
HenshinFanatic |

Well if we are going to have a shape shifting themed archetype for bard then why not ones for hunter, rogue, ranger, slayer, swashbuckler, medium, spiritualist, and monk.
First let's get the obvious ones out of the way.
Hunter: Has one already, the Feral Hunter.Ranger: Has one already, the Shapeshifter.
As for the others, what would be fair to lose for the Rogue, Slayer, Swashbuckler, Medium, Spiritualist, Monk, or Bard to gain wild shape or an equivalent ability, whether based on the Shifter's or not?

Amanuensis RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 |

The Boneyard is an interesting example. There is an entry in the GameMastery Guide for Purgatory (very short, setting-neutral), whereas Occult Adventures gave us more detailed and setting-specific information. It is not entirely clear whether one supersedes the other or not. (I'm still unhappy about how Occult Adventures changed/expanded on planar cosmology by making everything occult, but that seems to be the way it is). Then again, Occult Adventures does not claim to change planar cosmology per se but offers an occult perspective instead.
The short summaries below offer an occult viewpoint on the realms generally referred to as the Esoteric Planes.
So the First World section could be setting-agnostic, setting-specific, or give us a particular perspective on the First World based on the book's general theme.

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Do you listen to Know Direction? Pretty sure James Jacobs was on a few weeks ago and explained that the Roleplaying line was going to be getting more setting-specific material. (This might be it)
See also: Adventurer's Guide, Book of the Damned

Mark Seifter Designer |
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Then again, Occult Adventures does not claim to change planar cosmology per se but offers an occult perspective instead.
Occult Adventures 238 wrote:The short summaries below offer an occult viewpoint on the realms generally referred to as the Esoteric Planes.
That's the way of it. There's even a lovely piece of art with Enora the arcanist and Rivani the psychic in a heated scholarly debate about the true nature of the planes.

psychie |
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HenshinFanatic - While I don't know the other classes well enough to say without significantly more thought, the rogue class has plenty of things that could be retooled for a shiftery type dealio, especially the unchained rogue. For example, rogue's edge and the related skill unlocks could be replaced with skill related animal morphs, along the lines of pick a skill, gain the ability to morph bits and pieces of the body to gain additional uses/ability with said skill, so like sleight of hand could cause a monkey morph, growing a prehensile tail and more dexterous feet (ie, hands instead of feet), that sort of thing, fly could grow glidy fleshy bits under the arms and between the legs like a flying squirrel (or that could be for acrobatics, I don't judge), etc.
Alternatively (or in addition), a number of rogue talents could be replaced with other utility shifties, more partial morphs, like bits and pieces of the rogue shift to corresponding bits and pieces of various animals to aid with certain tasks as the situation demands.
Also, sneak attack could be altered with instead of every other level you gain an extra d6 damage for when nobody's looking, you gain an extra natural attack for when nobody's, they are all primary natural attacks, but you only get them when the conditions for sneak attack are met!
(I really find the idea of growing natural attacks as a sneak attack to be hilarious, a halfling with this ability and the childlike feats is in town, the townsfolk find the corpse of a huge monster on the outskirts of town, terribly and gruesomely mauled, and they wonder what could have possibly done THAT to THAT?! the filthy little vagrant kid who showed up the other day says "I did it, I'm a powerful adventurer!" No one believes him, but he says he can prove it, everyone stares at him with mild amusement to see what he is going to do, he sighs with exasperation and says, "well I can't do it with everyone staring at me, like that!!!" Everyone laughs, and he says, "No, seriously, trust me, if everyone would just look that way..." he points in the other direction, the crowd begrudgingly obliges, and when absolutely no one is looking at the kid, he suddenly grows ten feet tall, and a crap ton of tentacles with claws at the end grows from his body, and he just eviscerates the entire crowd in only six seconds. The end.)

Dragon78 |
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Would love archetypes for bards, monks, rogues, and swashbucklers that grant them wild empathy and woodland stride.
Would love archetypes for barbarians, brawlers, druids, hunters, rangers, etc. that loose armor prof. for a monk-like AC, a hefty natural armor, constant mage armor, or some other mechanic so they don't need armor for a good AC. Heck I would like something like this for every class that has armor prof. Maybe instead of archetype as some kind of optional rules.

