new shifter stuff

MasterYoda · Post by **MasterYoda** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:17 pm

I was thinking of rebuilding my dragonshape and I had a few questions.

if as a druid u were to focous in spear ( ie weapon focous spear, improved crit spear ) would these abiliies move to the polymorphed shape of firegiant or would this have no effect at all.

also

is the fear aura on the dragonshape a set dc or can it be raised with a certain stat or skill.

thanks

havok

Post by **Yonwe** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:27 pm

Uno - You can focus in spear, and then a form which uses a spear can benefit from it, such as a Drider; but if it's a different weapon or unarmed, only those correct feats would apply. And actually, unarmed focus only applies to unarmed attacks while shifted if you're a humanoid (otherwise you need "Creature Weapon Focus" which isn't available on level-up for a PC character)... it wouldn't apply to a Golem or Dragon, per exemplum.

Dos - The fear aura DC is 20+Wis Mod; we wanted to give Shifters some incentive for having to pump their wisdom to gain shape feats but might otherwise not have a use for it if they're not big into casting Druid spells as well.

Post by **Metis** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:58 pm

Tres - Remember the aura will only be available to druid/shifters with at least 10 shifter levels, so no 39/1 druid shifter to max druid spells you can go 30/10 druid/shifter

MasterYoda · Post by **MasterYoda** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 5:01 pm

so pure dragonshape druids cannot receive the aura?

I'm a little confused now. I thought druids who stay pure could get true dragonshape and thus received all the bonoues from it.

thabks again,

Havok

MLoki · Post by **MLoki** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:19 pm

Yeah straight Druid shifter still aren't as competent as the wanabbe Shapechanging Monk kind. Giving the Druids that stayed pure a little incentive like that may help out.

MLoki

CrazyJ · Post by **CrazyJ** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:50 pm

Yeah but they actually have a decent # of caster levels to keep their buffs from being blown away by anything's dispell.

--Mixtli-- · Post by **--Mixtli--** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:04 am

having a lvl 37 pure druid i'm a bit dissapointed with this information. 10 lvls of shifter make little difference to the number of spells, duration of spells.

I hope you leave the aura on, or at least give something else to the pure class druid, as this way it doesnt make much sence to go pure...

MasterYoda · Post by **MasterYoda** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:09 am

I have a friend who has a pure druid with dragonshape.

she gets the fear aura no problem.

CrazyJ · Post by **CrazyJ** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:23 am

I was told by a pure druid yesterday that her aura was no longer an option.

Pure druids have much better spell DCs, better duration, etc. They're fine.

Post by **Metis** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:36 am

Pure druids can use the aura for now, I am just letting everyone know in advance it wont last. Anyone that has a high enough druid for dragon form had to have made it prior to this new feature, since from the day it was introduced I kept saying pure druids wont get it.

Now, almost anyone that makes a shifter/druid would not stop at 10 levels of shifter, you can but a huge waste missing on some of the best shapes in the game. Comparing spell duration, effectiveness, dispel ability, and big jump in SR it seems a fair trade off. Any decent shifter build will have minimum 17 shifter levels so 23 druid vs a 40 is no comparison add in the extra feats from being pure it’s a big different.

Bonus feats:
Druid 22/Shifter 18 (shifter 1 feat every 4 after 10)
Shifter bonus feats = 2
Druid bonus feats = 0

Druid 40
Druid bonus feats = 5

So 3 extra epic feats for the druid with this in addition to the other benefits.

The versatility of the shifter forms do add a lot but PvP many players know the weaknesses or can at least adapt to the best form of attack and the forms are vulnerable to dispel. PvM at higher levels the dispel become much more noticeable and even if either are dispelled a pure druid has a lot more spells to rebuff herself while the shifter will have a much smaller selection.

CrazyJ · Post by **CrazyJ** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:08 pm

Mielikki speaks truth.

Shifting from one form to another in combat is a quick way to die, too, since it requires a full round back in weakform (human), with the attendant lower hp, dr, ac, etc.

watchwood · Post by **watchwood** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:56 pm

Perhaps speed up the shifting process, then?

CrazyJ · Post by **CrazyJ** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:42 pm

Only way to do that would be to make shifting a free action, that may or may not be Bio-hardcoded.

watchwood · Post by **watchwood** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:08 pm

OK then, how about making free-action shifting a bonus for high level shifters?

Post by **Metis** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:11 pm

As much as I am for strengthening shifters this would be to strong being able to change forms that quickly would lead to to many problems since every time you shift you get the hp boost, to open for huge exploiting.