Ways to increase shifters uses per day?

[Nick_mi]

Other then taking shifter feats and gaining 1 use extra per day per 2 feats. What else can I do?

[Prime32]

Races of Eberron has some racial substitution levels for druid and ranger. IIRC the druid one replaces your wild shape with enhancements to your shifting.

[Grynning]

Bloodclaw Master PrC from Tome of Battle gets you 2 extra uses per day if you're already a Shifter. Also makes you count as a Razorclaw if you're not already.

[Nick_mi]

Man, that would be awesome if it wasn't a ToB class

[Nick_mi]

bumpadump!

[HunterOfJello]

Shifters are pretty awesome fluff wise and really lousy in execution.

It's surprising to me that they were implemented so terribly at the same time as such awesome races as Kalashtar, Changelings and Warforged.

I'd just recommend talking to your DM about using some kind of homebrewed Shifter that gets more uses per day as they gain HD.

[Greenish]

Man, that would be awesome if it wasn't a ToB class

It's even more awesome as a ToB PrC.

[Nick_mi]

I was able to convince him to homebrew a feat called extra shifting. I'll also get two feats from weretouched master and be able to shift 3 times a day which isn't awful, considering I also have 3 rages a day.

[Nick_mi]

Still looking for more ways if they are out there

[Forged Fury]

Shifters are pretty awesome fluff wise and really lousy in execution.

+Infinity

There aren't many ways to improve on the number of shifts without taking feats. I always thought it should have started at 3/Day and auto-triggered if the shifter fell below 1/2 hit points. As it stands, some of the shifter traits are nearly useless given the limitations on the ability (cough*wildhunt*cough). Hell, they even realized Wildhunt was sub-par and gave a constant benefit to balance it out.

[Nick_mi]

Well, people who have played it, what do you think the class would need to be decent?

[comicshorse]

Playing one at the moment ( Barbarian 1/Scout 1/Ranger 3/ Warshaper 3) and haven't really felt outclassed by the rest of the party though we aren't really an optimizing group).
Flavour wise I always thought starting them with Natural Claws ( which razor claw would improve) and Scent would be very in line with the feel of Shifters

[ShadowFighter15]

A homebrew method I'm using in my game is that every normal feat (including bonus feats from, say, fighter) counts as half a Shifter feat for the purposes of shifting. That way, you still get a benefit from investing in shifter feats, but you could go into epic levels without a single shifter feat and still be much better at shifting than you were at level 1.

[Jastermereel]

A homebrew method I'm using in my game is that every normal feat (including bonus feats from, say, fighter) counts as half a Shifter feat for the purposes of shifting. That way, you still get a benefit from investing in shifter feats, but you could go into epic levels without a single shifter feat and still be much better at shifting than you were at level 1.

I let a player in my group do the same thing, though, if I remember our agreement, it wasn't just for shifting/day, but also for prerequisites. If a feat needed you to have 2 shifter feats before it was taken, 1 shifter feat and 2 non-shifter feats would suffice there too.

It's a quirky badly supported race that we've likened to a cult; stay within its confines (regarding feats and whatnot) and you'll do alright, but try to stray and explore the larger world and you'll be left helpless. The 2-to-1 exchange rate on feats is the least we can do for those pour Shifter souls.

Well...that and find the irregularities in the text. The Dragon Magazine with Saurian Shifters allows them to pick 2 traits rather than 1 (if you read one section as being more authoritative than another and not just a typo).

[ShadowFighter15]

Just checked the list of house rules for the game and it seems I did rule it to apply to feat pre-reqs (and anything else that's based on the number of shifter feats the character has).

[T.G. Oskar]

If you're into questionable content, Shapeshifter from Oriental Adventures.

The Shapeshifter's main ability allows you to gain more uses of a per-day ability as you gained levels on a class (thus, basically Wild Shape, which doesn't exist on Rokugan, or the Hengeyokai ability to transform into an animal or hybrid shape). The entry method and way it progresses, however, would implicate a shifter could enter and gain +1 use of shifting per class level; not to mention 5/10ths casting, actual Wild Shape, and a redundant ability at 10th level since they're already shapeshifters (at the moment when shapeshifter was a type and not a subtype).

There's a revision in one of the Dragon magazines that updates the content to 3.5 if you have any qualms. However, that's one of the few ways I've found that you can gain more uses of shifting.

I should say, though, that the way the shifting ability was made isn't THAT bad, since it means you're getting more uses and more time in shifting depending on your feats. You may blame it on the fact that some characters are feat-starving, which may cause them to decide whether their racial abilities merit having no other class abilities of their own. Some of the feats may have been collapsed, but some are nice on their own.

Though, in the end, you mostly gravitate to classes that already have bonus feats (Ranger, Fighter, to an extent Warblade, Psychic Warrior) and a few spellcasting classes (Wizard for the bonus feats and Druid because you can turn into Moonspeaker which allows you to have Metamagic apply as if shifter feats). I wouldn't say poor execution more than "grain of salt" with the race, given that, as spoken earlier, they have AWESOME fluff (but then again, I find that most if not all Eberron-exclusive classes have awesome fluff nonetheless).

[Fawsto]

I am about to DM a Eberron adventure, so I houseruled that extra rage also works for shifiting.

I came to this after reading something like "shifting is like a barbarian's rage".

Use this argument with your DM and check if it works. Also ask for him to convert uses/day in a rounds/day pool. Gets easier to use your shifting/rage in the most effective and economic way possible.

Good Luck,

[Nick_mi]

Ok, well I'll show this thread to my DM and hopefully he'll allow a change

[Fax Celestis]

You could try my shifter. They get 1 charge + 1/3 levels. Stack it with the racial feats (which give more charges), and you could come out okay.

[Chambers]

I don't think it would be unbalancing to allow Shifters to Shift 1/encounter, or even Shift at will. The duration remains the same, so they have to spend the action to activate it.

[Greenish]

I don't think it would be unbalancing to allow Shifters to Shift 1/encounter, or even Shift at will. The duration remains the same, so they have to spend the action to activate it.

What action would you make it, then?

[Chambers]

What action would you make it, then?

Whatever action it currently is. Don't know off the top of my head.

[comicshorse]

It's a Free Action

[Nick_mi]

Yeah, it's a free action. My friend thought it was an immediate action and was complaining about how broken it was.