Tectorman |
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Dragon78 wrote:Thinking of Bloody Roar for some reasons.A monk archetype that lets them change into an animal(or animals) based on a martial arts style like monkey, mantis, tiger, etc. would be interesting.
Loved that game (well, 2 and Primal Fury more than the first). But my first thought was the Form Mimicry of Lime, Mint, and Herb from Ranma 1/2.

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I really wish we'd get a playtest for this, especially since it apparently "builds on Open Playtest" but isn't one itself. I'd love to see if the shifter is actually, you know, good at shifting. It would be great if it could shapeshift like a kineticist can blast: all day, regardless of how many times the shifter changes forms.

Insane KillMaster |
I really wish we'd get a playtest for this, especially since it apparently "builds on Open Playtest" but isn't one itself. I'd love to see if the shifter is actually, you know, good at shifting. It would be great if it could shapeshift like a kineticist can blast: all day, regardless of how many times the shifter changes forms.
We will know who to blame if it fails, so...

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Dragonborn3 wrote:I really wish we'd get a playtest for this, especially since it apparently "builds on Open Playtest" but isn't one itself. I'd love to see if the shifter is actually, you know, good at shifting. It would be great if it could shapeshift like a kineticist can blast: all day, regardless of how many times the shifter changes forms.We will know who to blame if it fails, so...
...and that's exactly the kind of attitude that likely led to Paizo giving up on playtests :)

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Which has the same reaction, more or less. It's unfortunate that it's going to lead to what is most likely a different kind of barbarian(shift rounds/day) or druid(shifting lasts unless yo swap forms) because Paizo and the Community can't actually help each other out. I think that's because of the terrible changes being made recently that remove options from the game or make no sense, but that's not a topic for this thread.

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The ones from actual play were very few compared to the threads started to discuss them.
Regardless that in no way excuses the f+!~ery that was the last playtest, where you had to dig through post after post of whining that the class exists to get to some actual criticism that you could learn from. You don't gain anything from all that negativity and toxicity.

Feros |

Folks, probably a good idea to make a separate thread for discussions of playtests.
A very good idea, but I have a feeling that the thread would crash and burn in flames.
Flames I say!!!

CrinosG |
Well the last playtest was for the Vigilante class right? I actually really like the Vigilante class myself (Although IIRC I was largely in the minority)
I am excited about this shifter class though. Love me some shapeshifters. I wonder if we're gonna get the Pathfinder equivalent to artificers soon though.

Insane KillMaster |
No it's mostly from the utter dumpsterfire of toxicity that was the last open playtest.
The last one was the Vigilante, the one before that were the Occult classes... I grant you that ACG and MA playtests were rather toxic, and are still rather toxic subjects of discussions.
The Shifter is something people have been wishing for since the CRB first came out, and we know from experiences that people will be toxic about it in one way (hatred) or another (love) anyway. Can't please everyone.

Matrix Dragon |
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Perspicacious Wanderer wrote:I am crossing my fingers for a dragon based archetype for the Shifter. I may finally be able to make Ryu from Breath of Fire.Cross your fingers for a good/decent/usable one.
Yea, with some luck we'll get something that will let us create a dragon themed character that can turn into a dragon before the campaign is over. It is beyond annoying that most dragon shapeshifters don't get Form of the Dragon until level 13+.
Maybe we need a 'Form of the Lesser Dragon' or 'Form of the Drake' spell line so characters can get dragon-like forms at earlier levels.

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It's just... I know it's a capstone ability for Druids, but Druids also have either an animal companion or a domain and 9th level spells. Even just getting at-will around level 10 seems far too late for a new base class that's whole 'thing' is Shapeshifting.
Just keep pounce off the options until level 10 or so, like with barbarians, and there shouldn't be too many problems(besides people whining about how they are turning into big cats but can't full attack on a charge). :)