The Shifter

Alright, so, I have a certain fondness for the Shifter as a class, even though it is reputed as being…let’s say the Pathfinder community has harsh words for it and considers it to be a bad class.

Which is an opinion I frankly disagree with. There are many ways to build an effective Shifter, which I will demonstrate with the following five builds.

The Base Shifter

This is an example of a straight, regular Shifter built to get into the fray and tear apart everything that moves. Simple, but extremely effective.

Class

Shifter 20

Race

We will be going for an Elf here. Our Constitution does take a small hit, but our Dexterity is our main goal anyway. The bonus in Intelligence allows us to dump that stat and still have a decent amount of skill points, the bonus to Perception is great and Weapon Familiarity allows us to pick a Longbow to do some ranged support if we are at a lack of options, giving us overall great versatility.

Ability Scores

Round up Wisdom if odd, then everything goes into Dexterity.

15Point-Buy

Str 10/Dex 18/Con 10/Int 10/Wis 15/Cha 8

20Point-Buy

Str 10/Dex 18/Con 10/Int 12/Wis 16/Cha 8

25Point-Buy

Str 10/Dex 20/Con 10/Int 10/Wis 16/Cha 8

Traits

Take Warrior of Old for a bonus to Initiative and Dirty Fighter for a +1 Damage/Attack that are made while flanking and using natural or unarmed strikes. This will cumulate very fast.

Favored Class Bonus

You literally have a 10 in Constitution and you are a melee main. Put those in Hit Points.

Skills

Perception, Stealth and Survival are pretty much your big three. Beyond that, you could do worse than putting points in Acrobatics.

Feats by Level

1-Weapon Finesse

3-Piranha Strike

5-Toughness

7-Agile Maneuvers

9-Combat Reflexes

11-Raking Claws

13-Shifter’s Rush

15-Throat Slicer

17-Powerful Shape

19-Improved Initiative

So, in our first two levels we can easily hide the fact that we are a Shifter by relying mostly on our Longbow and Rapier(as we are proficient as an Elf). Weapon Finesse applies to Natural Weapons so we can play coy early on a bit with it.

As soon as we get Piranha Strike however, all hell breaks loose with our Claws who are now dealing significantly more damage and you can now reveal that you were not, in fact, a mere Ranger, but a Shifter.

Our low HP warrants an early Toughness. As our primary Aspect is Tiger, when we Wild Shape, we get the Grab ability, but since we are focused on Dexterity, we need Agile Maneuvers to further increase it as a valid combat form. We double down on Grab with Throat Slicer which allows us to Coup de Grace a Pinned target as a Standard Action which is insanely good, and with Powerful Shape we count as one size larger for CMB/CMD, meaning our Grab increases by another +4.

Combat Reflexes is a no brainer as a Dex Based Melee Character and Shifter’s Rush allows us to Wild Shape and Pounce in the same action which is crazy. We finish with a Improved Initiative as if we are the first to act we may very well end the threat in the first round.

Aspects Choice by Level

1-Tiger

5-Bull

10-Electric Eel

15-Scorpion

20-Bat

Okay, so Tiger wildly enhances our Dexterity which is great, and its Wild Shape is possibly the best in the game between Pounce, Grab and Rake for a ridiculous amount of damage each turn.

Bull increases our Strength for even more damage when we get Chimeric Aspect. Electric Eel even further increases our damage by giving us an additional Electricity damage, Scorpion buffs our Stealth and Grapple which triples down on Grab and Bat lands us Darkvision and Blindsense, turning us into a friggin radar. We can Wildshape in any of these, but we really are going to focus on our Tiger form and augment it with the Chimeric Aspect abilities to get the other Aspects Minor Aspects.

Equipment

A Rapier, a Longbow and a Leather Armor(which you will eventually switch for a Rhino’s Hide)

Final Thoughts on the Build.

Let me illustrate how strong this build is by using the 15 Point-Buy version of it with its attack routine by level 10. Not 20. Ten.

Wild Shaped into Tiger, Minor Aspects: Bull, Electric Eel. All that before magic items.

Pounce

Bite +11/+6, 2d6+10 plus 1d3 Electric Claws +6/+6 2d4+5 plus 1d3 Electric Grab CMB +18

Rake +6/+6 2d4+5 plus 1d3 Electric

If everything hits, we are talking, in one round, 4d6+8d4+40 plus 6d3 Electric.

And that’s at lvl 10. Not 20. I’ll let you imagine just how crazy it gets with Magic Items in addition to this.

