The new Skinshifter Sorcerer out of Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting: Part 2 is all about making it magical morphin’ time.
Of all the new subclasses in Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting: Part 2, the Skinshifter Sorcerer is probably the most visceral. You can see it in the iconic art for the subclass, but it’s also baked into the mechanics. This subclass is all about magic gone awry.
And when it goes awry, it’s your body that keeps the score, as it were. Only the score is gaining a number of different effects. This includes growing a natural weapon, rubber skin, or, say, your right foot becoming a left foot. This is a subclass for players who like a lot of randomness to influence their play.
It’s also a subclass for people who want their little guy to be especially prone to weirdness. Because as you level up as a Skinshifter Sorcerer you’ll only become more mutated. It’s not quite “and now you become a monster” but it’s about as close to that idea as a subclass gets.
And it’s wild to see. Because this type of subclass isn’t present in the Monster Hunter games. At least not the ones that I’ve played. Though, that said, the Skinshifter Sorcerer does fit right in to the world of Biomancy. And behemoth beasts that take whole adventuring parties to hunt. So let’s check it out.
The Skinshifter Sorcerer
It all kicks off with the bread and butter feature of the Skinshifter, the eponymous Skinshift. This mechanic reflects the fact that sometimes magic makes you morph. Here’s how it works: every time you cast a Sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, roll a d20. If you get less than or equal to 1/3rd of your Sorcerer Level (minimum 1), you then roll to see how you Skinshift.
When you Skinshift, your body is magically altered until the end of your next turn. Although, if you roll something you want to keep for a while, you can spend a single Sorcery point to extend the duration of whatever effect you roll for 10 minutes. I cannot emphasize enough that sometimes you might want to and other times you definitely won’t.
Multiple Effects
There’s a chart with 30 different effects (you’ll only roll 1d20, but eventually you’ll add a bonus to it). The first 8 or so are impediments. Roll low and you might gain Paper Skin or Brittle Bones. Or you may gain an Elemental Sensitivity, making you vulnerable to certain damage types (dangerous for someone with low HP like a Sorcerer).
But on the other hand, roll high enough, and you might gain a tentacle arm that extends your reach by 5 feet and can grapple creatures. Or gain a fly speed or even resistance to certain kinds of damage. It all depends on how lucky you’re feeling.
But it’s not just a body horror random magic chart. You also gain a list of bonus Skinshifter Spells. It’s a solid list of bonus spells, but weirdly enough, Alter Self isn’t on it. Instead you gain things like Inflict Wounds and Vampiric Touch (because I think this is subtly a melee Sorcerer class) as well as some of the new spells introduced in Heliana’s Guide, like Chameleon Skin or Frogskin, which lets you make melee attacks that deal poison damage.
Higher Level Skinshifts
At 6th level you unlock even more potential with your Skinshift Adaptations thanks to two features. The first is Modify Shift, which lets you add up to half of your Sorcerer level to whatever you roll – meaning you can pick from a range of results. Rolling a 19 on a d20 at 6th level gives you any result between 19 and 22 – and the 20+ Skinshift results are really good. You might gain bonus damage or the effects of a Haste spell (with no downside or Concentration needed).
This is comboed with Selective Shift, an ability that lets you spend a Sorcery Points as a bonus action to gain whatever Skinshift Adaptations you decide from the table. You can get the buffs at a rate of one per Sorcery Point spent, and they last for 10 minutes. The only requirement is that you can theoretically roll them; so a 6th Level Skinshifter Sorcerer could only get results up to 23 on the table, for instance.
I really like this feature, because this is where you truly become the Chaos Spawn/Cronenberg monster of your dreams. Spend a few Sorcery Points and get a remarkably effective battle transformation. Sure, there are limits to how many powerful adaptations you can have, but if you combo your transformation with a spell that enhances your melee attacks, you can be an absolute terror on the battlefield, resistant to damage, dealing better attacks, even hasted. It’s good stuff.
At 14th level, Reactive Mutations gives you the ability to gain damage resistance as a Reaction. Spend a Sorcery Point and gain resistance to an incoming damage type for 10 minutes as your body mutates in such a way that it takes less damage.
Finally, the whole thing caps off with Shapeshift, the 18th-level feature. This lets you embrace your inner mutations as your body becomes an expression of chaos. In a nutshell, it’s a 10 minute battle transformation that you trigger as a Bonus Action. You’re immediately freed from any grapple/restrained effects. Plus, you get six adaptations of your choice from the Skinshift table, with no restrictions on what you can take. And you automatically gain resistance to incoming damage (up to three types at once).
It may be for 5E, but if you want a melee-focused Sorcerer, this is honestly the way to do it!
Don’t Miss:
Read more at this site