Races with polymorph (self)

[teriderol]

Hello helpful people in the playground,

New campaign, new build, new backup build.
therefor i went through a lot of ideas. (main build: necropolitan warmage rainbow servant). The idea of a morpher sounded interesting, after looking at druids, rangers/paladin/PrC, I found master transmogrifist, which has low requirements except for the polymorph self, so i figured i could enter it as a bard on lvl 3 with a race with polymorph self. Also, 5 levels warshaper are also in the build.

Henceforth my questions:
- what races are there available with polymorph (self)?
- tips for possible feats, spells and polymorph forms.

my DM may down scale the races for the benefit of the game and roleplaying.

thanks in advance,

Teriderol

[Grod_The_Giant]

I don't know if there are any. Almost certainly nothing without a LA so great that it renders the early entry part irrelevant.

[Maginomicon]

The Savage Species Succubus/Incubus Monster Class at ECL 1 gets the ability to alternate form itself into a medium or small humanoid. (This monster class will probably have to be rebuilt by your GM to match up with the 3.5 entry for a Succubus, as Savage Species is a 3.0 book.)

The Races of Destiny Doppelganger Monster Class at ECL 3 gets the ability to alternate form itself into a medium or small humanoid.

Monster Classes don't allow class levels until they're finished with their own progression.

[HalfQuart]

Pretty much all the monsters with racial polymorph abilities have errata that change them to "change shape" without the polymorph keyword, or remove the polymorph word from the "alternate form" ability.

[Vaz]

Steel Dragons have 4HD and 2LA making them difficult to get in, but IIRC, they have Polymorph based Alternate Form.

[teriderol]

thanks already, the errata part was a new one for me.

From previous talks with my DM, he is willing to pass the polymorph restriction on master transmogrifist as long as the base has some kind of alternate form, with his example of the pixie. (this only at the cost of a good background story and overhauling it to 0 LA race)
Doppelganger and steel dragon are nice choices, but there might be a bigger selection to choose from.

[HalfQuart]

From previous talks with my DM, he is willing to pass the polymorph restriction on master transmogrifist as long as the base has some kind of alternate form, with his example of the pixie. (this only at the cost of a good background story and overhauling it to 0 LA race)
Funny that Pixie is the example, since its actual polymorph ability was totally removed in errata, as though it was a typo... which is why it doesn't show up in the SRD entry (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/sprite.htm#pixie).

Would the Changeling's Minor Change Shape ability qualify? It seems to me to be a lot easier to just go with that existing race than try to reduce something with RHD and LA to something playable... or just refluff changeling into whatever base race you want to use, but use its racial traits.

[Necroticplague]

thanks already, the errata part was a new one for me.

From previous talks with my DM, he is willing to pass the polymorph restriction on master transmogrifist as long as the base has some kind of alternate form, with his example of the pixie. (this only at the cost of a good background story and overhauling it to 0 LA race)
Doppelganger and steel dragon are nice choices, but there might be a bigger selection to choose from.

Well, if simply having an alternate form works, it seems the simplest way would be to go lycanthrope. Just figure out how much ECL you're willing to dump, than go for an animal with the HD to bring you up to that number (accounting for the LA).Assuming you want to stay medium (which assumes you start at medium), the cheapest creatures you can get is the Phynkxin and the Baboon, with 1HD.

[teriderol]

alternate form,

owh sorry on that remark, forgot to mention the multiple form requirement on that one, like dragons can "change" to humanoid races.

let me get a look on changeling...

[HalfQuart]

let me get a look on changeling...
FYI, that would be either Races of Eberron page 40 or MM3 page 25.

[teriderol]

nope, he treats it as a disguise self.

Well, back to my books then...

[Snowbluff]

The Savage Species Succubus/Incubus Monster Class at ECL 1 gets the ability to alternate form itself into a medium or small humanoid. (This monster class will probably have to be rebuilt by your GM to match up with the 3.5 entry for a Succubus, as Savage Species is a 3.0 book.)

Yuan-Ti Tainted Ones in Savage Species. +1 LA to a Human. They have Polymorph Self, but only turn into snake like creatures.

[HalfQuart]

If 3.0 content is allowed, then Hengeyokai might be a good option. They're +1 LA in Oriental Adventures, but in Dragon 318 (p.34), if that's also allowed, they were changed to LA +0 (with their type also changed to Humanoid (shapechanger).

There's also Slyth, +2 LA (Underdark 17).

[teriderol]

ok, we decided that it is going to be a pixie, stripped to LA 0 with an interesting background and polymorph. thank you for the race ideas, it helped a lot in our decision.

From this point on, this topic can be seen homebrew,
if you do not care about tinkering on races, pls join me for the next step.

Stats, feats and level allocation

we work with point buy, so i was thinking about:
STR: 8
DEX: 8
CON: 14
INT: 14
WIS: 12
CHA: 18

lvl allocation:
2 or 3 bard/8 master transmogrifist/5 warshaper/2 master transmogrifist/fill up with x.

usefull feats:
eschew materials (prereq)
combat reflexes
assume supernatural ability

EDIT: ideas welcome...

[HalfQuart]

You might want to start a new thread since your topic focus has changed so much.

[teriderol]

continuation of the build here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15914772#post15914772)

from an obscure post somewhere on the internet all the non-errata polymorph creatures:
steel dragon
quasit
succubus
imp
efreeti
leonal
sea hag
night hag
ogre mage
pixie
illurien
zern
astral deva
movanic deva
firre
(doppelganger)
rakshasa
brachina