Harpagornis

Yeah, they might be fine when comparing them with vanilla druid but - at least in my eyes - they are far away from what they could be. But as Obsidian most likely wont change much its up to the players to make something special and more interesting. We will see!

If you think that the mod so far is overtuned it would be nice if you give me more details @dunehunter. Or do you think that Shifters are perfectly viable and/or top tier? New ideas are always welcome! Removing all spells with keyword "Elememants" is quite brutal.... hmmmm... in this case Spirishifting would need another buff. What about that: Shifters are not allowed to wear any armor? This would make the human part much more dangerous for Shifters...

I am talking about Shifters in particular not Druids in general. Thats why i said that Shifters should get another kind of disadvantage when in comes to spellcasting. One idea is to reduce their spellpool another to reduce the overall Powerlevel when casting spells. I never said that balancing would be easy - its a long way! P.S. I removed all AutoGrant spells for Shifters. That was the easy part. Getting a Conditional so Affliction Immunities only activate at level 20 are tougher. Somehow they always get activated at level 1 - despite any PreRequisites. Will have to take a look at that later...

Just takes a simple tweak in global.gamedatabundle. Change "DisableMods": true, to "DisableMods": false, in line 135. Have fun!

Shapeshifters or here - Shifters - are not like normal spellcasters in my eyes. They put a lot effort to control their forms, but sacrifice some spellcasting abilities. Thats why i am thinking about giving them another penalty: They lose all of their autogrant spells per Powerlevel. And as @mant2si stated earlier: There are still better classes or class combos for big fights than a Shifter - even with the new abilities. Yes, the Forms now get a lot more punch and utility but what will happens once the buffs and Spiritshift duration runs out while the big boss is still standing? Then the Shifter has nothing left than "a little bit" of spellcasting. Will this be enough for the BoW Dragon or the Guardian of Ukaizo? Further tests will show how powerful they really are - or not!

Okay, with your setting in mind @mant2si the Druid - a single class even more - will indeed need "something special". Hhhmmmmm... so all of the small buffs and tweaks are a little push into the right direction but.... hmmmmm... we need more! You mentioned some new spells earlier. Maybe that should be my next priority as i think that the Spiritshifting part already got some "huge" buff. I will take a closer look at the spells tomorrow and IF i manage to get them in i will contact you for some late-game-fight-testing. If you like! But first some sleep... ideas always come when sleeping... good ideas... BIG ideas... P.S. I think its better to make the duration of shifting a little bit longer... shifting more than one time for each form sounds... hhmmmm...

Yeah, you are writing down my own (hidden) concept. I must admit that (at first) it was my plan to give each form a unique affliction immunity but decided against it cause with all the abilities the Druid already feels quite powerful. At least on paper. But you have definetely more XP regarding late game fights. You think that Druids still are somewhat balanced with all the new abilities? Should the other buffs (AR-scaling, +PEN, Double-Damage-Type...) stilll be there? I think that it now should be no (big) problem adding new spells too. But maybe i should test the new abilities first in practice. Do you want to test the still not published Alpha-Mod @mant2si and give me some feedback? As my time is lacking i wont get to gaming before next week! P.S. Allowing Spiritshifting outside of combat is only about changing one entry...

