Grim Dawn's new Illusionist NPC will let you change your look—for a price

It's the age-old bane of RPGers everywhere: You discover a new piece of armor that's incredibly powerful, perfect for your class—and ugly as sin. It's too good not to wear, but you hesitate anyway because, let's be honest, you look like an absolute clown in that thing. To help alleviate your sartorial shame in the action-RPG Grim Dawn, Crate Entertainment has announced that it will add a new "Service NPC" in the upcoming expansion who will, for a price, make your gear just as pretty as you want it. 

"Using proprietary Illusionist mind-meld technology, any item you discover will automatically have its appearance stored," Crate explained. "In fact, the first time you launch the expansion, every item you have in your inventory and stash will be automatically added to start your collection. That’s a lot of different looks!" 

Illusionists will be available at Devil's Crossing and Fort Ikon in the base game, and in other areas in the expansion, and will not be restricted by level. The usual item level requirements will apply to illusions, however, so first-level characters won't be able to make their gear look like level 75 legendaries. The cost of casting an illusion will scale with your character's level (reverting an item to its original appearance will be free) and transmogrified items can be shared between characters but not traded with other players, although removing the illusion restores their tradeability. And there are some restrictions: items can only be made to look like other equipment of the same class, so you can't make a one-handed sword look like a two-hander, for instance. 

Unfortunately, there's no indication as to when the Illusionist will join the Grim Dawn action, because there's still no word about when the expansion will be out aside from "this year"—hopefully in the first half. The expansion will include a "massive new chapter of Grim Dawn's ongoing tale," plus two new masteries—the Inquisitor was revealed last year, but the second remains a mystery—an increased level cap, and 14 new Constellations.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.