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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kerleth" data-source="post: 6117980" data-attributes="member: 84383">I've wondered exactly what statistics meant myself, but came to the opposite conclusion for a couple of reasons.1) If only what is mentioned is replaced, than a dwarf retains darkvision and poison resistance as a hawk. Note that there is no specific calling out of racial versus class based abilities, so even though this seems nonsensical, it would be true. I'm talking about the crunch of the mechanics here, the explanation of how things work, not our assumptions.2) Combining the advantages of wildshape with a retention of skills and feats could quickly become ridiculous. The cat can easily outstrip the party's rogue stealth specialist, for example.3) They say that your game statistics change and then call out the exceptions. If only 3 scores and a couple of traits changed, it seems that it would make more sense to say that instead.THAT SAID, there are good reasons to assume otherwise as well.1) They specifically call out spellcasting. If everything is replaced, why should they need to do that?2) You retain your own mind, so perhaps trained skills and feats would remain also. Of course, most skills/feats are combinations of both mental and physical adaptation, but that's probably getting a bit too picky for a game.I find it funny that even a term as simple as game statistics can be vague. It is extremely difficult to design instructions that can stand alone without a person there to clarify.BTW, as far as the seeming silliness of "change as part of an action". This way of handling it does add something to the game. If such abilities are free actions then a character could do 5 of them in one turn. This method allows a character to use the ability and do something else without having to add in a swift action mechanic or running the risk of "breaking" things. I find it easy to understand both here and in the spells, but that's just my opinion.In the end I like wildshape and the druid fairly well. I just think that this is exactly the sort of thing they want players to take note of and discuss. I am okay with either general method, because they both have pros and cons. I simply want to know which is the way it was designed to be used and for it to be balanced and crafted around that method. Making people make a judgement call on a core ability like wildshape is okay in corner cases, but we're talking about the base mechanic and how it will work every time you use it. I think with a little more fine tuning they could make it specifically called out and work well either way.</blockquote>

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