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 Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:41 pm
Last Updated - April 8th
Bonded Wild Shape Druid Variant
Instead of using their Nature Bond ability to acquire an Animal Companion or Domain. The druid has the option of enhancing their Wild Shape ability, thus granting their Wild Shape a handful of special features.
The Changes
+++ Starting at 1st level you are capable of using Beast Shape I at will.
+++ All other instances of your Wild shape ability function as normal except that your uses per day become hours per day. Thus at 6th level where you would normally have 2 uses of Wild shape per day, you'd instead have 2 hours of Wild shape per day. You can use this time in any manner in which you desire.
Example: You could Wildshape for 45 minutes, then for 25 minutes at another time, then for 50 more minutes later on.
+++ A Bonded Wild Shape druid is capable of taking on the shapes of Vermin. Add the following list of Vermin abilities to the appropriate Beast Shape levels.
Vermin Abilities
Beast Shape I
Malleable, Susceptible to Salt, Water Dependency, Pull (Filament), Luminescence, Flash Burst, Attach, Blood Drain, Poison 1/round for 2 rounds (1d2 Ability Type Damage), cure 1 save.
Beast Shape II
Lunge, Mandibles, Sudden Strike, Gnaw, Poison 1/round for 4 rounds (1d3 Ability Type Damage), cure 2 consecutive saves.
Beast Shape III
Poison 1/round for 6 rounds (1d4 Ability Type Damage), cure 3 consecutive saves.
Nature's Magic
Starting at 4th level you gain a magical enhancement bonus to your natural attacks equal to 1/4 your Druid level. This bonus functions like that of a normal magical weapon for the purposes of attack, damage, and bypassing damage reduction.
Quickened Shape
At 7th level your Wild Shape ability becomes a move action.
At 11th level your Wild Shape ability becomes a swift action.
At 17th level your Wild Shape ability becomes a free action.
Becoming Familiar with a Shape
In order to assume the shape of a creature you must be familiarized with that type of creature. Becoming familiar with the creature is done by studying its way of life. This is represented by a Knowledge check appropriate for the type of creature against DC 10 plus the creature's Challenge Rating. You must spend a total of 24 hours studying however, you may not study in periods less than 2 hours.
If you fail to succeed the Knowledge check after having studied, you may attempt to make another knowledge check at half the time requirement, after you have fully rested.
You are able to memorize a total amount of shapes equal to half your Druid level plus your Intelligence modifier, minimum one. You are capable of replacing previously learned shapes with new ones.
Example: Leila, a female Druid has spent three to four days studying the habits and general life of a squirrel family. She has accumulated at least 24 hours of time studying these animals and is now capable of taking their shape.
If Leila had failed to study these animals, she would need to have a full night's rest, and then study them for 12 hours, if she once again failed the check then she would require another full night's rest and only 6 hours of study the next day.
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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:07 pm
Wiped this clean. Reference post 1 please.
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Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:42 pm
Hmmmm, this is for Pathfinder rather than 3.5, which is why I was confused.
The Quickened Shape should probably be compacted a little more. The very level after they gain Wild Shape is when you're having them be able to use it as a move action. This would give it at every four levels
At 8th level, Wild Shape is a move action
At 12th level, Wild Shape is a swift action
at 16th level, Wild Shape is a free action
At 20th level, Wild Shape is an immediate action
However, I think it's vastly overpowered. Nature's Magic is essentially giving a Druid free magic weapons, letting him spend his money on other things. This could be made into a different variant in and of itself. I'd recommend taking it's ability to spontaneously cast Summon Nature's Ally, and/or maybe some of it's spells per day. I would recommend the spells, as items that would allow them to cast better spells or allow them to cast more would rise in cost similarly to getting better weapons.
The Quickened Shape though is incredibly overpowered though. A 20th level druid could just immediately morph into something that is immune to the damage being done. Even free action would be bad, as they could change into something really big and powerful to hit, then change into something really small so the enemy can't hit them. Move and swift are good. In 3.5, that's the equivalent of two feats. Perhaps give them the Natural Spell feat at lvl 5, or some other Wild Feat.
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:34 am
Well if Pathfinder the Druid was massively debuffed, and then buffed in other areas sort of.
Basically they're much more balanced, and so when taking into comparison the magical weapons benefits, I don't think it's too much of a bonus.
Especially when you compare it to the 3.5 PHB II shapeshifter variant which gives you the same thing, allows infinite use of wildshape starting at lvl 1 (albeit for only a very short list of forms) but also gives you significant power boosts to stats and the like, including the magical boost that my variant has, and I believe a few other things >.>
And that Druid was actually more balanced than the 3.5 Druid.
