I had made another thread asking for advice on making a natural werecroc grappler to replace my current character in our skull and shackles game. To my surprise our group was attacked by a wereshark near the end of book one. My current character was bitten 3 times by the wereshark while saving our ranger from the 3 sharks the wereshark had recruited.
The character failed 1 of the 3 saving throws for the curse since he was bit 3 times. Having plenty of time to realize what was likely to happen the next full moon, the character jumped from the ship to avoid killing anyone the night of the full moon. Luckily the DC 20 saving throw was made that allows for remembering the actions taken during the previous night, and allows the character to attempt the CON check to shift forms.
At first I didn't like the idea of a wereshark until I found a freeking awesome miniature of a hammerhead wereshark pirate. I love miniatures and if I find one that fits my character it really enhances the game for me, so now I am really wanting to make this character work.
My character was already chaotic evil. He is a traumatized ex-slave who doesn't mind taking extreme sadistic actions against slavers or anyone he feels might have some Chelish ancestry. He specializes in infiltrating slave ships in order to take them over. Its less about freeing slaves and more about justifying hurting people badly at this point. Man, now that I think about it the wereshark goes perfectly as they tend to be domineering bullies. I am loving the character even more, can't wait till Friday!
So, a few questions for those with previous experience. How hard is it integrating a wereshark into the game? Are chaotic evil pirates a major disruption to skull and shackles? Also, did anyone have balance issues with the massive +6 bonus weresharks get to natural armor? Even if you take a level hit that armor bonus is amazing. This has started to worry my gamemaster a bit as he now seems to slightly regret increasing the level of that wereshark that attacked us, giving it time to infect the character. I have not really been able to let loose with the character in combat yet, but the GM has seen the numbers and they are a little scary, especially at the low levels.
Man if this character dies I will have an awesome villain to throw at my players in my Hellknight game!
I am GMing Skull and Shackles and I think your character fits perfectly the game.
I have a CE sorcerer in my game and she's never been an issue. Neither it is the CN follower of a CE deity. Actually both are prone to punish offenders and to take revenge, which gives the group a good motivation in some parts of the game. And they are still social and kinda nice when dealing with other PCs so they don't cause any trouble.
You don't have to be disruptive to be CE and a well played CE character can be interesting.
The power level you have gained with your new template can be an issue. My best advice is that your GM lets you play your character as it is for a time to see if it imbalances the game. If it doesn't everything is fine. If the problem is that you are more powerful than other PCs he might reward them with something to buff them a bit too. If the encounters are too easy, he should make them more difficult by adding more minions or fusing encounters.
But what I wouldn't do is taking from you what he already gave. You seem passionate about it and it wouldn't seem fair to remove it.
And, honestly, a were-shark in S&S sounds like a damn cool thing.
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What class are you? This will make a significant difference, especially if the class is heavier on armor usage. I have a werewolf cleric/holy vindicator in my Carrion Crown campaign, and it's definitely affected power level.
If your GM ends up finding it problematic, I'd recommend swapping the template for the lycanthrope corruption from Horror Adventures; this keeps the theme without necessarily breaking the game.
The lycanthrope corruption looks like an interesting option if he has to swap indeed.
What class are you? This will make a significant difference, especially if the class is heavier on armor usage. I have a werewolf cleric/holy vindicator in my Carrion Crown campaign, and it's definitely affected power level.
If your GM ends up finding it problematic, I'd recommend swapping the template for the lycanthrope corruption from Horror Adventures; this keeps the theme without necessarily breaking the game.
Well the character is an inquisitor, so not heavy on the armor usage. Still he is dex based and with studded leather he is rocking a 24 AC at 4th level. I was going to make him an archer but since I really wanted to do the grappling thing with a werecreature I might look into making him a dex-based grappler with archery on the side. The 5 DR/silver in really nice too. Many swarms I assume will be encountered in jungle environments will no longer be an issue, and it leaves me able to run a different judgement for offense or defense. Was thinking of running shield other with the healing judgement to act as a hit point sponge for our ranger who has a terrible AC but does a ton of damage.
The weresharks also have of course a swim speed and waterbreathing. They also get blindsense which I am assuming is from a sharks ability to detect electromagnetic fields. Weresharks really got the love in pathfinder.
I have an undine in my group who has swimming speed and waterbreathing, and it's a great advantage but has never been game breaking. When dealing with aquatic environments all of them should be getting swim speed and water breathing from spells so in the end it is mostly a couple of spells that they don't have to cast, which is more an advantage for the whole group than for the character itself.
There are some stuff in higher levels to which you' ll be immune thanks to waterbreathing, but nothing so frequent to worry about.
The DR and higher AC can be a big advantage, though, because it's coming to play more often.
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So the first session as a wereshark went well. To be honest we have a fighter in the group that is built extremely well and is devastating sailors left and right. My character really doesn't look OP anymore after that fighter tears through a ship. In fact, the group as a whole is so combat capable that I am now optimizing my character's profession sailor skill in order to dominate in ship combat. Rocking a +20 to sailor checks and we just hit level 5.
Also the gamemaster seems to have a quest in mind so that my character can further develop and control his wereshark abilities, allowing me to eventually pay a level in order to count as a natural lycanthrope. Very excited about this!
were-shark brawler I could dive into that it sounds jawsome. *insert about 3 more street shark puns*
I'm glad it went well!
And I absolutely recommend you going for profession skill. It's going to be useful for the whole AP.
Since your class is not usually armor heavy, the bump to AC makes a big difference. So can the DR. However, that only affects physical attacks. Attacks that target saving throws are unaffected, and come into play a lot more at higher levels. Also, consider that while grappling, you are easier to hit by everything else.
If your size changed, that also can affect AC and such.
Basically, it is a transient advantage.
As to the DR and swarms, it may be that you only gain the advanteges while in were form. The NA might also need were form. This could be a reduction in your defenses while in humanoid form, but give you the advantage while in were form.
/cevah