Wildshape into higher HD creatures?

[Zergrusheddie]

I was reading over the Planar Shepherd Prestige Class and read that you could change into something like a Nightcrawler. Nightcrawlers are HD 25 creatures; how would you Wildshape into when your class level needs to be equal to the HD? I've read a few things about people turning into things that they should not be able to. Am I missing something?

Best of luck
-Eddie

[mikej]

Probally thinking Shapechange here, theres a Amulet of Wildshape in one of the Faerun books [ maybe Magic of Faerun ] that makes wildshape count as 4 levels higher but caps a 20th.

[Keld Denar]

Psudo-Hit Dice? I'm thinking if the right Bard (using Words of Creation) were to Inspire Greatness on you, you would gain "effective HD" for the duration. Now, normally its 2HD, but with Words of Creation, it would be 4 HD. If you could increase it by 1 more, you would be able to grant the PS 5 effective HD, which would then allow him to WS into a Nightcrawler.

Other than that? Epic? Or maybe an NPC using non-associated class levels stacked on top of racial HD to have more than 20 HD but still have a CR of less than 20. Thats cheesy, and a DM only trick, but hey...you can WS into a freakin Nightcrawler....RAWR!

[Eldariel]

A Bard with Song of the Heart and Words of Creation can up your HD by 5-6, depending on the order of application of the modifiers. But what might've been going on is the fact that previously Shapechange was capped at twice your character level. Errata lowered it to more reasonable limit; your character level & HD. Previously, it was no problem for a level 20 character to Shapechange into Great Wyrm Gold Dragon.

[Zergrusheddie]

Ehh, off topic but why not...

Is the Planar Shepherd considered Overpowered if you do not go for the Dream Realm? Obviously Time Stop on steroids at 10th level is overpowered; Batman could disable an entire army given that much time and the amount of time to buff is just ridiculous. However, what about some of the other planes like the Sea of Fire? If you don't abuse the Efreeti "I am granting myself 3 wishes!" thing, is the class still super crazy overpowered or just a damn powerful class?

Again, y'all are awesome.
-Eddie

[Eldariel]

The class still does insane stuff. Its Wildshape basically becomes Shapechange++. Oh, and the class is still a Druid++ even if you remove such class features. And the Druid is probably the strongest class in the whole game to start with for most of the progression.

[Kaiyanwang]

Ehh, off topic but why not...
If you don't abuse the Efreeti "I am granting myself 3 wishes!" thing,
-Eddie

This always made me confused .

IIRC, genies cannot grant wishes to themselves... there is something I miss?

[jcsw]

Ehh, off topic but why not...

Is the Planar Shepherd considered Overpowered if you do not go for the Dream Realm? Obviously Time Stop on steroids at 10th level is overpowered; Batman could disable an entire army given that much time and the amount of time to buff is just ridiculous. However, what about some of the other planes like the Sea of Fire? If you don't abuse the Efreeti "I am granting myself 3 wishes!" thing, is the class still super crazy overpowered or just a damn powerful class?

Again, y'all are awesome.
-Eddie

The majority of the planes in Eberron can be abused in some way. Possibly the only planes which cannot be abused is the Fire plane, Ice plane, and the Fey Court.

[ZeroNumerous]

IIRC, genies cannot grant wishes to themselves... there is something I miss?

Planar Sheperds gain the aspects of a genie, but not the limitations.