I don't believe that I've had any comments on the magical part being O.P., but I shall take it into consideration. However your immediate action thing is a good point I suppose. Though, are you not only able to make an -- yeah, you're right. Okay. I'm going to remove the immediate action part, that is very O.P.
Reason I didn't see that I suppose was because I removed absolutes from my games within reason pretty much.
Almost nothing grants immunity in my house-rules >.> High bonuses or such, but no real immunity. Unless for certain circumstances. I should have caught that >< lol
If it is overpowered in other aspects, which I don't believe it is. Considering my Variant is actually weaker than the 3.5 Pathfinder Shifter Variant in some ways (That I think it would be more balanced at times for 3.5) I think for Pathfinder, in which most classes got rebalanced in ways and others buffed. It fits well.
So as I said, I don't believe I have to down the power, but if it is proven I shall end up doing something focused around removing certain spell levels probably.
Yes, essentially free magic weapons, but they don't have all those neat and nifty properties that real magic weapons have.
However, I see your point and am thinking of lowering spell levels. I'd have to get more opinions though to make a final decision >< lol.
Decided to change it to 7, 11, and 17 to both up the level at which you actually acquire them, and to fill in some blank levels that the Druid has basically so they actually get something.
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:10 am
Reorganized the text around a bit so that it looks much nicer.
Will do that to the rest of the document later.
Removed any instances of the word form and replaced with shape for improved consistency.
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Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:49 am
Ok, I can see your point about the weapons now since the 3.5 variant allows it.
I also notice that it says spells cannot be cast in your new form, even if you have the Natural Spell feat. You could do that instead of removing spells.
Which book are the Pathfinder Variants in?
There should be weapons that change with the Druid, like beastskin armor, that allows them to use weapon abilities with their natural attacks.
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Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 3:12 pm
Biological_Warfare Ok, I can see your point about the weapons now since the 3.5 variant allows it. I also notice that it says spells cannot be cast in your new form, even if you have the Natural Spell feat. You could do that instead of removing spells. Which book are the Pathfinder Variants in? There should be weapons that change with the Druid, like beastskin armor, that allows them to use weapon abilities with their natural attacks. There is no book for official Pathfinder Variants if I am correct. Unless some of the Adventure Paths/modules have variants in them. I am not certain and or do not believe Paizo released any official documents with variants. I am certain that some third party sources did, and I myself have actually acquired some homebrew variants for classes. Aside from that, Awh, the PHB 2 druid does? I'll go check that out, and perhaps you are right. However, if you notice. The wildshaping has CHANGED dramatically from 3.5 Aside from that there are significant boosts to stats and also free feats that go along with the 3.5 pHB 2 druid class I believe as well. Thus my Variant does NOT grant those bonus feats and ability score bonuses. I believe that perhaps the other abilities I grant might compensate for the free feats, though NOT for the ability score increases. Plus there are the critical immunity things I believe. I think plants and elementals were crit immune in 3.5??? This is not the case with Pathfinder I don't believe. I think only Incorporeal creatures are crit immune in pathfinder. So there are a number of conditional factors in which I believe being able to cast spells while in a wildshaped form with my variant MAY be balanced still. However, as I said I'd like to get more opinions before making such a change. Beastskin armor doesn't sound like it would allow one to use cleaving feats and such. Though can't you already do such a thing while in say a bear form? I believe you can... I dunno, I'll go check. Sounds like something that would increase your natural armor or give damage reduction or something... Unless your suggesting something that I don't quite comprehend what you're trying to say.. Though I may know of what you're trying to suggest. Possibly that is.. Please elaborate/confirm about that.
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Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 5:37 pm
Beastskin armor is found in either Complete Adventurer or Complete Divine.
Normally, armor is melded into the new form like every other piece of equipment. However, by using an additional use of Wild Shape, the armor changes to fit your form. That way, you still have the armor bonus to AC.
I was really just remarking on how your Pathfinder variant was similar to a 3.5 variant, so I was just mentioning that maybe you could pull that limitation from it as well.
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Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:37 pm
Awh okay, and ooh alright.
Also, yeah I originally sort of got the idea for it from the PHB 2 shifter.
But even if I took the magic part away, it would still be similar had I not been influenced by the PHB 2 Druid >< Darn shifters and their likeness, lol.
Anyway, perhaps yeah. I shall definitely keep it in mind.
How balanced do you think it is now though as is, and how appealing?
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