Master of Many Forms as a Ranger archetype

[StreamOfTheSky]

Basically, I love the PrC, and I always liked the wild shape ranger entry as 3E's closest "pure shapeshifting focused" build. So, I thought of making it into a ranger archetype, one that gives up spells and companion to focus on literally becoming one with nature. Now, I realize giving actual shapechanging is more potent than PF's polymorph spells. I also realize this is totally going to be stronger than core Ranger.

That's not important, IMO. The Synthesist proved that PF can handle a class that's able to replace its physical stats right from level 1. And I consider Synthesist and Druid, due to the similarities, to be my "balance points." Synth. can rack up tremendous strength and size, and has the a la carte evolutions for potent things you'd want all the time, like pounce and flight, and has a great spell list. Druid...is a 9-level caster with powerful wild shaping abilities starting at level 4, and a full progression animal companion. Please keep that in mind before freaking out...

[sblock]Master of Many Forms (MoMF)

A Ranger archetype


Skills

The Master of Many Form's class skills are Climb (Str), Disguise (Cha), Fly (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).


Weapon and Armor Proficiency

In addition to the Ranger's proficiencies, a Master of Many Forms is also proficient with all natural attacks (claw, bite, and so forth) of any form she assumes with wild shape.


Wild Shape (Su)

At 1st level, a MoMF gains the ability to turn herself into any Small or Medium animal and back again once per day. She may use Wild Shape an additional time per day for each Ranger level she advances. At 20th level, a MoMF can use Wild Shape at will. Her options for new forms include all creatures with the animal type. The new form's hit dice cannot exceed the Ranger's level. This ability functions as follows:

• You cannot take the form of a unique creature or specific individual, nor may you take the form of any templated creature.
• You retain your original type and subtype. Your size changes to match the new form. If the new form has the aquatic subtype, you gain it as well.
• You lose the natural weapons, natural armor, and movement modes of your original form, as well as any extraordinary special attacks of your original form not derived from class levels. You gain the natural weapons, natural armor, movement modes, and extraordinary special attacks of the new form.
• You retain your original form's special qualities and supernatural and spell-like abilities. You do not gain the new form's special qualities or supernatural or spell-like abilities.
• You gain the physical ability scores (Str, Dex, Con) of the new form but retain your own mental ability scores (Int, Wis, Cha). Changed physical scores affect all modifiers, however, your maximum hit points remain unchanged even if the new form has a different Constitution score.
• Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, you retain all other game statistics, including HD, BAB, skill ranks, feats, and base save bonuses.
• You are effectively camouflaged as a creature of the type you wild shape into, and gain a +10 bonus on disguise checks.

The effect lasts for 1 hour per Ranger level, or until she changes back. Changing form (to animal or back) is a standard action and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity. Each time you use wild shape, you regain lost hit points as if you had rested for a night. The form chosen must be one the MoMF is familiar with (either encountered, studied, or can succeed at a knowledge check as if identifying the creature).

Any gear worn or carried by the Ranger melds into the new form if it is of any creature type other than humanoid or monstrous humanoid. Items that provide constant bonuses and do not need to be activated continue to function while melded in this way (with the exception of armor and shield bonuses, which cease to function). Items that require activation cannot be used while melded. While in such a form, you cannot cast any spells that require material components (unless you have the Eschew Materials or Natural Spell feat), and can only cast spells with somatic components if the form you choose has the capability to make such movements, such as a dragon. If your new form is humanoid or monstrous humanoid, your equipment remains and re-sizes to match your new size.

When the Ranger reverts to her true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on her body that they previously occupied. Any new items worn in the assumed form fall off and land at the Ranger's feet.

This replaces the Favored Enemy class feature in its entirety.


Shifter's Speech (Ex)

The Master of Many Forms gains Wild Speech as a bonus feat at 1st level. Furthermore, she can communicate with other creatures of the same kind as her assumed form, as long as such creatures are normally capable of communicating with each other through natural methods.


Combat Style

A MoMF must select the Natural Weapon combat style.


Improved Wild Shape (Su)

A MoMF knows how to use her wild shape to assume a wider variety of forms. At 2nd level, she can assume the form of a humanoid with wild shape. She later gains the ability to assume the form of a monstrous humanoid (at 4th level), a fey (at 6th level), a vermin (at 8th level), an elemental (at 10th level; only “true elementals” such as Earth and Magma), an aberration (at 12th level), a plant (at 14th level), an ooze (at 16th level), a dragon (at 18th level), and an elemental (at 20th level; any kind).

The size limit of the shapes she can assume also increases as she gains levels. At 5th level, she can assume the form of a Large creature; at 7th level, a Tiny creature; at 9th level, a Huge creature; at 11th level, a Diminutive creature; at 13th level, a Gargantuan creature; at 15th level, a Fine creature; and at 17th level, a Colossal creature.

This replaces the Hunter's Bond and spell casting a Ranger receives. A Master of Many Forms never gains a caster level and thus cannot activate spell-trigger or spell-completion magic items.


