I love shapeshifting. Back in the day I played a Master of Many forms who was one of my favorite characters ever, my favorite SoP class is the Shifter, and the entire concept of someone who can change their form to fit the occasion is awesome to me. You can imagine my delight when I heard that Paizo was making a class solely based around shapeshifting, and you could understand my disappointment when the class turned out to be a dumpster fire that was outclassed at its own job by a Wisdom-dumping Druid. Luckily, as with Kineticist before it, I can rely on Legendary Games to make it not just useable, but flavorful and fun.
The Legendary Shifter class can Wildshape (or Shifter Shape, as its now known)from level one, with a limited list for the first few levels to keep shenanigans to a minimum. The addition of bonus feats, more accessible aspects, a bite to go with the claws, and the ability to turn into a magical beast at later levels make it much more flexible than base Shifter without breaking the game. The class is fantastic at what it does, and is full of flavor, but I've gotta say it is outshined in my eyes by the incredible archetypes.
The Bound Beastmaster gains an animal companion, the ability to share aspects with it, and eventually allows your pet to shapeshift with you. Add in the fact that you give your pet your natural attack damage is icing on the cake for this neat archetype.
Dragon Touched allowes you to turn into dragon from level one (with major limitations to keep you from destroying everything), and trades natural attack damage and aspects for a breath weapon and draconic features. A minor error, Draconic Shape says it alters Shifter Shape, but the wording of the ability and the prerequisites of later feats make it obvious that it actually replaces it.
I'm usually not a fan of elemental archetypes, as they usually boil down to "trade good stuff for situational bonuses and an energy attack." Luckily, the Elemental Nexus is above and beyond all that garbage. Giving you Kineticist goodies and allowing you to become an elemental without hampering your regular Shifter Shape very much is just great, and you eventually get Expanded Element so that you're not a one-trick pony.
Fairy Shifter splices you with a Hunter, trading BAB and d10 hit dice for hunter casting. Fairy Shape cleverly prevents you from flying at level one, and being based off Charisma is a downgrade but not a major one. A solid archetype, but not one I think I'd use very much.
Giant Shifter says "Screw that!" to shapeshifting and instead gets big, to a maximum of Colossal at 20th level. Shifter's Edge is not a great option with this one, as it takes a hit to Dex when it embiggens. A fun archetype that lends itself well to martial multiclassing without being too overpowered. I wan to build one side-by-side with a Resizer from SoP to see how they compare.
A Lycanthropic Warrior is exactly what it says on the tin. Becoming a hybrid monster and gaining DR/Silver is pretty neat, and being immune to actual lycanthopy is a nice touch.
Metamorphic Genius is what the Metamorph Alchemist wishes it could be. Being Int-based and getting alchemy is well worth the hit to HD and BAB, and it really feels like a Master of Many Forms to me. A big hit with me!
Mimickin is f*cking perfect and I will fight anyone who disagrees. It literally lets you play a Dark Souls style mimic! What more could you want? Having said that you'll definitely get much better use out of it in an urban campaign than a wilderness one.
Mystically Trained is the tiniest, simplest archetype ever and I respect it for that. Trade bonus feats and trackless step for Ranger casting. Oddly, the flavor implies it affects aspects when it clearly doesn't. A holdover from an earlier version, perhaps?
Necromorph lets you be an undead abomination and animate the dead as a SLA. I love how it keeps you from going crazy with it and makes them temporary if you don't shill out the required onyx. Eventually gives you Hide in Plain Sight and the capstone is Lichdom.
Now we come to my favorite archetype in the book, the Oozeling. My favorite character from 3.0 was an Oozemaster, and ever since I've been looking to fill a slimy hole in my heart. I honestly got physically angry when I saw the Oozemorph Shifter, which actively punished you for having the GALL to play an ooze-themed character. Luckily, the Oozeling takes the Oozemorph out behind the shed and blows its brains out with a shotgun like it deserves. An oozy base form with Compression, an abundance of natural attacks, and swapping out Magical Beast forms with Oozes makes for a damn fine archetype. Another archetype that doesn't benefit much from Shifter's Edge, as the Ooze Form gives a hefty Dex penalty.
The Protean Mutant is another archetype I absolutely love, Being completely customizeable by replacing Shifter Shape with evolution points. I don't have as much to say one this one besides "I love it and I'm making my next Big Bad one."
Next we come to the Prestige Class, the Master of M- I mean the Polymorph Savant. It's great and I love it, mainly because it does what I feel all Prestige Classes should do: it gives you a viable alternative without being the end-all-be-all. Not every Shifter needs to take this class, but the ones that do will find that they can turn into pretty much anything ever.
The feats are pretty great, allowing you to shift into humanoids, key yourself off of Charisma, or synergize with other class levels you may take. The Object Form spells are there mostly to keep in line with the Mimickin, but they seem perfectly functional and a good addition to a caster's arsenal. Rounding out the PDF is a sample character, who seems decently built at a glance but I haven't really taken a good look at.
So after vomiting all these words at the poor unsuspecting review page, all I have left to say is BUY THIS. IT GOOD. DO IT.
