It might be a mix of at will shape changing(claws, horns, tail, scales, gills, etc.) and limited use(full on wild shape).
I personally hope it's not "wild shape" at all.
I hope it's more so of a hybrid form. I want to transform into a werewolf. I don't want to transform into a wolf.
I want to transform into a half demon, half human. Not a full blown demon.
So on and so forth. Hybridize. That's one reason I dislike wildshape. I have to transform into something that's not human-like.
Curious, but why not both?
The hybridization seems perfect for low levels, with claws, elemental resist, darkvision, natural armor, being a decent way to be a half demon, but then at higher level, allowing a change into a more full demon. But still also continuing to gain more partial shifting options.
You could then split these paths into archetypes/PrCs, giving up the one option to focus on the other.
I am hoping wild shape with other gimmicks and improvements.
I also hope the class has good skills points and fort and reflex are good saves. I hope there is a archetype(if not the base class) that has some AC improvements that work while polymorphed like constant mage armor, monk like AC bonus, wild armor enchantment, etc.
Other gimmicks and improvements related to shape changing, I said nothing about spells or animal companions. I want this class to be martial based(d10HD, full BA) with no spells.
They would never update those spells with new abilities but they would create new ones.
I would prefer seeing more bloodrager bloodlines. Heck they still don't have the stormborn one and that is the bloodline of their iconic.
I thought his was Air Elemental?
I had another thought for the shifter: no need for an amulet of the mighty fist. At all. An option that allows you to enchant your natural weapons and have that enchantment transfer to other natural attacks would be amazing and is much needed for the cool factor.
Oblivious it would need some limitations though. Perhaps you can only have so many 'sets' of the enchantment and you can only apply one set to one natural attack but not multiples of the same natural attacks. If you shifted and have two claws you'd have to pick which claw got +1 Flaming for instance.
Did anyone at Paizocon pick up any interesting tidbits about this book at the noon PDT Ultimate Wilderness panel?
David,
I wasn't at the panel but I am facebook friends with Stephen...so maybe I'll get a tidbit?
What you've described is a druid with different saves. Spells and an animal companion are the other gimmicks and improvements.
We do not need another druid.
Actually, spells are the core druid class feature. There are several druid archetypes that modify wild shape or do away with it entirely, but none that drastically alter or take away its spellcasting.
So in a way, a druid is actually a nature priest with shapeshifting and animal companion as its other gimmicks and improvements.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Ok so I hope this book contents are not set in stone just yet. Mainly i just want them to maybe look at adding a bloodrager archetype. I havent seen a bloodrager archetype in a while and think a nature based one could fit nicely.
Check out Adventurers's Guide, which just came out this week! My enlightened bloodrager archetype (originally printed in Arcane Anthology) got reprinted. :D
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I was at the Ultimate Wilderness preview. I'm only approximating, and going off of memory.
Shifters are a sort of martial druid, kinda Paladins of the druid orders in thematic role. They start out with claws they can have around as much as they want (whether they get other natural attacks wasn't covered), and they gain wild shape at level 5 as well, how many uses wasn't covered. They're also based on the Hunter's Aspects in a lot of ways at first, in part to make the class simpler for new players. As you level, though, you begin being able to mix different aspects, (for instance, combining bear and owl for an owlbear form).
Specifics were relatively spare, but they confirmed they were Full BAB, and they're primarily unarmored, and have the no-metal clause of a druid. They also get druidic, and have similar alignment restrictions. No one at the panel asked about dragon-shifters.
That's what I remember off-hand about the Shifter.
|
I was at the Ultimate Wilderness preview. I'm only approximating, and going off of memory.
Shifters are a sort of martial druid, kinda Paladins of the druid orders in thematic role. They start out with claws they can have around as much as they want (whether they get other natural attacks wasn't covered), and they gain wild shape at level 5 as well, how many uses wasn't covered. They're also based on the Hunter's Aspects in a lot of ways at first, in part to make the class simpler for new players. As you level, though, you begin being able to mix different aspects, (for instance, combining bear and owl for an owlbear form).
Specifics were relatively spare, but they confirmed they were Full BAB, and they're primarily unarmored, and have the no-metal clause of a druid. They also get druidic, and have similar alignment restrictions. No one at the panel asked about dragon-shifters.
That's what I remember off-hand about the Shifter.
Was the shifter Iconic on display and if so what race/gender appearence etc?
They are primarily unarmored but they have no metal armor restrictions. So they still have some armor prof. but gain some kind of armor boost like dodge or natural armor?
Well I am happy they get a full attack bonus and wild shape. I hope they can use their claws at will and their natural attacks get stronger as they level.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I am not really a fan of wild shape in Pathfinder, so slightly disappointed that we are just getting wild shape the class instead of something new, but it could still be fun depending on the options and how it all works together.
I was at the Ultimate Wilderness preview. I'm only approximating, and going off of memory.
Shifters are a sort of martial druid, kinda Paladins of the druid orders in thematic role. They start out with claws they can have around as much as they want (whether they get other natural attacks wasn't covered), and they gain wild shape at level 5 as well, how many uses wasn't covered. They're also based on the Hunter's Aspects in a lot of ways at first, in part to make the class simpler for new players. As you level, though, you begin being able to mix different aspects, (for instance, combining bear and owl for an owlbear form).
Specifics were relatively spare, but they confirmed they were Full BAB, and they're primarily unarmored, and have the no-metal clause of a druid. They also get druidic, and have similar alignment restrictions. No one at the panel asked about dragon-shifters.
That's what I remember off-hand about the Shifter.
Was the shifter Iconic on display and if so what race/gender appearence etc?
