Hey! First post here.
In my previous campaign a friend of mine asked to play a MoMF from 3.5, however with the pathfinder rule changes to wild shape,it was pretty much unusable. After a decent amount of back and forth I was eventually convinced to try to homebrew it. While what I came up with was decent up until level 9 or so and quickly fell apart, mostly due to having to make rules for how mechanic based on HD gets converted to one based on Size. However, that campaign finished (first finished campaign under my belt. woo) and with the release of Ultimate Magic and it giving us more polymorph spells, I tried my hand at it a second time, this time it linking up with how Pathfinder does Wild shape now. Also instead of a prestige class, I decided to go with an archetype, though I guess it resembles more of a variant class. I was curious if anyone could give me some feedback.
The MoMF gets any shape shifting normally gets two levels sooner than a traditional druid. And the abilities a a druid don't get a recieved the same level a wizard could cast the same polymorph spell.
Also, I would not be surprised if there are some typos in this.
Master of Many Forms(Druid)
BAB progression: Medium
Save Progression: Good Fort/Ref (in spirit of the original PrC)
Spell Casting: Ranger Progression(still with Druid Spells)
Skills: The druid’s class skills are Bluff(Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Stealth(Dex) Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Shape Change (Su): At 1st level, a Master of Many Forms gains the ability subtly alter her humanoid form and return to normal once per day. Her options for this transformation include any humanoid race with which she is familiar. This ability functions like the Disguise Self spell, except as noted here. The effect lasts for 1 hour per Master of Many Forms level, or until she changes back. Changing form is a standard action and doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity.
A druid can use this ability an additional time per day at 3rd level, and every two levels thereafter, for a total of 9 times at 17th level. At 19th level, a Master of Many forms can use Shape Change at will. As the Master of Many Forms gains levels, this ability allows for her to take on the form of larger, smaller, and more varied creatures. Each form expends one daily use of this ability, regardless of the form taken.
At 2nd level, a Master of Many Forms can also use Shape Change to turn herself into any Small or Medium animal. Her options for new forms include all creatures with the animal type. A Master of Many Forms loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.) This ability functions as Beast Shape I.
At 3rd Level, a Master of Many Forms can also use Shape Change to actually change into other humanoid creatures. When taking the form of a humanoid, the Master of Many Forms' Shape Change functions as Alter Self
At 4th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use Shape Change to change into a Large or Tiny animal or a Small elemental. When taking the form of an animal, a Master of Many Forms' Shape Change now functions as beast shape II. When taking the form of an elemental, the Master of Many Forms' Shape Change functions as elemental body I.
At 5th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use Shape Change to change into a Small or Medium monstrous humanoid. When taking the form of a monstrous humanoid, the Master of Many Form's Shape Change functions as Monstrous Physique I
At 6th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use Shape Change to change into a Huge or Diminutive animal, a Small of Medium Magical Beast, a Medium elemental, or a Small or Medium plant creature. When taking the form of animals, a Master of Many Forms' shape change now functions as beast shape III. When taking the form of an elemental, the Master of Many Forms' shape change now functions as elemental body II. When taking the form of a plant creature, the Master of Many Forms' shape change functions as plant shape I.
At 7th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use Shape Change into a Tiny or Large monstrous humanoid, or a Small of Medium Vermin. When taking the form of monstrous humanoids, the Master of Many Forms' shape change now functions as monstrous physique II. When taking the form of Vermin, the Master of Many Form's shape change functions as vermin shape I
At 8th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use Shape Change to change into a Large elemental or a Large plant creature. When taking the form of an elemental, the the Master of Many Forms' shape change now functions as elemental body III. When taking the form of a plant, the Master of Many Forms' shape change now functions as plant shape II.
At 9th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use Shape Change into a Dimunutive or Huge monstrous humanoid, or a Tiny of Large Vermin. When taking the form of monstrous humanoids, the Master of Many Forms' shape change now functions as monstrous physique III. When taking the form of Vermin, the Master of Many Form's shape change functions as vermin shape II
At 10th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use shape change to change into a Tiny or Large Magical Beast, a Huge elemental, or a Huge plant creature. When taking the form of Magical Beasts, the Master of Many Forms' shape change functions as beast shape IV. When taking the form of an elemental, the Master of Many Forms' shape change now functions as elemental body IV. When taking the form of a plant, the Master of Many Forms' shape change now functions as plant shape III.
At 11th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use shape change to change into a Medium Dragon. When taking the form of a Dragon, the Master of Many Form's shape change functions as Form of the Dragon I. When taking the form of a Monstrous Humanoid, the Master of Many Form's shape change now functions as monstrous physique IV.
