It seems that the only purpose of casting the spell at a higher level is to resist dispelling more easily.

I don't have a book handy. Is there a threshold for casting it? If so, then you'll need a force at least equal toy our threshold or you can't score enough hits.

What HalloranElder said.

We had a adept that needed to do some urban recon, so our magician turned her into a dog to blend in. At Force 6. With 6 hits. It was the scariest fraggin' dog ever.

The adept's journal is at http://www.tablenaked.com/blogs/redfox/, if you're curious.

The point is that with higher force you can get more successes which means more attribute increases in your shapechanged form. There's nothing scarier than the Orc Shaman turning into his totem animal with +6 to all physical attributes.

Bear is very scary now...

Cool...

How can this be?

OH WOW IT MENTOR SPIRIT TOM CRUISE! YOU WANT THE MANA YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE MANA!

And would you be able to make super-powered puppy with the shapechange? You know, force 6 spell, +6 to all physical stats?

Yep. You wouldn't be very super powered compared to bigger animals, but you'd be one scary ass puppy in the box.

Heehee! Lethalest and adorablest puppy in the universe!

Sorry, you can't affect charisma, so you can't make it the most adorable puppy in the world.

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

There's also some more munchkiny things that should be added.

First off is the shapechange into superpowerful bird or fly--not uncommon to see flies in the company coffee room; uncommon to watch them fly off with the lead scientist!

Probably the most heinous thing is that anything paid with Essence is now considered to be part of your body and can be affected by magic. So your cyberware now comes with you when you shapechange. Bear with +2 to physical stats with Reflex Boosters and Wired Reflexes is scary to see.

Whoa, whoa, slow down Cheops. I'd like to submit a slightly different interpretation. Anything paid for with essence is part of your body, I agree. So when your whole body is turned into a bear, your cyberware is also turned into a bear, not into a bear-shaped piece of cyberware. I would suggest that all cyberware is transformed into normal bear parts, just like the rest of your body is transformed into normal bear parts.

Dude, my dude has 8 charisma at chargen. I think he WOULD be the world's adorablest puppy.

Heehee, cyborg bear.

Maybe it's a fat puppy. Or maybe I'll use a Decrease Body spell.

Don't they have a body of 3 instead?

Apathy:

you'll notice I said the orc shaman turns into a bear. Body 6 isn't tough for an orc. Similarily a puppy with body 1 isn't that tough for a human or elf to change into. It only gets tough when you are dealing with Body 0 like insects or huge animals like whales.

Moon-Hawk:

The way I figure it, if you can use cybereyes for targeting spells and looking astrally then you can use cyberware in a shape which doesn't require a massive body change (human => bird, snake, etc).

I might be tempted to let someone use whatever cyberware they had while shapeshifted, if they learned a specific Shapechange spell based on their particular cyberware map.

So instead of learning the generic Shapechange spell, or the specific caster variant, you learn one that incorporates your cybernetic and bioware enhancements at the time you lean the spell.

Don't forget, shapechange has no restrictions on turning into apes, only humans. Now, one of the stronger critters out there is the orangutan. They are also naturally quick, and agile as they have to avoid Tigers and the like. Yeah your bear is scary and all, but an ape with a ranger X bow is scaryer. Also nobody expects an orangutan to be dangerous, right until the point they drop on your head, and unscrew it.

Dude, puppy.

That would be a great hit. "Aren't you just a cute little OHMYGODMANABOLTINTHEFACE!"

PUPPPPYYYY!!

I can't believe you guys missed this:
DROP BEARS!!!

Dude, they're magically active. You can't be a drop bear.