If you ever have the free-time, maybe you can help me with designing a custom class that relies on a friendly symbiotic life-form to control their powers. Think Evoker/Druid/Monk/Magus mix. (I made a post about it under "Suggestions/House Rules/Homebrew"; look it up if you're interested.
I have always hoped paizo would make a supernatural hunter lycanthrope, become a beast to hunt the beasts... A inquisitor/ranger/Druid... There is the feral hunter or a Druid/ranger multiclass or skinwalker race... But they miss that ghost/undead/demon hunting flavour... What if van helsing was a werebear?
Update: I just used the Skilled evolution and Evolving trait to convince a whole courtroom that our party was innocent. Unfortunately, I only grabbed Bluff, so it was largely focused on Chewbacca/Twinkie Defenses. Sunt: Shifttorney at Law.
We really need some tech- or golem-friendly classes. Maybe a construct-focused Int-based summoner sort of thing, or an alchemist who creates terrain-changing gadgets?
I have always hoped paizo would make a supernatural hunter lycanthrope, become a beast to hunt the beasts... A inquisitor/ranger/Druid... There is the feral hunter or a Druid/ranger multiclass or skinwalker race... But they miss that ghost/undead/demon hunting flavour... What if van helsing was a werebear?
I think Van Helsing is a werewolverine.
I think the biggest weakness I've seen so far in this class (the Evolver) is the somewhat confusing duration system, which varies from incredibly frustrating (I can't use a druid's long-term wild shaping tactics like travel or disguise, I can't allow myself to see in the dark or swim for extended periods) to maybe slightly broken (I can use disguise self to gain the benefits of all my evolutions for an hour per level).
I'd like to be able to, say, turn into a bird and fly for several days straight, or pretend to be a docile horse during interactions with an NPC, or generally promote the "more beast than human" motif I've been going for. That's not possible with this system.
Also, it's unclear how "stacking shifts" works. If I'm presently a wolf with five tails, do I have to re-spend all those points to become a wolf with five tails with Darkvision? What if I'm just a disguised person and I want to become a disguised person with claws and a fly speed? And can I remove individual evolutions?
I will say I'm really enjoying this. I just turned into a giant snake-armed muppet with two barbed tails and a huge mouth, practically exploding the giant frog that had swallowed a Reduced me. Sunt the Shifter is a lot of fun. Sunt is third level now—approaching fourth, at which point I'll get Beast Shape (from Early Form) and get to choose another Trick. Some of them seem unwieldy or superfluous, but a lot of them are really neat.
Here's an idea I came up with that my GM and I are planning to implement: The evolver can spend extra EP (probably around 2-4) to gain an extended shapeshift that lasts 1 hour per druid level. However, they cannot add any evolutions onto this form.
This way, the evolver can be as good as the druid at shapeshifting without being able to abuse it to too insane a degree. It allows a low-level shapeshifter to swim around for an extended period of time, but in order to go really nuts and turn into, say, an eleven-tentacled velociraptor, she has to use a shorter-durationed form.
Oh, and by the way, the healing trick just saved my life and the lives of my partymembers. Sunt the Shifter has the highest AC in the group (once she's given herself a +4 natural armor), but she took an AoO from a barbarian that would have one-hit her if not for the immediate action heals. Her ability to keep tanking 2-3 barbarian Power Attacks at once is what kept us from a TPK two nights ago.
Yay!!!!
Sounds good.
I'll have re-explore the Evolver sometime. Compare it to hybrid, psychic, and vigilante classes.
I think it's a really unique, really fun class so far. I think the biggest lingering weakness is the ambiguity on what happens when you want to shapeshift on top of an existing shapeshift, though I'm sure we'll find more as Sunt gains levels. I do sort of wonder just how monstrous I'll be when I can use Shapechange, for instance. ;P
All-in-all, the shifter is probably best compared to the casters, possessing enormous arrays of options that put most other martials to shame. I do great at skills and pretty good in melee—I'd probably do better if I really optimized my forms and just picked out one or two to use every time, but I try not to repeat forms so I can resist that temptation. The MAD factor is a good balancing force, as is the d8 Hit Die.
I mostly do 5th Edition nowadays, so it's nice to flex some old muscles with the PF stuff.
Have you given Monstrous Physique any thought? It seems like a spell the evolver would have access to.
Definitely.