I don't think so. I know little about DnD lore but I think no simple Joe would even know anything about them, maybe legends and some drunkers rumblings. Like the Skaven situation in Warhammer.
waterdeep acutally has a problem with them, they infiltrated a wedding between some nobles to secure trade between waterdeep and Kara-Tur. Khelben, the former blackstaff, stoped them only partialy.. the Open Lord dislikes them too and ye overall one of the bigger problems Waterdeep has sidenote, the doppelganger-mindflayer mr.rexx was talking about is a greater-doppelganger-mindflayer and at the moment poses as one of the Hidden Lords of waterdeep soooo.... ye..
And then the dopplegangers pretending to be specific individuals are eaten by the Mimic pretending to be a wardrobe, the Trapper pretending to be the floor, the Lurker Above pretending to be the ceiling, the Gargoyle pretending to be a statue, the Wolf-In-Sheeps-Clothing pretending to be a rabbit on a tree stumps, etc. :D
I’d imagine no. They become said person and it’s alignment after the deed is done. It’d mechanically be bad too, basically they could never eat lawful good people, bc the transformation cancel right away due to regret. Eating a 2nd lawful good person after the first is a different story tho.
I just wanna say the timing of this couldn't be funnier. Ed Greenwood released a video literally like a day or two ago talking about Dopplegangers, and now our boy Rhexx is too!
wonder what would happen if a doppelganger tries to impersonate another doppelganger doppelganger #1:"now i will take over your life" doppelganger #2"dude hands off i'm already doing that" doppelganger #1:"HUH?" *reads their mind* doppelganger #1:"ohhhhh, sorry sorry. didn't check beforehand" *unties the other doppelganger* doppelganger #2:"you should've, honestly you aren't very smart" doppelganger #1:"like i was supposed to know that, not like you ever thought any thoughts that would give it away" *the 2 just walk out of the cave*
Later that week: Doppelganger #1 sees a 5'6" lady with a leather coat. She leans over a vendor's stall. Doppelganger #1: "Now I shall take..." Lady with the leather coat: Turns to face the Doppelganger. "No." Merchant: "Huh? You say something." Lady: "Nothing. Just a street urchin." Shakes head. Doppelganger #1: "What! Another one. Ugh!" Lady: Flips it. Her mind tells, "No, you're an overly chatty Doppel." Doppelganger #1: Realizes that the Lady is a Mind Reader. "What a minute."
As it isn't stated in lore what if a Doppelganger can get pregnant, this is a great void to fill with Changelings. If your dad is a DG, you are a DG; if your mom is a DG, you are a Changeling.
Alternatively a doppelgänger mating with any other humanoid race could make changelings, as they can’t read minds but can still change shape and form; it would stand to reason a diluting of the racial characteristics would render a changeling.
@@derekstein6193 in European folklore, they are fey, but in Eberron: "Changelings are a fey or humanoid race who are related to doppelgangers and share their shapeshifting qualities and capacity for disguise. This makes them effective as actors, spies, and criminals, which has in turn led to them being mistrusted amongst the people of Khorvaire. They are sometimes also known as doppelgangers themselves."
Is incredible that you do a better job conserving and explaning the complexity of D&D's lore than the official D&D. They don't improve, on the contrary they seems to devolve with every new edition released Sad and declined times our luck made us live ngl. Thanks for these videos. Good job sir
I love how whenever rhexx makes one of these videos it basically boils down to " this monster is super scary and has a lot of advantages over you, have fun with your adventure"
@@MrRhexx oh man it's really good I definitely recommend anything from the creator of the realms itself he has many things he talks about that aren't in any of the books at all very cool
An interesting campaign would be to make one of the personalities in a Greater Doppelganger the dominant one, either for a player character that died, or for a key figure in the story. The party/other force with agency could've even contacted and then fed the Greater Doppelganger in order to get the information
I *just* ran an Unseen encounter with my high level party on Tuesday it’s wild I’m seeing you drop a video about them. In our game a meteor with Spawn of Kyuss worms came down near Hlaavin’s lair and he made a warlock pact with them and the party just fought and killed him but his greater doppelgänger second in command got away and is now they are going to be Kyuss’ emissary and the new leader of the Unseen.
Is it just me or are these monsters a really good analogy for sociopaths? They want to exist parasitically off of the labor of others and simply see other people as tools to use. They can fake emotions and even pretend to care, but can never really do so and are ultimately just petty selfish creatures out for themselves and nothing else.
Impulsivity: Sociopaths tend to be more impulsive and erratic than psychopaths. Relationships: Sociopaths may have trouble forming stable relationships, while psychopaths may be able to form attachments with like-minded people. Emotions: Psychopaths have a more severe form of ASPD, which limits their ability to experience emotions, empathy, or remorse. Sociopaths have a more normal range of emotions. Self-control: Psychopaths may have more self-control and be more calculating than sociopaths. Social skills: Psychopaths may be better able to blend into society than sociopaths. Violence: Psychopaths are more prone to violence because of their lack of empathy and remorse.
I incorporated a doppelganger into my session this week after watching this video and it made the current adventure so much more interesting and mysterious. I love these videos so much
Absolutely terryfing if you make one snatch your player without telling them, and than they suddenly lose control when the monster decides to strike. Altough many players hate taking away their agancy like that, but if you as a DM can do taht it works great. I love well utilized doppelgangers, like in bg3
The trick is to bring the player into the deception. Talk to one you think can handle the metagaming aspect, see if they'd be interested in running the con, and then have them run fake-them. How the characters find out is up to you, but let them behind the curtain from time to time. It's obviously important to have players that are cool with the idea of being tricked by one of their own, but it can work great if you do it well.
Thank you Mr. Rexx for spelling Doppelganger correctly (unlike early versions of D&D). Another Fun Fact: In AD&D ed.1 the skin of a doppelganger is used as an ingredient in delusion potions.
