Thank you so much for explaining that :) I only read The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny, so I was just piecing together what I could. Magic principles aren't made very clear in those books.

The way I interpretted that part with Geralt discovering what Yennifer's deformaties were was that he could tell based on her behavior, and not that it was some illusion that he eventually saw though. And if I remember the way it was worded correctly, it had to do with him "seeing it in her eyes" or something like that.

So I think that is what it was. Based on her behavior, the very minor oddities of her body that could have been "hunchback-ness" that couldn't be healed, and that literary cliche of "seeing it in her eyes" leads him to make an educated guess on what her own particular affliction was. And that whatever these typical changes sorceresses go through are permanant physical ones.

Recall in the first Witcher, where

*SPOILERS*




That Salamandra sorcerer takes the shape of the detective to fool Geralt into retrieving something for him. I do believe they can shapeshift at will if they are powerful enough. But, y'nknow, women are all stuck in the head of "ideal beauty" :P

I don't think that any sorcerer can shapeshift into another human shape. Azar definitely used an illusion to look like the detective in TW1. After all Philippa is described as very powerful sorceress and specialized in shapeshifting, but is only able to take one shape besides her own.

Well, since this is not a BioWare game and Geralt had no options romancing the sorcerer (and thank the maker for that)…
He could have been fooled with a particular powerful and clever illusion, though one must wonder if his medallion did give it away at some stage or to some point (I cannot recall).

Thanks for this, I was not sure as it has been a while since I played TW1,
My hat goes off for CDPR for well planeted Chekhov's gun...