Okay, at a cost of 18/36/72, not a lot of people are going to consider Alternate Forms a viable option for a character, and considering those same points on something other is so much more cost-effective, I doubt anyone’s ever taken that power seriously… until now.
First of all, let’s scrap the power entirely, and build it a bit more properly. So, what is our goal? To create a hero that can duplicate any animal ability, and truth be told, there’s not a lot of animal like abilities… Superior stats, flying, breathing under water, different sizes… We’re probably not looking into a fire-breathing dragon at this point, but that should be easy to add on as you advance later, if that is a goal. So, rather than use a power that can do all these things, let’s try the reverse… let’s make all the powers, and attach them to a single power (or in our case, we’ll just put a handful of usefuls in a single power).
First, the shapeshift. That’s easy enough. Base 2 (Self), +2 Duration, +4 Variable, -1 If/Then (limited to Variable), -1 If/Then Animal forms only, -3 Self Only. So our first useful only costs 3/6/12.
Now, our goal is to try and minimize costs of additional Usefuls to a 1/2/4. That’s actually rather easy (since -3 Self Only is so cost effective).
Fly? Base 2 (Speed), +2 Duration, -3 Self Only, -1 If/Then: Only in a winged form (could also use Obvious here). Gotta get that cost up to 1, so let’s add a Booster, which gives us a decent speed at a low pool.
Size Shift? 2 Usefuls (Self), +2 Duration, -3 Self Only, -1 If/Then: Only appropriate animal type (Could also use Obvious here). And again, let’s use the more cost effective Booster in place of a greater dice pool since we have a current cost of 0, to bring it up to 1. That should let you go from Elephant to house cat on just 2 die.
Immunity? Base of 2 (Self), +2 Duration, -3 Self Only, +4 Variable Effect, -1 If/Then (Limited Variable Effect), -1 If/Then (requires correct adaption, gills for breathing underwater, etc)… bit more expensive at 3/6/12…
End result: 9/18/36. Half the costs, and on 2HD, you can easily shift into damn near anything, not requiring the much more massive pool of Alternate Forms you would need to do the same. 50mph when you build wings on, 2′ in height (large house cat, medium sized dog) to 16′ and over 3k kilos, for a small elephant. With 1 additional die, (2hd,1d), you could get to be the largest land animal in the world.
Then, just take your physicals (Body, Coord, and Sense) and maybe Command (ignore pain is useful) to 6 the old fashion way. In our attached example, we also added Light Armour (Elephant/Alligator/Rhino skin), attached to Miracle of shapeshifting, for a very low 2/4/8 cost. You don’t want your armor as part of the shapeshifting, as that will be ineffective (since you want this expensive power to use a small pool).
But this also gives you another option, which our player uses often… merging animal forms. Her favorite is a Pegasus, or a Winged Lion!
So, where is the “Attacks”? She doesn’t need it. Attacks is if the form is the action that attacks… it’s not the form that attacks, it’s her. So, she has a form, but no additional damage from it. Instead, she uses Brawling to make attacks… admittedly, she could (and later did) take Hyper Brawling, attached to her Shapeshift, that let her add more damage per hit. (Deadly+2 was offeset completely by Attached).
Meet Chimeress.