Variation on Urban Druid's Urban Shape

Running a Ptolus game with an Urban Druid from the Dragon Compendium/Dragon #317. The Player really isn't that interested in keeping up with the alternate froms of Urban/Wild Shaping. I looked at the Shapeshifting variant in the PHB II and decided it might work with some alterations. Here is my logic for what I have come up with below.

- PC already has a animated object companion, so eliminating that doesn't really work. There for progression remains the same as the UD rather than the Shapeshifting Druid, who gets no companion.
- Since the forms all remain humanoid she retains her spell casting. This makes the forms pretty powerful, and therefore I have reduced the duration from 1 hour per level to 1 minute per level. Although due to the melding she can't use spells that require material components. However, any regular druid is going to get a feat to be able to cast spells any way eventually so is this change too drastic given the abilities here?
- The forms are all combat brutes, but she looses the ability to become a tiny creature (no stealth due to size or shape) or a flying creature (no additional mobility), so I think its fair.

Overall I want to know if the modifications below are fair and balanced against a druid's normal wild shape abilities and/or the Shapeshift variant from the PHB II. Also, is there anything else that needs to be spelled out about the transformation process?

Urban Shape (su): At 5th level the Urban Druid gains the ability to merge with the city as a swift action, taking on aspects of its material construction. This transformation lasts for 1 minute per urban druid level. Unless otherwise noted the Urban Druid retains her normal Hit Dice, hit points, base attack bonus, base saving throw bonuses, skill ranks, and ability scores. When transformed in this way all held, carried, or worn gear melds with her body and becomes nonfunctional until she retains her normal form. She gains additional uses per day of this ability at 6th, 7th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.
Aspect of Stone: The urban druids skin takes on the dark, rough nature of worked stone. She gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Str and her natural armor bonus improves by 4. Additionally she gains a slam attack that does 1d6 points of damage.
Aspect of the Wall: Beginning at 8th level the urban druid can increase her size to Large. She gains a +8 enhancement bonus to her Strength, a +4 bonus to Fortitude saves, and her natural armor bonus improves by 8. Her slam attack now does 1d8 damage.
Aspect of the Tower: Beginning at 12th level the urban druid transformed shape is reinforced with iron. Her size increases to Large and her reach is that of a tall creature (10ft). She gains a +12 enhancement bonus to her Strength, a +4 enhancement bonus to Fortitude and Will saves, and her natural armor bonus improves by 12. She gains DR 5/-. She has a slam attack that deals 1d8 points of damage.
Urban Apotheosis: At 16th level the urban druid can fully merge with the city, taking on construct traits. She increases in size to a huge construct shape with a reach of 15 ft. Her Slam attacks now do 2d6 points of damage, she gains a +16 enhancement bonus to Strength, a +4 enhancement bonus to Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves, and her natural armor bonus improves by 16. At 20th level she may use this ability to transform into a gargantuan construct.

Dont forget nautral weapons get +1 enchantment per 4 druid levels

since animated construct canbe gained through nom class features its ok to allow this I assume its like a druids Boget (construct)

- Since the forms all remain humanoid she retains her spell casting.

was confused on this point. are you chaing the PHB II to allow spell casting ? becuase the PHB II shapeshifter cannot cast while shifted, and cant take natural spell feat either.



the strength of the PHB II shiter is the ability to shift between forms at will adjusting to chaning situtation round by round. becuase you can change round by round you can cast by shifting back to human form and casting and then changing back to animal form next round. allowing casting while shifted is imho too powerful

Stormborn said:

Urban Apotheosis: At 16th level the urban druid can fully merge with the city, taking on construct traits. She increases in size to a huge construct shape with a reach of 15 ft. Her Slam attacks now do 2d6 points of damage, she gains a +16 enhancement bonus to Strength, a +4 enhancement bonus to Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves, and her natural armor bonus improves by 16. At 20th level she may use this ability to transform into a gargantuan construct.

Click to expand...

construct traits is a damn powerful subtype to give espeically on such a form, esp when compared to reuglar PHB II where subtype is alwyas humanoid.

and Gargantuan at 20th is also a serious power boost, 2d6->3d6, as based on monster size increase this would give an additonal +8STR, +4 CON, +5 Nat armour, not to mention some uber grapples and access to gargantuan feats that wtfpwn

Phasics said:

Dont forget nautral weapons get +1 enchantment per 4 druid levels

- Since the forms all remain humanoid she retains her spell casting.

was confused on this point. are you chaing the PHB II to allow spell casting ? becuase the PHB II shapeshifter cannot cast while shifted, and cant take natural spell feat either.

AND

construct traits is a damn powerful subtype to give espeically on such a form, esp when compared to reuglar PHB II where subtype is alwyas humanoid.

Click to expand...

