PathOfAchra

Warning: This build is far from optimized.

Hey folks, I wanted to make a build that uses the shapeshifter prestige class and this is what I cobbled together to some success. The basic idea is to create a sort of transformation loop to trigger the explosion from shapeshifter over and over again.

Class and race are more or less interchangeable; I used Naqui here for the generic boost in defense and because we use prayers sparingly anyway. I like Mubarizun because it reduces the need for one of the most dangerous activities in this game - walking around, especially when there's ranged enemies. These are the biggest threat to you outside off random one-shots by a guard break (and rolling a bad map at level 1, but it just happens sometimes). Be smart and use cover and let the enemy come to you.

Hadad is there mostly as a crutch for emergency healing and most importantly the second prayer for maps with dangerous enemies i. e. packs of ranged enemies (especially when there is no cover) and rat phalangites. The third prayer can add some oomph versus a boss or buy you some space when you end up being surrounded.

For stats I mostly boosted strenght to 40 for the damage reduction and general punchiness in hopes of not getting one shot, after that I boosted dex for dodge and some speed. Will is to taste, I like to get 10 or 20 if I use amethyst helm to negate the penalty from inflexibility.

Early on, I put 1-2 points in shamsar, 0-1 in toxokinesis (depens on the level 1 map), then abandon weapons before map 2 and get a few points in pugilism and maybe 2-3 in barbarism. This will get us to into fighting shape while we slowly put the build togehter. I don't like putting barbarism on everything like one puts gravy on mashed potatoes, but it actually fits the character this time and we need the armour. Next, I go for 1 level of snakeform and boost toxikinesis to 3 so that our attacks in snakeform start to heal. Then for two levels of wormform to unlock shapeshifter which will masively improve our offense and improve our sustain a little bit. Shamsar needs to be at least at level 2 at this point to trigger wormform. Then I put more points in what we already have except the forms since they effectively don't scale at all*. For the last skill, you can take either nothing or whatever you like. I took morbumancy because having a on stand-still ranged attack that goes through walls, detects enemies and triggers our healing can be quite handy on some maps.

For items, ruddy fist and boulder fist (don't remember the name) can patch up your early game a little but you ultimately want to drop them once you get your own sustain/a few levels of barbarism going. Later on, Amethyst mask can boost your hit by a non trivial amount but it's not as great as it looks because a) it uses an item slot so it lowers it's own boost and the boost from barbarism and b) it gives a point of inflexibility. It's still worth it, probably.

PS: Thanks for this amazing game, it's the fist time I had fun playing a game in a long time.