The metamorpher (PrC)

[boomwolf]

The metamorpher, master of transformation.
Endlessly making minor adjustments to his body, forever improving it.
Some might call them monsters, some might fear them.
But at the end of the day, they got ultimate flexibility.

Requirements:
Feats: Endurance.
Special:Change shape, Alternate shape, or Wild Shape ability.


Metamorpher
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Knowen Morphs|Active Morphs

1st|
+0|
+0|
+0|
+0|1|1
2nd|
+1|
+0|
+0|
+0|2|1
3rd|
+2|
+1|
+1|
+1|3|1
4th|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+1|3|2
5th|
+3|
+1|
+1|
+1|4|2
6th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+2|5|2
7th|
+5|
+2|
+2|
+2|5|3
8th|
+6|
+2|
+2|
+2|6|3
9th|
+6|
+3|
+3|
+3|7|3
10th|
+7|
+3|
+3|
+3|8|4[/table]

Metamorphs
This is the bread and butter of the metamorpher. whenever a metamorpher gains a level that increases his number of known morphs he selects one of the list of morphs and adds it to his list of known morphs.
The metamorpher can have a number of "Active" morphs equal to the number listed at the table, active morphs are the only ones taking effect, inactive morphs have no effect.
Changing an active morph is a full-round action, you may change several morphs at one time. a morph cannot be active multiple times at once.
The metamorphs apply only when using the Change shape, Alternate shape, or Wild Shape abilities.

Morph list:
Tracker:
You gain the advantage of Scent and a natural bonus of +3 to spot, listen and survival.

Stealth:
You gain a natural bonus of +4 to hide and move silently, you also gain Camouflage (as ranger ability).

Battle:
You gain +3 to all attack and damage rolls with natural weapons.

Evasive:
You gain Evasion, Uncanny dodge (as rouge abilities), and +2 natural bonus to Dexterity.

Solid:
You gain +2 natural bonus to Constitution and +1 natural armor.

Mindblank:
You gain +2 to will saves and you are immune to mind-reading effects.

Regenerative:
You gain Fast Healing 3.

Controlled Morphing:
You gain +8 to all Control Shape checks.

Powerstrike:
You gain +2 natural bonus to Strength and all your natural weapons improve in one size category.

Elemental Strike:
As you activate this morph choose an elemental damage type (fire, cold, acid, sonic, electrical.), all natural weapons you have deal damage of that type instead of normal.

LimbTail:
Only forms with a tail may use this morph. (tail, not tail attack.)
Your tail can hold and use a weapon as though as it was an arm. it can also deliver a 1d6 tail attack.

LongLimb:
All your natural attacks gain an additional 5 ft. reach.

[EvilElitest]

Cool, but to cool to be allowed without more meat (fluff)
from
EE

[Xefas]

It's...woefully underpowered. Some of the abilities are useful, but not worth what you're giving up with each level of the class, especially if you take all 10 levels.

I mean, in exchange for insuring you'll never make another save again, losing caster progression, losing wildshape progress, losing animal companion progression, and missing out on any other abilities you might've gotten, you get a couple of abilities that are only active some of the time which don't even make up for the fact that your base form is going to suck.

Take a Druid 5/Metamorpher 10. He still can only access wildshape forms of HD 5 or lower. That's just...bad.

Also, the Powerstrike morph is pretty pointless in the face of the Battle Morph. Powerstrike gives you a +1 to hit and damage and an increase in die size which will add between 1-2 extra damage on average. So, it's 2 points of to-hit behind Battle.

Oh, and you forgot hit die size, skill points, class skills, and whether the morphs were Extraordinary or Supernatural.

[Collin152]

Well, might be worth a short dip for that fast healing.
Changelings get one of the prerequisites right off the bat, don't they?

[Tyonisius]

Yeah, definitely underpowered, but with some changes it could be fun. I would suggest giving it some better saves... maybe that of a Druid.


Oh, and you forgot hit die size, skill points, class skills, and whether the morphs were Extraordinary or Supernatural.

+1 to this. Fairly important in judging the strength of a class or PrC.

Whether the morphs are Extraordinary or Supernatural is really important considering the changes they have made to Wild Shape and what you keep and lose when you do so. So pay special attention to this.

I'd also give it either a BAB requirement or skill requirement to limit the level it can be taken at. I believe Collin152 may be right. Which would mean that a Changeling could take this class at level 2. I'm going to categorize my suggestions to make them easier to read.

Additions
- Give it a hit die of d8 or lower.
- Give it saves and skills like a druid.
- Give it something close to 1/2 spell progression.
- Give it an Animal Companion ability that stacks with other Animal Companion abilities.
- Give it either an ability or a Morph that increases the HD of the creature he can wildshape into by like 1/2 Metamorpher class level.

Changes
First thing I would change is I would make class level prereqs for the morphs. There are some that just really outshine other morphs. For example Battle and Powerstrike, Fast healing outshines most, etc. I'm also interested in seeing more morphs to choose from.

Powerstrike - Have this stack with Improved Natural Attack.
LimbTail - To follow game mechanics a secondary attack like this should suffer some negatives. I believe normal is like -5, and with a feat (forget the name) from the MM it reduces it further.

Possibly more later.

-T

[Nebo_]

Needs at least one good save.

