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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 4554576" data-attributes="member: 13966">Well, let's see.  Shapeshifting will provide the class with skill bonuses, attack and damage bonuses, HP and save bonuses, initiative and AC bonuses, speed bonuses and alternate movement types, among other things.....so it doesn't need great basic stats in general, just enough to get by when they're caught in natural form or when borrowing another humanoid's form for infiltration/whatever.d8 Hit DiceMedium Base Attack Bonus (3/4 level, as per a Rogue)4 + Int mod skill points per level (they need decent skills, but can boost a lot of them temporarily when the need arises, through shapeshifting; their concept covers so wide a range of things that any single shapeshifter shouldn't be great at every single thing, so they have to spend their skill points wisely)Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (arcana)Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (religion), Listen, Move Silently, Open Locks, Perform, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spot, Survival, and Swim.I'd say high Fortitude saves, as they're good at controlling their own body and its functions.  They might get a small bonus to Reflex and Will saves through some class feature, but these are definitely not major saves for their theme.  So low base Reflex and Will saves.Proficiencies: I'd say simple weapons, martial weapons, light armors, and all shields except tower shields.  If they want to rely on more gear, they'll need to spend the feats for it to show greater than average training in such things than a more-typical wilderness hunter or savage.Give them Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat at 1st-level, representing their skill at fighting with tooth and nail.Give them a class feature at 4th-level called Natural Power or somesuch, that gives them a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls with unarmed strikes, natural weapons, and the somatic weapons they create through their class' shapeshifting abilities.  This would be supernatural, and treat those attacks as magic weapons for purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction and having a 50% chance to harm incorporeal targets, as normal for magic weapons.  The enhancement would improve by +1 per 4 additional levels in the class.This ability might require activation though, instead of being always-on, so perhaps a standard action to activate for 1 minute of enhancement bonus, but useable at will.  Also, it might also deserve a short cooldown time; say 10 minutes after each use before they can harness that offensive natural power again.  So if they get surprised by monsters with DR X/magic, they'll need to at least spend a round or two drawing out their natural energy and shapeshifting talents before they're at full fighting power, like a cleric or druid would have to do.  Only simple mundanes like the fighter and rogue should be at full effectiveness 24/7 without any need for preparation or powering up.Lessee....basic attack benefits....  Say at 1st-level they get an ability called Attack Shift.  Extraordinary or supernatural.  Standard action to change one body part into a dangerous weapon of some sort, or to grow a temporary weapon like that, activateable at will.  Each use lasts for something like 1 minute (and can be ended prematurely as a free action on their turn).  These don't count as natural weapons, but as unarmed strikes instead, unless the shapeshifter duplicates a manufactured weapon in this manner.The Attack Shift provides base damage of 1d6 points with the altered limb, new limb, or somatic weapon (which protrudes from their hand or hands as appropriate to its size), for a Medium-sized shapeshifter.  Adjust this damage based on the shapeshifter's size category, as appropriate.  They cannot duplicate a weapon with greater maximum base damage than this, but if duplicating a reach weapon that is within their allowed base damage for Attack Shift, that somatic weapon retains its reach.The base damage of Attack Shift improves to 1d8 at 5th-level, then improves by one more step at every 4 shapeshifter levels beyond that, along a progression of: 1 to a d2, a d2 to a d3, a d3 to a d4, a d4 to a d6, a d6 to a d8, a d8 to a d10, a d10 to 2d6, or a d12 to 2d8.  So a Medium-sized shapechanger deals 1d10 damage by 9th-level, 2d6 by 13th-level, and 2d8 by 17th-level.Unarmed attacks affected by the Attack Shift deal damage as per one-handed weapons, regardless of what limb was used to make the unarmed attack, even an off-hand unarmed attack.  Furthermore, the shapeshifter may deal lethal or nonlethal damage with unarmed attacks, even when grappling, at no penalty to the attack roll or grapple check (and if they have Sneak Attack from some source, they may use it for either lethal or nonlethal damage when making an unarmed attack affected by Attack Shift).Each use of Attack Shift may emulate a type of natural weapon, such as a claw or bite, but is not treated as such.  However, the damage type for such an Attack Shift copies that of the emulated natural weapon, such as piercing and slashing for a claw, piercing for a sting, bludgeoning for a slam, and so on.  Extra limbs and altered limbs from Attack Shift do not allow extra attacks as per a creature with numerous natural limbs, since they are not so easily used as they would be for a creature born with them.  