No love for shifters?

[Prime32]

Why do I never see anyone using shifter in builds? For LA +0 they have some neat stuff like the (shapechanger) subtype, free natural weapons and flight. (Yes, flight at lv1, but you can't use your hands) Dreamsight shifters are one of the few LA +0 races with a bonus to a mental stat, and can speak to animals (and possibly see invisibility) on top of that. Plus they have some interesting feats like one that forces creatures into their true forms, another which is Improved Critical plus double-strength Improved Natural Attack for all natural weapons, and another which dazes anyone struck by your Power Attack. Not to mention they get an exclusive druid PrC which advances both spellcasting and wild shape (and you can trade your wildshape for improved shifting, get it back via the PrC, then use both at once).

[Arz]

1) Not Realms! aka Eberron material.

2) Tends to beg for a lot of racial feats which limits diversity.

3) Have you been looking for Druids, Barbarians, or Totemists? Because they are kinda awesome there.

My personal related grumble would be not enough builds with dragonmarks. (See #2) I mean sure they aren't more than a tier 3 but I'd like to see what twisted nightmares other people can spew out involving merchant houses.

[KellKheraptis]

I just wish the Weretouched Master was a druid progressing class.  I'd gladly make a shifter for the sole purpose of recreating my werewolf Ulfhednar from D2, or one of the Bloody Roar characters, if it did.

[X-Codes]

As said above, Shifters are feat hogs.  That limits them to, basically, one character concept: rage out and kill shit in melee (or, in case of the Dreamsight one, rage out and kill shit with spells).

[Arz]

How about a contest then. Make the least shifter loveable build! He should be a viable build that uses the race and the least amount of shifter racial feats yet still achieve the the quintessence of lycanhood.

Thoughts?

[altpersona]

shifter monks, who needs hands.

[Ithamar]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  Shifter Druid with Longtooth Elite.  Every bite attack deals 1 point of CON damage.  Be a PHBII Shapeshift Druid and have a permanent bite attack from level 1.  Or for higher level games, grab Frozen Wild Shape and turn into a Cryo-Hydra.  Now you get 12 bite attacks.  Combine with Mouthpick weapon enhancement for greater amounts of ridiculosity.

[X-Codes]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  Shifter Druid with Longtooth Elite.  Every bite attack deals 1 point of CON damage.  Be a PHBII Shapeshift Druid and have a permanent bite attack from level 1.  Or for higher level games, grab Frozen Wild Shape and turn into a Cryo-Hydra.  Now you get 12 bite attacks.  Combine with Mouthpick weapon enhancement for greater amounts of ridiculosity.

1 Con damage at level 1 isn't all that impressive...

[zook1shoe]

When I first saw the title, I was thinking the old PrC Shifter.

if the Weretouched Master didn't get ass-raped in the FAQ, it would have stayed in the top 30 prestige classes.

[Prime32]

if the Weretouched Master didn't get ass-raped in the FAQ, it would have stayed in the top 30 prestige classes.

What did the FAQ do exactly?

[zook1shoe]

Drastically reduced the 5th level ability's stat increases.

[skydragonknight]

They would probably make a decent race choice for E6, given that full BAB classes only get two attacks while Full Attacking and Shifter can get a couple natural weapon attacks on top of that. Add in the feats you can buy after 6 and you greatly reduce the drawback of the race being feat-intensive to compete.

[Amechra]

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  Shifter Druid with Longtooth Elite.  Every bite attack deals 1 point of CON damage.  Be a PHBII Shapeshift Druid and have a permanent bite attack from level 1.  Or for higher level games, grab Frozen Wild Shape and turn into a Cryo-Hydra.  Now you get 12 bite attacks.  Combine with Mouthpick weapon enhancement for greater amounts of ridiculosity.

1 Con damage at level 1 isn't all that impressive...

I think by attrition, it would do something. After all, 1 con damage a round (+1 from a potential AoO) can be a little irksome.

[zook1shoe]

Which can get even uglier using Aptitude weapons... now all your Dervish scimitar attacks deal Con damage with a tiny feat.

[Lycanthromancer]

Shifter psychic warrior? Lots of feats (which can be swapped out to shifter feats using the DCFS), especially if you take other routes for nabbing bonus feats as well.

[DrPhro]

Even if weretouched master did get nerfed the first lvl ability is still worth it in my opinion. When you're stacking natural weapon damage every bit counts. Not to mention easy entry into warshaper because of the shapechanger subtype. Even if you don't want to focus on stacking it's still pretty easy with shifter savagery which gives a +2 size bonus while raging and shifted. You can also get a braid of dire shifting, a cheap consumable item that gives you a size bonus while shifting. That's a pretty good self buff for 150 gp if you ask me.

[X-Codes]

Shifter psychic warrior? Lots of feats (which can be swapped out to shifter feats using the DCFS), especially if you take other routes for nabbing bonus feats as well.

You can probably just stick with Psychic Warrior and rake in as many feats as you can.  Psychic Warriors get some nice powers augmenting natural weapons, so you can use shifter with a typical King of Smack build.

[Lycanthromancer]

Shifter psychic warrior? Lots of feats (which can be swapped out to shifter feats using the DCFS), especially if you take other routes for nabbing bonus feats as well.

You can probably just stick with Psychic Warrior and rake in as many feats as you can.  Psychic Warriors get some nice powers augmenting natural weapons, so you can use shifter with a typical King of Smack build.

But you're not an aberration so you can't nab Rapidstrike, unfortunately.

Though I'm sure there's a template or two you can grab for this.

Half-illithid shifter?

[Aliment]

I've thought about it, mainly for the joys of Bloodclaw Master for a crazy dual wielding Warblade.  But otherwise they fall out to the other much more interesting Eberron Shapeshifter: Changeling.

Changeling is just too silly fun to pass up.

[zook1shoe]

buy a Necklace of Natural Weapons and put aptitude on it

Half-illithid shifter?

that reminds me.... i want to make a half-illithid 12-headed hydra