Fast Wild Shape (Ex)

Starting at 8th level, a MoMF can wild shape as a move action.


Extraordinary Wild Shape

At 11th level, a MoMF gains the extraordinary special qualities of any form she assumes, including any traits inherent to the creature type and subtype that is not supernatural or spell-like, when using wild shape.

This replaces Quarry.


Shifter's Form (Ex)

At 19th level, a MoMF is immune to all transmutation effects unless she willingly accepts them. In addition, she may now wild shape into a new form as a free action, up to once per round.

This replaces Improved Quarry.


Spontaneous Mutation (Su)

At 20th level, you have mastered adapting to biology alien to your own. Each time you wild shape, you may choose one ability from the Beast Shape IV list ( burrow 60 feet, climb 90 feet, fly 120 feet (good maneuverability), swim 120 feet, blindsense 60 feet, darkvision 90 feet, low-light vision, scent, tremorsense 60 feet, breath weapon, constrict, ferocity, grab, jet, poison, pounce, rake, rend, roar, spikes, trample, trip, and web) and gain it in your new form. If you select breath weapon, roar, spikes, trample, or web, the form you have assumed must have that ability normally. Otherwise, you gain use of the ability even if the assumed form does not normally possess it. Each time you wild shape into a different form, you can select a different ability to mutate.

This replaces Master Hunter.[/sblock]


"The Sidebar"

A note to the DM: While I firmly believe that gaining the Ex attacks (and later, qualities) and stats of the vast majority of the applicable monsters to be fairly balanced, there will definitely be some extreme examples that you should fully exercise your rule 0 on. Any form the PC wants to use still needs to be approved by you. Something having big natural armor or a lot of strength isn't a cause for concern, but some options will be too much. My personal preference is to just nerf the monster itself to something more reasonable, than to ban it from the player outright, but do as you see fit.
Thus far, I have noticed that the Cloaker and Roper are overpowered, though IMO they're overpowered for their CR as monsters, and not just as a PC option. Cloaker is CR 5 and can just spam Hold Monster round after round. Roper is still CR 12 (like it was in 3E) but had its hp and Con score (affecting save DC) nearly doubled from 3E (among other buffs all over the stat block) and, if focusing fire on one PC, can pretty much guaranteed take him/her out with ease.

A note to the player: Prepare your stat blocks for forms you can assume in advance before the game. Do not hold up the game looking through books and adding up values, that's just very inconsiderate to the other players and DM.



So...what do you all think?

 

[paradox42]

I wouldn't have thought of Ranger for this, but it looks well-executed to me and worth trying. And of course, as you noted, comparisons to Synthesist are inevitable.

The only objection I can see offhand would be that it would be pretty much impossible to run a "shanghai/press-gang the party" plot with one of these as a PC; the MoMF should pretty much always be able to escape from a standard jail cell or prison cart (for example, turn into a snake and those shackles are suddenly useless to hold you). But personally, those sorts of plots always rubbed me the wrong way anyway, so it's not an objection from me.

 

[Qik]

First, the caveats: I'm wholly unfamiliar with 3.5 in general and the class in particular, so some of the things that jump out at me may not be your doing. Also, I fully acknowledge that you're much more well-versed in the rules and balance issues than I am, so if you say something isn't unbalanced or otherwise problematic, than it probably isn't. But still, I wanted to share a few thoughts.

The thing that really catches my eye is that the ranger can shift 1 per level at an hour a pop. At level 5, that's 5 shapes totaling 25 hours a pop, which in my mind basically makes any limitations erroneous in practice (maybe not the case in some urban contexts - but more often than not). Besides just the general issue, I also think that this rate is way out of line with any of the precedents set by PF - the alchemist's mutagen and the druid's wild shape come to mind as comparable abilities with much more tapered levels of access. Yes, this archetype is more specialized around its ability than those are, but still, I feel like there is a major disproportion here that isn't wholly warranted.

Related to this: granting Shifter's Speech for free at level 1 seems to me a get-out of one of the principle drawbacks of shaping. Given the archetype's focus on shaping, I agree that they should get it some way, but I don't like the idea of giving it right out of the gate. Personally, I'd either provide it at a later level, or add it to the list of ranger bonus feats available at level 2. I think the latter is how Paizo would approach it, myself, but I can see just giving it for free flat-out.

Those are the two things that jump out to me the most. I'll admit to also being wary of having such flexible access to SLAs at level 6 when fey come into play - between that and the melee prowess the shifting provides, that's hella versatility - but I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough of the beastiary to make an out-and-out case against that.

Also, Large at 5 seems a bit early to me, esp. since it's 1 level quicker than the Druid, but you sort of balance that by having Huge at 9 instead of the Druid's 8, so I'll lay off.

Hope some of that is helpful to you.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I wouldn't have thought of Ranger for this, but it looks well-executed to me and worth trying. And of course, as you noted, comparisons to Synthesist are inevitable.

