(3.5, PrC) Rawr, I transform and claw at thee! (PEACH)

[Pramxnim]

Shifter Exemplar

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Shifter exemplars are those who strive to master the abilities granted by their lycanthropic heritage. These warriors seek to enhance their skills while focusing on more primal aspects of the shifter race.

BECOMING A SHIFTER EXEMPLAR
Most shifter exemplars are warriors who seek to tap into their primal strengths in order to aid them in combat. Rangers make up the most of the exemplar ranks, with barbarians falling in close second. Rarely do druids pursue this path, though ones with a particular aversion towards turning into animals might on rare occasion.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Race: Shifter
BAB: +3
Skills: Knowledge (Nature) 4 ranks, Survival 8 ranks
Feat: Any shifter feat.

Class Skills
The Shifter Exemplar's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis) and Swim (Str)
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int

Hit Dice: d8

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+0

|

+2

|

+2

|

+0

| Bonus shifter feat, lesser shifting mastery

2nd|

+1

|

+3

|

+3

|

+0

| Bonus shifter feat, natural weapon focus

3rd|

+2

|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

| Bonus shifter feat, shifting mastery

4th|

+3

|

+4

|

+4

|

+1

| Bonus shifter feat, natural weapon specialization

5th|

+3

|

+4

|

+4

|

+1

| Extra shifter trait, master shifter[/table]

Weapon Proficiencies: A place to put the different proficiencies.
Put all the different class abilities in here!

Class features

Bonus shifter feat: At each level except 5th, you gain a shifter feat as a bonus feat, provided you meet the prerequisites for it.

Least shifting mastery (Su): At 1st level, you become more adept at controlling the natural weapons you gain by shifting. While shifted, any natural weapons you have gain a bonus to damage equal to your shifter exemplar class level. In addition, they count as magic weapons for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

Natural weapon focus (Ex): At 2nd level, you become more competent in the use of your natural weapons. You gain the Weapon Focus feat for all of your natural weapons gained through shifting.

Shifting mastery(Su): At 3rd level, you learn to manifest more of your ancestral power. While shifted, the bonus to the ability score governed by your shifting trait increases to +4.

Natural weapon specialization (Ex): At 4th level, you learn to deal more lethal damage with your natural weapons. You gain the Weapon Specialization feat for all of your natural weapons gained through shifting.

Extra shifter trait (Ex): You gain an additional shifter trait. You manifest all the benefits of the trait, including the temporary bonus to an ability score (this ability also benefits from shifting mastery). This ability stacks with the shifter feat of the same name. If you also have the feat, you manifest 3 shifter traits when shifted.

Master Shifter (Ex): At 5th level, you have learned to master the abilities gained by your shifter feats. Choose two of your shifter feats that grants a static bonus to speed, AC, saves, initiative or skill checks when shifting. You gain an additional amount of bonus to the ones granted by those feats equal to 1/2 the number of shifter feats you have. In the case of feats that increase your movement speed for one form of movement, you gain an additional 5-ft bonus to your movement speed for that form of movement for every 2 shifter feats you have.
You may shift an additional time per day.



Sample Encounter
Shifter exemplars consider themselves the elites of their race, and the position holds a lot of prestige. One can find exemplars upholding important military positions in a shifter society. The focus on combat and their primal instincts often mean many a mercenary come from this class as well
EL 10:

Genda
Lawful Neutral Male Shifter Shapeshift Ranger 5/Shifter Exemplar 5
Shifter traits: Longtooth (main), Razorclaw (main), Longstride (secondary)
Init +7, Senses: Listen +18, Spot +18,
Languages Common
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AC 20 (24 while shifting), touch 12 (16 while shifting), flat-footed (18)
hp 68 (10 HD)
Fort +9, Ref +9 (+13 while shifting), Will +4
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Speed 40 ft. (8 squares) (75 ft. or 15 squares while shifted)
Melee Bite +15 (1d6+18), 2 Claws +13 (1d4+12)
Base Atk +8, Grp +12 (+16 while shifted)
Atk Options Bite or Claw, or Full attack with Bite and 2 Claws
Combat Gear +3 Mithral Breastplate
Supernatural Abilities Shapeshifting (At-will, swift action, Predator Form and Aerial Form), Shifting (5/day, lasts 11 rounds)
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Abilities Str 14 (22 while shifted), Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 10
SQ Low-light vision, scent (while shifted), Wild Empathy
Feats Track (B), Power Attack, Endurance (B), Shifter Instincts, Improved Trip (B), Extra Shifter Trait (B)(Longstride), Longtooth Elite, Shifter Agility (B), Longstride Elite (B), Shifter Multiattack (B), Ragewild Fighting
Skills Balance +5, Climb +8, Hide +10, Jump +8, Knowledge (Nature) +4, Listen +18, Move Silently +10, Spot +18, Survival +14

