Since people starting telling stories around the very first campfires, there have been heroes and villains who could shuffle off the coil of humanity in favor for something a little more wild, more primal, and more powerful. While shapechangers are nothing new in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for the upcoming Ultimate Wilderness, we wanted to present a new take on the old trope—the shifter.

This class is one infused with primal magic. The base class serves as a guardian for druidic circles and is firmly rooted in those ancient religious traditions. While she is no spellcaster, a shifter's innate shifting magic is partly druidic mystery. The shifter learns Druidic and adheres to a philosophy similar to her druidic cousins, but her magic is very different. Like the hunter, the shifter is the master of the animal aspect, from the stealty bat to the terrifying deinonychus, but even more visible results. She uses those aspects to change her form and gain the power in more powerful ways. The most overt of these aspects is her ability to grow powerful claws. Without the need for manufactured weapons, she can defend the wilderness and her circle with ever-growing power that few can face for long. With increased experience comes increased control over her gifts. As she gains levels, she gains more aspects, as well as the ability to take her aspect's true form via akin to beast shape II. But unlike other shapechangers, she is not rooted in a single form. She can meld her lesser aspects and even enrich her true polymorphed forms with her lesser aspects, creating a chimeric form which can enrich her scouting and combat prowess.

Fully at one with the natural world, the shifter is more than a pure brawler. She also sports a defensive instinct granting her greater defenses when unfettered by armor or shields. She also gains wild empathy, track, woodland stride, and trackless step, making her as at home in the wild lands as any druid, hunter, or ranger.

At the highest levels, the shifter becomes a true master of forms. Her claws can tear through the most powerful enemy defenses. Her shape can be fine-tuned to confront whatever challenge she faces. She can slip into the mists and the shadows, only to return as a raging beast unrivaled by her foe's greatest nightmares. She is nature's wrath incarnate

While the base class is firmly tied to the world of druid circles, archetypes allow you to play shifters of a different stripe. The elemental shifter grants forms tied to the various elemental planes, the fiendflesh shifter detail those who make fiendish pacts for their power, while the oozemorph allows you to play an oozy creature who takes humanoid form as its disguise instead. Of course, just like all our Ultimate books, the new class isn't the only one getting new toys to play with. Ultimate Wilderness features a bunch of new archetypes for all the nature-themed classes and nature-infused takes on other classes. A personal favorite of mine is the green knight archetype for the cavalier. This archetype melds the Arthurian myths with high fantasy resulting in a stalwart protector of all things verdant and wild.

In case you haven't heard, Ultimate Wilderness also features new, nature-based, core races that you can play. Two of those races—the long-time favorite and delicious ghoran, and the band new vine leshy—are plant creatures. Those of you who pay close attention to the game's creature types might be wondering how these new races can become shifters. After all, the plant creature type has immunity to polymorph effects. No worries, we have you covered, we have made some adjustments to the plant creature type when they are played as a PC race. While you may lose some of the more powerful immunities to damage types, you gain the ability to use the shifter class, and polymorph spells to their full effect. You'll find these changes in a sidebar located in Chapter 1: Wilderness Heroes of the book.

Altogether, the new shifter class along with a wealth of new options presented in Ultimate Wilderness will enrich your game, whether you are out in the wilderness or just have a hankering for playing some wild and different. Enjoy your walk on the wild side!

Stephen Radney-MacFarland

Senior Designer