Core Alter Self Forms for Outsiders

[ericgrau]

I was thinking of making an aasimar alter self sorcerer to exploit outsider forms. So I compiled a list of preferred core forms for him to use, omitting any forms that are strictly worse than others. I define "strictly worse" as the same size and equal or less in all forms of speed, natural armor, ability to wear armor and damage. So by no means is this list meant to be exhaustive.

Because alter self does not change ability scores nor provide most special abilities, this table is meant to be printed and used during game play to provide full stats without any page flipping. For attacks I only included the one with the highest damage for the sake of brevity. Don't forget to add your strength bonus.

Sorry if I missed anything, or if this has been done before. Feel free to bring up any additions or corrections. Expanding this to non-core monsters would be a nice project for anyone interested.

≤4 HD:
{table=head] Creature | Appearance | Size | Land | Swim | Fly | Natural Armor | Humanoid Armor? | Damage
Juvenile Tojanida | Sea turtle + front claw + back claw | S | 10 | 60 | | 10 | No | 2d6 Bite, 1d4 Claws (2)
Triton | Merman, 2 scaly legs & finned "feet" | M | 5 | 40 | | 6 | Yes | Weapon
Minor Xorn | Fat, green, "feed me seymore" mouth, 1 eye underneath it, 3 long armed claws, 3 stubby legs | S | 20 | | | 12 | No | 2d8 Bite, 1d3 Claws (3)
Yeth Hound | Grey hyena | M | 40 | | | 8 | No | 1d8 Bite
Ravid | Silvery dragon headed snake with 1 arm & claw | M | 20 | | | 15 | No | 1d6 Tail, 1d4 Claw (1)
Azer | The Human Torch, except dwarf version | M | 30 | | | 6 | Yes | Weapon
Ice Mephit | Icy blue imp-winged humanoid | S | 30 | | 50 (perfect) | 4 | Yes (but small) | Weapon or 1d3 Claws (2)
Air Mephit | Sky blue imp-winged humanoid | S | 30 | | 60 (perfect) | 3 | Yes (but small) | Weapon or 1d3 Claws (2)
Water Mephit | Marine blue imp-winged humanoid | S | 30 | 30 | 40 (average) | 5 | Yes (but small) | Weapon or 1d3 Claws (2)
Salt Mephit | White imp-winged humanoid | S | 30 | | 40 (average) | 6 | Yes (but small) | Weapon or 1d3 Claws (2)
Formian Worker | Ant with pincer hands | S | 40 | | | 4 | Yes (but small) | 1d4 Bite
Flamebrother Salamandar | Goblin-headed snake body, flaming spines like burnt trees | S | 20 | | | 7 | Yes (torso) | Weapon, 1d4 Tail
Shadow Mastiff | Like Chinese dog statues, black fur | M | 50 | | | 3 | No | 1d6 Bite
Formian Warrior | Ant with pincer hands | M | 40 | | | 5 | Yes (torso) | 2d4 Sting, 1d6 Claws (2), 1d4 Bite
[/table]

≤3 HD:
{table=head] Creature | Appearance | Size | Land | Swim | Fly | Natural Armor | Humanoid Armor? | Damage
Juvenile Tojanida | Sea turtle + front claw + back claw | S | 10 | 60 | | 10 | No | 2d6 Bite, 1d4 Claws (2)
Triton | Merman, 2 scaly legs & finned "feet" | M | 5 | 40 | | 6 | Yes | Weapon
Minor Xorn | Fat, green, "feed me seymore" mouth, 1 eye underneath it, 3 long armed claws, 3 stubby legs | S | 20 | | | 12 | No | 2d8 Bite, 1d3 Claws (3)
Yeth Hound | Grey hyena | M | 40 | | | 8 | No | 1d8 Bite
Ravid | Silvery dragon headed snake with 1 arm & claw | M | 20 | | | 15 | No | 1d6 Tail, 1d4 Claw (1)
Azer | The Human Torch, except dwarf version | M | 30 | | | 6 | Yes | Weapon
Ice Mephit | Icy blue imp-winged humanoid | S | 30 | | 50 (perfect) | 4 | Yes (but small) | Weapon or 1d3 Claws (2)
Air Mephit | Sky blue imp-winged humanoid | S | 30 | | 60 (perfect) | 3 | Yes (but small) | Weapon or 1d3 Claws (2)
Water Mephit | Marine blue imp-winged humanoid | S | 30 | 30 | 40 (average) | 5 | Yes (but small) | Weapon or 1d3 Claws (2)
Salt Mephit | White imp-winged humanoid | S | 30 | | 40 (average) | 6 | Yes (but small) | Weapon or 1d3 Claws (2)
Formian Worker | Ant with pincer hands | S | 40 | | | 4 | Yes (but small) | 1d4 Bite
[/table]