So Attack Shift does not qualify the character for the Multidexterity or Multiattack feats.When attacking, you may use any mix of limbs and somatic weapons from Attack Shift as desired, along with any actual weapons wielded or any other unarmed strikes or natural weapons you may already possess.  However, this does not change the number of attacks allowed by your Base Attack Bonus.  Multiple Attack Shifts for the same limb or somatic weapon do not stack; the most recent use ends all others on that limb or weapon.If growing extra limbs through this ability, you may only grow up to 2 extra limbs with Attack Shifts (further attempts replace the oldest extra limb created in this manner).  These extra limbs are not prehensile, so they cannot grasp and handle objects or creatures the same way human hands do, although they can loosely grasp something, holding it idly.  They may be used for grapple attempts in this manner, at a -2 penalty to the grapple check.These extra limbs cannot activate wands, wield weapons, or throw objects, nor execute the somatic or verbal components of spells, nor withdraw spell components from storage spaces, such as pockets or pouches; they lack the fine control needed, and have only a weak mystical connection to your true body.  You do not benefit from magical or psionic items held or worn only on the extra limbs.When duplicating a projectile weapon through Attack Shift, you spontaneously grow ammunition for it as needed, but must load the weapon normally, and this ammunition dissolves into inert dust after being launched or dropped (though if it hits a target, it deals damage before dissolving).  When throwing a weapon formed through Attack Shift, that weapon dissolves likewise after hitting or missing the target, unless you spend a swift action to maintain it; you may do so once per round to maintain it as long as desired, but may only maintain a single such thrown weapon at a time.  This may be necessary when trying to get the full effect out of harpoons or nets, for example.Feats, abilities, and effects that apply to unarmed strikes, such as Weapon Focus (unarmed strike) or Stunning Fist, also apply with limbs affected by an Attack Shift, excluding any Attack Shifts that duplicate manufactured weapons (such somatic weaponry uses any appropriate feats for its duplicated weapon type).  When duplicating a manufactured weapon through Attack Shift, you may only duplicate a simple weapon, unless you choose for that Attack Shift to use lower base damage than normal.  If you do so, you may set the base damage one degree lower (such as 1d4 instead of 1d6) in exchange for duplicating an appropriate martial weapon, or may lower the base damage two degrees (such as 1d3 instead of 1d6) to duplicate an appropriate exotic weapon.If duplicating a shield for shield bash attacks, you may use that shield for defense normally, as well (and it may be a spiked shield, if your base damage die selection is sufficient).  You may duplicate a tower shield with Attack Shift, but tower shields cannot be used to attack, and it lasts only half as long (5 round maximum duration instead of 10 rounds).When activating Attack Shift to alter or grow a limb (not for somatic weaponry), you may choose for that Attack Shift to use lower base damage than normal, in exchange for extra benefits with it.  You cannot use this option if it would lower the base damage below 1 point.  For each step along the damage die progression (listed above for this ability) that you lower the base damage, you may add 1 to the limb's threat range or critical damage multiplier, or add 5 feet to its natural reach.  You cannot add more than 10 feet of extra reach, 2 points of threat range, or 2 points of critical multiplier to any given use of Attack Shift, and you cannot apply both a threat range increase and a critical multiplier increase to the same use of this ability.  Each point you add to the threat range or critical multiplier with Attack Shift also grants +1 on threat confirmation rolls for those attacks.So for instance, a 1st-level shapeshifter might create an extra limb with long claws that have a threat range of 18-20 but only deal 1d3 base damage, or might turn their jaws into a crocodilian maw with 1d4 base damage and a critical multiplier of x3, or might grow a tail that deals 1d3 base damage but has 10 feet of extra reach, or he might use some combination, such as a tail stinger that deals 1d2 damage with 10 feet of extra reach and a 19-20 threat range.Lastly, at 5th-level onward, you can ignore one degree of lowered damage dice for any of these purposes (for instance, adding 5 feet of reach for free to an unarmed strike that deals 1d8 damage), and at 17th-level onward you can ignore up to two degrees of lowered damage dice for these purposes (in total, for each use of Attack Shift).  Thus, for example, at 17th-level you might duplicate an exotic weapon with no reduction in base damage, or you might turn one arm into a crabclaw with 2d6 base damage, a critical multiplier of x3, and 10 feet of extra reach.I'll add more suggestions later.  Need sleep.  But this addresses one of the most complicated things, anyway.  You might just provide a few specific options instead, for the Attack Shift, like bite, claw, tail, hoof, slam, gore, tentacle, or wing for those resembling natural weapons, with each having a specific set of damage dice and whatnot appropraite to their form.</blockquote>

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