Aberrant Wild Shape???

[willpell]

Benefit: You can use your wild shape ability to assume the form of an aberration. This otherwise functions identically to your normal wild shape ability. The size of the aberration is limited by the size of animal you can normally assume the shape of with wild shape.

stares slack-jawed


Wild Shape (Su): At 5th level, a druid gains the ability to turn herself into any Small or Medium.... The new form’s Hit Dice can’t exceed the character’s druid level.


Mind Flayer - Medium Aberration, 8d8+8 HD

Bbbb...bbbuuu...uuuuuuu....AAAAAAAAAAA....

[Piggy Knowles]

Most of the mind flayer's best abilities can't be gained through wild shape, luckily. By level 8, there are better forms.

On the other hand, the will-o-wisp is pretty insane, especially with the Enhance Wild Shape spell...

[eggs]

Eh. Lion/Tiger/Bear-morphing is scarier than flayer-morphing.
But it's still one of those poorly-conceived open-ended abilities that lets all sorts of weird stuff creep into a character's repertoire.

[Khatoblepas]

Eh, it's not THAT great, Grell is better if you want loads of attacks. The Mind Flayer's eat brain ability requires it to grapple with all four face tentacles, and the Mind Flayer is Medium and doesn't have a particularily great strength score.

Rust Monster is a nice utility shape, Choker (with Assume Supernatural Ability) is an absolute beast.

AWS is good, yeah, but it isn't jaw dropping good until you get Assume Supernatural Ability.

[Tvtyrant]

Mindflayers suck as an Aberrant Wild Shape form. You know what doesn't suck? The Urophian from Lords of Madness. It is an amalgamation of Mindflayer and Roper. Has the same extract ability, except it only needs to have one of its strands attached, succeed on a bite and and a free action grapple to instantly remove brain. It's grapple is only +17, but you can buff your grapple check pretty easily, and you can attach 6 strands a turn. In other words, you are almost certain to have at least one strand attach on your first turn, and then you can pull out its brain on the second.

Ooooh, here is a fun one. Turn into a Urophian and cast Bite of the Wearbear on yourself. So much powah! (Or multiclass Totemist for grapple check raising).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

1. Take the feat Assume Supernatural Ability from Savage Species, choosing Eye Rays.
2. Aberrant Wild Shape: Beholder (or any of the multitude of Beholderkin found in various books)
3. ???
4. Profit.

[Spuddles]

1. Take the feat Assume Supernatural Ability from Savage Species, choosing Eye Rays.
2. Aberrant Wild Shape: Beholder (or any of the multitude of Beholderkin found in various books)
3. ???
4. Profit.

Alternativel, choose psionics and use LoM. Now you get telepath manifesting when you turn into an alhoon!

[Urpriest]

Alternativel, choose psionics and use LoM. Now you get telepath manifesting when you turn into an alhoon!

You can't turn into an Alhoon. Do you mean Ulthalid?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Alternativel, choose psionics and use LoM. Now you get telepath manifesting when you turn into an alhoon!

You can only get Supernatural abilities with that, not spell-like or spellcasting or manifesting.

[Togo]

1. Take the feat Assume Supernatural Ability from Savage Species, choosing Eye Rays.
2. Aberrant Wild Shape: Beholder (or any of the multitude of Beholderkin found in various books)
3. ???
4. Profit.

Each ray is a seperate ability, but the anti-magic ray is a pretty solid choice against spellcasters.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I don't have the MM handy (and Beholder aren't on the SRD); but IIRC all Eye Rays fall under the same heading, so yep you can take Assume Su Ability: Eye Rays and get all of them.

Also the Eye Rays (Su) ability of the Retriever (scroll down) (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/demon.htm)are one single ability, even if they have different effects, so I would guess Beholder's Eyes rays work similarly.

[Snowbluff]

Don't forget Enhance Wildshape! It grants the (Ex) of your wildshapes. Aberrations should have a few worth noting.

[Deophaun]

Ooooh, here is a fun one. Turn into a Urophian and cast Bite of the Wearbear on yourself. So much powah! (Or multiclass Totemist for grapple check raising).
One thing that you have to look out for with a lot of these forms are the terrible land speeds. Longstrider can only help so much. So, not an all-day adventuring form like the Grell or Will-O-Wisp.

As for the Urophian, as the strand attacks don't do any damage themselves, I'd rate it below a Grell which, with its 10 tentacle attacks, high grapple check, and constrict ability, has enough damage potential to equal the Urophian's lethality. At level 12, if you aren't using enhance wild shape, I might go for the death kiss beholder instead. 20' reach and tasty con-damaging attacks.

[willpell]

Grell is definitely a beast. Probably a bit low at CR 3; I threw one at a level 5 barbarian and it almost took him out with just one tentacle (while using all the others to devastate a busload of NPCs; figured some mass carnage would make for a good horror scene).

[Marlowe]

On a sillier note, A Tiefling with Alter Self can turn into a Lantern Archon. :smallsmile:

[Coidzor]

The master of many forms bible (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19528526/updated_Master_of_Many_Forms_Bible__official_wild_ shape_rules) should have some thoughts on good aberration forms as well.

[Deophaun]

The master of many forms bible (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19528526/updated_Master_of_Many_Forms_Bible__official_wild_ shape_rules) should have some thoughts on good aberration forms as well.
Always bothered me that the grell wasn't listed there except with passing notes in the immunities section.

Other interesting forms:

-Runehound (MM3) for a ranged acid attack. Not sure if you get the extended reach without enhance wildshape.

-Mimic. Enhance wildshape only. Drive your DM nuts as you become random inanimate objects at will. Heck, become the floor and immobilize anything that steps on you (technically not RAW).

-Deadly Dancer (ToM) - Whirlwind attacks with 18-20/x3 crits. Really fast, too.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Always bothered me that the grell wasn't listed there except with passing notes in the immunities section.

Other interesting forms:

-Runehound (MM3) for a ranged acid attack. Not sure if you get the extended reach without enhance wildshape.

-Mimic. Enhance wildshape only. Drive your DM nuts as you become random inanimate objects at will. Heck, become the floor and immobilize anything that steps on you (technically not RAW).

-Deadly Dancer (ToM) - Whirlwind attacks with 18-20/x3 crits. Really fast, too.

If you've got a spare feat, you can pick up blindsight with a 500ft range.