Let’s Play D&D With Transformers’ Mirage
This week we’re transforming and rolling out when we figure out how to play our next D&D adventure with Mirage of the Transformers.
A new fight against Unicron in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is here and Mirage has quickly become a favorite among viewers. Is this due to the character’s natural charisma, Pete Davidson’s almost universal palatableness, or a secret third thing? I’m not sure myself. But I do know that kids of the 80s and 90s may enjoy having a little more of that Saturday morning cartoon magic rolled into their next D&D campaign, so let’s do that by playing D&D with…
Mariage
Transformers will always be weird to add to a D&D setting. They’re definitely one of those franchises that are probably better used in another tabletop game. In fact, Renegade Game Studios has an actual Transformers RPG core book. And if you’re looking to utilize that robot schtick without all of the Transformers lore, any number of games would probably give you more freedom to make a giant transforming robot than a fantasy setting like D&D. But the assignment is playing D&D with this character so that’s what we’re going to do.
With that out of the way, the strangeness of the Transformers for this setting gives us a lot of freedom and many different directions to go in. None of them are going to be exactly right, so let’s just pick one of the many slightly wrong paths and make it as fun as possible.
Seeing as the Transformers are big ‘ol robot guys in disguise, I thought this would be the perfect time to make a Warforged character. They aren’t huge with a medium build, but they likely tower over most average-height humans. And their metal bodies give them fun advantages like a semi-conscious rest state and the ability to fuse your armor to you semi-permanently so it can’t be stolen.
But what’s the right class for Mirage? He’s a bit more of the wise-cracking fun-guy in the Rise of the Beasts team, but at his core, he’s an Autobot, and the Autobots are noble defenders, which makes him a Paladin in my book.
I was tempted to make him something like a simple fighter, or even a Druid with their Wildshape ability instead. But I can’t see a way to pitch Wildshaping into a Porsche 911 to even the coolest of DMs.
Paladin does come with some not-very-Mirage abilities. But I’m happy to chalk those up to added benefits and move on. After all, none of these are going to be spot-on and I’m sure any Autobot would be happy for the ability to heal one of their companions. And, Paladin gives Mirage the ability to find a steed. Why does he need a steed you ask? Because he’s not going to be turning into a car and driving off on his own. The steed is his “roll out.”
Unfortunately, this left out some very Mirage-like abilities like…. y’know… mirages. For this, I gave him the feat Magic Initiate so we could borrow two cantrips and a spell from another spell list. In this case, I took Prestidigitation, Minor Illusion, and Disguise Self from the Wizard list. Now he can make illusions a hologram and even use them to disguise himself. And like a hologram, these illusions wouldn’t hold up to physical inspection.
Have you seen Transformers: Rise of the Beasts yet? How would you make Mirage for a D&D setting? What movie, show, comic, or game should I make a character from next week? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
