Just what it says on the tin: the Shifter class, from Ultimate Wilderness, is widely considered one of the worst classes in the game with Archetypes that only weaken it further.
Thing is, I really like this class, the concept of it, and I'd like to make it work.
So what can be done to bring the Shifter online with other Tier 4 martial classes?
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Use the adaptive shifter archetype rather than the base class alone. If the reduced duration of its wild shape offends you, increase that. If you want to use other archetypes of the shifter class use the adaptive shifter as a guide to changing them.
Thank you!
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The Shifter is basically just the Wild Shape and Animal Aspect class features, but watered down because they're afraid people would multiclass out after level 4. Any of the archetypes that actually gives you normal Wild Shape is a step in the right direction, and Adaptive Shifter as mentioned is probably the best base for improvements.
I'd just make the class progress as an Eidolon with a scaling maximum of natural attacks to dissuade dipping, and evolution points (or reactive aspects) to make the Wild Shape more personal and attractive at higher levels. I'd also allow Shifter Claws to work while Wildshaped, to make certain Aspects more attractive.
And instead of limiting the Wild Shape to a number of hours based on level, just give them limitless uses. For feats that require uses of Wild Shape, the Shifter could be considered to have half of their class levels of "extra uses" for this purpose.
Throw in 4th level casting just because you can. Maybe as the Bloodrager's progression.
I was going to say something like Advance Weapon Training to configure natural attacks somehow, but giving yourself Eidolon and evolution points probably works better.
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Just what it says on the tin: the Shifter class, from Ultimate Wilderness, is widely considered one of the worst classes in the game with Archetypes that only weaken it further.
Is it? By whom? Because that's far from the truth - Shifter is not actually weak (at least not until high-ish levels), vanilla Shifter straight out of UW had plenty of damage dealing potential. It's just that the class sucks to play because it breaks (even Paizo's own!) class design guidelines left, right and center (and the FAQs don't really change anything). I think Shifter is already a weak tier 4 class, because of early pounce and the raw power of multiple natural attacks (and having in-class flight at pretty early level also helps). Of course, the class is pretty much dead after 5th level, when you level up together with your party members you'll get a clinic depression because you don't get anything most of the time, but it's certainly playable. The Chimeric Master feat even grants a not too shabby ability too look forward to (flying pounce), although that's of course far behind what you could get by multiclassing.
I wrote an in-depths analysis about what's wrong with the shifter and how it could be fixed without changing the current chassis here, so I'm just gonna copy paste it.
What's wrong with the Shifter?
*takes a very deep breath*
There's a section in the ACG about designing classes. Some extracts and how Shifter breaks them:
Every single Shifter class feature was copied from another class (mainly Druid, Hunter, and Monk), and it's supposed novelity of spell-less shapechanger was already done by Metamorph Alchemist and Beastkin Berserker Barbarian - the later even has the exact same "select one form each at 1st/5th/10th/15th/20th level" feature.
Shifter is completely overshadowed by Druid (plus the two above mentioned archetypes).
Without a single new class feature in sight, it's no big surprise that the answer is "neither".
Half the levels only grant increases to small bonuses, and sometimes nothing at all, so plenty of dead levels.
The problem is not power level - Shifter is already doing relatively well when it comes to raw damage - but it's versatility. In short, what the Shifter is lacking is what I call Character Shaping Choices™.
Such character shaping choices come in three forms:
1) Daily: Mostly spell preparation and the Medium's spirit.
2) On levelup: Spells known, rage powers, etc., doesn't have to be every level up
3) One time: Domains, bloodline etc., mostly done at first level
I don't count feats, skills, and equipment because it should be obvious that options that literally every class can take have to be relatively weak (otherwise almost every character would take them, cf. Leadership for what happens when this rule is broken). I also don't count choices that don't affect playstyle and only grant minor numeric bonuses, such as a Fighter's weapon training.
Archetypes are technically one time choices as well, if these are included depends on what we want to compare.
Naturally, the more choices you can make, the more you can (in general) shape your character. Also, the more often you can make choices, the more flexibility the character can have. Daily choices don't add power over on levelup choices, but they add a lot of flexibility.
The following classes are generally accepted to be the weakest ones in Pathfinder: Fighter, Brawler, Rogue, Cavalier, Samurai, Gunslinger, Swashbuckler, Monk.
Apart from the Rogue *, you'll notice that none of these classes have a daily or on levelup choice **. Cavalier and Samurai have a one time choice at first level, while the others don't get to make any character shaping choices at all. It's also noteworthy that there are no classes lacking daily or on-levelup choices that are generally considered good.
Now, choices don't automatically contain strong options (few rogue talents are better than feats), some fixed class features are fairly powerful as well (like rage), and there are options that offer choices to make on the fly, like wildshape or a Summoner's SLA (not character shaping by definition, but can be very powerful). But if you look at both power level and flexibility, there's almost no getting around having class features that allow character shaping choices fairly often.
*) Whoever thought that a pure martial with medium BAB, no accuracy increasing abilities, d8 HD, and the worst possible saves a PC class can have was a good idea?
**) Fighter got on levelup choices with AAT and AWT, while Monk got on levelup choices with UnMonk's Ki Powers and Style Strikes.
The Shifter get's to make one such choice every five levels, and quite frankly, it's just not enough. Since many aspects are very similar, after the second (combat form + flying form), you basically only get the minor form bonuses, and those aren't even remotely character shaping. The class description say the Shifter can "fuse [forms] together with devastating effect", so where is the class feature for that? A limited use Skill Focus is not helping me be devastating!
We already have "can turn into one type of creature all day long" with Druid and Metamorph (and Agathiel Vigilante), and "can turn into one of the few previously selected animals multiple times per day" with Beastkin Berserker.
On a side note, the oft heared 'solution' of "just give it Druid style wild shape" leads to a class that is a strict downgrade from Druid, i.e. a class that completely breaks the other class design guidelines quoted above.
It is possible to turn the Shifter into a powerful, flexible, and interesting to play (all for a martial, of course) class that abides by the "designing classes" guidelines even with keeping the current chassis (of pre-selected minor/major aspects). One of the biggest complaints about the Shifter is that it's basically a Druid focussed on Wild Shape, but then Wild Shape got nerfed, without gaining anything in return.
That means that if the choices for Wild Shape are limited for Shifter, the individual choices should be stronger, i.e. granting things not normally aviable to a wildshaping character.
Step 1: Make something cool and unigue out of every major form (like Wolverine's rage+powers).*** There's no reason to limit the major forms to what the Beast Shape spells grant.
Step 2: Make the minor forms worthwhile. Can mostly be done by granting a slightly limited form of the unique thing the major form grants.
Step 3: Grant some cool class feature that aren't copy pasted from the druid to increase versatility.****
***) Abilities could be something like Blindsight (short range for minor, larger range for major) for Bat, Pounce for Tiger's minor form, unique poisons (that are actually worth it) for Snake, and so on. Minor forms could also grant movement types.
****) Example: "At 12th level, the Shifter can turn into a major form not selected once per day. Staying in such a form expands one hour of wild shape as normal, after which the Shifter reverts back to her base form. At 17th level, she can use this ability twice per day."
One could specialize their Shifter according to their campaign, and the new ability can help out for that moment where you really need a burrow speed or something. Might even have a lower version for minor forms granted at 7th level.
There are a lot of levels that could use new class features once you stop counting crap like "+1 average damage to one of your attacks". Even the new Shifter's Fury explicitly made to fill dead levels is useless to multiple forms and builds.