Structural Class Changes (Mana, Talents, Clear gish structure)

[Kryx]

Hi Iridisink,

Thanks for taking the time to take a look at my project!


Aspect of the Beast
I made a few revisions to the Animal companion since the Shifter was created, but the Shifter just needs some wording updates (everything is functionally the same). The second paragraph oe Aspect of the beast should read:

Additionally you gain a trait from the “Animal Form Secondary Trait” table for your beast form listed under “Animal Companions” at the end of the Spells document.

So for example if you're a panther then you get pounce, a wolf gets pack tactics, etc.

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Wild Shape Size
See the Wild Shape section: "you retain your other game statistics including your ability scores and alignment."

Wild Shape has no impact on the size nor the ability scores of the Shifter. In your example a medium sized Human shifter with 16 strength retains his 16 strength and turns into a medium sizes rat.

Polymorph is the expected way to take on different sized animals and would be more useful for things like scouting. Keep in mind there is a Naturalist talent that requires 5th level that allows the Shifter to transform into beasts with a challenge rating of 1 or lower if such a playstyle is desired.


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Druid/Wild Shape RAW Issues
Wild Shape, by RAW, is a poorly designed feature, imo.

From a flavor perspective I find it perposterous that every nature based spellcaster is able to master the art of turning into beasts. That is not the case in stories at all. In stories only an incredibly small amount of such spellcasters can turn into beasts.

From a mechanical perspective Wild Shape has an abundant amount of issues:

1. Beast options have very poor internal balance with some of the beasts being signficiantly stronger than others. The power balance is all over the place. This leads to players choosing a form based on function, not flavor.
2. RAW Wild Shape starts off very strong for the Moon Druid, but becomes quite weak as the levels go on.
3. RAW Wild Shape suffers many of the same problems that the Polymorph spell does in that there are a limited amount of beasts and many simply become bags of hit points
4. Ability scores of the character do not matter. Ability scores should matter and dumping certain scores should have an impact on the game or there is no point to have ability scores. Wild Shape is a huge offender here

My goal was to make a flavorful, useful, and balanced implementation of the Druid, Wild Shape, and Polymorph abilities and the result is what is written in my rules. I believe I have mostly accomplished those goals.


Thanks for taking the time to ask questions, providing me with feedback. Please feel free to challenge my opinions or raise your own ideas!