I swear to God no lie I was just thinking not 30 minutes ago how I wish that Mr Rhexx would release another video. Get upstairs, load UA-cam: WOOP THERE'T IS!!
in waterdeep is another group of doppelgänger without a Mindflayer Spoilers ahead !: from the fandom: "Bonnie led a gang of five doppelgängers in Waterdeep in 1491 DR. A year later, she had become the barmaid at the famous Yawning Portal tavern." Bonnie is a NPC from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and she too is a doppelgänger, she even has connections to the harpers because one of them knows her secret and wants the help them
Astarion: "It's not enough we have a gallery of villains to look out for, but now we could be infiltrated by a shapechanger? I can't even tell if any of you are acting strange because you've been replaced or because this group is full of weirdos!"
I always look forward to a new video drop from you - but especially now, because I'm currently writing a story about a Doppelganger, so this is super helpful!
day 2 os whishing for a video about psionics: how it works exactly? how it differs from magic?Does it affects the Weave whatsoever? and many more questions and enlightment I so seek about a forgotten and apparently filled with many mixed information in the lore that only may almighty MrRhexx elucidate.
I love doppelgangers. I use them in most of my games, but I change the lore up a lot. I usually have them be chill outsiders who form small groups that stay hidden, usually good in alignment. I have them freely transform rather than just look like someone, so they can just decide to look a certain way because they feel like it. In one game, the party is helping them find one of their kin who has been kidnapped, with the noble who captured them trying to expose them to the city.
BG1 had far more doppelganger action. There was practically a whole guild working for the Iron Throne to sink competitors. Also, the dungeon called Durlag's Tower was a dwarven clanhold that got infiltrated by doppelgangers. Durlag killed them while they were disguised as his family. It drove him completely around the bend. They've been a favorite of mine ever since.
Honestly this, to me, made the doppelgangers in BG3 seem so extremely lacking in comparison. Most of the time they're just random thugs that aren't particularly difficult in a fight and occasionally explode into much uglier versions of themselves. The few that are more than basic thugs are portrayed as extremely impulsive for no reason other than shock value, even to their own detriment, when they should be far more methodical and insidious. Like The clown that just randomly decided to undo who knows how many days or weeks of work and expose their entire operation in the middle of a public venue. Literally anything other than exactly what they did would have been more in line with how it sounds doppelgangers would typically behave The mind reading didn't even play into it at all that I can recall, and Orin in particular was too heavy handed and chaotic to be truly effective in her role (which Gortash at least seems aware of) They also for some reason felt the need to make other characters dumber to try and promote her energy (a table full of trained Drow in a hostile environment that grew up in a civilization where assassination attempts are a daily activity somehow all sit by idly when some lunatic they just met starts skipping down the table slitting their throats They're probably lucky they died in Orin's hands compared to what Lolth would have done to them for that obscene level of absolute incompetence) They also really missed the mark rushing the kidnapping so early in act 3 and not having Orin focus on the character the Tav has the highest relationship with. It would likely have been more complicated coding but when it's one of the biggest enemies in the game that seems like it should be where you'd want to invest Currently most people approach it with an attitude of "well as long as she takes Halsin or the NPC idc, they can chill and I'll deal with her at a point that actually makes sense in the timeline) All in all I wish they'd included fewer of the things but had them be closer to the lore shown in this video. It truly would have made them a more compelling enemy imo
@@Sasorilolo This is a good point, I forgot she was referred to as a changeling. I looked it up and it seems that rarely changelings are considered a seperate race entirely, but for the vast majority of situations it seems they are the hybrid children of a doppelganger and a human female Which gets even more confusing because I'm pretty sure Orin's father isn't a doppelganger or a changeling and her mother is human The main differences seem to be changelings are basically weaker overall, not as good at shape shifting, and can't read minds Which overall would imply Orin should have been even more dedicated to stalking her prey but does partly explain why she was generally bad at impersonating them and gave up the ruses so quickly The others I'm pretty sure were listed as doppels though? Or maybe they were changelings too, not sure now
In my first campaign one of my players was playing a gypsy style rock gnome named Snershe Orebrander. Her father.. was a doppelganger. Emphasis on the "was". So there was this guy that the doppelganger (I'm going to shorten it to DG from now on) was casing. A rock gnome man who was deeply in love with this gypsy gnome. Until one day, he fell off a ledge in the woods while foraging. The DG approached to see if anything useful was left, at which point the gnome awoke only for a moment, grabbing the DG's wrist, triggering the mind-reading, filling the DG's mind with the gnomes last thoughts: that he never got to confess to the girl. This... *Infected* the DG with this infatuation with this gnome girl... It.. it began wondering more about its purpose... Until eventually, the girl almost caught him. In panic it transformed into the form of the gnome man who had died in front of him. They talked.. and the DG had to improvise. Since the gnome whose form he donned had died before he could learn anything from him.. it had to improvise... Essentially. It began to no longer be able to separate the inflicted affection for the girl from his own. Eventually, wanting to live his life in the bright world she saw, not wanting to be a part of the Doppelganger world any longer.. he made a choice. He... Became.. real. He sought to make himself a real gnome sorry he could be with her. And he succeeded. Taking the name: Alifor Trewliv A lie.. for true love. Great to see it's not exactly a conon adjacent tale lmao
I loved dungeon meshi’s doppelganger was discovered because “I would’ve thought after what we went through Marcille would’ve been more careful…” and real Marcille wasn’t 🤣
The influence of mindflayers on dopplegangers forming groups makes Baldurs gate 3 Bhall cult suprisingly lore accurate with how many doupplegangers they enploy
Because of a doppelgänger’s mind reading a good way to find one is group interrogations. Each person is expecting them to act differently than the other, so it gets confused and doesn’t know who’s mind is the most accurate
I love your videos Though I do need to take issue with the claim Dopplegangers never cooperate or form organizations with other dopplegangers. Ed Greenwood pointed out dopplegangers in the Forgotten Realms cooperate all the time to help maintain thier secrets In Eberron Dopplegangers are a large part of the Cabinet of Faces along with their changling kin. And in Raveloft, Sodo became a Dark Lord of Paridon because he impersonated and killed Doppleganger elders to become their leader. And no mind flayers are involved in any of those Plus I am pretty sure there's lore that says Dopplegangers were created by the Batrachi. At least in Faerun
I'd love a video explaining spell components, esp. material components--like fireball is a ball of guano and sulfur (which were used in gunpowder)...but how does the weave consume a Black Onyx gem at least 25 gp per hit die to Animate Undead? And like illusion magic needs fleece--to pull the wool over one's eyes--so the weave consumes the physical object of a pun and give you it's magic as a thanks for the laugh?
