In the process of creating my Witchwarper, and trying to see in the long term, I decided to make a small post about the different Paradigm Shifts, how I see them and categorize them.
Reactions to an attack:
2 Disrupt Attack
2 Lessen Injury (if it does damage)
2 Prevent Wounds (if it does HP damage)
5 Resist Elements (if it's energy damage)
11 Dart Aside (personal)
14 Shifting Immunity (if it's energy damage and your ally has an immunity)
Reactions to a save:
2 Thwart Ability (if it does damage or ability damage)
2 Lessen Injury (if it does damage)
2 Prevent Wounds (if it does HP damage)
5 Resist Elements (if it's energy damage)
8 Magic Sponge (if it's from a spell/spell like ability)
14 Shifting Immunity (if it's energy damage and your ally has an immunity)
Element change or resistance change:
2 Shift Resistance
5 Resist Elements
5 Shifting Offensive
14 Shifting Immunity
Standard action debuffs:
2 Disrupt Creature
5 Inhibit
8 Hobble Creature
8 Resize Creature (can be used to reduce an opponent's reach)
14 Unveil Reality
14 Consuming Narrative
Move actions to move someone:
2 Shifting Step
14 Swapping Step
Standard action movement buffs:
2 Surefooted
5 Optimize
Personal teleportation:
8 Flash Teleport
11 Dart Aside
Infinite Worlds modification (cumulative):
11 Bend Terrain
11 Shaped Infinites
Effects which can be roughly replicated by a spell:
2 Disrupt Creature (any save or suck spell)
5 Optimize (Haste)
5 Inhibit (Slow)
8 Flash Teleport (Dimension Door)
8 Hobble Creature (any save or suck spell)
11 Substitute Mind (Greater Remove Condition)
14 Unveil Reality (any save or suck spell)
14 Consuming Narrative (any save or suck spell)
Appart from Infinite Worlds modifications, Paradigm Shifts in the same category hardly stack. Considering the number of categories, and the number of Paradigm Shifts you are supposed to gain over the course of your career, you will certainly end up with one Paradigm Shift in every category. It's interesting to plan in advance which one to take, to avoid ending with suboptimal choices at high level.
A good example is Thwart Ability. It's an excellent Shift, especially at level 2. But its trigger (damage dealing spell or ability) is one of the most common. So, you are quite sure to have another available Shift you can use in the same situation.
In my opinion, all the Shifts replicating spell effects are quite bad. First, you have very few Shifts and many spells. Then, most of these Paradigm Shifts can be taken at roughly the same level you can get the spell. And to finish, they are in general worse or more costly than the spell.
Flash Teleport being the only exception, as it costs less actions, doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity and can be gained 2 levels before Dimension Door. It's the only one worth considering in my opinion, despite it's RP cost and the target limitation (personal).
I strongly encourage the dev team to review them. For example, Optimize is ridiculously underpowered. 1 RP to cast Haste once per day!!! How the hell can anyone take this Shift? Removing the RP cost and making it a once per 10-minute rest cast would not even be enough for me to take it.
Note that Prevent Wounds does NOT trigger simply from something doing damage - instead the recipient has to take HP, not stamina, damage.
Thanks, I've made the modification.
I've calculated, roughly, that Prevent Wounds was preventing on average more damage than Lessen Injury. Now, I understand why.
I can't edit it once again. I forgot the fact that Resist Elements only works on 'attacks'. So it has to be removed from the second list.