Yes, I know Planar Shepherd was pretty broken, but I also love the flavor. That said, Im wondering if anyone out there has a "fixed" Planar Shepherd that would work in a Pathfinder game, or at least any recommendations or advice on fixing the Planar Shepherd? I know the first step is to remove time as a planar trait granted by planar bubble, beyond that Im not sure.
Thanks!
For the wild shape, I'd use the Beast Shape, Elemental Body and Plant Form spells as a guideline as to what abilities to allow with the planar wild shape ability (i.e. no Wish for wild shaping into an efreeti).
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I haven't seen any conversions nor seen any fixes to the Planar Shepard, but I do have some recommendations on how I would convert it as a DM.
First off I would reduce the caster level at two key levels. From what I can see those key levels are 1st and 5th. After that the wild shape needs to be changed to simply be in line with the PFRPG druid, most likely just one-to-one. However in fairness of conversion (since it seems like this class increases the wild shape ability) I would find a way to up the power of wildshape slightly; possibly by giving the special forms (Elemental Shape, Beast Shape, etc.) a level early. Another possibility would be to add extra abilities to the list that you can get, which might be the most important at the end level of the prestige class. However I would make sure to NOT convert the fact that it allows templated monsters, or gives you all the EX, SU, and SP powers of the magical beast. At most an enhanced list, not certainly not everything.*
*This could be changed for flavor to allow possibly only elementals. Although this might change the “theme” of the class more towards elemental planes than other planes I think it would be ok.
Secondly to reduce the power slightly I would make the animal companion increase at a one-to-one ratio starting at 3rd or 4th level. My suggestion would be 3rd level as 4th gives a new spell level, but either would work ok. As an aside to this I would grant a template to your animal companion at level 4 that aligns with the plane. At the moment I’d suggest Fiendish for evil, celestial for good, and choose if neutral. While it isn’t the best system (I’d like something for law and chaos) it fits close enough. None of the other abilities seem like they need any conversion at all, and skills only requiring minor conversion.
There are two primary game-breaking problems with Planar Shepherd.
The first and most dangerous you've already noted, being the time properties.
The second is the ability to use all powers of the creatures it can wildshape into. That's a huge headache in 3.5 and goes counter to the entire philosophy of the Pathfinder change to wild shape, so it needs to go.
A secondary, non-game-breaking but still possibly troublesome issue is that it's a full casting prestige class that advances your wild shape and animal companion (in other words, pretty much all of your important class abilities). You might want to drop the AC progression and reduce the casting one or two levels if that concerns you.
If those issues are addressed, the class should be fine for Pathfinder without any other significant changes. It's a fun concept, just horribly executed in the original version.
There are two primary game-breaking problems with Planar Shepherd.
The first and most dangerous you've already noted, being the time properties.
The second is the ability to use all powers of the creatures it can wildshape into. That's a huge headache in 3.5 and goes counter to the entire philosophy of the Pathfinder change to wild shape, so it needs to go.
A secondary, non-game-breaking but still possibly troublesome issue is that it's a full casting prestige class that advances your wild shape and animal companion (in other words, pretty much all of your important class abilities). You might want to drop the AC progression and reduce the casting one or two levels if that concerns you.
If those issues are addressed, the class should be fine for Pathfinder without any other significant changes. It's a fun concept, just horribly executed in the original version.
Thanks for the advice, how would you handle the benefits brought about by planar bubble? It seems like the Eberron planes had very specific benefits (Maximizing healing spells, extending druid spells, improving this, and impeding that, etc). Im assuming you'd work with your DM on a case-by-case (as you'd only have to develop the one plane you're attuned to), but were these planar traits a good benchmark, or were they, on the whole, too powerful?
The only planar trait I recall as being too powerful was time. The rest weren't really much to speak of. It's been a long time since I've looked through Faiths of Eberron, though, so I could be mis-remembering.