At 13th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use shape change to change into a Large dragon or a Large Giant. When taking the form of a dragon, the Master of Many Form's shape change now functions as Form of the Dragon II. When taking the form of a Giant, the Master of Many Form's shape change functions as giant form I.
At 15th level, a Master of Many Forms can also use shape change to change into a Huge Dragon or a Huge Giant. When taking the form of a dragon, the Master of Many Form's shape change now functions as Form of the Dragon III. When taking the form of a Giant, the Master of Many Form's shape change now functions as giant form II.
The Master of Many Forms must be familiar with a form before taking it.
Nature Sense (Ex): A Master of Many Forms gains a +2 bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks.
Wild Empathy (Ex): A Master of Many Forms can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person (see Chapter 4). The druid rolls 1d20 and adds her druid level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly. To use wild empathy, the druid and the animal must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions.
Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.
A Master of Many Forms can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.
Woodland Stride (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a Master of Many Forms may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at her normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. Thorns, briars, and overgrown areas
that have been magically manipulated to impede motion, however, still affect her.
Trackless Step (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a Master of Many Forms leaves no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. She may choose to leave a trail if so desired.
Resist Nature’s Lure (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a Master of Many Forms gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against the spell-like and supernatural abilities of fey. This bonus also applies to spells and effects that utilize or target plants, such as blight, entangle, spike growth, and warp wood.
Diminished Nature Bond (Ex): At 4th level, a Master of Many Forms forms a bond with nature. This bond can take one of two forms. The first is a close tie to the natural world, granting the druid one of the following domains: Air, Animal, Earth, Eagle, Fire, Frog, Monkey, Plant, Serpent, Water, or Wolf. When determining the powers and bonus spells granted by this domain, the Master of Many Forms effective cleric level is equal to her Master of Many Forms level - 3. A Master of Many Forms that selects this option also receives additional domain spell slots, just like a cleric. She must prepare the spell from her domain in this slot.
The second option is to form a close bond with an
animal companion. This ability functions like the traditional druid animal companion
ability except that the Master of Many Forms' effective druid level is equal to his
Master of Many Forms' level – 3.
Spells: Beginning at 4th level, a Master of Many Forms gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the Druid spell list. A Master of Many Forms must choose and prepare his spells in advance. To prepare or cast a spell, she must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Master of Many Forms' spell is 10 + the spell level + the her Wisdom modifier. Like other spellcasters, a Master of Many Forms can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score. When the table indicates that the Master of Many Forms
gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, she gains only the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Wisdom score for that spell level. A Master of Many Forms must spend 1 hour per day in quiet meditation to regain his daily allotment of spells. A Master of Many Forms may prepare and cast any spell on the ranger spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation. Through 3rd level, a Master of Many Forms has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, her caster level is equal to his Master of Many Forms level – 3.
Magical Shape Change(Ex): At 6th level a Master of Many Forms' ability to manipulate magic is trained enough to use the magic of the forms she takes. While using Shape Change, she can harness the power of her chosen form's Supernatural and Spell-like abilities. To cast any of their spells the Master of Many Form's requires a Charisma score of at least 10 +the spell's level. If a Master of Many Forms takes a form and uses a supernatural or spell-like ability with a limited number of uses per day, shifting out of the form and back again does not reset the times per day on the ability, the druid must rest in order to reset this amount similar to how other casters regain spells.
Venom Immunity (Ex): At 9th level, a Master of Many Form's gains immunity to all poisons.
A Thousand Faces (Su): At 11th level, a Master of Many Forms gains the ability to change her appearance at will, as if using the alter self spell, but only while in her normal form.
Extraordinary Shape Change (Ex): Starting at 12th level, a master of many forms gains the
extraordinary special qualities of any form she assumes with Shape Change. If a creature has Spell-Resistance you gain SR equal to 10 + your Master of Many Forms level.
Timeless Body (Ex): After attaining 15th level, a Master of Many Forms no longer takes ability score penalties for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any penalties she may have already incurred, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and the druid still dies of old age when her time is up.
Unstoppable Shape Change(Ex): At 20th level the Master of Many Forms is a master shapeshifter. She gains the Shapechanger subtype. Also her Change Shape ability becomes extraordinary and can no longer be dispelled by such effects like Dispel Magic, and Anti Magic Field.
Hi, and welcome.
First, a very central point, and I really hope you'll listen to this, because it will stop no end of problems...
Magical Shape Change(Ex): At 6th level a Master of Many Forms' ability to manipulate magic is trained enough to use the magic of the forms she takes. While using Shape Change, she can harness the power of her chosen form's Supernatural and Spell-like abilities.
Extraordinary Shape Change (Ex): Starting at 12th level, a master of many forms gains the
extraordinary special qualities of any form she assumes with Shape Change.
