shapeshifter - fighter?

[Crenshinibon]

You want to go 15 Shapeshifter/ x fighter.

[Berethor]

It sounds interesting; I may have to try it someday.

I've kind of had a soft-spot for shifters after I learned that Cernd could wear Shadow Dragon Scale. Gave him a decent AC.

[chickenhed]

You want to go 15 Shapeshifter/ x fighter.

Why lvl 15?

[Crenshinibon]

Well, aside for a higher caster level, I believe that level you also get some five or six level seven spell slots.

[thebannedone]

I recommend the 13lvl Shape/xx lvl Fighter combo, if its physical prowness your looking for.Sure you can cast lvl 7 spells at lvl 15 and get lots of more spell slots, but its not like your going to be casting a lot of spells around after you change to the werewolf form(since you wont be able to). Not to mention you'd debuff yourself if you plan to dispel your claws solo, and even though you wouldnt be able to cast a deva at lvl 13 shifter to dispel your claws if playing solo, you could still dispel them with the sim from vhailors helm or use a certain trick to do so.

Also if you only have SoA and no ToB you cant even go for the lvl 15 shifter, so with the ToB experience cap the 13lvl shifter/37lvl fighter will grant you 9 more fighter HLA's than the 15 lvl shifter one. Another fact one should consider is that its a pain in the ass to level the shifter from lvl 13 to 15, cause the gap between the two is 2250000 points of exp.

You can get the 5 attacks per round with belm with no haste, or without belm with the gauntlets of extraordinary specialization and no haste, or boots of speed and no belm or gauntlets, though the gauntlets are still nice to have for the dmg & thaco bonus. With oil of speed or the haste spell you can reach 6 attacks per round, as their type of haste doesnt limit attacks to 5.

In SoA i'd probably go with a spear like Impaler and change to Staff of Ram later on when you get it to +6. AC shouldnt be a problem until ToB where it might be better to use a scimitar/shield combo if one doesnt wanna get hit so often, and of course slings are real doomsday machines on this combo which is why i dont recommend dual wielding and only thing you'd gain from the offhand weapon is whatever extra stats it might give, and then you'd be making 1 hit in a round with a crappier weapon and lower thac0.

[Thrifalas]

I recommend the 13lvl Shape/xx lvl Fighter combo, if its physical prowness your looking for.Sure you can cast lvl 7 spells at lvl 15 and get lots of more spell slots, but its not like your going to be casting a lot of spells around after you change to the werewolf form(since you wont be able to).

Just want to flinch in that the difference between spells are quite huge. At 13 you can cast (6 6 6 4 2 2 0) spells per day and at 15 it's (6 6 6 6 6 6 6). In my opinion, that kind of outweighs 9 extra warrior HLAs.

But once again, it's a matter of preferences. If it truly is only a werewolf you want, then I suppose 13 would do. But if you want someone who is actually able to cast spells, then you might want to try this one. Summoning an Elemental Prince as well as guarding yourself with regeneration, shield of archons, aura of flaming death etc might prove useful in some situations.

[chickenhed]

I am trying to play as "pure" as I can with this combo, so I will not be (on purpose at least) dispelling the claws on the werewolf.

That being said, I was hoping for further clarification on how the attacks work when dual wielding as a werewolf. Are they identical as the same rules as dual wielding weapons normally?

For example, will the extra attack granted with the off hand weapon (assuming I have NOT dispelled the claws) be for the same -2 THACO penalty? (assuming again, of course, 3 stars in two weapon specialization).

I know I can test these things out with shadowkeeper, but I recently rebuilt my machine and haven't installed BG2 yet