The only objection I can see offhand would be that it would be pretty much impossible to run a "shanghai/press-gang the party" plot with one of these as a PC; the MoMF should pretty much always be able to escape from a standard jail cell or prison cart (for example, turn into a snake and those shackles are suddenly useless to hold you). But personally, those sorts of plots always rubbed me the wrong way anyway, so it's not an objection from me.

Thank you.

Druid does present the same "problem" at level 4, and others from level 1 can ruin such plans, too. Teleport Conjuror wizard has Su teleporting at level 1, for example. So, whatever.

First, the caveats: I'm wholly unfamiliar with 3.5 in general and the class in particular, so some of the things that jump out at me may not be your doing. Also, I fully acknowledge that you're much more well-versed in the rules and balance issues than I am, so if you say something isn't unbalanced or otherwise problematic, than it probably isn't. But still, I wanted to share a few thoughts.

Well, the wild shape rules I put together are a sort of mish-mash of 3E and PF's rules, although more heavily towards 3E. Whole point of this was to have a class that can actually turn into creatures, rather than just a "remarkable likeness" as with the polymorph spells.
And there will definitely be balance issues. Game designers exercise MUCH less care towards making sure monsters are balanced than they do for rules/abilities the players are expected to be using. All it takes is one extremely poorly thought out monster to cause havoc. That's why the DM exercising judgment is important. I like the shapechanging concept, I don't want to have to throw it away just because there's a few bad apples. The broken stuff, upon being looked over, should generally be pretty apparent.

The thing that really catches my eye is that the ranger can shift 1 per level at an hour a pop. At level 5, that's 5 shapes totaling 25 hours a pop, which in my mind basically makes any limitations erroneous in practice (maybe not the case in some urban contexts - but more often than not). Besides just the general issue, I also think that this rate is way out of line with any of the precedents set by PF - the alchemist's mutagen and the druid's wild shape come to mind as comparable abilities with much more tapered levels of access. Yes, this archetype is more specialized around its ability than those are, but still, I feel like there is a major disproportion here that isn't wholly warranted.

A level 8 druid, just 4 levels after gaining the class feature, has 3 uses/day at 8 hours apiece and can thus be wildshaped all day, even while sleeping. So I didn't think the large amount of it for this class would be a problem.
The expectation is that the MoMF will be shifting forms to troubleshoot problems, gain a tactical advantage when needed such as flight, approach a wandering band of orcs as if one of their own, etc... I could cut the duration down, but I don't see why druid's should last longer. And the MoMF cannot be wildshaped 24/7 until level 5 (5/day for 5 hours each = 25 hours), a mere 3 levels sooner than the druid...who coincidentally obtains wildshape 3 levels after the MoMF.
I just don't think it's a problem. The MoMF wants to spend all day in the same form...druid can already do that. She wants to switch regularly to suit the situation? Duration won't matter then, anyway.

Related to this: granting Shifter's Speech for free at level 1 seems to me a get-out of one of the principle drawbacks of shaping. Given the archetype's focus on shaping, I agree that they should get it some way, but I don't like the idea of giving it right out of the gate. Personally, I'd either provide it at a later level, or add it to the list of ranger bonus feats available at level 2. I think the latter is how Paizo would approach it, myself, but I can see just giving it for free flat-out.

The prestige class granted that exact same class feature at level 1. You don't enter the PrC right away, granted, but you do so the very next level after gaining wild shape (so level 6, basically). Add to that the fact that speaking in wild shape IS a feat in PF that just requires having wild shape to obtain, and it seemed silly to hold it back. I could push it back a little if you prefer... Note it's more than just talking in wild shape, it's also to have the ability to communicate with others of the same kind. That's useful for the "social chameleon" role I intended to be part of this class's profile.

Those are the two things that jump out to me the most. I'll admit to also being wary of having such flexible access to SLAs at level 6 when fey come into play - between that and the melee prowess the shifting provides, that's hella versatility - but I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough of the beastiary to make an out-and-out case against that.

You never get spell-like abilities. Nor supernatural ones*. That is very important to keep in mind. You only get Ex attacks, and then at level 11 Ex qualities. Fey is actually, IMO, a pretty terrible form to take other than doing it just for the sake of looking like a Nymph. I included the form because the original prestige class gave it, and it's nature-y.

*Ok, at level 20, he can use breath weapon, that's about it.

Also, Large at 5 seems a bit early to me, esp. since it's 1 level quicker than the Druid, but you sort of balance that by having Huge at 9 instead of the Druid's 8, so I'll lay off.

Yeah, all in all, it's about as good a progression for size as the druid up until the mid-teens. And this is the shapeshifting focused class, so being about as good as the shapeshifter w/ 9th level spells is definitely not going to break anything.

Hope some of that is helpful to you.

Oh, it is. I welcome any constructive criticism and questions.



Side note: My current favorite idea for this class, as thought up by my friend: Turn into a mimic and then as a mimic turn into a sword. Have your friend wield you and use the adhesive to stick to the enemy you hit and lock him up in a grapple.