I know i'l latge to the video but the fact that SO MANY of those art are actually piece about Changeling XD Woudl love video about changeling, and especially all the weird and uncertain ways they relate to doppels
Hey, do you plan on talking about other kinds of dragons, like the Yellow dragons, Brown dragons, Mercury dragons, etc? I know they dont exist in 5th edition but I still would like to see videos about them
So from what I can gather, the best thing that can happen to a kingdom with a good ruler is that their king has their brain eaten by a greater doppleganger so they have the same ruler, but with mind reading abilities on top? x) Thanks for the lore! ^^
During an Icewind Dale campaign I played in, one of the party members had a doppleganger with a grudge against him that became his nemesis. I was so excited to deal with them as a group but we ended up not being able to confront them because we killed Auril way earlier than we should have and everyone who had beef with us pissed themselves and left the area when they heard the news
Funny intro to watch after recently watching Ed Greenwood say they would definitely not try to be kings or something too high up because it would draw too many eyes.
I love using doppelgängers A crime boss in my campaign uses them to fake his movements and spy on his enemies The Party has to be extra cautious when dealing with him
One additional Realms specific bit of lore is that they were allegedly created by the batrachi somewhere around 30,000 years ago... So they have been around for a long time. Given that humans and even elves were not a factor at that time, it raises the question of who were their usual targets for assassinations and infiltrations.
It sounds like the spell Zone of Truth will be a good way to determine who the real person is and who the imposter is. Or just remember that the one who is panicking about the situation is the actual person.
Druids use the magic already inherent in nature, and paladins get their spells and powers from their devotion to their oath; a Doppelgänger would know this upon devouring the person's mind; Clerics and Warlocks are some of the only ones that would be unable to be replicated, as Druids and Paladins could be emulated.
Not really you said yourself with Paladins is about the devotion you have to belive and dedicate yourself to your oath, your feelings have to genuine and you have to follow your oath tenets with all your heart, that's like the difference between pretending to be in love and actually being in love.
@@DeliciaDamaria What part of “they even take on their alignment and can even perform psionic spellcasting” did you not comprehend; if they can perform something as difficult as psionic spellcasting, then daily rituals and living by a strict set of tenets is nothing for them; be they Druidic or Devotional in nature, they know all the tasks involved in performing the prerequisites. If the Greater Doppelgänger acts against the alignment of the one they transform into, it can cause them to forcibly revert their form; that means a Lawful Good Paladin of Helm that has been replaced would continue to act as a Lawful Good Paladin of Helm, complete with protecting people, and healing people, and being Lawful Good. Your Anti-Duidic Spellcasting argument is the same as saying that non-Wiccans are incapable of doing Wiccan magic, even if they follow all the same steps; Wiccan is nature magic, as is Druidic magic; both use the inherent magic of their surroundings to induce the effects they are generating, that magic has no alignment, nor does it discriminate against who is casting it; in fact, the Arcane Weave of Mystra/Mystral has more inherent discriminatory limitations than the natural magic of the world; that's why Mythals made using Soul Magic are so powerful, they are inherently categorized as Nature Magic, making them beyond the scope of Mystra's Portfolio (it's specifically in Io's portfolio). So, yeah, only clerics and warlocks would really be the only ones that are incapable of getting their powers copied, unless by some chance that Greater Doppelgänger happened to form that same bond themselves with those beings granting that power. The Druid's magic doesn't discern nor discriminate between who is the one influencing it, and Paladins manifest their magic based upon their belief and devotion, not their worship; because the Paladin magic comes from within.
Ed Greenwood has both stated and also written in an official Forgotten Realms book that there are doppelgänger kingdoms and that the doppelgängers call themselves by another name; the Shallar. It’s also stated the Creator race known as the Batrachi created them or that doppelgängers descend from them.
MrRhexx can we look forward to some videos in the Planescape setting, i saw some content on Factol's and it was quite interesting would love to see some content from you on this setting, cheers!
Perhaps the reason Doppelgangers only impregnate humanoid women is that it is intended as an extra layer of protection for their young? Mothers can be viciously protective of their children, _especially_ during infancy. Additionally, having a verified non-doppelganger parent could help avoid scrutiny being directed at the child. It is also reasonable to assume that they _are_ capable of becoming pregnant, but avoid doing so as it would leave them 1: Vulnerable and/or 2: Locked into a specific form. Perhaps the act of shape-shifting could be a potential hazard to the fetus? Aside from this, it could be a reference to myths about the changeling?
If a greater doppelganger replaces someone, can he experience character growth or development? can they change their alignment with time or are they essentially trapped playing a role?
I had a really wacky experience with a crazy wizard and a doppelganger, a couple of years ago. Our party has partially been replaced with doppelgangers, my character included, and when it came time for the DG to replace the wizard, well, he just out-crazyed them, for lack of a better term. He, a level 17 or 18 Transmutation wizard, true polymorphed himself into a DG. I have no idea if you can by the rules, but it was hilarious. He, the player, spent a few minutes grandstanding and then threw a soul jar at the DG, slit his own throat, then possessed the DG. He had a scroll of true polymorph, several of them, turned his new DG body back into himself, and just carried on. That happened, and we, both in and out of character, sort of just agreed that that happened, and carried on with the quest. The DM ruled that our wizard freaked out the DGs so much they gave up on him and just replaced the rest of us instead. The player never explained why he did that, and no one really wanted to ask.
