Is the shifter worth it?

[Corlon]

I'm reffering to the shifter from Masters of the Wild. They do get some pretty cool abilities, but the best is the level 10 ability of shapeshifting at will for almost any creature under the sun from diminutive to gargantuan size at will. But I realized the merely two levels later, any spellcaster can cast the spell shapechange, which is basically the same but better, and can only be used 10 minutes per level. But aside from this, the charactesr also get the other 9th-4th level spells that a shifter wouldn't get.

Is there anything I'm missing, or would someone just want to be the shifter for the pure coolness of the ability.

 

[ruleslawyer]

The shifter seems largely geared toward the "coolness factor." It doesn't play out to be nearly so powerful as a straight druid, for instance, but a shifter is nice from an RP perspective; being able to change form almost at will makes for a neat character concept. So yes, if you're aiming for power, a druid or arcane spellcaster will serve you much, much better. That said, at levels before shapechange is available, the 3.5 changes to polymorph and wild shape have made shifters much more viable.

 

[FrankTrollman]

Using the 3rd edition rulesset, the Shifter is a joke - just the Enhance Wildshape spell alone allows the Druid to be better than anything the "Shifter" can do long enough to get to Mask of 1,000 faces and such and still be better than anything the Shifter can do.

The Shifter has no spells - and thus has to be considered as a melee/utility character. The spells that Druids get allow for better melee and utility by a lot (GMW, for example). And since in the 3rd edition rulesset the Shifter's abilities are Supernatural and/or spell-like and can thus be dispelled - the Shifter is at a disadvantage in exactly the same situations as the normal Druid.

In the 3.5 rulesset, Druids get Plant shape for free and Beasts don't exist. So at this point you are really giving up 4 levels of spellcasting before you see any return at all. Without a major reworking, it's even worse.

The short answer looks more like this:

Q: Is the Shifter worth it?
A: No.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Slight disagreement, but it depends on re-working the 3.5 wildshape pattern into more of the 3.0/MotW wildshape. If the shifter is getting non-attack extraordinary abilities, I'd say go for it. You might feel a need to include a couple changes to the order that you gain creature types for the shifter.

Losing the spellcasting definitely makes up for the additional abilities, IMHO, though. Spellcasting is huge through those levels, so you need something pretty hefty to compensate.

 

[Crothian]

The shifter is just cool. The sheer amount of creatures one can change into makes it a great utility class. It might not be as powerful as straight Druid, but power is not everything.

 

[Xarls Taunzund]

And since in the 3rd edition rulesset the Shifter's abilities are Supernatural and/or spell-like and can thus be dispelled.

Page 289 of the 3.5 DMG states "A supernatural ability's effect cannot be dispelled and is not subject to counterspells." The 3.0 DMG says pretty much the same, and as at some point the shifters abilites to become supernatural it is not something that needs to be worried about. Though that point becomes moot with 3.0 because the base druidical wildshape was changed to be supernatural from the get-go.

 

[Seravin]

One of my players has taken the shifter class - she wasn't complaining about the class in 3.0. With the 3.5 rules there were some groans but it hasn't stopped her from playing one; but then I grandfathered in most of the animal extraordinary abilities and she has the option of taking the 'Assume Supernatural Ability' feat from Savage Species.

And you can now check out the WOTC site.
They have an epic progression which includes Epic Wildshape. It grants the supernatural abilities a certain number of times per day based on level.

 

[FrankTrollman]

Page 289 of the 3.5 DMG states "A supernatural ability's effect cannot be dispelled and is not subject to counterspells." The 3.0 DMG says pretty much the same, and as at some point the shifters abilites to become supernatural it is not something that needs to be worried about. Though that point becomes moot with 3.0 because the base druidical wildshape was changed to be supernatural from the get-go.

No - the 3.0 DMG said nothing of the kind. It was errataed to fall in line with the PHB and MM - that Supernatural Abilities could be dispelled. It was in the PHB. It was in the errata to the DMG. The 3rd edition rulesset is abundantly clear: Supernatural Abilities can be dispelled. There is no room for argument here.

-Frank