I'm not sure what brought this on this morning but while getting ready for my day I recalled a few years back when I had tried to convince one of my coworkers to GM a D&D game for us, to which he replied, "I'll only do it if you play a transgendered dwarf who believes he is an elf.." to which I replied, "okay, I'll name him after you!" Now as crazy as that idea was, (and in case you're wondering the game never even made it past that initial joke, no planning ever even took place, not even character creation) I realized this morning the roleplaying implications of something like that, and came up with a couple other ideas that are less weird but would still be interesting to play with and would require some good and interesting roleplaying on the part of the player.

This first one if a bit of a Beauty and the Beast inspired idea that I feel would be extremely interesting. Enter a charismatic scoundrel, part rogue, part bard, all ego. Charisma through the roof, and used to getting his way and getting away with everything using his silvered words and good looks. I'm sure we all know the type...
Well one day this particular scoundrel, let's call him Jack for simplicity, sneaks into a gypsy camp and steals a trinket of some sort, not even a magic item, just something that looks valuable and easy to fence for a few extra coins in his pocket. He gets in and out unhindered and even manages to find a fence and sell his ill-gotten goods and pocket a few coins. Feeling rather good about himself he heads to the local tavern, wooing a young, naive barmaid or two and gets himself set up in a room for the night for a little adult fun.
Now most of us know the stories of gypsy curses and how foolish it is to steal from one, so I'm sure you can see where this is going now. The next morning Jack is awoken to the barmaid he seduced screaming at the top of her lungs and fleeing the room. Puzzled he awakes and catches a glance of himself in the mirror over the wash basin. His chiseled features have been replaced with the furry hyena-like features of a gnoll and his dulcet singing voice replaced with the gutteral snarls of a gnoll. (mechanics wise it'd be up to the GM to determine if the transformation effects his stats, though I personally would assume a major hit to his charisma and bard song abilities. Maybe even be a little harsh on poor Jack and deem his armor no longer fits the new body, unless he already had magic armor of course)
So now Gnoll-Jack has to find his way out of the inn without being murdered by would-be monster slayers thinking he's part of some scouting/raiding team of gnolls, re-acquire the stolen item, and locate the gypsy caravan that has already moved on in order to return what he stole and hopefully break the curse. Of course, depending on the Player, Jack may find his mind snapped by the transformation all together and eventually adapt and learn to live with being a gnoll and not even bother undoing the change at all.

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Another similar idea I had draws influence from The Frog Prince. The king is dying, his eldest son is next in line to take the throne but his little brother wants to rule instead, so hires a witch, alchemist, wizard, whatever to hex, poison, enchant, his older brother into a Boggard, Kuo-toa, or even something as simple as a Goblin or Kobold, and has his brother run out of the kingdom claiming he's either attempting to kill the king, or perhaps even framing him for the death of the king.
Now this would work as an NPC adventure hook, the "Frog Prince" could approach the PCs and try to convince them of what has happended and enlist their aid in returning him to his former self and reclaiming the kingdom from his corrupt brother. OR Froggy could even be a PC and have to enlist other PCs to help him, one (or all) of which could possibly even be loyal subjects of his royal Froginess and seek to return him to the throne and expose the younger brother for what he has done.

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Either way, with characters like these the player (or players) would have to rely on tactics ans strategies that may be different from their norm, Jack would have to learn he can no longer talk his way out of everything and may have to start favoring brute force and/or rely more on stealth and shadows than his mouth. Froggy may well end up having to hire or rely on types he may previously have felt below him because no one else would believe him, and maybe even the seedy types don't either but are only in it for the promise of reward.

Thoughts, opinions, other ideas that fall along the same basic character concept? All are welcome!

both stories sound really intriguing. you could combine them and have several inter laying plot twists or a "from the evil guy perspective".

they'd be fun for a rp campaign with the alternate players being the cohorts he enlists to help him, of course they'd have their own baggage and agenda's.

Would be interesting to see a small party go forth in which each was the main character of their own story like this.

*evaporates*