Ah rhexx there's a chapter in one of the manuals that states a doppelganger can get pregnant but loses shapeshift ability when they do. And no I'm not talking about the changling exerpt it's in the chapter referencing dread doppelganger.
Could you make a video about Mephistopheles and Hellfire? Hellfire specifically but also Mephistophelean science seems gravely underrepresented in lore entries throughout the D&D universe
Doppelgangers would make for an excellent Player character. Just imagine how that changes the interactions with the world around you! for instance if a horde of Ogres is approaching the town how would you persuade the townspeople or people in charge to listen as a doppelganger vs normally.
Gotta say, a lot of changeling pictures were used when, as far as I can tell, there's a huge debate even lore wise [and frankly constantly changing, thanks WoTC] if changelings were created first or second or even related to them at all, especially now that changelings are considered to be fey. Even what I found in the 5e Eberron setting does the classic trope of "no, daddy god made ME first! no, daddy god made ME first!"
I'd love a game about an invasion of sorts where every powerful person in a town is a doppelganger and the the doppelganger don't realise it themselves si the party starts working with them while against them and it's just a whole mess of misdirection and confusion on who is who
You can 'milk' the blood of a captured Doppelganger, and combined with the essence of other creatures to mutate a subject INTO that creature. This happened in an official magazine adventure.
There's a doppelganger encounter in Horde of the Dragon Queen of twin sisters trying to kill one of the party members or the people they are escorting. My sorcerer actually convinced one to leave its murdery life behind to start a new one and they fell in love. Though they stayed in Waterdeep which makes what I learned here about it make me go... *Yikes.* They are gonna have a kid which does make wonder on how nature vs nurture is a case here. Doppelganger children live up to puberty smacks them that they are not what they thought they were and their parent was the one to cause that. That such person that has no identity of their own. Probably a cycle of self-hatred and evil is constantly repeated. And god only knows what happens to the other parent. Do they get so horrified they disown the kid? Do some get spared of this fate and get accepted? But with my sorcerer and his wife, they know what to expect and prepare their kids for such a talk. Their kids will always be loved no matter what happens. Is that why they take peoples identity so they can have one? DO they get a chance to make a whole new persona for themselves? Is it hard to think of one? I constantly think about how their future would go. She lives happily in Waterdeep but what happens when another doppelganger meets her? Is it hostile because how dare she have a stable life? Does she try to help said doppelganger into having one? Our dm never even explained the identity of the first form we meet her in so does that person come back for revenge??? Doppelgangers offer SO MUCH for story potential about self identity, its crazy cool
Hi love your videos. I noticed A lot of the artwork you used for doppelgängers are actually that of changlings. I know they are similar but do they separate from the same species? Many shapeshifters all have the same weaknesses so it would stand to reason.
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I wonder if any have tried to breed with giants to increase the size cap?
don't tell me what to do you're not my real dad
help, I clicked the link and now I'm locked in a basement where a doppelganger comes and asks me questions every now and then 😢
Very cool video, tho no mention on why they punch so hard XD
Will you do an in depth video on the rod of security? I am interested in it's lore as it's hard to find anything on it.
The fact that so many can be found in Waterdeep, makes me imagine that paranoia is a widespread problem in that city.
Nor if your a doppelganger
I don't think so. I know little about DnD lore but I think no simple Joe would even know anything about them, maybe legends and some drunkers rumblings. Like the Skaven situation in Warhammer.
@@szysi3k that's up to the DM to decide but lorewise unless a creature is specified as being not very known than yeah people know about it.
Reminds me of the Synth problem in Fallout 4.
waterdeep acutally has a problem with them, they infiltrated a wedding between some nobles to secure trade between waterdeep and Kara-Tur. Khelben, the former blackstaff, stoped them only partialy..
the Open Lord dislikes them too and ye overall one of the bigger problems Waterdeep has
sidenote, the doppelganger-mindflayer mr.rexx was talking about is a greater-doppelganger-mindflayer and at the moment poses as one of the Hidden Lords of waterdeep soooo.... ye..
this is... exactly what a doppleganger that has replaced mr rhexx would say...
😂😂😂
this is waht woud a doppleganger woud say that replace iamwonderFil
Y'all I think I know why he stopped posting for a while...
Maybe the one that replaced Sotetur4722@@Sotetur4722
Indeed.. very suspicious.
"Moved ne'er by fear and ne'er by anger, cold is the trait'rous doppelganger."
Durlag's Tower in Baldur's Gate 1 was just the best.
And then the dopplegangers pretending to be specific individuals are eaten by the Mimic pretending to be a wardrobe, the Trapper pretending to be the floor, the Lurker Above pretending to be the ceiling, the Gargoyle pretending to be a statue, the Wolf-In-Sheeps-Clothing pretending to be a rabbit on a tree stumps, etc. :D
Shapeshiftception
And *that* is why they aren't a super widespread problem - anywhere that humanoid-specific predators hunt, Dopplegangers are also on the menu.
This thread is awesome 😂
Now I wonder if a greater doppelganger might experience regret or sorrow after consuming and becoming a particularly good person.
I’d imagine no.
They become said person and it’s alignment after the deed is done. It’d mechanically be bad too, basically they could never eat lawful good people, bc the transformation cancel right away due to regret.
Eating a 2nd lawful good person after the first is a different story tho.
Dopplegang her? I hardly know her!...but the similarities are uncanny.
I'm stealing this, just like I stole her skin
-sigh- goddammit *makes a changeling character for a dad joke*
This was great timing, Ed Greenwood himself just released a video on the doppelgängers in Waterdeep this week so I was in the mood for more
bruh, i was SO enraptured in that intro.
The only thing that would improve it is the original score from Us.
