How do Shifters and Changelings fit in Eberron?

[Nifft]

How about a changeling who creates (or follows) a fighting style built around morphing the body mid-fight? Lengthening limbs, growing increasingly thin or short to dodge blows, etc. I'd allow a player (or as a player, if my DM would allow) create feats for a monk to develop those feats.

You don't even have to -- there's already the Warshaper.

Cheers, -- N

 

[blargney the second]

only thing i would change is have less ability changes when shifting

Yeah, that's the one thing that's incongruous about shifters. They're supposed to be a return to nature, but they play like integrals because of the ability modifiers... :-\

 

[Rechan]

You don't even have to -- there's already the Warshaper.

Cheers, -- N

Problem with the warshaper is that it's way too easy for changelings to get into. It requires a BAB +4 and various things - for a druid you couldn't enter until 7th, a mage 9th. A changeling fighter could take his first level in it at 5th.

 

[Nifft]

Problem with the warshaper is that it's way too easy for changelings to get into. It requires a BAB +4 and various things - for a druid you couldn't enter until 7th, a mage 9th. A changeling fighter could take his first level in it at 5th.

A Fighter who can do something easier than a Druid?!

Good god, get out the NerfBat(tm)!

-- N

 

[Desdichado]

I am okay with shifters. Not as nifty as Changelings or Warforged, but cool. (Changelings go beyond cool and into awesome! I so want to play one as a spy, man of mystery and action!)

The last one I played was the equivalent of Tony Curtis or Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot. A male changeling rake who was addicted to the dangerous pursuit of impersonating the lovers of beautiful and powerful women to have sex with them. When he got caught red-handed by a crime boss in Greyhawk city, he fled to Diamond Lake as a female half-elf and was in hiding as such when the campaign started.

 

[LoneWolf23]

The Shifters are my favorite Eberron race, but then I have a special draw to them. The first time I saw the Shifters, they just looked like Beast-Folk to me, and I continue to see them in such a light, no matter how hard Wizards seems to scream "They're not Furries!" everytime the topic comes up...

 

[Spatula]

Mechanically, they just don't work well. The only way to really bring out their racial features is to dedicate all your racial feats to them, and if you're playing anything other than a Fighter, that means you can't spend feats on the things you're normally supposed to pick up as feats, which seriously weakens your class.

As a result, with the exception of a very limited range of character builds in which the available Shifter feats synergise well with the class's core abilities, you end up with a significantly weaker character than if you'd gone with a core race, all for the sake of some flavour that isn't really particularly interesting in the first place.

Regardless of what other abilities you get when shifting, or even if you take no shifter feats, you still get an untyped +2 to Str, Dex, or Con (or Wis, with Races of Eberron) 1/day, which is handy for pretty much anyone. The only real downside is that you have to take at least 2 feats to get more uses per day, but even then... there's a lot of generally useful shifter feats.

 

[MarkB]

Regardless of what other abilities you get when shifting, or even if you take no shifter feats, you still get an untyped +2 to Str, Dex, or Con (or Wis, with Races of Eberron) 1/day, which is handy for pretty much anyone.

Given that you're paying for it by taking a race with a net -2 to your starting ability scores all the time, +2 for a brief period once per day is not exactly thrilling in comparison.

 

[FalcWP]

Given that you're paying for it by taking a race with a net -2 to your starting ability scores all the time, +2 for a brief period once per day is not exactly thrilling in comparison.

Its not saying much... but at least its better mechanically than half-orcs, who also have a net -2, a bonus on strength which is useful to fewer classes than a bonus on dexterity (in my experience) and darkvision. I'd rather have the shifter's group of benefits even without taking any shifter feats; things just get better if you do have a few feats to spare for shifter feats (and there are plenty of good ones out there).

 

[Crothian]

Given that you're paying for it by taking a race with a net -2 to your starting ability scores all the time, +2 for a brief period once per day is not exactly thrilling in comparison.

Luckily the numbers don't rule the game!!