Doppelgänger

Doppelgängers (二重の影) are a race of shapeshifters from YGGDRASIL.

Types of Doppelgängers

 * Doppelgänger: In terms of appearance, a doppelgänger has three fingers on each hand.


 * Greater Doppelgänger: Unlike a doppelgänger, a greater doppelgänger has four fingers on each hand.

Appearance
Distinguishing a doppelgänger from a real person is difficult due to their shapeshifting abilities, but the original appearance of those from YGGDRASIL seems to be humanoid with thin claw-like hands. However, their faces resemble that of an egg with three holes in the place of its mouth and eyes.

Abilities
Doppelgängers are looked upon as masters of shapeshifting. With the right skill, doppelgängers are capable of transforming their bodies to take on any form and skill if they wish. When taking on a form different from their original, doppelgängers could only copy up to level 40 abilities at most. Still, they were weaker even without the transformation ability. Nonetheless, the doppelgängers' more potent abilities was how it could freely make use of karma-restricted gear. That said, it could not use magic items above legacy-class.

When a Doppelgänger impersonated someone, people closer to the target would find it more difficult to see through their disguise. That was because they used a form of telepathy during their shapeshifting to read the surface thoughts of the people they were speaking to and those around them in order to extract information related to the target they were impersonating and then apply it to their impersonation act. According to Ainz, their ability is treated as some sort of psychic attack on a person.

Doppelgangers could even copy the clothing and equipment of their targets if they wanted to. However, they could only duplicate appearances and not the equipment’s abilities.

In the Web Novel, by raising the level of the Doppelgänger race, it was possible to access more forms to transform into. However, if the character just invested one racial level for Doppelgänger, then that person will only have two forms like Narberal Gamma.

Known Doppelgängers

 * Narberal Gamma
 * Pandora's Actor
 * Doppel-Caspond

Trivia

 * Pandora's Actor is the only known male doppelgänger introduced in the Overlord series.
 * Narberal Gamma is the only known female doppelgänger introduced in the Overlord series.
 * Incidentally, doppelgängers would most likely out themselves when facing multiple people at once, because each of them would have a different impression of the target.
 * Let alone doppelgängers, being shapeshifters, there are ones among demons like Demiurge who has a job class dedicated to it.
 * In YGGDRASIL, there is a spell that prevents doppelgãngers from transforming for a period of time.
 * While it is unclear if doppelgängers exist in the New World, however, there is a folk tale in the Re-Estize Kingdom of a monster that wore the skins of those it impersonated. The tale was used by mothers to scare their children when they were being restless at night. However, most adventurers agree that no such monster actually existed.
 * In Overlord: The Undead Oh!, Mare Bello Fiore read in literature people die when they meet their doppelgängers, making him wonder if they have a curse skill. Narberal Gamma clarified that doppelgängers don't have such an ability, but depending on the circumstances doppelgängers will remove the target they are impersonating.