I just wanna say the timing of this couldn't be funnier. Ed Greenwood released a video literally like a day or two ago talking about Dopplegangers, and now our boy Rhexx is too!
wonder what would happen if a doppelganger tries to impersonate another doppelganger
doppelganger #1:"now i will take over your life"
doppelganger #2"dude hands off i'm already doing that"
doppelganger #1:"HUH?" *reads their mind*
doppelganger #1:"ohhhhh, sorry sorry. didn't check beforehand" *unties the other doppelganger*
doppelganger #2:"you should've, honestly you aren't very smart"
doppelganger #1:"like i was supposed to know that, not like you ever thought any thoughts that would give it away"
*the 2 just walk out of the cave*
The DnD version of "Who is on First"
Later that week:
Doppelganger #1 sees a 5'6" lady with a leather coat. She leans over a vendor's stall.
Doppelganger #1: "Now I shall take..."
Lady with the leather coat: Turns to face the Doppelganger. "No."
Merchant: "Huh? You say something."
Lady: "Nothing. Just a street urchin." Shakes head.
Doppelganger #1: "What! Another one. Ugh!"
Lady: Flips it. Her mind tells, "No, you're an overly chatty Doppel."
Doppelganger #1: Realizes that the Lady is a Mind Reader. "What a minute."
Spiderman pointing at other spidermen
"Well...this is awkward"
As it isn't stated in lore what if a Doppelganger can get pregnant, this is a great void to fill with Changelings. If your dad is a DG, you are a DG; if your mom is a DG, you are a Changeling.
Alternatively a doppelgänger mating with any other humanoid race could make changelings, as they can’t read minds but can still change shape and form; it would stand to reason a diluting of the racial characteristics would render a changeling.
Seeing as changelings are both historically and canonically fey creatures, this can't be the case. Sorry.
@@derekstein6193 in European folklore, they are fey, but in Eberron:
"Changelings are a fey or humanoid race who are related to doppelgangers and share their shapeshifting qualities and capacity for disguise. This makes them effective as actors, spies, and criminals, which has in turn led to them being mistrusted amongst the people of Khorvaire. They are sometimes also known as doppelgangers themselves."
@@derekstein6193 besides that, Changelings aren't native to the FR, so you'd be breaking canon just by adding them there.
Is incredible that you do a better job conserving and explaning the complexity of D&D's lore than the official D&D. They don't improve, on the contrary they seems to devolve with every new edition released
Sad and declined times our luck made us live ngl.
Thanks for these videos. Good job sir
Ahh, good! Master Greenwood first puts out a video about the Shallar, now for Rhexx to fill in the missing pieces!
How do we know this MrRhexx isn’t a doppelgänger!?
Oh my god, someone knows the actual spelling of Doppelgänger. That was unexpected
How I know YOU aren't doppelgänger?
@@joseph_soseph9611most people probably don't have immediate access to German keyboard configurations lol
I love how whenever rhexx makes one of these videos it basically boils down to " this monster is super scary and has a lot of advantages over you, have fun with your adventure"
Dude on Ed Greenwoods channel he just did a doppelganger vid awesome this just came out at the perfect time thank you
Oh fuck I gotta check it out!
@@MrRhexx oh man it's really good I definitely recommend anything from the creator of the realms itself he has many things he talks about that aren't in any of the books at all very cool
It's about dang time, I've been waiting for Rexx to do this topic. Wish there was an honory mention about ethereal Doppelgangers.
An interesting campaign would be to make one of the personalities in a Greater Doppelganger the dominant one, either for a player character that died, or for a key figure in the story. The party/other force with agency could've even contacted and then fed the Greater Doppelganger in order to get the information
I rly want to say thank you. Today are my 30th birthday and Doppler are my favourite monster especialy as a DM. Best gift.
Happy late birthday
I truly appreciate this guys commitment to the format without tons of side content. He does what he does and does it well.
I *just* ran an Unseen encounter with my high level party on Tuesday it’s wild I’m seeing you drop a video about them. In our game a meteor with Spawn of Kyuss worms came down near Hlaavin’s lair and he made a warlock pact with them and the party just fought and killed him but his greater doppelgänger second in command got away and is now they are going to be Kyuss’ emissary and the new leader of the Unseen.
Fresh out of the oven! I love you man! Awesome videos! Thanks for everything!
Is it just me or are these monsters a really good analogy for sociopaths? They want to exist parasitically off of the labor of others and simply see other people as tools to use. They can fake emotions and even pretend to care, but can never really do so and are ultimately just petty selfish creatures out for themselves and nothing else.
This is the part where I make a joke about my ex-wife (which I never had).
Impulsivity: Sociopaths tend to be more impulsive and erratic than psychopaths.
Relationships: Sociopaths may have trouble forming stable relationships, while psychopaths may be able to form attachments with like-minded people.
Emotions: Psychopaths have a more severe form of ASPD, which limits their ability to experience emotions, empathy, or remorse. Sociopaths have a more normal range of emotions.
Self-control: Psychopaths may have more self-control and be more calculating than sociopaths.
Social skills: Psychopaths may be better able to blend into society than sociopaths.
Violence: Psychopaths are more prone to violence because of their lack of empathy and remorse.
Do a video on Changelings since they share overlap in abilities with Doppelgangers.
I incorporated a doppelganger into my session this week after watching this video and it made the current adventure so much more interesting and mysterious. I love these videos so much
Absolutely terryfing if you make one snatch your player without telling them, and than they suddenly lose control when the monster decides to strike. Altough many players hate taking away their agancy like that, but if you as a DM can do taht it works great. I love well utilized doppelgangers, like in bg3
The trick is to bring the player into the deception. Talk to one you think can handle the metagaming aspect, see if they'd be interested in running the con, and then have them run fake-them. How the characters find out is up to you, but let them behind the curtain from time to time.
It's obviously important to have players that are cool with the idea of being tricked by one of their own, but it can work great if you do it well.
Thank you Mr. Rexx for spelling Doppelganger correctly (unlike early versions of D&D). Another Fun Fact: In AD&D ed.1 the skin of a doppelganger is used as an ingredient in delusion potions.
Doppelgänger would be correct spelling
@@robertheitmann8821in German, yes, however there is no umlaut in English.
Therefore it is not the correct spelling.
