So, my shapeshifter just saved my party from complete annhilation

SharGuidesMyHand · July 2015

I know that shapeshifters are commonly rated alongside wizard slayers and beastmasters as the 3 worst classes in BG/IWD, so I decided to take a moment to sing a little praise on one's behalf.

This is the shapeshifter in my current IWD party:

In my current IWD playthrough, I directed my party to trigger the infamous "sleep trap" on the left side of the 1st level of Kresselack's tomb - I did this knowingly, as I steadfastly refuse to metagame in my playthroughs. However, unbeknownst to me, the most recent IWD patch has apparently "upgraded" the trap from a sleep trap to a virtual death trap, as fallen party members now no longer awaken upon being hit for the first time, enabling the swarm of skeletons to freely whack away until the character is dead.

Upon triggering the trap and seeing the skeletons close in, my shapeshifter quickly shifted into her werewolf form. A split second later, everyone else in my party lay comatose on the ground - but my shapeshifter remained on her feet, because her form's magic resistance had enabled her to resist the spell. Then she proceeded to singehandedly rend one skeleton after another bone from bone.

Although she wasn't able to save every member of my party, she succeeded in holding off the skeletons just long enough to allow two members to regain consciousness and rejoin the fighting - preventing me from having to cast a "Power Word: Reload" spell. ;-)

So for me at least, shapeshifters have proven that they should not be mentioned in the same breath as beastmasters and wizard slayers.

elminster · July 2015

During testing of the game the first party I ran through the game with had a shapeshifter in it. Though it does dip in the middle of the game (before it gets its greater werewolf form) it was surprisingly effective all things considered.