From: covin@tartarus.uchicago.edu (David Covin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: New AD&D class: Shifter.  Comments please.
Date: 30 Jul 92 21:43:11 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.dnd
Organization: University of Chicago Computer Science

In article <22934@oasys.dt.navy.mil> flitter@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Lance Flitter) writes:

Looks cool.

I'm wary of the 10% earned x.p. bonus for characters with Con 16+,
when you need at least Con 15 to be a Shifter in the first place--
this gives a conditional probability of 50% that any given Shifter
will have at least a 16 Constitution.  At least in AD&Dv1, other
classes with a high characteristic minimum (Paladin, Druid) had no
chance of an earned experience bonus; I'd go with that for Shifters as
well. 

The race restriction bothers me a little because it seems trite.
Elves and Half-elves get all the breaks in AD&D.  Particularly for a
class of beings whose stock in trade is *changing* their race, why
should it matter what race they start from?  I'd leave the base race
unrestricted, and try to think of some way to limit shapeshifters from
races which naturally get Constitution bonuses (dwarves and half-orcs?
my memory fails me).  Maybe an earned experience penalty due to their
racial antimagical nature (for dwarves, anyway).

How does this shifting interact with anti-magic effects?  With
lycanthropy?  (Presumably Shifters are resistant, but what if they
catch it anyway?  Or can they?  Would they get their
polymorph-resistance each time an involuntary change came on?  Would
they learn to control their changes more quickly than normal
lycanthropes?  Perhaps they could attempt to "bond" to themselves in
changed form, to gain the animal shape as a regular bonded form, maybe
keeping the weapon resistances during future shifts into that form.)
Would wolvesbane hurt a Shifter?  How about a Shifter with
lycanthropy?

The class seems rather math-heavy, though I like how the penalties for
shifting equipment naturally limits the class.  A wise Shifter would
merely drop its equiment for most shifts, though, and pick it up
(possibly to use) afterwards.  Still, it's a good thought, and limits
shifting into bizarre forms.  Perhaps the math could be simplified,
though.  Free-form shifts flat-out 2x the cost of bonded ones, maybe?

   Level  Exp pts.  Hit  Shift   Total  Heal Recognize Poison Disease
		    Dice Points  forms  Per  & resist   save    save
					SP   polymorph  bonus  bonus
     1    0          1     2       2    2%    10%         0       0
     2    1600       2     4       3    4%    20%         +1      0
     3    3200       3     7       3    6%    30%         +1      +1
     4    6400       4    11       4    8%    40%         +2      +1
     5    16000      5    16       5    10%   50%         +2      +1
     6    32000      6    22       5    12%   60%         +3      +2
     7    64000      7    29       6    14%   70%         +3      +2
     8    120000     8    37       7    15%   80%         +4      +2
     9    224000     9    46       7    16%   90%         +4      +3
    10    464000    +1   +10       8    17%   95%         +5      +3
    11    +240000   +1   +10      +1    +1%   99%         +5      +3

What size hit dice? (or are hit dice standardized in ADDv2?).
Should the last level entry be "each level after 10" rather than "11"?
(i.e. for each level after 10, the shifter gains 1 h.p., 10 shift
points, 1 bonded form, 1% healing, and possibly poison and disease
saves at the usual rate).

   Shift Point Recovery:

		  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8
   Sleep          0  1  3  6  15 30 50 90
   Rest           0  0  1  2  4  12 25 40
   Light Activity 0  0  0  1  1  3  9  20
   Moderate Act.  0  0  0  0  1  1  1  2

What do the numbers across the top of this table mean?  Hours spent at
that activity?

--
David Covin                           covin@despair.uchicago.edu
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