Even though Patch 2.1 is out Druids and especially Shifters have not get any real love. What a pity Obsidian! I never understood why Spiritshifting Forms should not take some kind of evolution that not only makes AR, Damage, PEN and Accuracy scaling but give them new - and in the best case - some unique abilities. The last one is what i have tried in the last week but modding the stuff into the Spiritshift Forms proved to be trickier than i thought. However: I have reworked the abilities of each form, mainly adding new ones at levels 4, 10 and 16. My main goal was to make each Form filling a special role that would make the Shifter some kind of "Jack-of-all-Trades". I reworked abilities from Fighter, Barbarian, Monk, Rogue, Ranger and even one from the Priest: Bear Level 4: Paw Swipe (Barbaric Blow) Level 10: Thunderous Blows Level 16: Crush! (Panther Leap) All in all the Bear gets a heavy damage attack, a buff for better penetration and a AoE damage that also allows for quick engagement. Spirit Frenzy went out. Boar Level 4: Taste of the Hunt Level 10: Boar Charge Level 16: Proliferation (Unbending) Taste of the Hunt fits well to the raw damage and healing abilites of the Boar while Charge is another heavy engagement tool. Unbending will make sure that the Shifter will survive even heavy enemy fire. At least for some time. Cat Level 4: Camouflage (Smoke Veil) Level 10: Finish them! (Finishing Blow) Level 16: Game Over! (Flurry of Blades) The easy escape tool gets complemented with a nice finisher while Game Over will be a nice spellcaster disabler. Fast and deadly thats how cats should be. Wolf Level 4: Marked Prey Level 10: Ferocious Strikes (Disciplined Strikes) Level 16: Concussion Blow Very nice to hit and crit buffs that gets rounded up with a very versatile anti-boss-ability. On its own maybe the weakest Form but when combined with the rest of the pack Shifters should get some nice synergies. Stag Level 4: Suppress Affliction Level 10: Relentless Defender (Vigouros Defense) Level 16: Stag Fury (Clear Out) A mix from offensive and defensive abilities along with buffed Stag Defense & Carnage should make the Stag much more interesting now. Stormblight Level 10: Returning Storm Level 16: Endless Storm A bit more Lightning Thunder seems like the right way to go I will start a naked run with a single class Shifter in the next days (maybe with DD) to see how OP the whole thing have went. Without any other buffs (like +AR, double damage types or increased penetration) i hope that it makes Druids "only" even more flexible. We will see... P.S. I also tweaked some numbers and changed icons that fit better to the Spirtshifting Forms!

Looool. When i was writing my post you have posted your one. Looool. Looks like we both have found the same solution. No? Thats funny! However: Thanks for your support. You really were a great help!!!

As the ability-per-level-mod is now working (!!!) i would really appreciate any suggestions regarding my ability-picks and scaling! Should i add more strike abilities? Personally i like the huge utility the Shifter now gets so he can deal with a lot of situations without being forced to switch back to human form for emergency spells. Casting may be a good opener but then the Spiritshift Forms will take over control. I like that! Does the whole setup still feel balanced or are Shifter-Druids now a little bit over the top? Remember that i only added the CL 4 and CL 10 abilities as they already give even single class Shifters a lot of options. @mant2si: You advice is always welcome! P.S. I did not touch any spells so far. Maybe thats the next step!

I found the solution... finally... holy cow... that was better than finishing the final boss!! At the end everything was "easy": 1. PT is NOT needed here! 2. Using "TempAbilities" in the ChangeForm table i added all the abilities for each Spiritshift Form 3. Then i switched back to the New_Ability file and selected "ActivationPrerequisites". The key here was to use "Booelan IsLevel" and "GreaterThanOrEqualTo". After that all abilities will be shown when shifting but the ones from higher levels are greyed out and not usable. Thats how we wanted it to be. And thats what i "nearly" tried one or two days ago. But something always went wrong. However: Without your help and patience i would have failed horribly here @Armakoir. Thanks a lot!!! I learned so much in the last days that strings which felt like a mystery now make sense to me. Lets see what we can do next!!

As the modding of per-level-skills for Spiritshifting is still not working i will use the time to shape a plan (hoping that the mod will work in the future!). I think its not a bad idea to treat each Spiritshift Form as an aspect of the characters attributes - lets start: Bear: MIGHT In my eyes the Bear should be the heavy hitter. He is strong, he is ferocious and should stomp any other Form into the ground when it comes to raw strength. CL 4 - Barbaric Blow CL 10 - Thunderous Blows PL 16 - Spirit Frenzy Boar: CONSTITUTION The Boar is all about surviving longer fights thanks to its natural regeneration so it should gain even more endurance the bigger it grows. CL 4 - Taste of the Hunt CL 10 - Natures Balm CL 16 - Unbending Cat: Dexterity The Cat is fast and sneaky - like a Rogue. Therefore it should not only get more slippery but also more deadly at later levels. CL 4 - Smoke Veil CL 10 - Finishing Blow CL 16 - Flurry of Blades Wolf: PERCEPTION The Wolf is not only a relentless hunter but can also focus any weak spots with ease. CL 4 - Marked Prey CL 10 - Disciplined Strikes CL 16 - Concussive Tranquilizer Stag: RESOLVE The Stag is an sturdy opponent that never gives up so the bonus abilities should make it even more durable. CL 4 - Suppress Affliction CL 10 - Vigorous Defense CL 16 - Clear Out The PL 6 abilities most probably will make Shifters too powerful so i will implement only the ones up to PL 4. With all of the new abilities i would also remove some of the other mod components like increased AR-Scaling. However: Any opinions on my choices? Suggestions are highly welcome! P.S. All of the bonus Spiritshift Ablities will get new descriptions. If the rest works!!!

