal form and lose half your HP. However, if you die in any other way (e.g. stoning or being hit by a death ray), it will be permanent. If your polymorphed form was killed by a monster or explosion, you may also have a number of HP equal to your polymorphed form's level deducted from both your current and maximum HP. This penalty will be extracted every time if you have polymorph control, and ¹⁄₃ of the time if you do not.

Strategy

Good things to polymorph into

Before gaining polymorph control

• Medium-sized humanoids can wear all armor and use weapons.
  • Hill orcs are guaranteed at level 2, and are strong monsters
  • Barrow wights are guaranteed at level 3, and can additionally drain levels.
  • Human mummies are inediate and normal speed, although not guaranteed until level 6. They make a good form if you want to wait around an altar and sacrifice. Human mummies have greater carrying capacity than their elven counterparts, and are available at the same level.
  • Salamanders (guaranteed at level 8) are humanoid with good AC and speed, and have 2 weapon attacks, a fire touch, and a fire crushing attack.
  • Doppelgangers can start polymorphing into mind flayers with a reasonable chance of success at level 6 or 7; the brain-eating attack will make short work of most monsters, but is useless against those without heads or brains, and downright dangerous against monsters with passive attacks. Mind flayers will not be stoned when attacking a cockatrice; the tentacle attack is instead turned off.
• Demons have low natural AC, good attacks, and are a source of powerful pets through demon gating. The weaker demons become guaranteed polymorphable forms before a doppelganger gains intrinsic polymorph control at level 9 as well.
  • Spined devils have 18 speed (almost as fast as speed boots), are inediate, have resistances to fire, poison, and level-drain, have good natural AC, and hit fairly hard - this is a guaranteed form at level 5. It is strictly better either the elf or dwarf mummy, unless you are working with prayer (the spined devil is a major demon). They cannot wear suits, shirts or cloaks, but can wear other armor.
  • Chasmes can attack quickly and can repeatedly put foes to sleep. Great for killing shopkeepers (though this will come at the cost of -5 alignment record if you kill the shopkeeper without having him/her become angry with you due to not waking up).
  • Mariliths, guaranteed at 7, have normal speed, decent base AC, and attack 5 times. The multiple attack makes demon gating very effective.
• Although not guaranteed until level 8, a level 5-7 character has a reasonable chance of polymorphing into a basilisk. They are essentially stronger cockatrices, with the same passive attacks. As such, they can be very handy for getting through the Gnomish mines. Nutrition can be a problem since you can't eat statues. Also, the similar asphynx may look appealing, being faster, but it can carry very few items, and cannot pick any up at all.
  • If you're trapped by a single monster, chickatrices are guaranteed at 4 and will stone an attacking monster. However, they have extremely low base HP, can carry very little, and are slow, so they should only be used as an instakill in case of emergency.
• Gargoyles and winged gargoyles can sit and lay eggs that will hatch has gargoyles; winged gargoyles cannot wear body armor but normal ones can. Both forms also have excellent natural AC.
• Other oviparous monsters can provide some highly useful pets via egg laying, especially in the early game. Rhaumbusun, guaranteed at level 2, are weak and slow but very effective at paralysing enemies which can help in scoring easy kills.
• Soldier ants are guaranteed at level 3, and as pets, can if anything be almost too effective - they can often close in, kill and devour weak foes in the time taken for an unhasted player to make even a single move. Creating an army may be tempting, but this can lead to nutrition problems if you can't reach corpses in time. Spawning 2 or 3 is generally more than sufficient.
• Death dogs are guaranteed at level 2 and are fairly powerful. Their carry capacity is fairly limited though, so they're not good travel forms if you have a lot of things that you want to keep with you.
• Unicorns are guaranteed at level 4. They have high speed and a decent attack, and can use #monster to remove some bad effects.
• Mumakil are guaranteed at level 5. They have comparatively very strong attacks, but somewhat low speed. Especially good if you are fast or, better still, very fast.
• Leocrottas are guaranteed at level 6. They are moderately fast and quite powerful, although unable to use any weapons or armor.

After gaining polymorph control

Once you have obtained polymorph control, a world of powerful choices is open to you, including crystal golems, fire vampires, vorpal jabberwocks, and the nigh-invincible giant shoggoth.

Sources

• Classes, Races and Alignments Spoiler by Eva Myers
• Polyself spoiler by Eva Myers