So rather than keep talking about it in the 5e thread, I thought I'd move it here:
the early copies of Ultimate Wilderness are off in the hands of some people because of whatever fucked up way Paizo does shipping and subscriptions.
And the Shifter class is apparently even more fucking terrible than even Paizo fanatics were expected.
It's basically a hybrid druid/monk with no spellcasting or animal companion and instead claws at level one (that ramp up to maybe 1d10/x3 by 20th), and gets an AC bonus (and only an AC bonus from Wis)... and wants dex to have a real AC because armor is pretty much entirely out, and strength for damage, and con because it's a front line fucker with shitty AC.
Oh. Worse AC than I thought. +Wis with no armor, +
half your wis bonus in druid armor types (and you can't wear other types)
Good things?- full bab, claws eventually get to ignore DR for no apparent reason, even eventually DR /- and /epic (at 20th)
It eventually gets a vague form of wild shape that's... worse than druid wildshape, and animal aspects that are worse than the hunter. No elemental forms and you have to pick your animal aspect and can only transform into that specific type of animal.
To quote the summary of its shapeshifting abilities:
It gets to choose a limited number of aspects with minor and major forms. At 1st level, it gets to take on aspects for a number of minutes per day. At 4th level it gets wildshape but only for its chosen aspects. As it gains levels, more aspects are granted.
Yay? No, that noise in the background is jeering.
There are archetypes that change things up, including an ooze based one that sounds absolutely terrible (wildshape into humanoid form for a limited time per day, no magic item use at all for the first several levels)
Basically this is a class that no one asked for, presented as a pure shapeshifter to shift another terrible splat that people would buy unseen thanks to the subscription service and preorders.
Archetypes for other classes are the usual assortment of dogshit
Here's rogue:
Desert raider: lose trapfinding, trap sense, and one talent; gain immunity to dazzled, the ability to hide in plain sight in bright light as a -5 penalty (but not against creatures immune to blinded/dazzled), and a Perception bonus to avoid being surprised.
- River rat: lose trapfinding and trap sense; gain a bonus on Swim checks, ignore difficult terrain caused by "light undergrowth and shallow bogs", and gain a bonus on saves vs disease and poison.
- Sly saboteur: Lose trap sense, uncanny dodge, and improved uncanny dodge; gain increasing amount of normal movements in difficult terrain (including 5-foot steps), and the ability to rig mundane devices to fail and deal sneak attack damage, and to rig magic items to fail as extremely complex mundane devices and deal untyped magic sneak attack damage.
- Sylvan trickster: Lose trapfinding, uncanny dodge, and improved uncanny dodge; gain wild empathy, the ability to pick witch hexes instead of rogue talents (including major hexes eventually!), resist nature's lure, and DR/cold iron.
The last one seems the only one even vaguely usable. Because really, immunity to
dazzled?