Right. So my dear ladylove has thoroughly un-enjoyed her Pixie mystic adept (the other players reacted ... less than well, to the character ) ... and has determined to make something a little bit less exotic. She's actually thinking a Rat-shifter (highly appropriate for them to seek out an urban environment) ... except there's no such thing statted out in the books. I figure a Fox shifter is close ... but I'd be much happier with something a little more specific.

So, that's where you fine folks come in. He any of you come across SR4 stats for a Rat-shifter somewhere on the web? Or do you have any direct advice about what should differ between Fox shifter and a Rat shifter?

Thanks in advance!

kludge together some devil-rat stats from whichever section of whatever book it's in?

Use Fox directly and use role-play to make the changes. At a certain size all small mammals are the same. Say that were-rats are as big as small foxes.

Alternately drop the bod score by a max of 1, and add a critter power that helps them scurry (infiltration or wall-crawling).

Thorguild

Like I said, it's very close. But to start, I think Rats should have some resistance to toxins and pathogens. Maybe like the Dwarf racial trait.

None of which matters anyway. She's switched tracks to a Jackal-shifter (full Magicial, Egyptian tradition), and for Jackals, I will just use Fox.

*grumbles* Or maybe just use a fox shifter to play a fox shifter. What's wrong with foxes? They're cute and lovable and adorable. Jackals are OK, I guess, but a fox is just downright cuddly.

One thing I was going to mention...I have a technomancer named Mouse that happens to look as close to a mouse as he can without actually being a mouse. Took SURGE III, gave him a tail, enhanced perception, unusual hair and eyes, and gave him neotony. Sure, he doesn't have the ability to be a tiny mouse at will, but he basically looks like a mouse-human hybrid.

But again, I would just take the fox shifter. Again, what's not to like? They're foxes! They'e cute as hell!

Well, I would say that the "what's not to like about Foxes" is that they are neither Jackals nor Rats, which is what the Player wanted.

<3

Heh. Funny. My technomancer goes by Tech_Rat. Playing a Mystic Adept fox shifter infiltrator now(Shamanic, Invisible Way, and fox mentor spirit lifted from SR3 MitS)

Nothing .... except as Tymaeus says, they're not what the player wants to play. (She's cat-crazy, so normally she'd fall into one of the several felines ... but is trying to actively avoid that, this time around.)

For another example ... what if someone wanted to be .... I don't know, a Buffalo shifter, and shaman of one of the Great Plains tribes? (gah, dammit, now I want to build that ...!!)

Oh, I know that. I was being funny.

Oh. It, er .... didn't quite come across that way.

As an aside, I hated the way SR3 handled shifters. I assume SR4 has continued going the wrong way. If you're looking for alternate rules, I recommend SR2, with the additional modifications that the animal form gets natural weapons appropriate to the animal, and that magic and adept powers are all still accessible in the animal form.

I don't recall how SR3 did Shifters. What "wrong way" are you referring to?


No, I wasn't looking for different systems; I was looking for other kinds of shifters - e.g. Rat, Jackal, Buffalo, Walrus, Zebra, Kangaroo, and so on. Things not listed in the 4E Companion. BEcause while I certainly could stat them out myself ... why reinvent the wheel, if you don't have to? Better, IMO, to tap the collective expertise of Dumpshock and/or Jackpoint.

FWIW, I don't know or care what the RAW says, I've stated that shifters can use all their Adept or Magician abilities regardless of form. Sure, if you take a Geas "must recite schlock latin incantations a la Harry Potter", you're screwed in Animal form (except maybe a Parrot shifter, ha!!). But absent a very specific geas like that? Go to town, magic stuff up all you like. (I can see Magic Fingers being a popular spell for Shifter magicians, in fact - no need to shift to metahuman JUST to use a bloody doorknob.)

First they nerfed the regeneration so its much weaker. When you're not wearing armor, that regeneration is pretty important.

The big kicker though is they required shifters buy their physical stats twice (once for animal, once for human). When race is your first priority and you're spending 50% more on attributes than everyone else for no real gain, the resulting character is generally pretty rotten.

Regen isn't super-godlike "I am immune to bullets", still. But it's the same for PCs and NPCs both, so that's not really all-bad. PCs are more likely to be FIGHTING stuff with Regen, than PLAYING it.

But you only buy your attributes once ... and those values apply regardless of which form you're in.