Been doing a lot of Shifter posts lately. Mostly curiosity when it comes to Natural Attacks and building one.
I did a level up chart in excel for my Weretouched Kitsune Shifter though and noticed even after the FAQ changes, she has a lot of dead levels. Made me wonder if the archtype's tradeoffs were worth it. So looking at it:
What you're explicitly losing:
- Limited to 1 aspect
- Wild Empathy limitations
What you're explicitly gaining:
- Hybrid form
- DR/Silver
What you're actually losing:
- Wild Empathy: unless you choose something you know will be in the campaign a lot having Wild Empathy for one animal is so niche as to be borderline useless
- Second through Final Aspect, Chimeric Aspect and Greater Chimeric Aspect: 4 different boosts, at least 3 of which are raw stats is a lot to give up. While Weretouched doesn't remove/replace Chimeric, it does render it redundant and thus equivalent to receiving nothing those levels
- Shifter's Fury: while not explicit I'll go into more detail on this one in the gains, needless to say, Weretouched will likely never use this
What you're actually gaining:
- Hybrid Form: is massive. Keeping your natural form's traits means keeping natural attacks, so races with natural attacks are huge so long as your major aspect doesn't overwrite them. Kobolds, serpentfolk, tieflings, and others with tail attacks run the gambit of getting to choose any, and as these attacks are part of the hybrid form, they're augmented by Shifter's Claws. That's a pretty insane benefit and worth a lot for many races, though as mentioned above due to this most Weretouched will never use Shifter's Fury, as many of the natural attacks granted by race like Kitsune bite, or Catfolk claws are Primary, so full BAB w/ Shifter's Claws benefits like Shifter's Edge and others massively outweigh iterative attacks (for perspective, my kitsune has 4 primary attacks at level 4 when they gain Hybrid, by the time they hit 6 and higher for the multiples, 3 extra full bonus +5 damage primary attacks that bypass most DR is way better than 1 extra -5 1d6+5 attack and taking -5 attack, -3 damage, and losing DR bypassing on the other weapons is not worth it)
- DR: not terrible. The odds of an enemy packing a silver weapon are almost nil unless they're a magic user who needs it for a focus. However said wizards, and most high-level stuff will generally be pounding you with magic which means pretty much nothing will bypass that DR. That said, Barbarians like the Invulnerable Rager gain DR/- of the same value which makes it seem less good
All in all, the Weretouched has some nice early advantages, but really gains nothing in the higher levels. The biggest hit is not having a 20th level ability at all, the Final Aspect instead being traded for +1 DR/Silver (technically the Weretouched still gains at-will minor aspect from it as well, though I imagine not many even 20th level adventures will have more than 23 minutes of pure combat encounters).
For comparison, lets look at 2 15th level shifters and compare a few things (They're going gearless because they would use mostly the same gear anyway. Amulet of Mighty Fists, Cloak of Resistance, etc.). My Weretouched Kitsune took Bull to round out her Str and get Gore for 4 primary naturals (Shifter's Claws, Kitsune bite natural, Major gore), she can also take advantage of Vulpine Pounce using Shifter's Rush, but to do it more than once a combat would eat up an hour of Lycanthropic Wild Shape each time (plus I'm not sure about whether ending Wild Shape is a free action, standard action, etc. Using Shape Change though would Swift action change to human and end Wild Shape as another Polymorph effect). She looks as follows (as a note, she can assume purely Bull form instead of hybrid and get the increased size Str and AC, however the hit to Dex and losing her Bite+Claws makes it an unwise trade for the gore full attack).
Kitsune Weretouched Shifter 15
Str 18 (Bull Aspect + Hybrid Shape)
Dex 21
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 14
Cha 8
AC 22, DR 7/Silver
Feats:
Weapon Finesse
Shifter's Edge
Shifter's Rush
Swift Kitsune Shapechanger
Piranha Strike
Vulpine Pounce
Toughness
Human Guise (building for Fast Learner and thus second toughness or skilled, or alternatively using Racial Heritage to nab an extra natural attack like the Kobold Tail Terror)
Full Attack: +16, Claw ×2 1d10+19, Bite 1d4+19, Gore 2d8+19 (+1d8 on Charge)
The second I'm lazy, so we'll do pretty much the same character, just as a standard Shifter. However many other races would likely be more ideal options (perhaps Human for a bonus feat?). Since the character can't really use Vulpine Pounce (and don't really need it since their main major aspect will be Tiger) they get a few more feats as well. They look as follows
Kitsune Shifter 15
Str 20 (Bear/Bull/Tiger Form + Bull Aspect)
Dex 25 (Bear/Bull/Tiger Form + Tiger Aspect)
Con 20 (Bear Aspect)
Int 12
Wis 14
Cha 8
AC 24
Feats:
Weapon Finesse
Shifter's Edge
Shapeshifter Style
Shapeshifter Twist
Shapeshifter Savage
Piranha Strike
Martial Focus (Natural Weapons)
Toughness (probably better feats this one can take, but can't remember if Weapon Focus can apply to any natural or if you need to pick a specific like claw)
Tiger benefits: Pounce, Rake
Full Attack: +18, Claw ×2 2d4+24 grab, Bite 2d6+21 grab, Rake ×2 2d4+24
Bear benefits: Improved Natural Attack (Claws), Awesome Blow
Full Attack: +18, Claw ×2 1d12+24 (crit ×3) grab, Bite 1d8+21
Bull benefits: Powerful Charge, Awesome Blow
Full Attack: +18/+13/+8, Gore 2d8+24 (+1d8 charge)
So things to consider, the Weretouched can get magic items to augment their Dex and Con to level the playing field a little bit. That's a lot of gold spent though which the standard Shifter can put elsewhere to negate that. A Weretouched Tiger with a tail, gore, or wing attack from their natural form could take Rush and probably out-damage both round 1, however they wouldn't get Bull's Str bonus so they'll need to get boosts to that from other sources (they can't use Slashing Grace and Shifter's Edge, as Shifter's requires still using Str to damage, otherwise the Weretouched Tiger Kobood would be terrifying). The base Shifter does have a lot of setup without Rush and also needing to spend an extra Swift action to assume their Shapeshifter Style.
