Random DM nagging.

[Merc]

Curses!

[Yuthirin]

Merc you jerk!

[Merc]

What? I was just being practical! You weren't going to use them anymore!

[Anastasia]

Ilsenine will take a few days to post. I'm not up to fully constructing a character right now, I ran her on DM notes today. Her build is below if you're curious.

Pixie 4/Noble 16//Beguiler 20

[Corwin]

Evil being vanquished for the time being, what are my chances of going on a fun ring redemption quest?

[Anastasia]

Ask me after our next decent session, be it tomorrow, Wednesday or Thursday. It'll depend on how things settle out from the Ilsenine thing and some ramifications.

[Anastasia]

Question. I had the cornugons act as a military unit in tactics. They used two and four person teams, fire support, artillery and generally worked as a coherent whole. I even subsumed personalities as part of the greater unit. Do you guys feel this game across well? It's no spoiler to say that they were well trained troops honed on the Blood War.

---

I want to post/finalize grouped monster rules. I've been experimenting with them the entire game and having them written and usable helps everyone.

[Yuthirin]

They fucked Willim up hardcore like that. Working together definitely raised their CR by a bit like that.

[Merc]

They're devils. If they weren't organized, they'd be demons. So yeah, they came across devilishly well. Except for when those four broke away until we screeched at them with sonic damage. Those guys were losers.

[Anastasia]

They're devils. If they weren't organized, they'd be demons. So yeah, they came across devilishly well. Except for when those four broke away until we screeched at them with sonic damage. Those guys were losers.

Wasn't their call to make, they got mental orders to come help within and form a line inside. Thank Jaela or whomever it was who suggested making a diversion.

[Corwin]

Curse me, otherwise we could've killed a marshall and picked up nice stuff.

Anyway, I told you what I thought when you asked. The feel of it came through as intended. But boss mooks always feel very weird, when a faceless and nameless group of enemies is better than the elite PCs sent to take on them and their pals.

Out of curiousity, how many devils died inside?

[Anastasia]

21.

Pure coincidence for once, I rolled it out and just happened to get 21.

[Merc]

Twenty-one is all powerful!

[Anastasia]

Things coming tomorrow

1. Ilsenine's stats. She's about 85% done, but I'm too tired to get through feats right now.
1a. A revised Fey domain, or perhaps an Unseelie and Seelie court domain set. Not sure. The Fey domain comes from the BoED and is set up for it, which doesn't really match the cosmology.
2. Epic Noble. It won't be hard since I did most of the work for Empress Sulia's build. Two feats for it are already in house rules from that.
3. Shapeshift feats since Yuth was asking about 'em. Various wild shape feats need to be examined and considered for conversion.
4. Maybe Epic Beguiler. I doubt I'll have time, but hope springs eternal.

This is on top of helping Yuth with his new PC and maybe, just maybe, doing a single scene or two. Don't bug me about it, I'll bug you if you're around and I'm in the mood.

[Anastasia]

Shapeshift and possible expansion feats go here. Text of shapeshift is in the spoiler for reference.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Benefit: You can shapeshift at will into powerful animal or nature-oriented forms. Each time you use this ability, you can choose the exact look that your shapeshifted form takes. Druids pick animals from the terrain and climate they're most familiar with. For example, a druid from a jungle might adopt the form of a black panther when in predator form, while one from the taiga might shapeshift into a white wolf. The two forms look different, but functionally they're identical. This is a supernatural ability.

It requires only a swift action to shapeshift. If you are capable of taking more than one form, you can shapeshift directly between two forms without returning to your normal form. There's no limit to the number of times per day you can change forms, nor to the amount of time you can spend in a shapeshifted form.

You retain your normal Hit Dice, hit points, base attack bonus, base saving throw bonuses, and skill ranks regardless of your form. You also retain your normal ability scores, though each form grants a bonus to your Strength score.

You keep all extraordinary, supernatural, and spell-like special attacks and qualities of your normal form, except for those requiring a body part your new form does not have.

