Need some help with beast change

[More.Than.A.Mechanic]

So I'm making a Character with a fox form beast change, and a bit lost on what to give his beast forms skills.

He is a Druid

His mortal skills:
+5 Lore Survival
+4 Conviction  Discipline
+3 Rapport alertness
+2 Endurance Presence
+1 Guns empathy weapons stealth Fists 

[Silverblaze]

Higher fists, survival, alertness, athletics, stealth, and a higher endurance?

Not sure at what ratings, but prioritize those.

[More.Than.A.Mechanic]

Already did that but like the rest of them....

[Silverblaze]

Already did that but like the rest of them....

I think I'm confused...what do you mean?

You already did what I suggested but miss the other skills while in fox form?

Please explain.

[EdgeOfDreams]

I believe he is asking what to put in the lower skill ranks after taking the most important ones at high values.

I suggest something like....

5 Fists Athletics
4 Alertness Stealth
3 Endurance Survival
2 Conviction Discipline
1 Presence Might Rapport

You can still have social/mental skills on the sheet, as long as they're equal to or lower than your human form.  Having Conviction and Discipline will help if you ever get mentally attacked while in Fox form.  Rapport could be used for making people go "ooh, look, what a cute fox!"

[Michael Sandy]

If you had beast change in a Modular pool, can you have Different beast changes?

So could you have a tracker hound form, that has high survival and alertness, and a tracking sense, as well as an animal form he fights in with high athletics and fists?

[Blackblade]

I don't think Modular abilities lets you take on Beast Change; it's generally limited to the speed/strength/toughness/creature feature powers, plus others if the GM allows them.  Allowing modular powers to emulate beast change would effectively give you True Shapeshifting at a 3 less refresh.

[Sanctaphrax]

I agree with Blackblade here.

Edge Of Dreams' breakdown looks pretty good, although there are a couple of skill points missing.

Is the fox form a big nasty combat form or a stealth-oriented one?

[Haru]

The big difference between using Modular Abilities for various Beast Forms and True Shapeshifting is, that you need to sacrifice an action to change your Abilities to a new Beast Form before you can actually shapeshift, while True Shapeshifting lets you change into anything as a supplemental action. I'd say that is a difference big enough to warrant the difference in refresh cost.

[Sanctaphrax]

No way.

Seriously, this is an absolutely awful idea.

The majority of characters with True Shapeshifting have Modular Abilities as well. And they generally shift their form points on taking a new form, I think.

So the time difference matters not at all.

And even if it did matter, why would upgrading a supplemental action to a full action justify a 3 refresh discount?

PS: Using True Shapeshifting repeatedly in combat is likely not a great idea anyway. Once you have your skills tweaked for murdering, why change them?

[More.Than.A.Mechanic]

I agree with Blackblade here.

Edge Of Dreams' breakdown looks pretty good, although there are a couple of skill points missing.

Is the fox form a big nasty combat form or a stealth-oriented one?

More for stealth I think.

[Haru]

Well, if for example your build is based on strength and a speedster is killing you, you might want to change things around. But that will take you 1 action, regardless of true shapeshifting or not.

But I get your point, it is probably better your way.

[Sanctaphrax]

Maybe something like:

Superb: Stealth, Athletics
Great: Alertness, Fists
Good: Conviction, Survival
Fair: Discipline, Investigation, Lore
Average: Presence, Endurance, Rapport

[More.Than.A.Mechanic]

Alright! Thanks for the help.

[Sanctaphrax]

You're very welcome.