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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Qik" data-source="post: 5942633" data-attributes="member: 6673727">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.</blockquote>

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