Animal Shaman Druid - Wild Shaping

[Kazumetsa Raijin]

When the Whatever Shaman Druid mentions "At 6th level, a wolf shaman’s wild shape ability functions at her druid level – 2. If she takes on the form of a canine, she instead uses her druid level + 2. or something along those same lines depending on what type of Shaman; What all detriments to my Wild Shaping does that contain?

I was under the impression it only took away 1 more use of Wildshape per day unless I happened to Wildshape into the respected beast.

[mplindustries]

The detriments are:
1) You get no wild shaping at all until 6th--that's the biggest and worst one

2) You are two levels lower for forms not tied to your shaman type, so, for example, you use Beast Shape I guidelines at 6th, Beast Shape II/Elemental Body I at 8th, Beast Shape III/Elemental Body II/Plant Shape I at 10th, Elemental Body III/Plant Shape II at 12th, and Elemental Body IV/Plant Shape III at 14th.

3) And yes, most of the time you'll have fewer uses of Wild Shape and less time spent in wild shape forms that aren't tied to your specific animal.

Shamans are BAD FOR WILD SHAPING. They are great for summoning, though. Or well, a few of them are (Saurian, Eagle, Lion--the rest of them are just bad in general).

[LazarX]

It means that you function as Wildshape of a a caster two levels lower for any shape other than your totem shape, and 2 levels higher when you use your totem shape. Generally this means that your effective Beast Shape spell is either one level higher or lower depending on your shape.

If you are a 6th level druid, finally getting your wildshape. and lets say you are a Bear Shaman. If you take Eagle Form, you're figured as a 4th level Druid and are using Beast Shape 1 to determine what package of animal abilities you can draw from. If you on the other hand take Bear Form, you're effectively an 8th level Druid and use wildshape as a Druid of that level for all considerations including duration.

If you are a Bear Druid of levels 2-5, then your only wild shape options are your Totem Transformation abilities.

[Kazumetsa Raijin]

Thanks guys. Guess I'll have to rethink this one!

[Nefreet]

The summoning bonuses, imo, outweigh the delay in wildshaping.

[LazarX]

The thing is you get Totem Transformation at Level 2 which gives you bonuses worth not ignoring.

And when you do get your wildshape, when you use your totem form you're that much stronger at it.

And remember... DRUIDS ARE SPELLCASTERS! Full casters at that.

[TGMaxMaxer]

Totem transformation is minutes/day, not bad, but is a polymorph effect so doesn't stack with a lot of the druid type buffs either (Any of the animal aspect/aspect of x spells) and doesn't justify a 2 level delay by any stretch.

The altered summons is cool, and doing it as a standard action is awesome, but except for a couple of lists, is really weak overall.

And, as posted above, even the author has admitted that as written it doesn't delay it until 6th level, even though that was his original intent.

[Taenia]

Actually as has been specifically stated by the author although it was his intention that they get wild shape at 6th level the RAW interpretation is that you still get wild shape at 4th level for the Animal Shaman. Since their ability doesn't not replace wild shape.

As for the benefits:

4th Wild shape 1/day, 4 hours
5th Wild Shape 1/day, 5 hours
6th Wild Shape 1/day for 4 hours into non-totem forms or for 8 hours into totem forms and
Wild shape 2/day for 8 hours into totem forms
8th Wild Shape 2/day for 6 hours into non-totem forms or totems forms for 10 hours plus
Wild Shape 2/day into totem forms for 10 hours.