Alter Form + Hat of Disguise

[Cisturn]

Hey Playgrounders!

My buddy is playing a Master of Many Forms, he's wondering if Wildshaping (+10 bonus to disguise) stacks with a Hat of Disguise (+10 bonus of disguise). I'm a little iffy on it since with his ranks and charisma mod he has a mid-thirties skill check at level 6. But then again, I'm playing a Bard and I might just be salty that my disguise isn't the best in the party anymore.

[Zancloufer]

The +10 bonus granted by shape-changing spells grants an un-typed bonuses as far as I can tell, so technically it should stack. Also since once is a Illusion magic and one is actual transmutation I don't see any reason you can't use both at the same time. Also +competence bonus (up to 30!) from a skill item if they want a sillier disguise check.

To be fair the Master of Many Forms' shapechanging ability is probably more powerful than a +70 to disguise checks by the time you are done the Prc. The extent you can shapechange to far outstrips what the disguise skill does.

[Crake]

Each time you use a shapeshifting spell, or an illusion spell, you roll a separate disguise check, and that bonus only applies to those disguise checks, so it doesn't stack, simply because it doesn't apply to all disguise checks, just the one made when transforming. For example, you wildshape into a dog, you are effectively disguised as the dog, with a +10 bonus. If you were to then try to disguise self as say, a hell hound, you would get another disguise check, again with a +10 bonus from the disguise self spell, but since it's a new disguise check not being made with wild shape, the wildshape's bonus doesn't apply.

Note that those spells say that you are effectively disguised as a member of the race you change into, the disguise check is only necessary when trying to impersonate a specific individual.