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Introduction and Physiology
After a short introduction, half of which is (well-written) flavor fiction, we get a description of doppelganger physiology which lays forth two of the book’s central concepts. First is the idea that there are several subspecies of doppelganger, the most notable being the urban, rustic and dungeon doppelgangers. The dungeon doppelgangers are described in a free web enhancement on the company website, which incidentally played a key role in selling me the book. The second concept is that doppelgangers go through several distinct stages in their life cycle. The first stage is the doppelganger itself. Urban doppelgangers are standard doppelgangers with the addition of blindsight, while rustic doppelgangers imitate animals, and the mentally-degenerate dungeon doppelgangers are limited to ooze forms. (Whether all oozes are actually doppelgangers is not made explicit; presumably, that’s left to the DM to decide.) The next stage is the mimic. In this case, it’s the dungeon mimic that’s most familiar to adventurers, while the urban and rustic mimics are more intelligent and versatile. The urban mimic, like the dungeon variety, imitates furniture whereas rustic mimics take the form of rocks or vegetation. Finally, several mimics may fuse into a single unit called a doppelstadt, which is the culmination of the life cycle. Urban doppelstadt form buildings, rustic ones form groves, and dungeon doppelstadt form dungeons (which provides an intriguing explanation of where all those dungeons littering the countryside came from). Following the discussion of the life cycle, the section concludes with “The Mechanics of Shapeshifting”, which touches on a doppelganger’s ability to form body weaponry and natural armor.
Doppelganger Society
The next two sections are “Social Structure” and “Cultural Habits”. It’d be hard to give a blow-by-blow description of each section without going on too long, so instead I’ll touch on a few key points. Doppelganger society revolves around the doppelstadt, which is responsible for spawning new doppelgangers and creating the telepathic network that links them all together. All the doppelgangers spawned from a particular doppelstadt are identical in personality and are constantly in mental communication with other nearby doppelgangers. Multiple doppelstadte can form mental links to one another to form a larger family group called a gestalt. There are also “orphan” doppelgangers who, for one reason or another, are not linked to a doppelstadt. These loners allow room for independent doppelganger characters in a campaign setting.
The goal of doppelganger society is to expand the gestalt until it completely dominates the landscape. Other life forms are viewed as inferior because of their lack of telepathic ability (how doppelgangers view other creatures with telepathy is not addressed). The mindset of doppelgangers is presented as extremely Darwinian. Different getsalts compete with one another for dominance, believing that eventually one gestalt will triumph and become the zeitgeist - the spirit of the age - and ascend to a new plane of existence, clearing the field for the whole process to start over again.
To accomplish their goals, doppelgangers have a variety of devious tactics in their arsenal. The lives of individual doppelgangers are considered unimportant when weighed against the overarching goals of the gestalt, especially since doppelgangers can “live on” through their memories. These are contributed to a “memory well” which any member of the gestalt can draw on to assist in carrying on a role. Consequently, it’s not uncommon for a doppelganger to take a fall to distract attention from the other activities of the gestalt. The doppelganger who replaces the king and is exposed by player characters may very well be a patsy, while the doppelganger masquerading as a local innkeeper - or more likely, the doppelstadt masquerading as a local inn - may be the linchpin of a major plot. There are also avatars, doppelgangers who are especially adept at using the skills they obtain from memory wells to channel a particular personality. Avatars provide an explanation for recurring villains who just won’t stay dead.
Combat Strategies
The next section continues the discussion of doppelganger tactics, and adds ideas for dirty tricks they can play such as assuming the appearance of a loved one to unnerve their opponents, or impersonating them in mid-battle to confuse other party members. I don’t care much for the rules regarding the use of the Thoughtweaving skill in combat, which seem rather overpowered to me, but the rest of the chapter is well-done.
Doppelganger Characters
This section begins with a breakdown of urban doppelgangers as a character race. In addition to game mechanics, it covers role-playing details in the same fashion that the Player’s Handbook does for the standard races. Player character doppelgangers are assumed to be orphans, so that’s what the descriptions focus on. Doppelgangers are ECL 4, and have four bonus hit dice to start out with. (By comparison, Sean Reynolds places them at ECL 8 with the same four hit dice.)
