Changeling

I have been playing a changeling bard in our Shadows of the Apocalypse campaign for some months now, and I have to say playing a character with a handful of personalities is fun. I do bump into some questions about the effects of changing and the detect-ability of it at times. I've also been interested in the rule changes that have been made that affect the class.

The race was added to 5E via Unearthed Arcane (UA) at least twice (Races of Eberron 7/2018 and Unearthed Arcana: Eberron 2/2015) and now in the official Eberron supplement.  Keith Baker, creator of Eberron, has written more about changelings outside the official Wizards publications, but given his relationship to the subject, his thoughts are nearly cannon and I will generally accept them as supplements to RAW.  In particular he has published FAQ: Changelings on his blog.

Versions of Changeling

Since there is now an "official" changeling in RAW, that is the race that I am tempted to want to use when a changeling is created, more on that after looking at the differences.

My Character's Changeling (Races of Eberron -- Changeling)

The changeling I am playing in Shadows was built on an UA definition of the race published in 2018. It includes two unique features that do not appear in the other versions:

Unsettling Visage
Once per short rest, when a creature you can see makes an attack roll against you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the roll. You must use this feature before knowing whether the attack hits or misses.

Divergent Persona
You gain proficiency with one tool of your choice. Define a unique identity associated with that proficiency; establish the name, race, gender, age, and other details. While you are in the form of this persona, the related proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses that proficiency.

I have actually been playing Divergent Persona incorrectly. My character choose Thieves Tools and has a "rogue" persona that I had thought had proficiency with the tools, it turns out she should have had expertise which is a bit out of line, something that is given as special profession features and doesn't seem quite right as a racial ability' although, other races have it even better:

An Aereni elf can choose one skill or tool proficiency. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses this chosen proficiency.

The cornerstone ability of the race, Change Appearance was stated as follows:

As an action, you can transform your appearance or revert to your natural form. You can’t duplicate the appearance of a creature you’ve never seen, and you revert to your natural form if you die.

You decide what you look like, including your height, weight, facial features, the sound of your voice, coloration, hair length, sex, and any other distinguishing characteristics. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. You also can’t appear as a creature of a different size than you, and your basic shape stays the same; if you’re bipedal, you can’t use this trait to become quadrupedal, for instance. Your clothing and other equipment don’t change in appearance, size, or shape to match your new form, requiring you to keep a few extra outfits on hand to make the most compelling disguise possible.

Even to the most astute observers, your ruse is usually indiscernible. If you rouse suspicion, or if a wary creature suspects something is amiss, you have advantage on any Charisma (Deception) check you make to avoid detection.

The changeling I built my character to also gained 2 charisma points, and 1 in either DEX or INT, two languages and two skills from: Deception, Intimidation, Insight, and Persuasion. The option to choose this race no longer appears in D&DBeyond and the details page linked to from my character now generates a 404 error.

2015 UA Changeling (Unearthed Arcana: Eberron)

The rules I built my character are clearly stronger than the 2015 UA Changeling which gives just 1 CHA point, only Deception proficiency, and lacks Unsettling Visage and Divergent Persona. The UA Changeling online now also used much different wording for the Change Appearance:

As an action, you can polymorph into any humanoid of your size that you have seen, or back into your true form. However, your equipment does not change with you. If you die, you revert to your natural appearance.

That wording is very significantly different.  It removed the restrictions on additional limbs and opens up water breathing and other edge case abilities.  It also removed advantage on deception checks to avoid detection.

Overall this seems like a terrible racial description.  It seems obvious why it was replaced.

Eberron Changeling

The published version is between the two, providing +2 CHA and +1 any (Is the "any" a mistake? it seems to allow +3 to CHA which is unusual at least.) stat, the same skill choices as the ones I choose from, and omits Unsettling Visage and Divergent Persona. It also adds two additional languages, which makes sense and seems to be the buff from the 2018UA version. The Change Appearance ability morphed to Shapechanger:

As an action, you can change your appearance and your voice. You determine the specifics of the changes, including your coloration, hair length, and sex. You can also adjust your height and weight, but not so much that your size changes. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. You can’t duplicate the appearance of a creature you’ve never seen, and you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have. Your clothing and equipment aren’t changed by this trait.

You stay in the new form until you use an action to revert to your true form or until you die.

That is pretty close to the original wording in effect and requires less words.  I'll give it a good on that front.  One significant change is they eliminated advantage on deception to avoid detection.

Overall this makes Changeling rather a milquetoast race.  It's special ability is a non-magical alter self and that's it.  This new racial definition has generated four pages of comments on DnDBeyond a ton more than normally found there.

