Doppler

Doppler

Species	Relicts
DLC	Base game
Oil	Relict Oil
Location	Novigrad Skellige

The Doppler is a Relict that can take the form of any humanoid or animal it likes. Dopplers live in Novigrad, hidden behind borrowed faces. One is hunted in a level 13 witcher contract, so the species turns up early in the game.

Lore

Dopplers are also known as vexlings or changelings. Their change of shape is no illusion that a simple spell can break. It is a true and complete transformation.

That makes a Doppler very hard to find. It gives off the same aura as the being whose form it has taken. No protective amulet and no witcher medallion will warn of its presence.

Their sharp minds and cunning would make Dopplers perfect assassins or thieves. Nature gave them generous, timid hearts instead. They avoid bloodshed at all costs.

A postmaster once told a customer that a look-alike brother had already collected the parcel. The customer turned and ran off at once.

Weaknesses

Coat the blade with Relict Oil before cornering a Doppler. A Doppler forced to fight copies its foe and fights as a mirror image. The duel is close, so be patient. Bait the Doppler into attacking, then counter and punish the opening.

Contracts and Quests

Quest	Quest Giver	Location	Reward
Contract: An Elusive Thief	Notice board	Hierarch Square, Novigrad	Mountain Folk Boots

A Doppler is the target of Contract: An Elusive Thief, a level 13 contract in Novigrad. The notice hangs on the board in Hierarch Square. Sylvester, a merchant, wants a thieving imp caught, because it keeps stealing wares from the stalls of the merchants' guild. The trail leads to a house, where a letter reveals that the imp is really a Doppler. A scent of perfume then leads to the shapeshifter, which flees and must be chased down.

Once beaten, the Doppler can be spared or killed. A spared Doppler pays in coin and hands over the Diagram: Gnomish Gwyhyr, and Sylvester then pays a smaller reward. A killed Doppler drops a pair of Mountain Folk Boots.