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Shifter Class Details | Aspects | Archetypes

Aspects

Description Source: Ultimate Wilderness
A shifter draws her primary strength from an association with a specific type of animal. As a result, when a shifter uses her shifter aspect or wild shape class features, she can assume only the forms of her chosen aspects. Until reaching 5th level, a shifter has only a single aspect, but as she increases in level, she gains more control over her metamorphosis, allowing her to take on multiple aspects and even merge aspects.

All shifter aspects have a minor form and a major form. The minor form grants a shifter a few of the animal’s physical traits, while the major aspect is the form she takes on when she uses wild shape to fully transform into an animal. The list of abilities gained with the major aspect include those gained from the wild shape class feature, but the benefits gained from any resulting changes to size are not listed here (see beast shape II).

The following options represent only the most common choices used by shifters. Other aspects based on different animals certainly exist, and might grant similar powers or entirely new abilities based on the animal’s themes and nature. You can use the following aspects as guides for developing aspects of your own design, but if you wish to do so, you must secure your GM’s permission.

Description Source: Wilderness Origins
Shifters with a vermin aspect, such as dragonfly or spider, assume these major aspects with vermin shape II rather than beast shape II.

Alternate Natural Attacks

A shifter can draw on her chosen animal aspect to transform her hands into deadly weapons, as represented by the shifter’s claws class feature, but not every animal has prominent claws. The following list provides alternate natural attacks for the shifter claws class feature. Each time the shifter activates her shifter’s claws ability in her natural form, she can manifest one of the alternate natural attacks listed below for any of her chosen aspects, or those that relate to her archetype. Each alternate natural attack replaces one of the shifter’s claw attacks. The shifter can gain up to two different alternate natural attacks with this method. These alternate natural attacks modify only the damage type of the shifter’s natural attacks and otherwise function exactly as the shifter claws class feature.

Spider

Source Wilderness Origins pg. 5
The spider is a patient hunter, sensing foes that struggle in its webs.

Minor Form: You gain a +2 competence bonus on Climb checks, Stealth checks, saving throws against web effects (magical or otherwise), and checks to break free of webs. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.

Major Form (vermin shape II): Your shape changes to that of a giant spider. While in this form, you gain darkvision with a range of 60 feet, tremorsense with a range of 10 feet, a climb speed of 30 feet, the web special attack, and a bite attack (1d6). At 8th level, you gain a +4 racial bonus on Perception checks, and the range of your tremorsense increases to 20 feet. At 15th level, you gain Improved Natural Attack (bite), and the range of your tremorsense increases to 30 feet.

Alternate Natural Attacks: Bite (B, P, S)