I remember the very first time I learned about these things. Escflowna was the show.
I swear to God no lie I was just thinking not 30 minutes ago how I wish that Mr Rhexx would release another video.
Get upstairs, load UA-cam: WOOP THERE'T IS!!
I’m running a campaign with a doppelgänger experiment spliced with a mimic. It’s extremely fun to have my 6 players hunt for this thing.😅
in waterdeep is another group of doppelgänger without a Mindflayer
Spoilers ahead !:
from the fandom: "Bonnie led a gang of five doppelgängers in Waterdeep in 1491 DR. A year later, she had become the barmaid at the famous Yawning Portal tavern." Bonnie is a NPC from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and she too is a doppelgänger, she even has connections to the harpers because one of them knows her secret and wants the help them
Astarion: "It's not enough we have a gallery of villains to look out for, but now we could be infiltrated by a shapechanger? I can't even tell if any of you are acting strange because you've been replaced or because this group is full of weirdos!"
Can you do Harpies next?
Is vtt animations really boosted the channel godamn good job
I have been debating about using this creature on my party and this came in as if telling me to do so. So thank you kindly for this information
I always look forward to a new video drop from you - but especially now, because I'm currently writing a story about a Doppelganger, so this is super helpful!
I found you from the DC20 one shot you did with The Dungeon coach! I love this system and am for sure swapping to it. I loved your dwarf haha.
Thanks MrRhexx! Appreciate all your content!
Hell yeah. Doppelgangers are dope.
As a doppelganger player using the changling race, this is very insightful
day 2 os whishing for a video about psionics: how it works exactly? how it differs from magic?Does it affects the Weave whatsoever? and many more questions and enlightment I so seek about a forgotten and apparently filled with many mixed information in the lore that only may almighty MrRhexx elucidate.
I love doppelgangers. I use them in most of my games, but I change the lore up a lot. I usually have them be chill outsiders who form small groups that stay hidden, usually good in alignment. I have them freely transform rather than just look like someone, so they can just decide to look a certain way because they feel like it. In one game, the party is helping them find one of their kin who has been kidnapped, with the noble who captured them trying to expose them to the city.
That sounds closer to a changeling than a doppelganger
This makes BG3 so much more interesting
BG1 had far more doppelganger action. There was practically a whole guild working for the Iron Throne to sink competitors.
Also, the dungeon called Durlag's Tower was a dwarven clanhold that got infiltrated by doppelgangers. Durlag killed them while they were disguised as his family. It drove him completely around the bend.
They've been a favorite of mine ever since.
Honestly this, to me, made the doppelgangers in BG3 seem so extremely lacking in comparison.
Most of the time they're just random thugs that aren't particularly difficult in a fight and occasionally explode into much uglier versions of themselves.
The few that are more than basic thugs are portrayed as extremely impulsive for no reason other than shock value, even to their own detriment, when they should be far more methodical and insidious. Like The clown that just randomly decided to undo who knows how many days or weeks of work and expose their entire operation in the middle of a public venue. Literally anything other than exactly what they did would have been more in line with how it sounds doppelgangers would typically behave
The mind reading didn't even play into it at all that I can recall, and Orin in particular was too heavy handed and chaotic to be truly effective in her role (which Gortash at least seems aware of)
They also for some reason felt the need to make other characters dumber to try and promote her energy (a table full of trained Drow in a hostile environment that grew up in a civilization where assassination attempts are a daily activity somehow all sit by idly when some lunatic they just met starts skipping down the table slitting their throats
They're probably lucky they died in Orin's hands compared to what Lolth would have done to them for that obscene level of absolute incompetence)
They also really missed the mark rushing the kidnapping so early in act 3 and not having Orin focus on the character the Tav has the highest relationship with.
It would likely have been more complicated coding but when it's one of the biggest enemies in the game that seems like it should be where you'd want to invest
Currently most people approach it with an attitude of "well as long as she takes Halsin or the NPC idc, they can chill and I'll deal with her at a point that actually makes sense in the timeline)
All in all I wish they'd included fewer of the things but had them be closer to the lore shown in this video. It truly would have made them a more compelling enemy imo
@@Xenolithial Orin isn't a doppelganger tho, isn't she? I think she's a changeling.
Yeah, she's just a changeling.
Still spooky though.
@@Sasorilolo
@@Sasorilolo This is a good point, I forgot she was referred to as a changeling.
I looked it up and it seems that rarely changelings are considered a seperate race entirely, but for the vast majority of situations it seems they are the hybrid children of a doppelganger and a human female
Which gets even more confusing because I'm pretty sure Orin's father isn't a doppelganger or a changeling and her mother is human
The main differences seem to be changelings are basically weaker overall, not as good at shape shifting, and can't read minds
Which overall would imply Orin should have been even more dedicated to stalking her prey but does partly explain why she was generally bad at impersonating them and gave up the ruses so quickly
The others I'm pretty sure were listed as doppels though? Or maybe they were changelings too, not sure now
In my first campaign one of my players was playing a gypsy style rock gnome named Snershe Orebrander.
Her father.. was a doppelganger. Emphasis on the "was".
So there was this guy that the doppelganger (I'm going to shorten it to DG from now on) was casing. A rock gnome man who was deeply in love with this gypsy gnome. Until one day, he fell off a ledge in the woods while foraging. The DG approached to see if anything useful was left, at which point the gnome awoke only for a moment, grabbing the DG's wrist, triggering the mind-reading, filling the DG's mind with the gnomes last thoughts: that he never got to confess to the girl.
This... *Infected* the DG with this infatuation with this gnome girl...
It.. it began wondering more about its purpose... Until eventually, the girl almost caught him. In panic it transformed into the form of the gnome man who had died in front of him.
They talked.. and the DG had to improvise. Since the gnome whose form he donned had died before he could learn anything from him.. it had to improvise...
Essentially. It began to no longer be able to separate the inflicted affection for the girl from his own.
Eventually, wanting to live his life in the bright world she saw, not wanting to be a part of the Doppelganger world any longer.. he made a choice.