All your held, carried, or worn gear melds into your new form and becomes nonfunctional until you return to your normal form. You cannot speak in shapeshifted form, and your limbs lack the precision required to wield a weapon or perform tasks requiring fine manipulation. You can't cast spells or activate magic items while in shapeshifted form, even if you have the Natural Spell feat or other ability that would allow you to cast spells while wild shaped.

Unless otherwise noted in the descriptions below, you retain your size and space when you adopt a new form. You always retain your type and subtypes, regardless of the nature of the form assumed. You don't gain any special attacks or qualities while shapeshifted except as described below.

When you shapeshift into a form other than your own, you gain natural weapons (and reach with those weapons) as described below. These natural weapons gain an enhancement bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls equal to 1/4 your druid level, and at 4th level and higher they are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. The damage dice given are for Medium druids; smaller or larger druids should adjust those values according to the Table: Increased Damage By Size.

If knocked unconscious or slain in shapeshifted form, you revert to your original form.

Predator Form: This form, traditionally that of a wolf, panther, or other predatory mammal, is the first one a shapeshifting druid learns.

While in predator form, you gain a primary bite attack that deals 1d6 points of damage. You have the reach of a long creature of your size (5 feet for Small or Medium). You gain a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength, and your natural armor bonus improves by 4. Your base land speed becomes 50 feet.

At 4th level, you gain Mobility as a bonus feat whenever you are in predator form (even if you don't meet the prerequisites).

Aerial Form: At 5th level, you can shapeshift into a flying creature. Traditionally resembling an eagle, vulture, or bat, the aerial form enables fast travel and the ability to soar out of harm's way.

While in aerial form, you gain a primary talon attack that deals 1d6 points of damage. You have the reach of a long creature of your size (5 feet for Small or Medium). You gain a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength and a +2 enhancement bonus on Reflex saves, and your natural armor bonus improves by 2. You gain a fly speed of 40 feet (good maneuverability).

At 7th level, you gain Flyby Attack as a bonus feat whenever you are in aerial form.

Ferocious Slayer Form: At 8th level, you can shapeshift into a large and fierce predatory form, such as a tiger, brown bear, or dire wolf.

While in ferocious slayer form, you gain a primary bite attack that deals 1d8 points of damage and two secondary claw attacks that each deal 1d6 points of damage. Your size increases by one category (to a maximum of Colossal), and you have the reach of a long creature of your size (5 feet for Medium or Large). You gain a +8 enhancement bonus to Strength and a +4 enhancement bonus on Fortitude saves, and your natural armor bonus improves by 8. Your base land speed changes to 40 feet.

At 10th level, you gain Improved Critical (bite) and Improved Critical (claw) as bonus feats whenever you are in ferocious slayer form.

Forest Avenger Form: At 12th level, you can take the form of a massive plantlike creature, similar to a shambling mound or a treant. (Druids not native to forest terrains typically rename this form to fit their environment.)

While in forest avenger form, you gain a pair of primary slam attacks that deal 1d8 points of damage each. Your size increases by one category (to a maximum of Colossal) and you have the reach of a tall creature of your size (5 feet for Medium, 10 feet for Large). You gain a +12 enhancement bonus to Strength and a +4 enhancement bonus on Fortitude and Will saves, and your natural armor bonus improves by 12. Your base land speed becomes 20 feet.

You gain damage reduction 5/slashing while in forest avenger form.

At 14th level, you gain Improved Overrun as a bonus feat while in forest avenger form (even if you don't meet the normal prerequisites).

Elemental Fury Form: At 16th level, you can shapeshift into a giant form of air, earth, fire, or water (your choice each time you shapeshift).

While in elemental fury form, you gain a pair of primary slam attacks that deal 2d6 points of damage each. Your size increases by two categories (to a maximum of Colossal), and you have the reach of a tall creature of your size (10 feet for Large, 15 feet for Huge). You gain a +16 enhancement bonus to Strength and a +4 enhancement bonus on Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves, and your natural armor bonus improves by 16. You do not gain any new modes of movement in elemental fury form, nor does your base land speed change.