The Oozelord

Okay, that is cool and all, but just how crazy can we get with this class? The answer is crazy.

Enter the Oozeshifter Archetype, which changes our base form into an Ooze, yet we keep our racial bonuses. When in base form, we are Immune to Critical Hits, Precision Damage and we cannot be flanked.

This is massive as there are very, very little things that are downright immune to Crits and Precision Damage in Pathfinder, which makes the Oozeshifter a serious candidate for the role of Tank. And for that, we will be taking the Stalwart Defender Prestige Class. Our Levelling should look something like:

Class

Shifter(Oozeshifter) 7/Stalwart Defender 10/Shifter(Oozeshifter) +3

Race

When I think Tank, I think Dwarf. Big Constitution, bonus against a variety of effects including Spells, and the like.

Ability Scores

Throw everything in Constitution. Everything.

15Point-Buy

Str 14/Dex 10/Con 17/Int 13/Wis 10/Cha 10

20Point-Buy

Str 15/Dex 10/Con 18/Int 13/Wis 10/Cha 10

25Point-Buy

Str 14/Dex 10/Con 20/Int 13/Wis 10/Cha 10

Traits

Threatening Defender lets us reduce the negative we take to our Attack Rolls for using Combat Expertise by one. Indomitable Faith grants us a +1 to Will Save which is something we were lacking in anyway.

Favored Class Bonus

We are a tank. We will put these in HP.

Skills

Acrobatics for maneuvering across the battlefield, Intimidation for reasons that will become clear in a minute and Perception because duh. Stealth is also great as we will not be using armors anyway.

Feats by Level

1-Toughness

3-Dodge

5-Endurance

7-Medium Armor Proficiency

9-Combat Expertise

11-Antagonize

13-Improved Unarmed Strike

15-Crane Style

17-Crane Wing

19-Crane Riposte

So, our first four feats are essentially prerequisite fillers which is a pain. That is fine however as Toughness makes it that we have so much HP at 1st level it’s sorta ridiculous.

Combat Expertise will help our piss poor AC, And the Crane Style line of feats will make it so that Fighting Defensively is actually a viable combat form for us, further increasing our poor AC. Our cake however is Antagonize which allows us to roll an Intimidation roll to force a target to attack us. We literally Aggro people like in video games. Congrats you are the definition of a tank.

Defensive Powers by Level

9-Intercept

11-Bulwark

13-Halting Blow

15-Fearless Defense

17-Internal Fortitude

Alright so, Intercept allows us to redirect an attack against an ally to us, Halting Blow allow us to stop an enemy’s movement when we hit them with an Attack of Opportunity, Fearless Defense and Internal Fortitude makes us Immune to Shaken, Frightened, Sickened and Nauseated which are four quite nasty conditions.

Equipment

We don’t really need anything so…have fun?

Final Thoughts on the Build

So we can shift into any Humanoid form to infiltrate places, shift into Giant Forms or Animal Forms to beat the ever living crap out of people, manifest additional pseudopods to hit people with more attacks, are immune to a bunch of effects and while in our base form, in our Defensive Stance and fighting defensively, we have, despite wearing no armor, not using any Magic Items nor having any Dex bonus, an AC of 28 and are immune to Critical Hits, Precision Damage, Frightened, Shaken, Sickened and Nauseated.

While shaped we can use any martial weapon and any armor/shield (since as Oozeshifter we lose any restriction and we gain all the proficiencies as Stalwart Defender) so hello Full Plate+Tower Shield while shifted into a Humanoid/Giant form.

We start the game with at least 18 HP and by lvl 20 we can reach at least 217 HP. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The Bigfoot

Yes, we are going there.

We can absolutely play the Cryptid Ape-Humanoid thing walking in the woods and peeking at humans, and being almost unstoppable in close combat.

We will be using the Wild Effigy Archetype which will turn our claws into Adamantine and will allow us to bypass Damage Reduction and Hardness, letting us destroy anything in our path.

Class

Shifter (Wild Effigy) 20

Race

So…we will be using a race called Orang-Pendak. It’s a race that came up from Bestiary 5, but it has stats for players. Orang-Pendaks are small sized asiatic Sasquatches, and they were adapted as a playable race in Pathfinder for some reasons. They are great because they fit our theme like a glove even though they are small sized(it’s fine, we can wild shape into a Large Sized Ape for true Bigfoot form). They get a bunch of very fun and thematically appropriate bonuses like for breaking things or Climb/Stealth when in the forest. Their Ability Score Bonuses are also on point so this is just great.