Sadly, no. But they were mentioned to have a visible animal aspect (like claws at 1st level)
| 9 people marked this as a favorite. |
Also, Leshys as a playable race. Dinosaur druids. Codified foraging and weather rules. And all sorts of familiar s/animal companions.
That's what I can recall off the top of my head.
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
They mentioned that the shifter iconic was female, and also mentioned that they had a quasi-AC boost ala the monk, so that you could have a near-naked shifter, because that's cooler than covering your neat shapechange with armor. I don't remember for certain, but they might have the iconic on display at the preview banquet... I remember that they will have the cover there, and they were excited because two of the panelists hadn't seen the cover.
There are 3 races, two of them are plant creatures (vine leshy and another one that's already been printed... but I don't remember much about it). They also specified that because they didn't want oh... a leshy bard to be immune to its own Wild Shape or Bardic Performance, and also for balance reasons, they removed a lot of the plant immunities for the plant races PCs can take.
Let's see... *is wracking brain*
They're collating all the animal companions they could find into the book, I don't remember if the familiars were as well. They were drawing heavily from Animal Archive to get magic item slots for the animal companions. There're Animal Companion/Familiar templates, examples given were to give your pet draconic blood in its ancestry, or the trickster template that allows your familiar to 'spoof' your empathic link if it feels like it.
There was mention of fey-shifting spells, which add additional abilities since most fey abilities are slightly underwhelming. There was mention of magical plants, along the lines of a goodberry bush, that produce fruit with magical properties in certain seasons and how much of them there are. Rules for collecting poisons from animals/the wild... rules for cheaper wilderness traps...
I honestly can't remember much other than the hazards at this point, as they mentioned Flash Floods being in there, and James Jacobs was saying he may be able to fit a table in the book which tells you which book other hazards were in, like the volcano rules.
That's all I can remember.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
LESHIES!!!!!!!!!!
You are a sucker for the cute, aren't you Rysky?
| 12 people marked this as a favorite. |
Oh, and for you Odo fans, there will be an ooze-based shifter who has to concentrate to keep a humanoid form.
While it's not exactly what I wanted, I can deal with these shifter discoveries. Taking my favorite part of the druid and making a class focused on it. I will be trying one.
Oh anyword on stats? like is anything wisdom based (number of uses per day or what have you?
Stat priorities weren't discussed at all, nor were uses per day. The only thing that was confirmed is that your claws are either always-on, or usable at-will. They didn't specify (and the claws improve as you level).
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
Oh, I forgot! They confirmed that the Phytokineticist (wood-kineticist) will get a full reprint in this book, including the missing Basic Kinesis. I don't remember if they said there'd be additional abilities, though.
Well that is cool that the phytokineticist will get a reprint.
I like the news about animal companions/familiars and templates.
Not happy about plant races loosing their plant immunities though.
Really happy that the Shifter will get a monk-like AC bonus.
Well that is cool that the phytokineticist will get a reprint.
I like the news about animal companions/familiars and templates.
Not happy about plant races loosing their plant immunities though.
Really happy that the Shifter will get a monk-like AC bonus.
They did not specify, that I recall, what the AC bonus will be. I'm personally assuming natural armor.
The plant races lost the immunities because, yes, there are effects you can't have PCs having. But they also pointed out that a plant is immune to polymorph effects, and that includes all the beneficial ones. Same with mind-affecting abilities. It makes them problematic as PCs, so they had a huge discussion on how to deal with it. Getting rid of it for the sentient races seems to be how they decided to cut the gordian knot, since they didn't want to make it so you'd be relatively ineffective playing a Shifter, Barbarian, Bloodrager, Bard, or Skald (choosing classes off the top of my head that use significant abilities they couldn't benefit from).
I think it was a good idea, personally. As they said, sometimes you make what seemed like a good idea way-back when, but later on you realize it makes things more problematic.
I like the fungus, snapdragon, and flytrap leshies, but I don't really care for the overly cute ones.
There are 3 races, two of them are plant creatures (vine leshy and another one that's already been printed... but I don't remember much about it).
Just speculating here, since I wasn't there:
Ghoran is the Plant race in Inner Sea races. Could this be the other Plant race in this book?
If the non-Plant race isn't totally new, the Skinwalker would be a logical candidate to get some love in this book.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
There are 3 races, two of them are plant creatures (vine leshy and another one that's already been printed... but I don't remember much about it).Just speculating here, since I wasn't there:
Ghoran is the Plant race in Inner Sea races. Could this be the other Plant race in this book?
If the non-Plant race isn't totally new, the Skinwalker would be a logical candidate to get some love in this book.
Wouldn't mind some more Skinwalker love :3
Or Rougarou!
Good point -- we have far less on the Rougarou race. Maybe they will at least give a nod to the non-core shapeshifting races? It would be disappointing if they went into only three races in detail, gave FCBs for the core races, and said nothing at all about how the racial abilities of other shapeshifting races interact with the Shifter class and any archetypes of other classes with similar abilities.
Oh, and for you Odo fans, there will be an ooze-based shifter who has to concentrate to keep a humanoid form.What's Odo?
Odo was the ooze-based shapeshifter on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine played by Rene Auberjonois.
Fey polymorphs?
Better ooze option than cave druid?
Trickster familiars?
Good.
This is good.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The above post is why the world is going to hell in a hand-basket.
What's Odo?And this sounds super cool. Reminds me of Zac from League of Legends.
I'm a Cylon.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
LESHIES!!!!!!!!!!
So the Leshies get a PC race and STILL no love for gremlins?!?
This is an OUTRAGE! Someone get my lawyer...