Aug 11
Coco can only shift to forms he’s familiar with, but is able to create minor details as he wishes. So he can change skin color, eye color, hair, etc.
One of the problems of having a shifting character in D&D was that effectively, the Monster Manual was their spellbook. If they encounter a problem, they can often just find a creature to shift to in order to overcome that problem. Fighting invisible creatures? You can get something with blindsense. Need to cross a ravine? Wings are readily available.
I remember a time in 3e when the polymorph spell finally got a semblance of balance. Then a new Monster Manual came out and War Trolls made the spell overpowered again.
So shapeshifters were up there (along with conjurers) as the class hardest to balance properly.
And then the edition died with a whimper…
Ah, but like dead gods in the Astral, things never die for real do they? The OGL will make sure that there’s going to be some form of 3rd edition around for a very long time.
And it seems that Paizo’s PFS is doing as well if not better than LFR in the Bay Area. They capitalized on something that WotC missed with LFR – ongoing story and a reason to be involved with the campaign. I would say the new direction to come with LFR is going to remedy this, but then they said you could start at the beginning levels of each tier up through P1, so they have by default ended the need for buy in, since any character can start anywhere they want for all practical purposes.