He... Became.. real.
He sought to make himself a real gnome sorry he could be with her. And he succeeded.
Taking the name: Alifor Trewliv
A lie.. for true love.
Great to see it's not exactly a conon adjacent tale lmao
You can see your passion in your videos. Hope for continued success
Hail Gygax
Memories of trying to work a doppleganger out of the savage species splatbook in 3.5 just unearthed.
I loved dungeon meshi’s doppelganger was discovered because “I would’ve thought after what we went through Marcille would’ve been more careful…” and real Marcille wasn’t 🤣
love the new mini stories at the start
The influence of mindflayers on dopplegangers forming groups makes Baldurs gate 3 Bhall cult suprisingly lore accurate with how many doupplegangers they enploy
Zone of Truth or Detect Thoughts is basically a surefire way to out a Doppelganger.
Rhexx your back!
Please Do a video on vampires, or famous vampires in the forgotten realms. Love your content man! Keep up the awesome work.
I love your Baldur's Gate video, please do a long one on Waterdeep!
Because of a doppelgänger’s mind reading a good way to find one is group interrogations. Each person is expecting them to act differently than the other, so it gets confused and doesn’t know who’s mind is the most accurate
I love your videos
Though I do need to take issue with the claim Dopplegangers never cooperate or form organizations with other dopplegangers.
Ed Greenwood pointed out dopplegangers in the Forgotten Realms cooperate all the time to help maintain thier secrets
In Eberron Dopplegangers are a large part of the Cabinet of Faces along with their changling kin.
And in Raveloft, Sodo became a Dark Lord of Paridon because he impersonated and killed Doppleganger elders to become their leader.
And no mind flayers are involved in any of those
Plus I am pretty sure there's lore that says Dopplegangers were created by the Batrachi. At least in Faerun
I'd love a video explaining spell components, esp. material components--like fireball is a ball of guano and sulfur (which were used in gunpowder)...but how does the weave consume a Black Onyx gem at least 25 gp per hit die to Animate Undead? And like illusion magic needs fleece--to pull the wool over one's eyes--so the weave consumes the physical object of a pun and give you it's magic as a thanks for the laugh?
ive been looking forward to a video on the quintessential shapeshifters!
I know i'l latge to the video but the fact that SO MANY of those art are actually piece about Changeling XD
Woudl love video about changeling, and especially all the weird and uncertain ways they relate to doppels
Hey, do you plan on talking about other kinds of dragons, like the Yellow dragons, Brown dragons, Mercury dragons, etc?
I know they dont exist in 5th edition but I still would like to see videos about them
Dungeon dad
I love these videos! I'm definitely going to be using this concept
So from what I can gather, the best thing that can happen to a kingdom with a good ruler is that their king has their brain eaten by a greater doppleganger so they have the same ruler, but with mind reading abilities on top? x)
Thanks for the lore! ^^
During an Icewind Dale campaign I played in, one of the party members had a doppleganger with a grudge against him that became his nemesis. I was so excited to deal with them as a group but we ended up not being able to confront them because we killed Auril way earlier than we should have and everyone who had beef with us pissed themselves and left the area when they heard the news
The animations are great in the video
Funny intro to watch after recently watching Ed Greenwood say they would definitely not try to be kings or something too high up because it would draw too many eyes.
I love using doppelgängers
A crime boss in my campaign uses them to fake his movements and spy on his enemies
The Party has to be extra cautious when dealing with him
I'm a bit surprised the lawful neutral version of the dopples didn't get mentioned
A silver knife! Shapechangers are vulnerable to silver
One additional Realms specific bit of lore is that they were allegedly created by the batrachi somewhere around 30,000 years ago... So they have been around for a long time. Given that humans and even elves were not a factor at that time, it raises the question of who were their usual targets for assassinations and infiltrations.
Dude this video was f...king amazing
It sounds like the spell Zone of Truth will be a good way to determine who the real person is and who the imposter is. Or just remember that the one who is panicking about the situation is the actual person.
Druids use the magic already inherent in nature, and paladins get their spells and powers from their devotion to their oath; a Doppelgänger would know this upon devouring the person's mind; Clerics and Warlocks are some of the only ones that would be unable to be replicated, as Druids and Paladins could be emulated.
Not really you said yourself with Paladins is about the devotion you have to belive and dedicate yourself to your oath, your feelings have to genuine and you have to follow your oath tenets with all your heart, that's like the difference between pretending to be in love and actually being in love.
Also druids are a complicated matter the specifics of how their powers work are usually vague
@@DeliciaDamaria What part of “they even take on their alignment and can even perform psionic spellcasting” did you not comprehend; if they can perform something as difficult as psionic spellcasting, then daily rituals and living by a strict set of tenets is nothing for them; be they Druidic or Devotional in nature, they know all the tasks involved in performing the prerequisites. If the Greater Doppelgänger acts against the alignment of the one they transform into, it can cause them to forcibly revert their form; that means a Lawful Good Paladin of Helm that has been replaced would continue to act as a Lawful Good Paladin of Helm, complete with protecting people, and healing people, and being Lawful Good.
Your Anti-Duidic Spellcasting argument is the same as saying that non-Wiccans are incapable of doing Wiccan magic, even if they follow all the same steps; Wiccan is nature magic, as is Druidic magic; both use the inherent magic of their surroundings to induce the effects they are generating, that magic has no alignment, nor does it discriminate against who is casting it; in fact, the Arcane Weave of Mystra/Mystral has more inherent discriminatory limitations than the natural magic of the world; that's why Mythals made using Soul Magic are so powerful, they are inherently categorized as Nature Magic, making them beyond the scope of Mystra's Portfolio (it's specifically in Io's portfolio).
So, yeah, only clerics and warlocks would really be the only ones that are incapable of getting their powers copied, unless by some chance that Greater Doppelgänger happened to form that same bond themselves with those beings granting that power. The Druid's magic doesn't discern nor discriminate between who is the one influencing it, and Paladins manifest their magic based upon their belief and devotion, not their worship; because the Paladin magic comes from within.
