Changelings

Shapeshifters are truly perplexing creatures. They assume the form of their enemy before entering combat, mimicing all their strengths and weaknesses. In their natural form, they utilize their large maws and sharp, dagger-like teeth in order to bite their opponents, laughing maniacally all the while. Upon death, Changelings disintegrate into nothing. The schooled adventurer should have no problem dispatching these creatures.

Changelings can be encountered everywhere on the world of Pagan.

Lore
''Changelings are, indeed, a curious species. As they are shapeshifters, it is difficult to describe their true form. However, there is one shape that is apparently available to all changelings - or at least in all of those encountered thus far. In that form, they appear much like short, disfigured and disproportioned men. The changelings' movements seem jerky and erratic, yet the creatures seem to be in control of their actions.''

''In battle, the changeling assumes the shapes of its opponent or flora! In these forms, the changeling has the strengths and abilities of these other creatures, including any toxins they might be able to employ. In what must be assumed is its natural form, the changeling bounces about the area and then suddenly leaps at its opponent with it huge tooth-filled maw opened widely. No one has had the opportunity to learn exactly what it is that allows a changeling to shapeshift or what makes it act as it does, for it fights viciously to the death. Moreover, the creature disappears when it dies, making study impossible.''

-from "The Chronicle of Pagan", Ultima VIII