Shift in Shifter Power!?

[Ten Pidgeons in a Trenchoat]

I'm not quite sure how strong Shifters are compared to most classes but the flaws are pretty evident even with the buffs in the form of full casting progression for druid.

As a strong, heavy investment kind of class that requires you to go in melee almost all the time (unless you take Zen Archery and never use forms). The biggest drawbacks is that you can't use items, and in most cases you won't get UMD on the build at all which makes it wholly reliant on using Non-UMD items (such as Amnian decks).

I would like to propose a small adjustment to just a single part of the class that might have a large impact on it's usability and better express what it's supposed to do- that is, be a shapeshifting wonder that can take to the front reliably.

The single adjustment desired is moving Shifter from 3/4 BAB to a full +1 BAB class. I don't believe this would make them "OP" but still give them more presence and help their advancement similar to Hospitaler can as a PRC while compensating for the fact they are limited to potions for healing (and regen, when you eventually unlock it).

The most obvious result will be more attacks per round, but also they would have more AB in all forms which should positively impact their gameplay without robbing other classes of their frontline presense (or overtaking them).

At 20, this change would raise the BAB from 14 to 17, (with druid remaining 3/4), or to a maximum of 18 with another +1 BAB class such as Fighter, Hospitaler or Ranger multiclassed pre 20.

At 30 this would raise to a maximum of about 23-25, based on multiclass options (such as Druid 11 / Shifter 19). The original AB bonus from BAB for level 30 is about 19 at most, not counting any +1 classes mixed in, which would raise it by +1 every 3 levels invested elsewhere (and thus take away from Shifter in the first place).

This change would let shifter, as a class, stand apart from Druid while not undermining the Pure Druid or Druid/Hospitaler route respectively, due to each having much different focuses in gameplay.

Side note: I'm new to the class and more or less returning after a long time away, and so know that commentary on class balancing is probably tiresome or coming from an inexperienced voice in terms of balancing things. The goal of this particular buff was to -hope- that this kind of a change was much easier to implement than, say, giving them a bunch of custom new forms on top of what already exists.
That said, I do not know if, at epic levels, Shifter *needs* a buff on this server having never had an epic character or seen the epic dungeons.

[Xaerien]

Thing to note about shifter is it gets full spellcasting progression on this server, and fitting 4 levels of a full BAB class into a shifter build to bump it up to 16 BAB at for 4 attacks per round isn't difficult. Shifter's full druid spellbook access and various forms give it a versatile toolset designed to adapt to situations rather than being a melee powerhouse that always stays shifted.

[Edge]

Especially as you can take those four levels in Hospitaler and get full spell progression for those levels as well as full BAB and some bonus feats.

[Ten Pidgeons in a Trenchoat]

...and fitting 4 levels of a full BAB class into a shifter build to bump it up to 16 BAB at for 4 attacks per round isn't difficult.

 - Xaerien

The problem with this particular thought is that it doesn't take only 4 levels. It takes a minmum of 6/7 levels of Hospitaler to maintain 16 BAB pre-epic. The main reason is that Shifter is a 3/4 and so it starts on 1 AB, but loses some of it's AB the more you invest in it.

(posted for reference to the build I'm doing currently on Tamran).

But also I learned recently in the discord (as you all probably know) that I was wrong about the purpose of Shifter (even though I kinda liked the idea of having a Bruiser-ish, shapeshifting theme more). That and Druid has some great spells on here, so don't worry about this! (Feel free to delete or archive or whatever!)

[Xaerien]

8 druid/ 8 shifter/ 4 full BAB class, still lets you hit 17 shifter at epic levels for the epic humanoid shapes, 2 bonus feats, and 1 level leftover for bumping tumble up to 30 from druid and getting venom immunity. Hospitaler's the better choice for a third class with full BAB if you're not wanting to take more than 5-6 druid levels on a shifter and wanting to maintain full caster level and save a feat from not needing practiced spellcaster