disguise help

[rycean]

Hello playground,
Is their anyway to change how my character looks but keep his ability scores I'm fairly new (still only in my first campaign). I'm playing as a flind gnoll but because of a few out bursts of chaos I need to look like a. Human but keep my physical ability scores. I'd ask my dm but he's away atm. Thanks for the help.

[Duke of Urrel]

You can use an Illusion spell of the Glamer subschool, such as Disguise Self, Seeming, or Veil. Or you can use the Alter Self spell, which is a Transmutation spell of the Polymorph subschool. All of these spells can make you look human, and none of them affects your ability scores.

[Segev]

You can use an Illusion spell of the Glamer subschool, such as Disguise Self, Seeming, or Veil. Or you can use the Alter Self spell, which is a Transmutation spell of the Polymorph subschool. All of these spells can make you look human, and none of them affects your ability scores.

Actually, Alter Self makes you take on the stats of an average member of the target race. Or, in PF, it makes you take bonuses and penalties to a couple of stats.

[Divide by Zero]

Actually, Alter Self makes you take on the stats of an average member of the target race. Or, in PF, it makes you take bonuses and penalties to a couple of stats.
I think you're thinking of Polymorph.

Alter Self
Transmutation
Level: Brd 2, Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 10 min./level (D)

You assume the form of a creature of the same type as your normal form. The new form must be within one size category of your normal size. The maximum HD of an assumed form is equal to your caster level, to a maximum of 5 HD at 5th level. You can change into a member of your own kind or even into yourself.

You retain your own ability scores. Your class and level, hit points, alignment, base attack bonus, and base save bonuses all remain the same. You retain all supernatural and spell-like special attacks and qualities of your normal form, except for those requiring a body part that the new form does not have (such as a mouth for a breath weapon or eyes for a gaze attack).

You keep all extraordinary special attacks and qualities derived from class levels, but you lose any from your normal form that are not derived from class levels.

If the new form is capable of speech, you can communicate normally. You retain any spellcasting ability you had in your original form, but the new form must be able to speak intelligibly (that is, speak a language) to use verbal components and must have limbs capable of fine manipulation to use somatic or material components.

You acquire the physical qualities of the new form while retaining your own mind. Physical qualities include natural size, mundane movement capabilities (such as burrowing, climbing, walking, swimming, and flight with wings, to a maximum speed of 120 feet for flying or 60 feet for nonflying movement), natural armor bonus, natural weapons (such as claws, bite, and so on), racial skill bonuses, racial bonus feats, and any gross physical qualities (presence or absence of wings, number of extremities, and so forth). A body with extra limbs does not allow you to make more attacks (or more advantageous two-weapon attacks) than normal.

You do not gain any extraordinary special attacks or special qualities not noted above under physical qualities, such as darkvision, low-light vision, blindsense, blindsight, fast healing, regeneration, scent, and so forth.

You do not gain any supernatural special attacks, special qualities, or spell-like abilities of the new form. Your creature type and subtype (if any) remain the same regardless of your new form. You cannot take the form of any creature with a template, even if that template doesn’t change the creature type or subtype.

You can freely designate the new form’s minor physical qualities (such as hair color, hair texture, and skin color) within the normal ranges for a creature of that kind. The new form’s significant physical qualities (such as height, weight, and gender) are also under your control, but they must fall within the norms for the new form’s kind. You are effectively disguised as an average member of the new form’s race. If you use this spell to create a disguise, you get a +10 bonus on your Disguise check.

When the change occurs, your equipment, if any, either remains worn or held by the new form (if it is capable of wearing or holding the item), or melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional. When you revert to your true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on your body they previously occupied and are once again functional. Any new items you wore in the assumed form and can’t wear in your normal form fall off and land at your feet; any that you could wear in either form or carry in a body part common to both forms at the time of reversion are still held in the same way. Any part of the body or piece of equipment that is separated from the whole reverts to its true form.

[Duke of Urrel]

According to the rules of the Polymorph subschool (on page 320 of the Player's Handbook):


Unless otherwise noted in the spell's description, the subject of a Polymorph spell takes on all the statistics and special abilities of an average member of the assumed form in place of its own…

However, the description of the Alter Self spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/alterSelf.htm) contains the following sentence:


You retain your own ability scores.

…Ninjaed by Divide by Zero!

[Segev]

Huh. I specifically remember Alter Self acting differently. I stand corrected. I wonder where I got that in my head from.

[rycean]

Thanks for the help guys ill be getting the greater for my pc.