[boomwolf]

Well, thats because its not FINISHED.
I wanted to see what people think before I go on hit die and skills.

In any way, making an improvment to your caster level and animal companion makes no sense. as not everyone that gets into the class has these (werewolf for example will not gain any advantage of these.)

So while a druid 5/metamorpher 10 might not be great, a werewolf with metamorpher 10 and another 1 level at something (ranger?) will gain some pretty damn good advantages, I cannot ignore the fact that not only druids are going to take this. (heck, one of the morphs is only useful for were-beasts.)

[Tyonisius]

Well, thats because its not FINISHED.
I wanted to see what people think before I go on hit die and skills.

As a general rule of thumb, you should have that stuff before posting the class, even if you aren't finished with the class. Or you should at least point out that you are aware of the lack of those necessary changes.


In any way, making an improvment to your caster level and animal companion makes no sense. as not everyone that gets into the class has these (werewolf for example will not gain any advantage of these.)

Werewolf is a template, meaning they have to have classes of something as well as a base race. The class could very easily be a spell casting class. When building a PrC, it's generally a good idea to have some idea as to whether you want the class to be martial, spell casting, or in between/roguish, etc. Based upon the information you have provided in your unfinished PrC it looks to me like either a druid based PrC or some in between martial and spell casting class. As such, spell casting progression is a requirement to make it worth taking. Instead of spell casting progression, you could have it grant +1 level of Class abilities. If you are unfamiliar with this, you can look in the Complete Scoundrel for an example. This would make it feasible for pretty much any class. Again, I would have this be at a level to ability ratio of 2:1.


So while a druid 5/metamorpher 10 might not be great, a werewolf with metamorpher 10 and another 1 level at something (ranger?) will gain some pretty damn good advantages, I cannot ignore the fact that not only druids are going to take this. (heck, one of the morphs is only useful for were-beasts.)

After ranting about how stupid the idea of having spell progression or an animal companion is, you choose a class for your example that has both. A ranger would benefit from both spell casting progression and animal companion progression. In fact, any class could benefit from having an animal companion depending on how you word the ability. I'm not sure which morph you are saying is only useful for were-beasts here. I am going to assume you mean LimbTail. You do say "tail, not tail attack" but you may want to reword that. Many druid forms have a tail... in fact having a tail is a requirement of having a tail attack so your logic here is flawed.

You are getting upset that I suggested some changes that don't mesh well with a Were-beast (though in my opinion they mesh fine. why can't you be a were-beast with levels in druid?) yet you have a morph that is specifically for the Were-beast template.

Over all, you need to relax and stop freaking out when people give you criticism of a class you created. If you don't want criticism don't post it. As is, the class is at most a 1 level dip for fast healing. 10 more levels of any base class or most PrCs would be better... even for a Were-beast.

[boomwolf]

I was freaking out?
Well, happens.

In any way, you make sense.

Now thinkering how to make it more druidish. without going main-caster.

[Xefas]

I'm not sure which morph you are saying is only useful for were-beasts here. I am going to assume you mean LimbTail. You do say "tail, not tail attack" but you may want to reword that. Many druid forms have a tail... in fact having a tail is a requirement of having a tail attack so your logic here is flawed.

I believe he means Controlled Morphing, which gives a bonus to the checks infected-lycanthropes use to control themselves.

I suggest letting the Metamorpher levels stack with Druid levels for the purposes of Wildshape at the very least. If you don't, then they'd actually get more benefit to their shapeshifting by taking more Druid levels instead of Metamorpher levels.

Also, if some of the morphs scaled with level (such as the +2 bonus to strength rising to +4 at X level, +6 at Y level, etc) it'd be more worthwhile for lycanthropes, who have to suffer level adjustment anyway...

[Tyonisius]

The easiest way, in my opinion, to make this more of a fit all, which I believe you are going for. Is to have +1 to base class abilities at level 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. In a situation where they have more than one base class they'd choose one to apply each +1 to. This way it could apply to the spell casting progression of spell casters, the feat bonuses of fighters, the sneak attack, etc. of rogues, and so on to any base classes. The only precedent I can think of for this is in Complete Scoundrel though.

Another way to do something like this, what would fit well with this class, would be to create morphs that do some of it. A Morph that gives spell casting progression (any spellcasting class), one that gives the use of "temporary" feats that the character qualifies for (fighter), wild shape HD increases (Druid), animal companion and favored enemy bonuses (ranger), etc. You probably get the idea at this point.

[boomwolf]

Wow.
Great idea.
Why didn't I think of it?

Reworking it now.

[Tyonisius]

Cool. I'm anxious to see what changes you make. Just remember, when you make this class you need to either make the class-mimicking morphs enough that having more than 1 active doesn't make the clas over powered (since the class can have 4 morphs at a time at higher levels) or you could put a clause on the class-mimicking morphs that only allows 1 or two to be running at a time. There lots of different ways to do this and keep it balanced. Good luck!

[Adumbration]

LimbTail:
Only forms with a tail may use this morph. (tail, not tail attack.)
Your tail can hold and use a weapon as though as it was an arm. it can also deliver a 1d6 tail attack.

There's a feat just like that in Savage Species, you might want to take a look at it. It's called Prehensile tail, I think.