Ability Scores

Round up Wisdom if Odd, then everything in Strength.

15Point-Buy

Str 18/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 14/Cha 7

20Point-Buy

Str 19/Dex 12/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 14/Cha 7

25Point-Buy

Str 20/Dex 12/Con 14/Int 10/Wis 15/Cha 7

Traits

Reactionary for extra Initiative, Adopted which allows us to take a Race Trait from another Race, we will be taking Tusked to get a Bite Attack.

Favored Class Bonus

Yep. It is, in fact, HP again.

Skills

Perception, Stealth, Survival and Acrobatics will be your four skills. Enjoy.

Feats by Level

1-Power Attack

3-Throw Anything

5-Improved Sunder

7-Wild Speech

9-Raking Claws

11-Catch Off-Guard

13-Iron Will

15-Improved Natural Attack

17-Greater Sunder

19-Improved Initiative

Power Attack and Raking Claw being obvious choices for a strength based Wild Effigy, and the ability to ignore Hardness made Improved Sunder and Greater Sunder no brainers. Throw Anything and Catch Off-Guard offer versatility both in melee and at ranged with improvised weapons. Improved Natural Attack will make your claws even deadlier. Finally, Iron Will offers a small amount of protection for our Will Saves and Improved Initiative rounds up our speed neatly at the end. Wild Speech allows us to speak while in animal form so that’s something fun for roleplay and coordination.

Aspects by Level

1-Monkey

5-Bull

10-Bear

15-Wolf

20-Tiger

The Monkey aspect allows us to continue using weapons in our hands while wildshaped, so we can use Improvised Weapons to offer options while in combat. We also take the form of a Giant Ape while using its Major Aspect, let’s go Sasquatch! Bull increases our Strength for even more powerful claws, Bear boosts our Constitution, Tiger our Dexterity and Wolf grants us the Scent ability while further helps our Tracking and Scouting abilities.

Equipment

You could go for a Hide armor, but frankly, you don’t really need anything.

Final Thoughts on the Build.

This is a surprisingly effective and versatile build. Extremely adaptable, great mobility, excellent scouting capabilities and insane damage output with its adamantine claws. We also get a fairly large DR due to being a Wild Effigy, plus our Heart of Earth ability makes us extra resilient too. Overall, quite a powerful build.

The Medjay Wanderer

There are many misconceptions concerning the Shifter. One of such is that the only viable Grapple build with it is with the Tiger Aspect.

I wanted to demonstrate this to be wildly incorrect.

We are going with the Archetype Swarm Shifter for extremely funny grappling shenanigans, along with the Prestige Class Living Monolith.

Our Leveling should look like this:

Class

Shifter(Swarm Shifter) 5/Living Monolith 10/Shifter(Swarm Shifter) +5

Race

We are going for a Human as our build is going to be feat starved. Our floating +2 goes directly into Strength. We will also be taking the Comprehensive Education Alternative Racial Feature, granting us all Knowledge Skills as Class Skills.

Ability Scores

Put everything in Strength and don’t look back.

15Point-Buy

Str 20/Dex 13/Con 12/Int 11/Wis 7/Cha 7

20Point-Buy

Str 20/Dex 13/Con 12/Int 12/Wis 10/Cha 7

25Point-Buy

Str 20/Dex 13/Con 12/Int 14/Wis 12/Cha 7

Traits

Serpentine Squeeze and Bred for War, both trait stacks for improving our Grappling (as one gives a +1 to CMB and the other +1 to Grappling specifically). Starting off strong.

Favored Class Bonus

Skills. I know, you were expecting HP. Funny how things go sometimes.

Skills

So, we need to invest in a bunch of skills.

We need 4 ranks in Knowledge(Engineering) and Knowledge(History), we need 2 ranks in Knowledge(Religion), We need 12 ranks in Knowledge(Arcana). Plus having Perception, Stealth and Acrobatics is a plus. Also, we should put at least one point in every other Knowledge Skills due to some feats we will be taking later. In short. Do your best.

