Partial Wild Shape?

[Hand of Vecna]

Seeing the "Spirit of the Beast" feat in Dragon #313 got me to thinking -- is there any way for a Druid (or, better yet, a Shifter) to do a 'partial' Wild Shape? Being able to sprout Dragon wings, or turn one arm into an octopus tentacle, or sprout Beholder eyestalks from their head, just sounds really cool.

I'm thinking it'd take an Epic Feat, and prerequisites would be something along the lines of XX ranks in the Knowledge skills that govern knowledge of the critters you want to incorporate into the partial change (so a human Shifter wanting to gain Octopus arms would need XX ranks in Knowledge: Nature, while an Epic Sifter wanting to gain a Beholder's Eyestalks would need XX ranks in Knowledge: Dungeoneering; the dragon wing thing would require XX ranks in Knowledge: Arcana, and so on), and perhaps XX ranks in Survival (so you can know how to make the pieces fit together in a viable manner, though that may be covered by the Knowledge skill prerequisites). Perhaps also a Dexterity & Constitution requirmeent ("Spirit of the Beast" has one).

Comments?

 

[Hand of Vecna]

Hrm, it seems the WarShaper PrC from The Complete Warrior is halfway there.....

 

[fba827]

I have not seen a way in 3e or 3.5 e to do this. I do recall in 2e there was a druid "kit" that allowed just that (it was called the shapeshifter or something and could do partial wildshapes).

of course, there may well be a 3e or 3.5e way to do it.. i just don't see as many books as the rest of the ppl on here see

 

[Hand of Vecna]

Heh, I just wanna do the King Hiss tihng, where both of my (human) Druid's arms turn into two poisonous vipers (for four snake-arms total), or to be able to turn into a housecat with a frog's tongue.

 

[Salthorae]

I'm thinking it'd take an Epic Feat, and prerequisites would be something along the lines of XX ranks in the Knowledge skills that govern knowledge of the critters you want to incorporate into the partial change (so a human Shifter wanting to gain Octopus arms would need XX ranks in Knowledge: Nature, while an Epic Sifter wanting to gain a Beholder's Eyestalks would need XX ranks in Knowledge: Dungeoneering; the dragon wing thing would require XX ranks in Knowledge: Arcana, and so on), and perhaps XX ranks in Survival (so you can know how to make the pieces fit together in a viable manner, though that may be covered by the Knowledge skill prerequisites). Perhaps also a Dexterity & Constitution requirmeent ("Spirit of the Beast" has one).

How about this:

Because Dragon wildshape and all the other ones require at least Knowledge(Nature) 24, Dragon wildshape and Magic Beast requiring K(N) 30 and 27 respectively, and you're trying to selectively fine tune your shaping...

Partial Shaping: [Wild][Epic]
You can choose portions of your body with which to wild shape
Prerequisites: Knowledge (Nature) 33, Survival 30, wild shape 6/day, Beast Wild Shape and one other Epic Wild Shape feat (Dragon Wild Shape, Magical Beast Wild Shape, Plant Wild Shape, or Vermin Wild Shape)
Benefits: You can use your normal wild shape ability to change a portion of your body, thus acquiring things such as dragons wings, beholder eyestalks and so on. You gain any extraordinary or spell-like abilities of the shape you take.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

A good start, except Beast Wild Shape no longer exists in 3.5 (since Beasts do not exist in 3.5). Also, even the Epic Shifter progression (posted on the WotC site some months back) only gains Su abilities, never Sp abilities.

Howsabout this?

Partial Wild Shape [Wild][Epic]
You can choose portions of your body with which to wild shape.
Prerequisites: Knowledge (Nature) 33 ranks, Survival 30 ranks, wild shape 7/day, and either 2 or more of Dragon Wild Shape, Magical Beast Wild Shape, Plant Wild Shape, or Vermin Wild Shape or levels in the Shifter PrC.
Benefits: You can use your wild shape (or greater wild shape Shifter) ability to change only a portion of your body. For example, you could tunr an arm into an octopus tentacle, sprout dragon wings from your back, grow a lizardman's tail, or turn into a hellhound with displacer beast tentacles, or a housecat possessing a frog's tongue.
In order to partially wild shape, the character must have the ability to shift into the forms which possess the parts in question. Thus, for the Dragon-winged human Druid, you would need Dragon Wild Shape; for the displacer beast-tentacled hellhound, you would need the ability to shift into a Magical Beast and an Outsider.
Normally, only the Ex abilities of the body part gained are available. However, if used in combination with the Epic Wild Shape ability (see Epic Shifter), you do gain the Su abilities of the body part(s) in question.

 

[Golem2176]

Quintessential Druid

The Quintessential Druid has rules for partial wildshaping, and for taking on multiple features from various animals.

 

[Dingleberry]

Heh, I just wanna do the King Hiss tihng, where both of my (human) Druid's arms turn into two poisonous vipers (for four snake-arms total), or to be able to turn into a housecat with a frog's tongue.

I know it's not what you're specifically looking for, but IIRC, there is a druidic spell in Relics & Rituals that turns the caster's fingers into poisonous serpents, and another that gives the caster a giant frog tongue.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

Hrm... I think I have Relics & Rituals somewhere in this rat's den that I call an apartment...

Golem, thanks for the heads up, I'll see if my FNGS has a copy.