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Tetsubo 57
2009-07-03, 11:27 AM
I've been thinking about an alternative to the standard druid wild shape class ability. I have been inspired by Monte Cook's -The Collected Book of Experimental Might-, the Everstone 3.5 game and the alternative shape shift druid class ability featured in the PHB II. My alternative class ability replaces the standard druid class ability of wild shape. Constructive comments are welcomed.

Wild Shape (Su)
At 1st level, a druid gains the ability to turn herself into any Small or Medium animal and back. Her options for new forms include all creatures with the animal type, but the new form's HD can't exceed your druid level. This ability functions like the alternate form special ability, except as noted here. Changing form (to animal or back) is a standard action and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. The druid may change from their standard form to their animal an unlimited number of times per day. But only one form may be chosen each day. For example, if you chose to be a wolf for the day, you could only be a wolf until twenty-four hours has passed.

Any gear worn or carried by the druid melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional. When the druid reverts to her true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on her body that they previously occupied and are once again functional. Any new items worn in the assumed form fall off and land at the druid's feet.

The form chosen must be that of an animal the druid is familiar with. For example, if you had never been outside a temperate forest, you could not become a polar bear.

A druid 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.) The druid can not cast spells while in her alternative form. But can use her other druid class abilities that are not prohibited by her alternative shape.

You gain the Strength, Dexterity and Constitution scores of the new form but retain your own Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores. You also gain all the animal's extraordinary special attacks (such as constrict, improved grab, and poison) but not its extraordinary special qualities (such as blindsense, fast healing and scent). You gain the animal's feats and racial skill bonuses, but not its skill ranks.

The wild shape class ability improves over time as follows:

At 4th level, the druid increases the number of different animal forms they may assume per day to an amount equal to their Wisdom bonus. For example, a 4th level druid with a Wisdom score of 16 could assume three different animal forms per day (a wolf, a hawk and badger for example).

At 6th level, the druid gains a bonus to their AC while in a wild shape alternative form. The bonus is +2 at 6th level and increases by another +2 every four levels there after (+4 at 10th level, +6 at 14th level, and +8 at 18th level).

At 8th level, the druid can take the shape of Large and Tiny creatures, although all other limitations still apply.

At 12th level, a druid becomes able to use wild shape to change into a plant creature with the same size restrictions as for animal forms. (A druid can’t use this ability to take the form of a plant that isn’t a creature.)

At 16th level, a druid becomes able to use wild shape to change into a Small, Medium, or Large elemental (air, earth, fire, or water). In addition to the normal effects of wild shape, the druid gains all the elemental’s extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like abilities. She also gains the elemental’s feats for as long as she maintains the wild shape, but she retains her own creature type.

At 20th level, a druid can take on the shape of a Huge creature, although all other limitations still apply.