Feats by Level

1-Improved Unarmed Strike

Human Bonus-Improved Grapple

3-Iron Will

5-Endurance

7-Kirin Style

9-Kirin Strike

11-Throat Slicer

13-Greater Grapple

15-Powerful Shape

17-Power Attack

19-Toughness

Improved Unarmed Strike is a prerequisite for two of our feat lines, namely the Improved Grapple and Greater Grapple line and the Kirin Style and Kirin Strike line. Throat Slicer lets us Coup de Grace our grappling targets once they’re pinned as a Standard Action, Kirin Strike grants us our Intelligence Modifier on damage against enemies we have identified with Kirin Style and a Knowledge check, Powerful Shape lets us be considered one size larger when shifted. Iron Will gives us a small bonus to our Will save that will be most welcomed.

Living Monolith

We are taking the Ka Stone ability as we do not have spellcasting anyway. We can Enlarge Person ourselves even when in Vermin Shape (in which we already are one full size larger) and die to Ka Stone, when Enlarged, our Living Monolith BAB is considered full. We get a bunch of Spell-Like Abilities, like the ability to Summon a Sphinx or Meld into Stone. Eventually our Enlarge Person becomes Righteous Might which is all kinds of not okay. We also get

Tremorsense which is ridiculously good for scouting, plus a massive bunch of all kinds of immunities to nasty effects.

Equipment

I guess we could get ourselves a Hide Armor at first level?

Final Thoughts on the Build

So, Swarm Shifter, by level 5, makes us Immune to Grapple while in our Vermin Shape. So we can grapple people and they literally just cannot grapple us back, which is usually the main weakness of grappling builds. We can also, as a swarm, still use our claws, enter enemy spaces, and even in our base form we can shift part of our arms into swarms that eventually deal automatic damage(2d6) to creatures we grapple. Now, while in our Vermin Shape we are large sized. And then we are huge sized via Living Monolith…And with Powerful Shape we are considered Gargantuan…

So by lvl 15 we have a Grapple check of +44. For context, the Tarrasque has a CMD of 66. We are oh so close to being able to grapple it. Oh wait. All this bonus is excluding magic items… Oh, and we can also fly in vermin shape by level 19 which lets us grab someone, fly up and drop them from orbit. This build is ridiculous and I love it.

Lamashtu’s Champion

Lamashtu is the Goddess of Monsters, Beasts and Carnage. She is a fiendish demon who raised to Godhood via her unholy powers. Shifters make a very interesting option as one of her followers.

We will be taking the Fiendflesh Shifter Archetype, and three levels of Antipaladin. Our Leveling will be looking like this:

Class

Shifter(Fiendflesh Shifter) 5/Antipaladin 3/Shifter(Fiendflesh Shifter) +12

Race

We are going for a Human again due to being feats starved. Shove that floating +2 into Charisma(yes, you did, in fact, read me correctly)

Ability Scores

Round up Constitution, then all in Strength.

15Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 10/Con 13/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 14

20Point-Buy

Str 16/Dex 12/Con 13/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 16

25Point-Buy

Str 18/Dex 10/Con 13/Int 10/Wis 10/Cha 16

Traits:

Take Adopted, which allows us to take Tusked and Reactionary for extra Initiative.

Favored Class Bonus

Hit Points.

Skills

Intimidation, Perception, Stealth and Acrobatics.

Feats by Level

1-Power Attack

Human Bonus-Lamashtu’s Mark

3-Weapon Focus(Claws)

5-Dazzling Display

7-Cornugon Smash

9-Raking Claws

11-Intimidating Prowess

13-Shatter Defenses

15-Toughness

17-Improved Initiative

19-Skill Focus(Intimidation)

Yep, we are doing an Intimidation build.

Lamashtu’s Mark and Skill Focus gives us a small bonus to intimidation, Intimidating Prowess lets us add our Strength to our Intimidation, Dazzling Display and Cornugon Smash let us Demoralize enemies rapidly and vastly, and Shatter Defense destroys the defenses of demoralized enemies. Power Attack is just extra damage gravy and both Toughness and Improved Initiative are there for self-explanatory reasons.

Antipaladin

In an aura around us, no one has immunity to fear. No one. This makes Intimidation build absolutely broken. Also, we get neat stuff like a 1/day Smite Good and Charisma to all our saves.

Equipment

Take a Unholy Symbol of Lamashtu for roleplay purposes and a Hide armor.

Final Thoughts on the Build

So, we are always Power Attacking meaning we are always Intimidating via Cornugon Smash, our Aspect is that of fiends giving us a bunch of elemental resistances, our Claws deal atrocious

damage and nothing can resist our Intimidation. We also can fly starting lvl 5 with our Fiendish Aspect and otherwise are a great tool to fight in melee and scout ahead.