Fantasy Game - Shapeshifting familiar/animal companion
Hello Savages,
I am going to be running a SWADE fantasy game in the near future. This will be my group's first Savage Worlds game. I have spent a decent amount of time learning the rules and figuring out what setting rules, ABs, etc I want to use for the setting. I am now working with my players to help them figure out character concepts. One player is very interested in the idea of a shapeshifting companion of some sort. He mentioned daemons from His Dark Materials as an inspiration, though I think he'd also be interested in something less animal-focused.
Basically, I am looking for a way to have the player have a companion that can cast shapechange on itself at least a few times a day (at will may be overpowered). I am not necessarily concerned about the player exploiting something unbalanced, he tends to be pretty group-focused and wouldn't want to outshine the other players. Worst case scenario, if I talked to him and told him that I thought the way he was using the companion was a problem, I have total confidence he would be open to changing things.
I've looked through the Fantasy Companion and the core rules, as well as Cyril Ronseaux's Companions Add-On (big fan of his fantasy add-ons generally, especially the combat one), but I am not seeing anything that feels quite right. The Fantasy Companion has the Familiar edge, which is a good start, but as far as I can tell there isn't really a way to have a creature with supernatural abilities of its own. The player could cast powers on the familiar, but shapechange specifically is self-only unless you have epic modifiers.
Ronseaux's Add-On definitely offers a framework to fulfill this idea, but frankly it offers so many choices and options that I am worried about it being a bit overwhelming, and maybe a lot for me and the player to keep track of. Still, that is currently the lead contender.
If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I'm open to buying additional PDFs if there is something that sounds good for this idea. Thank you for your time.