A character that can split into different characters?

[xBlackWolfx]

I've had an idea for a while for a character with some odd abilities. He's a supernatural being of uncertain origin (he's the manifestation of a recurring nightmare suffered by a guy with illusion powers).

Most of his powers are pretty easy. But there's one I thought of that I don't know how to do.

Noctis (I'll refer to it by name since I don't think you can apply 'he' and 'she' to Noctis) is permanently intangible, but has a devastating weakness to light. This is really the only thing that can cause Noctis harm. He needs to 'feed' on people's fears, but since even starlight would harm Noctis, it has to hide in the sewers since that's the only way it can avoid exposure to any light within the city. But it can create 'shadows', beings that look normal and lack its weakness to light. They're not sentient, they're just an extention of Noctis. It uses these to try and lure people into the sewers where it can feed on them in safety.

Yeah, I could just do this with the 'summon' power, but I view these beings as well just being a part of Noctis. I know the duplication power causes you to lose hit points when you lose it, and regain it when the dupes 'recombine'. But the problem with that is all the dupes are identical to the original. I was wondering if there was a way I could have a power be, a mixture of these two. Have Noctis lose hit points to make a minion with different stats from itself, which it could regain by taking the minion back into itself. Also, like I said they aren't seperate entities. Noctis can see through its 'shadows' eyes and is the sole arbiter of what it does. Essentially, they're puppets it makes out of, whatever itself is made of.

I can imagine a power like this existing for other non-solid characters that can divide themselves. You could simulate this with duplication and shape-shifting, but the problem is I want these 'shadows' to have different stats from Noctis itself, including lacking its weakness.

I guess you could rough it by giving its 'summon' power the backlash limitation, and a healing power that only works when it 'recollects' one of its minions. But I would kind of like something more a combination of duplication and summoning. I guess you would have to make a custom power for something this weird?

[BASHMAN]

Link Duplication with Shape shifting.

[xBlackWolfx]

I wasn't sure if that was allowed, since the rules state your summons can't have shape-shifting, but apparently there's no such limitation for duplication. I guess I need to re-read the book. I have realized recently that I've forgotten how deflect works

However, under shape-shifting, there's no mention of changing the character's weakness. It just mentions changing the character's attributes and possibly reducing them to gain new powers. I guess you could just say you can alter other things too (or simpler, just negate the weakness with the resistance or immunity power). Also, what about if your character has other innate powers in their default form? Could they temporarily remove their own powers to boost their stats? I would guess not since players may abuse this by removing their own shape-shifting power to give themselves some extra points to spend. Though this could prove a problem for Noctis since its shadows aren't permanently intangible, unlike itself.

I think I need to stop being so... creative with my powers. I'm constantly running into problems where the book just can't represent what I want. Looking at other people's builds, they seem to build things that are a lot simpler (I don't think I've ever made a character with a power that had no limitations or enhancements, often my powers have one of both!) Maybe I just need to re-think how Noctis works, or safe him for my novel. I think he's a good character, but not that great of an rpg character. Besides, if I was to represent him 100% accurately, he would be downright broken. And would require some sort of 'sanity' rules.

Oh well, and I'm sorry for being so verbose also. I know I ramble too much. And I ask weird questions all the time and often turns out I should've been able to find the answer to on my own. Thanks for your help. Btw, I guess its kinda funny I wrote a 1,000 word reply, to your four/five word comment