Absolutely not, full stop, no.
These two abilities re-introduces all of the brokenness and problems associated with 3rd Edition polymorph. NEVER DO THIS. All of the various monsters and monster manuals are not balanced around a character being able to gain ANY of their abilities.
All of the extraordinary abilities that you want SHOULD be listed in the appropriate polymorph spells. If there's some other ability that you want to grant, list it here. Do not, do not, do not, grant all extraordinary qualities or SLA's of a form. That's a REALLY REALLY a bad idea.
The MoMF has a spell list; you can add other spells to it if you think the MoMF should be able to use them. Giving them all is ridiculously broken.
More generally, though, I like the idea of this alternate class. Let me recommend a couple of other abilities that you could include:
Faster change: Use shape change as move action, as swift action, even as immediate action at higher levels.
Hybrid change: Gain the benefits of two (or possibly more at high levels) different forms. This is allowing the MoMF to really maximize the use of the appropriate polymorph spells by giving them access to more different abilities from the list than a single form usually allows.
These two abilities re-introduces all of the brokenness and problems associated with 3rd Edition polymorph. NEVER DO THIS. All of the various monsters and monster manuals are not balanced around a character being able to gain ANY of their abilities.All of the extraordinary abilities that you want SHOULD be listed in the appropriate polymorph spells. If there's some other ability that you want to grant, list it here. Do not, do not, do not, grant all extraordinary qualities or SLA's of a form. That's a REALLY REALLY a bad idea.
I alwalys felt that the PF changes to wildshape made it feel like I wasn't really turning into a creature. I like the stat changes being based on my own. I wanted to include it because I felt it was something that would set the MoMF apart. Since any wizard can also turn into the same thing, and still be better. I was hoping the ranger progression of spells would help balance the idea of them getting spell like abilities and what not.
Faster change: Use shape change as move action, as swift action, even as immediate action at higher levels.Hybrid change: Gain the benefits of two (or possibly more at high levels) different forms. This is allowing the MoMF to really maximize the use of the appropriate polymorph spells by giving them access to more different abilities from the list than a single form usually allows.
The original had something like that. I could grant them Quick Wildshape as a bonus feat.
Hybrid change could be cool. But The shapeshifter Ranger already kind of does that, flavor wise at least.
This looks interesting. Personally I would get rid of Nature Bond completely and instead boost the spellcasting slightly, perhaps to the level of a Bard/Summoner/Inquisitor, giving level 6 spells.Without spells below level 4, this class is just going to suffer badly, hence why I suggest one of the above caster progression.
I didn't want to give them to much casting on top of spell like abilities.
I would get rid of the level 6 ability Magical Shape Change. Assuming the right form open for too much abuse. Troll can give you regeneration, Medusa can give you petrification. Instead allow the character to use half of his armor bonus for armor worn, as if it had limited wild quality.As for the level 12 ability, it is kinda useless. As you go up through the various shapes you already get more and more of their extraordinary abilities. I'd personally give all armor worn the wild quality at this level.
I also think that the class should get Wild Speech and Natural Spell as bonus feats at some point, early in their career.
Yeah I can see that at level 12 the extraordinary abilities start to really be handled by the spells. But it bothers me there are some things you never get.
Though I do like the idea of the bonus feats.
Speaking of Master of Many Forms, I'm really surprised Paizo haven't made any wild shape focused archetypes yet. All the archetypes either nerf wild shape, or, at best, doesn't touch it at all.
Sure, there's the 'specific-animal' druid (and seriously, why is this 10 archetypes instead of one?), but specializing in one form over all others kinda goes against the point of wild shape, IMHO.
If there are specific things that you never get but want, you can consider adding them specifically to your Shape Change ability at a certain level.
Actually, that's something you could do to set the MoMF apart -- rather than making your benefits list based on the specific polymorph spells, make a custom list that's based on your level of MoMF. You can still use the polymorph spells as a guide, but this can give the MoMF a flavor all its own as it can more quickly gain certain abilities and qualities as balance permits.
You might also consider giving the MoMF a couple of bonus feats selected from a list of monster feats -- weapon feats with natural weapons only, flyby attack, multi-attack, multi-weapon fighting, etc.
In fact, here's a neat little flavorful/unusual ability...
Eclectic Adaptation (Ex): Starting at 10th level, each time the master of many forms uses Shape Change, she gains the use of one feat for which she meets the prerequisites while in the selected form. The master of many forms is considered the race and type of the selected form for purposes of meeting the prerequisites of this feat. She retains the use of this feat as long as she retains the selected form and she meets the prerequisites. She is free to select a different feat each time she uses the Shape Change ability.