1) Where does it say that natural weapon get a +1 enhancment bonus per 4 druid levels? I see that in the Shapeshifting section of the PHBII, but since i don't refrence that in the description it doesn't apply here. Unless you were saying you think it should?
2) Yes, I changed it. The whole point here is to not turn into animals. I said the PHBII was a starting place but that over all I didn't like it for this character.
3) In the PHB II at 12th level the Druid can become a plantlike creature and at 16th an elemental. In elemental form you gain immunity to one element, don't breath, and are immune to critical hits and increase by two size catagories. There is no limit as too how often or how long this form can be maintained. And in each case you get bonus feats. No, technically they do not get an elemental subtype, but the benifits are much the same. Although a change I could make is to simple give the feature the qualites I want of the construct subtype rather than actually saying that.

Again this is for an Urban Druid. One that has also lost some of its versatilty in a game that will only ever be in one city, Ptolus. The Urban Druid's spell list is also a little lacking compared to the Druids, at least compared to Druids we have had in games before. Also, pay attention to the limitations, notablly the time these forms can be maintained per day, compared to the standard or shapeshifting Druid, not just the benifits.

Still, thank you for commenting on what i had thought was a dead thread.

I think it is definitely weaker than Wild Shape.

Wild Shape gives you:

-additional movement capabilities: swim, climb, and fly speeds. underwater breathing

-cool and useful situational bonuses: an eagle's racial bonus to spot. an octopus's racial bonus to escape artist (and ink cloud!), a wolf's tracking and scent ability...

-racial stat boosts: these things can be further boosted by enhancement bonuses from spells and such (Fear the Dire Wolverine form with Bite of the Werebear!)


Honestly, I think if you made these things at-will swift actions that started at 5th level rather than 1st, you could leave in the companion and use the Shapeshifting rules. The loss of smaller and flying forms is fairly significant... and I tend to think the Shapeshifting variant is significantly weaker than Wild Shape anyway. Spellcasting? Just require a feat like Natural Spell.

-Stuart

Stormborn said:

1) Where does it say that natural weapon get a +1 enhancment bonus per 4 druid levels? I see that in the Shapeshifting section of the PHBII, but since i don't refrence that in the description it doesn't apply here. Unless you were saying you think it should?

Click to expand...

this will kinda hamstring this charcater at higher levels where everyone else will be using magic +whatver weapons. although a permanent greater magic fang spell would fix this.

Stormborn said:

2) Yes, I changed it. The whole point here is to not turn into animals. I said the PHBII was a starting place but that over all I didn't like it for this character.

Click to expand...

no worries like i said was just confused,

Stormborn said:

3) In the PHB II at 12th level the Druid can become a plantlike creature and at 16th an elemental. In elemental form you gain immunity to one element, don't breath, and are immune to critical hits and increase by two size catagories. There is no limit as too how often or how long this form can be maintained. And in each case you get bonus feats. No, technically they do not get an elemental subtype, but the benifits are much the same. Although a change I could make is to simple give the feature the qualites I want of the construct subtype rather than actually saying that.

Click to expand...

the only real difference between giving construct traits and the acutal construct subtype is in fact the subtype: construct, which is probably the most potent bonus, because you can no longer be targted by any spell with humanoid in the descriptor so all thoes nasty clerical WTF insta death spells cant do anything to you. of course there are still plenty of spells that can effect you but it cuts out alot that many charcter spend much money on items trying to get spell resistence against.

that said could be a fair trade for overall loss of variety, no swift and no magic+1/4levls, but long time to wait to get the bonus. a tough choice hehehe.

Stormborn said:

Again this is for an Urban Druid. One that has also lost some of its versatilty in a game that will only ever be in one city, Ptolus. The Urban Druid's spell list is also a little lacking compared to the Druids, at least compared to Druids we have had in games before. Also, pay attention to the limitations, notablly the time these forms can be maintained per day, compared to the standard or shapeshifting Druid, not just the benifits.

Still, thank you for commenting on what i had thought was a dead thread.

Click to expand...

just a suggestion on the shifted times, the more you talior the shfiting time to each form the more you can give some groovy bonuses to these forms. e.g. shifted time = druid level - (form level-1). where form level = level you gain the form at. So at level 20 your 1st level form lasts 20mins but you 20th level gargantuan form only lasts 1mintue. since it only lasts 1min you could potnetially give it some additional benefits.

if thats too short try [druid level - (form level -1)] times 2 or 3 or whatever. Perhaps even give the swift unlimted shifting to the 1st and maybe 5th levels at druid level 16+.

in short just talior shifting times to each form and then you have alot more flexibitly with bonuses to the forms. and its also somthing you can change on the fly if you find during your game the druid finds it too restrictive or find it waaay too flexibile and abusive