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Ok, so my secondary role-play group of friends (the ones who meet much less frequently, but who are much better at it) are starting their first Pathfinder game. They're converting their characters from this barebones, simple game called Gates and Gorgons. And in that game, there's a were-wolf thing called a Gylf, and the DM made this for them (copy/pasted from facebook):

The Gylf-Wolf: Racial Traits 1 through 7 (edit: except 5) applies when in human form or wolf form. 5, 8, 9, and 10 apply when in wolf form only.
1. +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom. NO PENALTIES TO ABIITIES. Gylf-Wolves are quick, durable, and perceptive.
2. As a Medium creature, Gylf-Wolves get no bonuses or penalties due to size.
3. Movement 30 feet.
4. Gylf-Wolves can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of shadowy illumination. It retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
5. +2 racial bonuses on Listen, Spot, and Survival checks: Borrowing from their wolf bond, Gylf-Wolves have an acute perception of their surroundings and double their Wisdom bonus when tracking.
6. Languages: Common and Wolf.
7. Bonus Languages based upon Intelligence: Dwarven, Elf, Goblin, Halfling, Orc, Sylvan.
8. Movement 40 feet.
9. When in wolf form their attack routine is either 2 claw attacks per round (1d6 + Strength mod) OR 1 bite attack (1d8 + Strength mod).
10. Trip tactic: a hit with a bite attack (no damage) can attempt to trip the opponent as a free action without making a touch attack or provoking an attack of opportunity. If the attempt fails, the opponent cannot react to trip the Gylf-Wolf.
LIMITATIONS: Gylf-Wolves can only choose the Fighter, Barbarian, or Ranger classes. Whenever the character wants to shape change, they have to get nude or they will rip their clothing apart. Gylf-Wolves cannot use any weapons when in wolf form. If armored, the character must take it off because they are changing into human sized four legged wolves. When in wolf form the character can only speak wolf. However, he or she can understand other languages.

I thought maybe I could still be a decent half-orc, since I could technically crank up the strength higher then this thing, but... we're rolling for stats and I have no idea what I'm going to get. And since this thing gets +2 to 3 stats (save stats no less), I feel like it would be foolish to do anything else.

On the one hand, unless I don't care about my armor and weapons, I'd never really use the wolf thing. So effectively, it gets no race features besides really good stats. But... that's a net +6 over a normal races +2. Gawd.

Should I recommend a tone down? The only person running one will be a ranger, the one thing that a power gamer would make after looking at these stats, so my gut reaction is that this is cheese. I'm just worried about it, since most people in this group are very casual and RP focused, and it would super unbalance things if that one ranger is way more amazing.

Barbarian, survival, done. I don't need you're stupid money, I'll just go kill a deer with my pure hatred and eat it.

But yeah, I like how you can do that and just be a wild warrior. You can be totally built to slaughter and it still makes sense from a roleplay standpoint.

That's why I don't like fighters, because OMG it's so hard to have a fluff skill like Profession: whatever when you get so few skill points. It's one of the things that makes the system totally bent towards humans when it comes to filling out character concepts. (And they won't even let me be a lizardfolk... sigh...)

I never actually ran it, but I made a madness Witch whose thrush was going to be named Sheogorath. I thaught that would be the best since a thrush can talk, and I'd always do an impression of it's namesake when it did.

I think they were just afraid that if a Monk could rage it might actually be good. God forbid.

There's no reason the system dynamics should stay constant through the game. If at first level you have 75% success rate and at 20th level you have 75% success rate then nothing has changed. What was the point of going up levels again?

See also: trip. It does work better against humanoids than against, say, dragons. This is perfectly reasonable behaviour.

Well, the point of going up levels isn't to get worse. It's one of those things that makes me shy away from the rogue, even though I like the idea of it.

The other big difference between Wizards and Sorcerers is role playing. A Sorcerer is good at social skills, while the Wizard is good at int skills (and has more skills to play with). That's a major factor in which you'd rather play, and it's really up to personal preference.

I wish I got to play more... I don't really have anything that great. But I did love it this one time when the DM's dice were cold as ice, then he finally got an 18 to hit. He was so happy. Unfortunately, it was on my brand new lvl 1 hammer and board fighter, and I had to tell him my AC was 21. We wrecked those zombies.

That was the start of Big Molly's distinguished career. The next session, I completed my faction mission by intimidating the bad guy wizard, grabbing him by the ear, and dragging him out into public to be scolded. THAT was fun.

And just last Saturday, I had to cut out a guys tongue, but to be nice, I left him a freshly baked muffin*. I don't care what anybody says, Profession: Baker is the best one.

*it was one with an exceptionally nice texture that anyone would enjoy :).

The orkiest method of transportation is a big spiky red trukk.

Barring that, the aforementioned dinosaur also seems good. But the first thing that comes to mind is a big friggin' boar. Or anything that can do damage by smashing it's face into you.

Elves have the best coffee, which they never share with lesser races.

That's my working theory.

Maybe a spare weapon in case your fighter goes to a party?

You could just play Pathfinder Society. I'm sure there's already a zombie apocalypse going on in that game world. Go into a museum? Full of zombies. Climbing a mountain? Full of zombies. Cave? Zombies. Forest? Zombies. Ship? You get the idea.

It's like all the writers are Cleric players...