My Choice

I think the 2015 UA Changeling as provided on Wizards web site is just rubbish.  The published Eberron definition is ok, but uninspiring -- I'd not choose that race, pretty much ever.  I like the one I am playing, the UA2018 version, and will allow a homebrew of that race in games I run.  The homebrew will match the one I am currently playing.  It seems fine balance wise and is certainly fun.

FAQ: Changeling

Keith Baker's  FAQ: Changelings is impressively long.  I'm just going to highlight some points I found interesting in it here. I'll use blue text where I am quoting Keith.

• As a changeling it is assumed that you can perfectly replicate the appearance of a creature you’ve seen before (just like someone using disguise self). No roll is required to duplicate basic physical appearance.
• However, this doesn’t provide you with any knowledge of that person and their quirks. It’s taken for granted that you sound like them—the voice comes with the shape—but you don’t know their mannerisms or their vocabulary.
• Likewise, the most crucial limitation on changelings is that clothing and equipment don’t change. You can look like a guard, but you don’t get the uniform for free. 

Can a changeling impersonate a warforged? ... you can duplicate the appearance of a warforged, but you can’t replicate armor—and most warforged are always wearing armor. So you could be a “naked’ warforged, which means you’ve just got the livewood musculature exposed, but that’s not normal for warforged and you’ll draw a lot of attention.

Do changelings sometimes use their shapechanging artistically or outlandishly? Wild hair colors, patterned skin, strange eyes? This is a question of culture. In stable changeling communities where they live openly as changelings, they absolutely use shapeshifting artistically and as a form of expression. The Queen of Stone has a changeling dancer changing patterns on their skin as part of the performance. Page 18 of Rising From The Last War notes that changeling names often incorporate a minor degree of cosmetic shapeshifting—Jin-with-vivid-blue-eyes. Traveling changelings and passers hiding their changeling nature obviously won’t use shapeshifting in this way, but still use it subtly to convey messages to family members.

Can all changelings get pregnant? Are they biologically asexual and just choose their current sex with shapeshifting? Yes. What’s been stated in the past is that changelings set their sex with shapeshifting. Prior canon has said that a pregnant changeling actually loses the ability to shapeshift during the pregnancy. This seems extreme to me, but I could see the idea that they need to maintain a female form in order to maintain the pregnancy (and that shifting form very early in the pregnancy would simply end it, so changelings have a very easy form of birth control). The idea that changing sex is an instinctual thing, like flipping a light switch, and that a normal changeling couldn’t, for example, assume a male form but keep the uterus. With that said, if you had a changeling called out as having greater control over their abilities (for example, the Changeling Menagerie druid I’ve mentioned elsewhere) I might allow that.

Can changelings mate with non-changelings, and are their children full-blooded changelings?
What we’ve said before is that changelings can mate with most humanoids, and that the child is always a changeling. The child is born with the apparent species of the mother, and the shapeshifting ability doesn’t set in for around a year. This is the origin of the name “changeling” — because when someone’s previously human child suddenly becomes a pale thing, it was once thought that the original child had been taken to Thelanis.

Having said that: while changelings CAN mate with other humanoids, I’d say that it is RARE for them to impregnate creatures of other species. It can happen, but the fertility rate isn’t that high. It’s quite possible that humans and other human-compatible species are the most viable.

Can they disguise injuries, like if a guard cut your face and you escaped but they try to track you by the cut? It would depend on the extent of the injury. There is no mechanical benefit to changeling shapeshifting, so they can’t actually heal themselves. However, I’d personally say that they can conceal minor injuries. If it’s a specific story point—an especially grievous wound inflicted for the express purpose of marking the changeling—I’d probably have the changeling make a Wisdom (Medicine) check to simply seal the wound. If they failed that, I’d still likely let them minimize and conceal it, but if someone was explicitly looking for an injured changeling it would be grounds for requiring a Charisma (Deception) check to conceal it. 

Does the 2nd level Moonbeam work against changelings? If so, wouldn’t this have large implications in the viability of hiding as a changeling? Likewise, are changelings immune to the polymorph spell, which fails when used on shapeshifters? WotC has confirmed that changelings are considered to have the Shapechanger subtype. So they are indeed immune to polymorph and can be affected by moonbeam.

With that said: Moonbeam isn’t a particularly effective changeling test. It’s a 2nd level spell, so it is in the world, but that’s still not something people use all the time. It’s also a druid spell, and druidic magic isn’t common in the Five Nations. Most important, it inflicts 2d10 radiant damage, which is MORE than enough to kill a normal person. So using moonbeam to check if someone’s a changeling is like shooting them in the face to see if they’re a vampire.  

Not addressed in the FAQ is the effect of detect magic on a Changeling.  This seems to be clearly none.  The shapeshift is a racial ability not magic, and therefore not detectable, or dispellable.