Uses Wildshape Ranger variant into Shapeshift Druid variant (loses combat style, animal companion to gain druid's shapeshift clas feature and Fast Movement)
Champion of the Wild ACF from Complete Champion: lose spells but gain Improved Trip as a bonus feat at 4th level.
Feats can be found in Eberron campaign setting and Races of Eberron

[Cieyrin]

Ooo, I likes, I likes =3
The only question I have is how does Extra Shifter Trait interact with other class' that gain the same ability, like the Shifter Druid alternate class feature and the crazy 13-level Shifter Druid PRC, Mooncaller or whatever? I'm assuming they don't stack, either.

[Pramxnim]

No, they don't stack. I don't want Shifters running around with too many traits. Nevertheless, they're not gonna stack until epic, anyways (or level 18, in the case of a Shifter Druid 5/SE 5/Moonspeaker 8), so it's not that much of a concern.

Glad you liked the class. Funny how I came to make this class actually. I was looking for ways to semi-optimize a Gestalt Druid/Tattooed Monk (yes, that TM) for a solo campaign, and I came across the mention of Shifters. Then I looked through their entry in the Eberron Campaign Setting before deciding that Shifter feats are similar enough to Heritage feats that I wanna homebrew something out of it. I got the abilities down and all before I noticed the Weretouched Master or Moonspeaker or even the Shifter Druid substitution level. I can honestly say I came up with Extra Shifter trait before looking at the latter 2 cases, but it turns out it wasn't that original an ability after all.

So, do you think it's balanced?

[Cieyrin]

I didn't recall what levels off-hand those features kicked in, heh, so good deal on Extra Shifter Trait.

As for balance, I wouldn't say it was too out there, just eyeballing it. Having refreshed myself on how Shifters work with their feats and PRCs, it looks to be on par with a Weretouched Master in sheer power. 7 bonus feats (possibly 9, if you take a second natural weapon trait. Even 11, if you pick up all 3 XD; kinda scary thought, that >=3) kinda balances out when compared to the sheer number of enhancements that the Weretouched Master gets (especially considering the Weretouched Master could get natural weapon damage of a creature 3 times larger @_@. Thanks Shifter Savagery! =D). Plus, it's nice to have non-druid types getting access to a 3rd trait, as having to wait till 17th or 18th is a little bit ridiculous. Master Shifter is the real feather in the hat of this PRC, given you could boost a Beasthide Elite into ridiculous NA bonuses (+10 @_@) or a Longstride Elite into Monk-like speeds (70 ft./rd) or any number of other things. A pity you can't do the Shifter Resilience chain, as I would have liked DR 10/silver =/. Don't know too many adventurers running about with silvered or shadowstrike weapons by default, unless they expect lycans or vampire-types, given the minor damage penalty on silvering a weapon.

In any case, it looks pretty good (especially if you took levels of both this and Weretouched Master @_@). Them's my 2 silvers (gotta watch out for them lycan types). Take as you will.

[Pramxnim]

lol, the silver coins are scarily dangerous to these fragile little shifter folk.

I didn't give them a choice to boost DR on purpose, since that would make it quite bad, and would negate Greater Shifter Defense (or render it much less useful). It's a relief that you find this class balanced, since that's what I strive for all my classes, but they just seem to always end up... I dunno... overly complicated and a tad overpowered

Ooh, this and Weretouched Master could be real scary, real fast, especially with Krimm Blackleaf's revised version.

[Cieyrin]

Huh, I guess Krimm wrote that based off the non-errata'd version but hey, putting it up at the end of a 10 level class makes it not quite as bad, especially since it seems to draw up the Bloodclaw Master or whatever it is from the Tome of Battle with it. I think I'll stick to the original errata'd, as i don't wanna mix my barbarian with some warblade. I don't think they mix like peanut butter and chocolate do. Probably like some mix of peanut butter and watermelon, i'd bet.

[Pramxnim]

I like the errata'd version. The normal version just screams cheese at me, and I like neither that nor peanut butter and watermelon (ick).

Now to go think of more homebrew stuff to make... any suggestions?

Also, anyone else have comments on this class?