Pathfinder 1E Bringing the Totemist (Magic of Incarnum) to Pathfinder

[Lopke_Quasath]

I have a dream. Using APG’s Summoner’s Eidolon format, convert the Book of Incarnum Totemist to Pathfinder. The Totemist would no longer use Incarnum as the source of their power. No more unborn souls as a battery. Pharasma would be angry Instead, Totemists draw power from...? Maybe the same magical essence that fuels magical beasts.

Totemist
D8 hit die
4 skill points/lvl
+3/4 BAB
Simple weapon prof, light armour, and shields (except tower shield)
Wild Empathy

Each day they spend 1 hour choosing their form. Their base form is either biped, quadruped (looks like a centaur, with hindquarters made of a white/blue force), or serpentine (body gets raised off the ground, with tail (made of white/blue force) trailing behind.
Points are spent choosing specific abilities. Like a wizard, 15 minutes can be spent to switch out specific abilities, although the base form must remain the same.
The maximum number of abilities that you can have shaped simultaneously is equal to your Constitution score minus 10 (including base form).

Abilities can be taken from the current Eidolon list, and/ore maybe more added from the original Totemist soulmelds.

I haven't gone much beyond this, as the idea hit me when viewing a few posts about Summoners making themselves their own Eidolon, and Totemists as Skinwalkers (i.e. eliminating Incarnum completely). I would love to hear other ideas/views/thoughts and advice.

Cheers!

 

[paradox42]

Very cool idea. I can immediately foresee two issues: first, this "Skinwalker Totemist" will probably need more Evolution Points than an Eidolon gets for a Summoner of equal level, since the character doesn't have an Eidolon and the loss of the pet will be quite significant in combat. Second, if the Skinwalker Totemist doesn't get spells, and really why should it, then it will need extra abilities to make up for that loss.

Both issues can probably be solved by figuring out how many Evolution Points the character gets at each level, plus some cool class features to help it, but I don't have any immediate idea how to go about balancing such a thing.