Faolyn
(she/her)
Yeah, I wanted a balance between the Changelings at-will and the Shifter's 1/rest abilities, while also allowing them to make relatively minor changes. My other option is to make alter self available at 3rd level and then change all of the gift-granted spells to 5th level. It would still be easily available, since I assume that a large percentage of LU players are still going to start at 3rd level.Fascinating set! At first I was a little surprised to see those 3 choices grouped together, but then it dawned on me, "But of course they belong together, they are all shape-shifters!"
Base abilities seem good; Alter Self can be potent but it's limited to once per day.
Very good point. I had modeled the vines after the Loxodon trunk, but you make a very important point. It should be, as you say, more like a mage hand. I should specify that you still need to use an action (or one of your attacks, if you have multiple attacks) to do so.Hamadryad: The only ability here that gave me pause was the Vines power. Since it appears to be at-will and usable as a bonus action, I can see it being problematic in the hands of devious players; for example, as a bonus action I could keep making Grapple checks every round in addition to my normal action; even if the strength of the grapple is low, it could still be very annoying and eventually the dice gods will win in my favor.
A Proposal: What if it normally can work like a Mage Hand, but the hamadryad can add a temporary boost to grapple, pull, or push or manipulate a larger object? This boost would be usable once per short or long rest.
Eberron shifters stay in beastform for a minute, I think, and then have to complete a rest, whereas with the zoanth can shift any time. But I can definitely see giving them darkvision as well.Zoanth: Here I feel they could use a little buff. The 1d6 natural weapon damage is nice, but not as useful if you have access to higher-damaging weapons. I might make the natural attack a finesse attack as well, so a Rogue Zoanth might be able take advantage of the ability.
A Couple Proposals: While Shapechanging, perhaps the Zoanth should also gain Darkvision and/or +5 movement? And taking inspiration from Eberron's "Shifter" race, maybe a "Once per Long Rest" ability could give them some temporary hit points?
For whatever reason, I rarely give my heritages darkvision, unless it's part of their standard monster statblock, like with my version of goblins.
Thanks for providing it! My friends like my work but aren't familiar with LU (yet!) so they're not necessarily the best judges.Thanks again for inviting feedback!