shapeshifting in d20

[Shades of Eternity]

I was thinking of building a core shapeshifter class.

Basically a class that can emulate any of the following: the "changing people" from north american mythology, antioto (the leopard men cultists of western africa) and even low level super characters such as mystique and clayface.

basically it would be the only power the character would have and it would start out weak, but would get more powerful over time.

by using this as a class, it would make it easier to emulate races that are known as shapeshifters, simply by making it their prefered class.

What has already been done in d20 and any ideas on how to procede?

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Shapeshifting powers can be really hard to manage, more so if the player has a good imagination and a long list of possible forms

I don't know of any pure classes that do this, but...

My suggestion would be to start with Sean Reynolds "Curse of the Moon", which is a very solid means of handling lycanthopic characters. He shows a number of different fluff concepts to go with the solid mechanics.

Curse of the Moon uses a base template, that adds very little to the character, and a number of feats that can build upon the capabilities of the template.

For the mystique-like character, an 'Alter-self' capabilty would be the best way to go. Elements of Majic has a class called 'Anima Mage' that gains minor constant capabilities. It would be possible to do the entire spectrum of 4-color heroes using this system...altho it would definately change the feel of the game. I am using a variant of this in my current game as part of the 'play 3e like 4e' attempt. {Mages gain an at will spell like ability using these rules}