The protean warrior is a prestige class specific to doppelgangers, and the prerequisites are such that it’s fairly easy to qualify for right off the bat. I should point out that these include minimum Dexterity and Constitution scores. Given the nature of the class, these make perfect sense, but rules purists may be turned off by this since attribute scores are officially not supposed to be used as class prerequisites. The concept is of a doppelganger who hones his shapeshifting ability to become a living weapon. The class features are straightforward, consisting of a monk-like progressive increase in their unarmed damage and natural armor bonus, and a selection of bonus feats. These are mostly race-specific feats found later in the chapter. Compared to a standard fighter, the protean warrior is as good or better in all aspects except for weapon and armor proficiencies (which hardly matter in light of their class abilities) and hit dice. This is easily remedied, though; lowering their skill points and limiting their bonus feats to one every three levels should bring them nicely in line with regular character classes. I’m also leary of the huge jump in unarmed damage (from 1d12 to 1d20) between 9th and 10th level. I’d be inclined to ignore this last increase, especially since the class already gets a bonus feat at 10th level.
Following this we get the Thoughtweaving skill, which is used to acquire skills from memory wells, and a number of racial feats. Many of these seem rather powerful, but most of those are exclusive to the protean warrior class, making them essentially class abilities. Nevertheless, caution is recommended when allowing PCs to take them. They include such goodies as Acid Immunity, Adhesive Slime, Chameleon, Extend Limb (giving a 10-ft reach), Springheels and Wings. There are also a few that enhance a doppelganger’s telepathic powers rather than their shapeshifting abilities, including the Avatar feat.
Campaigns
This section is two pages long but packs in quite a bit of meat. There are suggestions for using doppelgangers in alternative genres, advice for playing doppelganger NPCs, guidelines for designing doppelganger communities, and a good variety of adventure hooks which I found quite interesting.
Appendix
The appendix contains monster stat blocks for the new varieties of doppelganger and mimic mentioned in the book (with the exception of dungeon doppelgangers), and for doppelstadte. The last page contains the Open Game License, in a very small font. Here I noticed a peculiarity; the sections that are declared Open Game Content are the Introdution and Physiology sections. If I’m reading it correctly, this leaves the protean warrior class, the Thoughtweaving skill, the racial feats and the new monster stats as closed content. An odd choice, to say the least.
Style
The Complete Guide to Doppelgangers is a 32-page, staple-bound booklet with a cardstock cover. The front cover illustration is garish and rather unattractive to my eyes, although the scene it depicts is interesting. I like the sparse, black-and-white interior art much better. It’s not exceptional, but it’s good enough, and the style is both consistent and appropriate to the subject matter. It evokes a gritty, dark-ages feeling reminiscent of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying. The font appears to be 10-point Times New Roman, and the margins are narrow except at the bottom, which has a recurring border illustration. Overall, there’s very little wasted space. The sections aren’t numbered, but the table of contents is very thorough and the divisions are clear and logical. The writing is clear and engaging, though I caught a number of minor grammatical errors. If I could, I’d give it a style rating of 3.5, but due to the typos I’m rounding it down rather than up. While the style’s not bad, it’s nothing to write home about either.
Substance
If not for the low page/dollar ratio, the specialized subject matter, and the potential balance issues in the character creation section, The Complete Guide to Doppelgangers would earn a 5 for substance. As it is, it easily merits a 4, especially when the free web enhancements are taken into account. (Besides the full description of dungeon doppelgangers, these also present the Geistspeaker, a class for doppelganger clerics who revere the zeitgeists of the past; the firebrand, a prestige class devoted to hunting shapeshifters; and a sample doppelganger community.) All in all, this is a well-written, highly original and imaginative work that’s a must-buy for DMs interested in making doppelgangers into more than just specialized assassins. All in all, this is a well-written, highly original and imaginative work that’s a must-buy for DMs interested in making doppelgangers into more than just specialized assassins. For players, the options presented here will need careful scrutiny and approval by the GM before being allowed into a game. Otherwise, my only complaint is that the concepts presented don’t leave much room for sympathetic doppelganger characters.
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