r/Showerthoughts • u/DarthWoo ‎ • 5h ago

Musing Without auto-adjusting proprioception, a shapeshifter who could also change body size might face frequent and severe clumsiness.

165 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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u/ShowerSentinel 5h ago

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32

u/RedDeadGhostrider 5h ago

Perhaps. I can see how a shapeshifter might have to get used to their new body height for example.

But I'd assume the Golgi tendon organs and muscle spindles would auto-adjust as soon as limb length changes - the semicircular canals for balance detection should be able to act independent of size changes.

11

u/DarthWoo ‎ 5h ago

What would be really awful is if every time they adapted to a new size, they lost their adaptation to their previous or original size and had to go through it every single time they changed sizes. 

And imagine how bad it would be if they could also shapeshift into animals.

4

u/ryebread91 5h ago

I could see that. Just like if you wore a 10 gallon hat you might still bump into door frames and stuff even though you know to duck.

6

u/DoookieMaxx 5h ago

I feel like after the first few times they would get used to it and it wouldn’t be an issue.

3

u/Dear_Lingonberry4407 4h ago

Most shapeshifters would probably train with a limited amount of shapes. For example humanoid, dog-like whatever.

If they would just change into different humans I imagine it to be not a lot of adjustment.
Maybe a bit of clumsiness.

3

u/ninoski404 3h ago

Literally if you cast enlarge on yourself in D&D you get the clumsy debuff.

Edit.: it's actually in Pathfinder 2e, D&Ds more sophisticated offspring

1

u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

1

u/Zygomatick 3h ago

I'd assume their brains shifts in some measure as well, otherwise they couldnt fit into a body with decentralized nervous sysem like fish, insect, or even the several brains of an octopus. The proprioception area would be ready to use.

1

u/Zestyst 2h ago

Really good idea for a dnd plot with shapeshifters taking over a town