Semi-perverse Question (Metamorphosis related)

[AaronCE]

So please follow me along with a few what-ifs. Say we have this godling-esque being. Dragon, godling, some form of supernatural greater being. Wants to play the ol' Zeus knock up a mortal game.

If a supernatural being is using Metamorphosis: Human (Superior), is the sperm sacred? I.e. is the zygote viable? Can a natural dragon, metamorph'd, knock up a poor unsuspecting human?

My knee jerk is no... But.. Demigods. Obviously you're dealing with different species, adding mystical aspects, and then adding the magic of the deities... But then again, that does also set a certain precedent.

So I ask you again, how Superior is Metamorphosis: Human(oid)? Assume it's the most sophisticated version of the spell ever. Like Spell of Legend levels. (rivalling Clone and all that fun)

So that's the first connundra.

Secondly... Assuming it works. (IT WORKS! IT'S ALLIIIVVVVEEEEE!) How would you handle inherited traits? Obviously the normie parent gets the 50% genes (or however you GM it), but the Metamorph? Do we go with the current incarnation of physicals, and then the mentals? And did we just figure out how to make a Demigod?

Oh the possibilities... Especially with the very suspect skill Breed Humanoid.

(and yes, backstory, I'm a big softie that wants my earnest lovebird of a Changeling to be able to knock up his/her human lover. Or vicea versa. And no, the Changeling aspect adds a whole 'nother can of worms. Focus on the Metamorphosis: Humanoid, for the love of all things Dragonwright.)

[Killer Cyborg]

Somewhere official, perhaps Palladium Fantasy, there is a paragraph explaining that there are no Half-Elves or Half-Orcs in Palladium because cross-race fertility is impossible except in rare cases like Ogre/Human where they're both very, very closely related.

This might be able to be altered via magic at GM's discretion, but from my view the most obvious results of Metamorphosis: Human would be either
1. The cross-race infertility rules hold.
or
2. The magic makes the character's sperm completely human, so fertility IS possible, and results in a perfectly ordinary human child with no abnormalities because the sperm would be completely human regardless of the original species.

If you want to have cross-race fertility in your games, I'd suggest using either a homebrew Spell of Legend or a TW Device of some kind.

[Library Ogre]

If you want to have cross-race fertility in your games, I'd suggest using either a homebrew Spell of Legend or a TW Device of some kind.

One of which I wrote up, like 20 years ago.

[Lukterran]

For anything less than a god. It would not work. As stated before already a rule against mixed species.

However, their is the Demigod which is also in the rules. So yes gods (including the Dragon Gods) they could have Demigod offspring and the rules for them are in Rifts Pantheons book pg 17 for the The Demigod R.C.C.

Just use it.

"Metamorphosis: Humanoid" really doesn't factor into the equation other than making sexual conduct more appealing.

[ShadowLogan]

1st Question: I'd say no (specific exceptions exists). Look at it this way, if the magically altered sperm (or egg) does its job at some point the spell would wear off changing the sperm/egg back to the original race making them incompatible (specific exceptions exists).

2nd Question: IF IT WAS POSSIBLE, I'd probably follow the typical Palladium approach to mix-breed parents for mechanics purposes. The subject will turn out as a member of one of their parents, basically genetically donor A's genes are dominant over donor B's, which are suppressed. Saves a lot of work.

Alternatively you could look at Robotech (2E) and Macross 2 lines, which do have 1/2-breed human-aliens (though the aliens are nearly identical to humans or identical but with different base stats as the case maybe). You'd have to sit down and compare the mix stat bonus to parents to work something out. And I have not tried to do it, but it would probably establish some type of guideline on doing a new cross breed.

[Axelmania]

The question here I think could be more broadly about what happens to body parts you shed while morphed.

For example, if I am a dragon and morph into a human with long hair, then pluck the hair from my head and leave it on a pillow, should it stay hair forever because it's no longer part of me and so it doesn't shift back? Would it immediately shift into a piece of dragon scale? Or shift into dragon scale when I shift back to dragon form, even if I wait until I'm in another dimension to do it?

I'm inclined to think the first is simplest. So if a dragon uses its natural abilities (or a wizard uses his spell) to become a male orc, they could impregnate female orcs, but their seed is permanently orc even if they shift back, so it would simply result in orcs, not halfbreeds.

Gods are the exception to this, something of their deific nature is impossible to suppress with metamorphosis, so we get the demigods in Rifts Conversion Book 2.

[Coffee Zombie]

Metamorphosis:Human does mention that it only changes the appearance of the body. "The transformed person retains his own voice, memory, skills, powers and attributes." So it's a relatively superficial change, in the scope of Metamorphosis spells. Metamorphosis: Superior even stipulates that only appearance is copied, and that any abilities the destination race possesses are not gained. This leads me to think that a wizard, regardless of race, who attempts to sire or mother a child while under a Metamorphosis power would be subject to their normal species limitations on breeding.

Anything that's an outright god can breed above and beyond the limits of species, as Dragons & Gods implies (or states, been a while since I read it). I'm certain you could rule a Spell of Legend could do this, or even an altered form of the Transformation spell (I would call it "Cauldron of the Unholy" or something ominous like that). But careful jumping down the rabbit hole of crossbreeding: madness lies that way.

[Axelmania]

It has to be more than appearance, a 100ft creature morphed into a 6ft human takes up less space too, no? As opposed to a still-100ft guy who can't get through your door even though he looks like he's small enough to.