So all said, TLDR; is the Weretouched a fair tradeoff compared to the Base Shifter?
So all said, TLDR; is the Weretouched a fair tradeoff compared to the Base Shifter?
In my opinion the weretouched archetype is far too frontloaded. When you've taken that fourth level, there's no real reason to stay in the class.
Four levels of weretouched Deinonychus gives you five natural attacks and pounce. Add Planar Wild Shape to that and you've got Darkvision, scaling DR, SR and Energy Resistances, too....and you can still use armor, wield weapons, and activate magic items.
- Hybrid Form: is massive. Keeping your natural form's traits means keeping natural attacks, so races with natural attacks are huge so long as your major aspect doesn't overwrite them.
How do you figure?
The ability does what it says it does, and follows the normal rules for wildshape unless the exception is stated.
At 4th level, when a weretouched uses wild shape, she can assume only the form of an animal of the same type as her lycanthrope aspect. However, instead of assuming a major form, she can assume a hybrid form that mixes the traits of her natural form and the major form of her aspect. While in a hybrid form, she gain a +2 size bonus to her Strength score, a +2 natural armor bonus to her AC, and all of the natural attacks and abilities listed by her major form. A weretouched also counts as being in her natural form for the purpose of determining whether she can extend her shifter claws. A weretouched’s hybrid form is roughly the same size and shape as her natural form, albeit with bestial qualities such as digitigrade legs or shaggy fur, so her equipment does not merge into her new form when she shifts between her natural form and hybrid form. In addition, the size of a weretouched’s hybrid form is the same as the size of her natural form. This otherwise counts as assuming a major form using wild shape.
Bolded the relevant line. Traits can either be referring to background traits (which is unlikely), or racial traits, as they are referred in the Advanced Race Guide. Natural Weapons (Ex) as it is generally referred, is a racial trait which would become part of the hybrid, assuming the hybrid did not have the same natural attack. One coukd not have two bites for example with only one mouth.
This is also relevant from Shifter's Claws: While a shifter uses wild shape to assume her aspect‘s major form, her natural attacks gain the same benefits granted by her shifter claws ability. Since the Hybrid form counts as assuming a major form, your hybridized natural weapons now qualify. This seems to be the hybrid form's only major benefit, and you are correct. It is all front-loaded.
At 15th level you should have items for ability enhancement bonuses if you don't get them for free with the class. They're relatively cheap. This is one of the reasons that the shifter doesn't age well.
Also, compare to the actually good archetype, the adaptive shifter - not the base class. The shifter class is not one of Paizo's best pieces of work and the adaptive shifter is a decent fix for it.
Edit: 'traits' looks to be used in the fluff rather than crunch sense in your bolded line there. It's not well enough defined to be used as a rules element.
Edit: 'traits' looks to be used in the fluff rather than crunch sense in your bolded line there. It's not well enough defined to be used as a rules element.
I disagree. Though for additional reference, I brought up regular lycanthropes (the only other thing I could think of with a hybrid form) which states the following when adding the template to a creature.
A lycanthrope retains all the special attacks, qualities, and abilities of the base creature. In hybrid or animal form it gains the special attacks, qualities, and abilities of the base animal. A lycanthrope also gains low-light vision, scent, and the following: ...
Whilst not exactly the same circumstances, it is what the Archtype is based off of, and provides insight to a hybrid form. Lycanthropy is also in Horror Adventures (released prior) and states it's hybrid Change Shape as follows.
You can attempt a DC 15 Constitution check as a full-round action to shift into a feral form, with a bonus equal to your manifestation level. This form grants you a bite natural attack that deals 1d6 points of piercing damage if you’re Medium (1d4 if Small). You retain the use of your abilities and gear. You can remain in this form for up to 1 minute, but can revert back as a move action at any time.
So all other instances of hybrids maintain their base creature (natural form) traits and abilities. Again though, if the form overwrote something you can't have two of it. Like 2 bites 1 mouth, or claws from multiple sources.