Druid (Bear Shaman) Wild Shape questions. Help!


Advice


Recently I have been creating a Druid, Bear shaman Archetype. I, However, Have run across some serious problems, and important questions.

1. When a druid Wild Shapes into an animal, am I correct to assume they don't take all the stats of the animal, (ie: when wild shaped, you wouldn't use the 21 STR of a Grizzly bear, But your 14 STR with the added Beast shape bonus)?

2. If an animal has feats (ie: endurance on a Grizzle Bear) does a druid receive those feats as well?

3. This is more of a double check, but when comes to additional attacks (like swallow whole or something), movement, flight, and others. A druid only receives it if it is listed on the current Wild Shape/ Beast shape spell level (6:1, 8:2, 10:3)

4. As a Bear shaman, the druid gets Wild shape at level 6, but if they shape into a bear, it is considered a level 8 wild shape. This counts as Beast shape 3, which allows for the druid to shape into large animals. The only large bear I can find is Bear, Giant Advanced (Dire). I am not sure if this shape is PFS friendly. Is it an actually animal, or is it a template. If it is a template, then are templates allowed in PFS play?

Feel free to explain any other Wild Shape hints or facts, because I want to make sure I have a good grasp on this strange and under-descripted ability.

Sczarni

You'll really have better luck getting these answered over in the Rules Forum, so I've flagged your post for removal, but I'll answer these while I'm here, too.

1) Calculate your base Strength and Dexterity modified by the appropriate Beast Shape spell.

2) No.

3) Yes.

4) You can't Polymorph into a creature with a Template.

5) My suggestion is to pick a few favorite shapes, usually each a different size, and have them pre-statted out to speed up play. Poorly planned Druids can really slow a game to a crawl.


The grizzly bear in Bestiary I is large.

Sczarni

same goes for your summons, get them written in advance!

Silver Crusade

You don't apply a different template to the different sizes you just say when you wild shape "I'm wild shaping into a huge bear, or a diminutive bear" and apply the correct beast shape spell. This is true about any of the shamans although a diminutive bear is kinda funny.

You apply the young advanced and/or giant templates to the summons though when you summon bears.

Edit: I used the extremes there, at level 6 you would just say "I'm wild shaping into a large bear" and apply beast shape 3 buffs.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Disengaged40 wrote:


4. As a Bear shaman, the druid gets Wild shape at level 6, but if they shape into a bear, it is considered a level 8 wild shape. This counts as Beast shape 3, which allows for the druid to shape into large animals. The only large bear I can find is Bear, Giant Advanced (Dire). I am not sure if this shape is PFS friendly. Is it an actually animal, or is it a template. If it is a template, then are templates allowed in PFS play?

Like the man said, use a grizzly it's large.


Tamec wrote:
You don't apply a different template to the different sizes you just say when you wild shape "I'm wild shaping into a huge bear, or a diminutive bear" and apply the correct beast shape spell. This is true about any of the shamans although a diminutive bear is kinda funny.

Can you quote a source saying that? Because I don't think it works that way. As far as I know, you're still limited to what is found in the Bestiaries.

Also, take a look at this FAQ for the Eagle Shaman:

FAQ wrote:

Druid, Eagle Shaman: How can I take the form of a roc if a roc is Gargantuan and the maximum size I can reach with wild shape is Huge?

The lack of suitable giant bird stat blocks in official Paizo products hinders the rules options for this archetype.
To remedy this problem, an eagle shaman druid can use wild shape to take the form of a Medium eagle (as if applying the giant creature simple template to a Small eagle), and can use wild shape to take the form of a Huge roc (as if applying the young creature simple template to a Gargantuan roc). Abilities of the assumed form are determined by which beast shape spell the wild shape ability functions as, as determined by the eagle shaman's effective druid level.
This ruling only applies to the eagle shaman, not any other kind of animal shaman archetype.


When you Wild Shape into a huge bear for example. Does that mean you take up the squares of a huge creature, and with those squares, you also get a reach attack. Or is it strictly stat based?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

As far as I know there are no huge bears. So you are limited in what you can gain from beast shape 3 as bears already get the abilities from beast shape 2 and beast shape 3 adds nothing. Lion shaman have a similar problem with no huge cats but at least gain rake with beast shape 3.

Of all the Shaman archetypes, Saurians are the only ones that really gain an advantage with access to both a greater variety of forms (all reptilian and dinosaurs) plus huge options available as well as down to tiny.

Lion shaman aren't bad considering the effectiveness of dire tiger shape at level 6 with access to all the pounce/rake/grab goodies.

If you are playing in a home game, talk to your gm about allowing you to apply templates to your forms so that you can get more use out of your wild shape otherwise you are more limited in Bear shaman archetype than equally available Saurian one.

Liberty's Edge

Derwalt wrote:
The grizzly bear in Bestiary I is large.

He meant to say Huge, not Large.

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