SangoProduction
2022-08-15, 10:54 PM
With the recent talk on my Beast Boys, I got interested in attempting an Alteration-sphere specialist. Someone who shapeshifts...
Well, I have no interest in natural attack spam, so it's got to be an actual caster, whose deal is that they shapeshift others, and leaves shapechanging themselves to social situations.
But like...Eh. Shapeshifting enemies is basically save or (be useless, aka die). Whether it's into a snake, puppy, fish or slime, the effect is really basically the same. Casters can't cast. Warriors can't war. Best they can do is maybe a natural attack, if they are lucky. Monks might ironically be the least impacted. Kung Fu Eel!
And that's kind of boring to use as your primary gimmick.
As for using it as a buff, it's... I mean there are fine buffs, like boosts to initiative and natural armor. Especially Size Change. The Transformation talents do have pretty great functional flexibility, such as: Flight, Burrowing, Elemental Resist, Dragon Breath, Fluid Body + Size Change to get through obstacles with openings, Swift action clouds of staggering pollen, and web.
Which is interesting... for the one instance each session you cast it on your party. Unless things suddenly get dynamic and the good choices you made are less good choices now. Which is notably rare, in my experience. I mean, unless you're playing with a DM whose full time job is actually to craft these massive, dynamic encounters that respond uniquely to what you guys do.
God damn. Can you imagine what would happen when AI gets to the point where it can run a convincing game of D&D? Probably a lot less people picking up DMing. And then those that do being compared to the AI who can simulate millions of games and interactions every hour, personalizing... anyway, wow. I got so off track. Where did that come from?
Well.... You could refluff Destruction sphere blasts as particularly sadistic partial transformations / deformations.
And other buffs/debuffs you could obviously fluff as some sort of transformation.
Otherwise, I'm not really feeling it.
Well, I have no interest in natural attack spam, so it's got to be an actual caster, whose deal is that they shapeshift others, and leaves shapechanging themselves to social situations.
But like...Eh. Shapeshifting enemies is basically save or (be useless, aka die). Whether it's into a snake, puppy, fish or slime, the effect is really basically the same. Casters can't cast. Warriors can't war. Best they can do is maybe a natural attack, if they are lucky. Monks might ironically be the least impacted. Kung Fu Eel!
And that's kind of boring to use as your primary gimmick.
As for using it as a buff, it's... I mean there are fine buffs, like boosts to initiative and natural armor. Especially Size Change. The Transformation talents do have pretty great functional flexibility, such as: Flight, Burrowing, Elemental Resist, Dragon Breath, Fluid Body + Size Change to get through obstacles with openings, Swift action clouds of staggering pollen, and web.
Which is interesting... for the one instance each session you cast it on your party. Unless things suddenly get dynamic and the good choices you made are less good choices now. Which is notably rare, in my experience. I mean, unless you're playing with a DM whose full time job is actually to craft these massive, dynamic encounters that respond uniquely to what you guys do.
God damn. Can you imagine what would happen when AI gets to the point where it can run a convincing game of D&D? Probably a lot less people picking up DMing. And then those that do being compared to the AI who can simulate millions of games and interactions every hour, personalizing... anyway, wow. I got so off track. Where did that come from?
Well.... You could refluff Destruction sphere blasts as particularly sadistic partial transformations / deformations.
And other buffs/debuffs you could obviously fluff as some sort of transformation.
Otherwise, I'm not really feeling it.