Xorn away, my fellow aasimars/tieflings.

[TuggyNE]

Use of {table=head] might be handy. (I'd suggest shoving {colsp=8} in for the subheadings too, but it doesn't seem to work too well with sorting, which is why this alternate table skips the headings in favor of an additional column.)

{table=head]Creature|Appearance|Land|Fly|Swim|Size|Natural Armor|Humanoid Armor?|Damage|HD
Tojanida | Sea turtle + front claw + back claw | 10 | | 60 | S | 10 | No | Bite 2d6 | 3
Triton | Merman, 2 legs & finned "feet" | 5 | | 40 | M | 06 | Yes | Weapon | 3
Minor Xorn | Fat, green, "feed me seymore" mouth, 3 long armed claws, 3 stubby legs | 20 | | | S | 12 | No | Bite 2d8 | 3
Yeth Hound | Grey hyena | 40 | | | M | 08 | No | Bite 1d8 | 3
Ravid | Silvery dragon headed snake | 20 | | | M | 15 | No | Tail 1d6 | 3
Azer | Human torch, dwarf version | 30 | | | M | 06 | Yes | Weapon | 2
Ice Mephit | Icy blue imp-winged humanoid | 30 | 50 (perfect) | | S | 04 | Yes (but small) | Weapon | 3
Air Mephit | Sky blue imp-winged humanoid | 30 | 60 (perfect) | | S | 03 | Yes (but small) | Weapon | 3
Water Mephit | Marine blue imp-winged humanoid | 30 | 40 (average) | 30 | S | 05 | Yes (but small) | Weapon | 3
Salt Mephit | White imp-winged humanoid | 30 | 40 (average) | | S | 06 | Yes (but small) | Weapon | 3
Formian Worker | Ant with pincer hands | 40 | | | S | 04 | Yes (but small) | Bite 1d4 | 1
Flamebrother Salamander | Goblin-headed snake body, flaming spines like burnt trees | 20 | | | S | 07 | Yes (torso) | Weapon | 4
Shadow Mastiff | Like Chinese dog statues, black fur | 50 | | | M | 03 | No | Bite 1d6 | 4
Formian Warrior | Ant with claw-hands | 40 | | | M | 05 | Yes (torso) | Sting 2d4 | 4[/table]

[ericgrau]

Ah yes sorting is very handy for this sort of thing, when you're only after the values. I added table=head and changed a couple things to facilitate better sorting in the original post.

I suggest copy-pasting the table you want into a word processor and printing, for anyone who wants to use it. A sorting trick you can try is to list out all the stats you like. Click on the headers twice each to sort according to your favorite stats, starting with your least favorite.

[Bloodgruve]

For attacks I only included the one with the highest damage for the sake of brevity.

I am looking at a caster build that could take advantage of Alter Self for melee options. A full description of natural attacks would come in very handy if possible :)

TY
Blood~

[ericgrau]

Fixed. I thought you couldn't use multiple natural attacks in the same full attack but looking up some wizards.com examples it looks like you can. Unfortunately that means I didn't check for forms with a million attacks and I might have to redo this some day. But there are some good multi-attack options already listed so maybe not.

I thought to myself "How in the 9 hells can they allow polymorphs into 5 attack hydras". So I ran some rough numbers including attack bonuses and found that haste or even bull's strength (until magic items) adds more damage per round more than polymorphing into a hydra. Attacks are nice but BAB + so-so str - 2 and no other bonuses is really lousy for actual hits.

I found another forms list, including non-core outsiders: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871862/3.5Forms_for_Alter_Self