Constant True sight and larger shapeshifters

[Wolfswift]

So... I'm getting ready to have my party come up against a notorious bandit clan hiding in an enormous forest, but they have a secret the party will discover at their first encounter them... They're actually green dragons. Most of which are young or younger as the parents have only been "active" for the last two and half decades or so. Also I know dragons don't normally stay together as large family units often and green dragons don't normally have the change shape ability, they're actually third party Taninim Draconic Heroes of various classes from In the Company of Dragons Expanded by Rite Publishing. I'm just running them as special dragons.

But anyhow, they'll have scouts guarding their forest and using guerrilla tactics against invaders. However most of the party has goggles of true sight and will see them as large dragons, however, do the dragons take a negative to stealth since the true seers see them larger than their current shape is? If they have equipment in humanoid form, true seeing can't see through solid objects, so... Would thier equipment seem out of place on their humanoid frame inside the apparent large dragon? I'm imagining they just see large dragons with occasional glimpses of the medium humanoid frame of equipment inside which is swinging at them and the true seers may get a negative to hit the dragons as they're aiming at a large creature they see that is actually medium currently? My imagining is this looks like a glitchy video game using the wrong size model for an enemy. This feels wrong, but I don't know how it should be...

I'm okay with the party pulling back the curtain on this secret almost immediately, they were meant to discover it anyhow and it just means the dragon family can jump straight to all natural and breath weapons and such immediately. I just don't know how true seeing actually works when perceiving larger body than a foe physically currently is. My inclination is to say they see the current physical appearance, but with a transparent ghostly form of their true shape around them. Which is not something stated in true sight...

Unrelated note, true seeing can't see possessed people's possessers somehow, right? The person is solid and real, so a ghost inside them can't be seen somehow by true seeing, right? (Our world has a chromatic dracolich God, so necromancy is preferred to devout dragons, they may have prisoners being used as meat shields by calling ghosts to possess them)

[ciopo]

possibly immersion breaking, but you could rule/role the true seeing to behave as a HUD of sort, especially if it's from googles and not actual spell being casted.

the googles highlight magical secret doors by superimposing a frame around the secret door.

the googles helpfully tag that humanoid bandit over yonder with an overhead label blinking "green dragon".

Alternatively, it is divination, it doesn't have to "have" an actual representation, what your players will see is an humanoid bandit, because that's what the green draogn physically is at that moment, but you describe them knowing it's actually a green dragon?

it is not physically occupying the larger space after all, if said humanoid shaped dragon was hiding behind a tree, the characters wouldn't see the draogn siluette around the tree.

So my take is that the players know it's a dragon, but don't see a dragon

[MaxiDuRaritry]

When they can actually see the current form of a dragon (in this case, a Medium or Small [or whatever] humanoid), they see a hazy outline superimposed on the world of the creature's actual form, of the creature's actual size. It's clear enough to make out details but fuzzy enough that it's clear that it's not their current appearance, and it clips through objects. If they can't see enough of the humanoid to make it out properly, such as they only see a foot poking out from the creature's hiding place, they see the outline of a dragon's claw, but not any more volume than what they could see already.

Basically, there's no penalty to anything but the Disguise check, as RAW states.

Yes, it's a bit odd, but it's magic. It's supposed to be odd.

[Fouredged Sword]

You see a large or huge dragon occupying a 5ft space.

Yes, a large or huge dragon normally occupies a larger space, but that dragon has magiced himself into a smaller form. Your trueseing lets you see what he really is, but he's still only occupying that same 5ft space. You just know he's large, because, you know, magic.

[Wolfswift]

It's seeming like seeing a ghostly or translucent image of the true from superimposed over their current physical form is the best way to work it afterall. I don't want them to get a HUD telling them every detail automatically like that they're green dragons, because again, they technically aren't basic green dragons, they're more. There's also another detail I want the party to have trouble noticing for some time. All the green dragons have some bronze heritage as well... It's complicated...

I didn't want them to have to fight two older dragon parents later on so the father of the brood is a green/bronze mopey layabout because he hates himself. His mate only chose him because chromatic dragons are nearly extinct in this world and he was pretty vengeful and capable of evil when she met him, so she overlooked his partial metallic heritage, but after his first actual cathartic rampage he felt horrible in retrospect. Now she abuses him and basically just keeps him around as breeding stock, he's basically a prisoner and is ready to die. It's also meant to be a moral challenge. Do they put him out of his misery or how do they deal with this traumatic dragon? This party is too OP to really be challenged much in fair combat, so I'm trying to make more moral and social challenges.

On the subject of moral challenges, back to ghosts/demons possessing people, true seeing can't see them inside people, right?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

On the subject of moral challenges, back to ghosts/demons possessing people, true seeing can't see them inside people, right?Not unless the possessor's description says so. Some do. Others don't. Since a possessing creature is "hiding" within the victim's body, it's not likely to be visible with true seeing -- again, unless the creature's (or spell's, or whatever) description says otherwise.