Any way we could get a changeling video too? I always wanted to know the difference between them and doppelgangers better
you know your going to have to cover changelings next
Ed Greenwood has both stated and also written in an official Forgotten Realms book that there are doppelgänger kingdoms and that the doppelgängers call themselves by another name; the Shallar.
It’s also stated the Creator race known as the Batrachi created them or that doppelgängers descend from them.
MrRhexx can we look forward to some videos in the Planescape setting, i saw some content on Factol's and it was quite interesting would love to see some content from you on this setting, cheers!
Perhaps the reason Doppelgangers only impregnate humanoid women is that it is intended as an extra layer of protection for their young? Mothers can be viciously protective of their children, _especially_ during infancy. Additionally, having a verified non-doppelganger parent could help avoid scrutiny being directed at the child.
It is also reasonable to assume that they _are_ capable of becoming pregnant, but avoid doing so as it would leave them 1: Vulnerable and/or 2: Locked into a specific form. Perhaps the act of shape-shifting could be a potential hazard to the fetus?
Aside from this, it could be a reference to myths about the changeling?
Doppelgangers see us in a way that we see Comicon goers 23:16
If a greater doppelganger replaces someone, can he experience character growth or development? can they change their alignment with time or are they essentially trapped playing a role?
I had a really wacky experience with a crazy wizard and a doppelganger, a couple of years ago. Our party has partially been replaced with doppelgangers, my character included, and when it came time for the DG to replace the wizard, well, he just out-crazyed them, for lack of a better term.
He, a level 17 or 18 Transmutation wizard, true polymorphed himself into a DG. I have no idea if you can by the rules, but it was hilarious. He, the player, spent a few minutes grandstanding and then threw a soul jar at the DG, slit his own throat, then possessed the DG. He had a scroll of true polymorph, several of them, turned his new DG body back into himself, and just carried on.
That happened, and we, both in and out of character, sort of just agreed that that happened, and carried on with the quest. The DM ruled that our wizard freaked out the DGs so much they gave up on him and just replaced the rest of us instead. The player never explained why he did that, and no one really wanted to ask.
0:16
My Stablehand ass, cleaning the stalls rigth now:
HUH!?
Now I can imagine a hilarious scenario of a doppelgänger replacing a person whose house has been replaced by a horde mimic.
Audio book please, you have an amazing voice
Yes, new video! Doppelgangers are one of my favourite monsters.
Ah rhexx there's a chapter in one of the manuals that states a doppelganger can get pregnant but loses shapeshift ability when they do. And no I'm not talking about the changling exerpt it's in the chapter referencing dread doppelganger.
"I wanna be like you-hoo-hoo
I wanna walk like you
Talk like you..."
Would it be okay if we can do a video about the changeling race MrRhexx?
I was wondering why he kept using Changling art.
Sadly, changelings are very much an Eberon thing and Mr. Rhexx pretty much just does Forgotten Realms.
@@daviddaugherty2816Dang it.
I was literally thinking about a MrRhexx video about Doppelgängers and what do you know?
Could you make a video about Mephistopheles and Hellfire? Hellfire specifically but also Mephistophelean science seems gravely underrepresented in lore entries throughout the D&D universe
Doppelgangers would make for an excellent Player character. Just imagine how that changes the interactions with the world around you! for instance if a horde of Ogres is approaching the town how would you persuade the townspeople or people in charge to listen as a doppelganger vs normally.
Gotta say, a lot of changeling pictures were used when, as far as I can tell, there's a huge debate even lore wise [and frankly constantly changing, thanks WoTC] if changelings were created first or second or even related to them at all, especially now that changelings are considered to be fey. Even what I found in the 5e Eberron setting does the classic trope of "no, daddy god made ME first! no, daddy god made ME first!"
I'd love a game about an invasion of sorts where every powerful person in a town is a doppelganger and the the doppelganger don't realise it themselves si the party starts working with them while against them and it's just a whole mess of misdirection and confusion on who is who
Man I miss the Skyrim loreplay videos or just your elder scrolls content in general
You can 'milk' the blood of a captured Doppelganger, and combined with the essence of other creatures to mutate a subject INTO that creature. This happened in an official magazine adventure.
There's a doppelganger encounter in Horde of the Dragon Queen of twin sisters trying to kill one of the party members or the people they are escorting. My sorcerer actually convinced one to leave its murdery life behind to start a new one and they fell in love.
Though they stayed in Waterdeep which makes what I learned here about it make me go... *Yikes.*
They are gonna have a kid which does make wonder on how nature vs nurture is a case here.
Doppelganger children live up to puberty smacks them that they are not what they thought they were and their parent was the one to cause that. That such person that has no identity of their own. Probably a cycle of self-hatred and evil is constantly repeated. And god only knows what happens to the other parent. Do they get so horrified they disown the kid? Do some get spared of this fate and get accepted?
But with my sorcerer and his wife, they know what to expect and prepare their kids for such a talk. Their kids will always be loved no matter what happens.
Is that why they take peoples identity so they can have one? DO they get a chance to make a whole new persona for themselves? Is it hard to think of one?
I constantly think about how their future would go. She lives happily in Waterdeep but what happens when another doppelganger meets her? Is it hostile because how dare she have a stable life? Does she try to help said doppelganger into having one?
Our dm never even explained the identity of the first form we meet her in so does that person come back for revenge???
Doppelgangers offer SO MUCH for story potential about self identity, its crazy cool
Hi love your videos. I noticed A lot of the artwork you used for doppelgängers are actually that of changlings. I know they are similar but do they separate from the same species? Many shapeshifters all have the same weaknesses so it would stand to reason.
15:55 Or a 2nd level drow mage from DnD5e starter adventure, who have at least two of this creatures working for him for unknown reason.
Yes always the best when new video comes out
I'd love a deep dive into what they don't tell us about Mephistopheles
Love this creature my favorite ❤❤❤