Now the second bear icon is back but the abilities are working. No!!! Maybe someone with more experience can take a look at this? Elder_Bear_Trial.zip

I managed to get rid of the second bear icon but now the new bear does not use the bonus abilities. Maybe i should rebuild the whole PT and Ability files to see where i have go wrong... again. I am too chaotic! Any solutions from your side @Armakoir?

I have made some progress. Well - at least to some extend. Using the PT i created an Elder_Bear that removes the AbilityID from the original_Bear. I created a new ChangeForm and Bear_ShifterID in a seperate file where the ChangeForm has the new Shifter-Strike ability integrated. When now reaching level 4 the Elder_Bear is shown in the level-up-screen (its AutoGrant). It also shows up in the Interface and its indeed using all the abilities i wanted (including Shifter Strike). So far so good. The only problem is: The old Bear icon is still shown (even though it should have been removed). It can also be clicked even though this bear now lacks all abilities. Now the big question is: How to get rid of this Old_Bear icon? Its really fascinating. Whenever i think that i have solved a problem a new one is waiting around the next corner... Keep trying! EDIT: Okay, now i have managed to kill the whole ability-screen. Maybe its better to get some sleep...

What about that challenge: Give the AI some kind of - well - AI. You got it? I still cannot believe that in the year 2018 it is not possible to create enemies that act somewhere near the good old Sword Coast Stratagems (which was fan-based). In the Computer-Chess-Scene self-learning programs like Alpha Chess Zero are growing stronger and stronger. So what about an AI that starts playing like an idiot (using abilities randomly) but with each defeat by the player it refreshes its algorithms to optimize tactics, formations, ability/spell usage. If we then create enemies that have access to the complete skills of the player we will sooner or later get unstoppable Master-Mimics. Well - its still allowed to dream. No?

Here we go! Spiritshifting Mod.zip

Its nearly working... damn it. The ability even does not show up in the Level-Up-Abilty-Screen so its now a hidden AutoGrant. Good. The only thing that does NOT work is that the abiliy is only usable for the Bear. Hhmmm... how can i attach files here?

I have another idea that might work: Use the PT and replace the Spiritshift_Bear (RemoveAbilityID) with something like Spiritshift_Elder_Bear who got a new AbilityID (and a new_bear file). The linked and reworkd ChangeformID will then tell the Elder_Bear to use all the TemporaryAbilities we want. Can this work? Yes it can! Hopefully...

This is madness. I think that i understand the general how-to and tried again playing with the PT: Modified the PT so the ability unlocks at the specific PL. Works. Then i changed the new_ability and set up "ActivationPrerequisite" using "Booelan Has StatusEffect" putting in the players InstanceID and the Bears ChangeForm ID so the ability should now only show up when shifted to Bear. Right? The result: The new ability is STILL available even in human form. This cannot be...

The "ApplicationPrerequisite" also changes nothing. Same for other InstanceID´s. I even rebuild the whole ability to make sure i have not missed any string thanks to constant copy&delete. What are we missing here? Any way to get a Prerequisite into the "TemporaryAbilities"? Back to the PT?

What do you mean @Armakoir? I put the "ActivationPrerequisite" into the new_ability.gamedatabundle where the now called "Shifter Strike" is sitting. Not working...

Holy cow... your InstanceID is not working @Armakoir... sorry. It looks like "TemporaryAbilities" somehow ignores any Prerequisites. If this is not going to work i will have to drop back to the PT...

Thats the problem @Armakoir: The ability is NOT grayed out so i can easily use it even at level 3. Hmmmm... there must be a way to get this work!!

Okay, i can easily get the new ability working with only the Bear BUT the ability is available regardless of the level. I tried to put in a "ActivationPrerequisite" in the new_ability file: "$type":"OEIFormats.FlowCharts.ConditionalCall, OEIFormats","Data":{"FullName":"Boolean IsLevel[Guid,Operator,Int32)","Parameters":["b1a8e901-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","GreaterThanOrEqualTo","4",],"Flags":"","UnrealCall":"","FunctionHash":0,"ParameterHash":0 So in theory the level should only available at CL 4 - if i not messed up the code. I also tried to put the "ActivationPrerequisite" into the TemporaryAbilities bracket but then its not showing up at all. Everything seemed so easy...