You gain immunity to extra damage from critical hits while in elemental form. You also gain immunity to an energy type related to the element chosen (air = electricity, earth = acid, fire = fire, water = cold). You don't need to breathe while in elemental fury form.

At 18th level, you gain Great Cleave as a bonus feat while in elemental fury form (even if you don't meet the normal prerequisites).

What needs to be taken away here is that each form isn't a set form or monster. It's a general guideline, you choose a shape and it all works the same mechanically. You basically trade your spellcasting for pre-packaged shapeshifted forms, which matches the design philosophy of the polymorph subschool. With that in mind, my first attempt at design is to make the shapeshift feats buffs for the pre-existing forms. Rather than reinventing the wheel, let's improve the wheel.

Feedback welcomed. Are these good? Too strong? Too weak? Let me know.

I'm not going to convert Natural Spell. It doesn't mesh with the design of the ACF, which goes out of its way to say Natural Spell doesn't work. Like polymorph subschool spells, it's a tradeoff. You lose your casting while changed, but you gain the powers of the form you transform into.

Frozen Shapeshift [Shapeshift]
Prerequisite: Base fortitude save+6, shapeshift ability
Benefit: Your shapeshift forms take on an icy appearance, as if partially made of ice. This grants all of your shapeshift forms the cold subtype, granting them immunity to cold and vulnerability to fire. In addition, your natural attacks in shapeshift form deal an extra 1d6 points of cold damage.
Special: You do not gain the benefits of this feat if you shift into a form with immunity to fire or composed of fire, such as the fire elemental form of the elemental fury form.
Special: If you select this feat, you may not select the Burning Shapeshift feat.

Deep Chill [Shapeshift]
Prerequisite: Frozen Shapeshift
Benefit: Your natural attacks while shapeshifted are so cold that they render foes numb, unable to effectively act. Any opponent stricken by your natural attacks and who takes cold damage from it must make a fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 hd + con modifier) or be slowed for 1 round, ending at the start of your next turn. An opponent can only be affected by this power once per round.

Burning Shapeshift [Shapeshift]
Prerequisite: Base fortitude save+6, shapeshift ability
Benefit: Your shapeshift forms take on a burning appearance, as if partially made of fire. This grants all of your shapeshift forms the fire subtype, granting them immunity to fire and vulnerability to cold. In addition, your natural attacks set opponents on fire unless they pass a reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 hit dice + con modifier). This follows all the rules for being set on fire, except that the reflex save DC to extinguish the fire is the same DC as above.
Special: You do not gain the benefits of this feat if you shift into a form with immunity to cold or composed of ice or water, such as the water elemental form of the elemental fury form.
Special: If you select this feat, you may not select the Frozen Shapeshift feat.

Blistering Fires [Shapeshift]
Prerequisite: Burning Shapeshift
Benefit: Foes set on fire by your natural attacks find themselves so pained that they cannot effectively defend themselves. As long as they are on fire, they suffer a -4 penalty to armor class and saving throws.

Exalted Shapeshift [Exalted, Shapeshift]
Prerequisite: Shapeshift ability.
Benefit: Your shapeshift forms take on a glorious appearance, as if from the Heavens Above. This grants all of your shapeshift forms the benefits of the celestial template. For the sake of the smite evil ability, you may only use this once per day, no matter how many times you shapeshift.

Vile Shapeshift [Shapeshift, Vile]
Prerequisite: Shapeshift ability.
Benefit: Your shapeshift forms take on a fiendish appearance, as if from the Depths Below. This grants all of your shapeshift forms the benefits of the fiendish template. For the sake of the smite good ability, you may only use this once per day, no matter how many times you shapeshift.

Mighty Shapeshift [Shapeshift]
Prerequisite: Shapeshift ability.
Benefit: The enhancement bonuses to strength from your shapeshift ability rise by two. This applies to all forms; for example, your predator form now has a +6 enhancement bonus to strength and your aerial form has a +4 enhancement bonus to strength.