This ability would allow you to change into a hawk with Fly-By Attack, a tiger with Weapon Focus (claws), or a four-armed creature with Multi-Weapon Fighting without having to slot those feats for those abilities full-time. It also allows you to access racial feats or feats specific to certain types, which is something polymorph usually doesn't do.
Eclectic Adaptation (Ex): Starting at 10th level, each time the master of many forms uses Shape Change, she gains the use of one feat for which she meets the prerequisites while in the selected form. The master of many forms is considered the race and type of the selected form for purposes of meeting the prerequisites of this feat. She retains the use of this feat as long as she retains the selected form and she meets the prerequisites. She is free to select a different feat each time she uses the Shape Change ability.
This ability would allow you to change into a hawk with Fly-By Attack, a tiger with Weapon Focus (claws), or a four-armed creature with Multi-Weapon Fighting without having to slot those feats for those abilities full-time. It also allows you to access racial feats or feats specific to certain types, which is something polymorph usually doesn't do.
That's actually really cool. Hmnext coum. I'll rework some things over the next couple days. Thanks for the input.
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If there are specific things that you never get but want, you can consider adding them specifically to your Shape Change ability at a certain level.
Actually, that's something you could do to set the MoMF apart -- rather than making your benefits list based on the specific polymorph spells, make a custom list that's based on your level of MoMF. You can still use the polymorph spells as a guide, but this can give the MoMF a flavor all its own as it can more quickly gain certain abilities and qualities as balance permits.
You might also consider giving the MoMF a couple of bonus feats selected from a list of monster feats -- weapon feats with natural weapons only, flyby attack, multi-attack, multi-weapon fighting, etc.
In fact, here's a neat little flavorful/unusual ability...
Eclectic Adaptation (Ex): Starting at 10th level, each time the master of many forms uses Shape Change, she gains the use of one feat for which she meets the prerequisites while in the selected form. The master of many forms is considered the race and type of the selected form for purposes of meeting the prerequisites of this feat. She retains the use of this feat as long as she retains the selected form and she meets the prerequisites. She is free to select a different feat each time she uses the Shape Change ability.
This ability would allow you to change into a hawk with Fly-By Attack, a tiger with Weapon Focus (claws), or a four-armed creature with Multi-Weapon Fighting without having to slot those feats for those abilities full-time. It also allows you to access racial feats or feats specific to certain types, which is something polymorph usually doesn't do.
Eclectic Adaptation looks excellent. I'd definitely add it.
Here's a list of abilities you could say can be granted during Shape Change starting at 6th level, and adding at higher levels:
6th Level: Amphibious, Blindsense, Disease, Telepathy, Trample
10th Level: Breath weapon (30ft cone or 60ft line), Blindsight, Channel Resistance, Rock Catching, Rock Throwing, Stench
14th Level: Energy Drain, Gaze attack, Elemental Immunity, Tremorsense
18th Level: Fast Healing, Incorporeal, Regeneration, Summon, Whirlwind
Finally, I would add another class ability, written something like this:
Monstrous Magic (Su): Starting at 11th level, the Master of Many forms begins to harness the true power of the creatures that she changes into. Choose one spell-like ability which can be used by a creature that you have previously changed into using Shape Change. You may use that spell-like ability once per day, no matter what form you are currently in. At 13th level and every two levels thereafter, choose another spell-like ability, and you can use that spell-like ability once per day, no matter what form you are currently in. Your caster level for these spell-like abilities is equal to your Master of Many Forms level. This replaces A Thousand Faces.
With regard to Monstrous Magic -- Again, I'm going to strongly advise against adding ANY class ability that gives you open-ended access to monster abilities.
The first time a player finds a creature with wish as a spell-like ability, or that can Ethereal Jaunt as a move-action at will, you will understand why.
It was the access to open-ended abilities like this that made 3rd Edition polymorph unreasonable. Paizo fixed it. I would strongly recommend not breaking it again.
This is the kind if design that allowed Pun-Pun to exist.
This is the kind if design that allowed Pun-Pun to exist.
I actually disagree -- designing monsters with completely open-ended, unlimited abilities is what "allowed" Pun-Pun to exist.
Pun-Pun was entirely the result of a racial ability that could grant abilities to other creatures without any explicit limits.
While it's true that you needed a class ability that could grant this ability to a character, the real problem was giving this ability to any creature in the first place.
Hi! I'm interested to the MoMF too and made a thread some time ago trying to convert it into an archetype.
Actually, I in the end decided to convert the PrC in another PrC, and my results are shown here.
Maybe you would give me your opinion on it too?
This looks great. Unfortunatly a lot of things don't play as great as they look. Has anyone used this in an actual game yet?