Multiform Balance

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You've created a cool Henshin Hero—your mentor character has gotten a few young heroes with a proper demeanor, and chosen the best one to bear the Transformation Trinket. But you want to spice it up a bit. You could start him/her out in one form and have him/her "graduate" to a Super Mode later—maybe even stick in a Mid-Season Upgrade—but you want a little extra kick from the start.

Then it hits you. Give him/her multiple forms from day one! That's the ticket. But you'll need to make it so that one isn't an obvious Super Mode he should be using by default.

No worries. Apply a little Multiform Balance.

Multiform Balance occurs when creators take care to make each multiple form of a Shape Shifter, such as a Henshin Hero, a Swiss Army Hero or a Morph Weapon-type Swiss Army Weapon, useful in its own way. The easiest way to do this is to make each one suited for a certain tactical situation or to use certain tactics. For example a werewolf doing a Partial Transformation to Wolf Man may not be able to talk, but can still use weapons and has greater strength than a man, but isn't as fast as a wolf.

In essence, it's applying Competitive Balance between each of the character (or weapon)'s forms. In fact, the character types laid out in Competitive Balance or other power balancing tropes can be quite useful in describing the character's forms.

May overlapse with Evolution Power-Up, especially if new forms were gain/discover as the plot demand, although Multiform Balance can switch back and forth. When Humongous Mecha use this trope, it's usually done with Mecha Expansion Pack or Transforming Mecha.

Examples of Multiform Balance include:

Anime and Manga

Live-Action TV

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

Tabletop Games

  • Werewolf: The Forsaken. Each of a Uratha's five forms has its uses and weaknesses.
    • The Hishu (human) form is most likely to pass among mortals and best suited for social dealings.
    • The Dalu (wolf-man) form allows added strength while retaining human form, but still pings Lunacy a little.
    • The Gauru (monster two-legged wolf) form is the strongest, most damaging form, but can only be used for a limited time and is locked in a state of rage that makes any action but attacking something a failure.
    • The Urshul (dire wolf) form is fastest of all and quite strong, but will still ping Lunacy heavily.
    • The Urhan (wolf) form will blend in most easily in nature and could maybe pass for a wolfdog in urban environments.

Video Games

Web Comics

  • The Were race in Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures. They have three forms, human, normal and 'primal' (animal), which basically form a Sliding Scale of Magicalness. As humans, they're immune to magic; in their normal form, they're Muggles with some minor bonuses; and as animals, their magical power is increased.

Western Animation

  • Ben 10 subverts this in the first season (and hints of it remain in the newer seasons). The first season started things off with ten aliens, each with different super powers, but as the original series came to a close, Ben had access to even more aliens. But considering Ben is ten years-old and not a tactical hero, he almost always used Fourarms. How well this worked out for him depended on how many times he's transformed that day.


  1. ↑ Excels at underwater combat and has some heightened defense, but is generally not as combat-ready as other forms.
  2. ↑ The last three are really Evolution Power-Up representing how Tiga Dark is slowly purging away darkness from himself.
  3. ↑ Focus on healing and purification
  4. ↑ its stats are all decent and equal; it's called Speed Forme because the speed stat is still the highest
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