Give sorcerers/wizards in polymorph an extra APR

[Voss_]

As per title, when cast by a pure wizard/sorcerer (with GSF:Transmutation?) give the character an extra attack per round similar to divine power.

I've been playing a sorcerer focused on melee for a bit, and I've noticed that beyond shapes like Manticore that come with special abilities. I haven't found many situations where I'd want to use a melee shape like Minotaur and Hook Horror, while the extra tankiness is nice. Not being able to use items/spells or have equipment stats, aspects ect, generally doesn't feel worth it, when my damage is similar (often times better) when I'm not polymorphed.

I realize a flat buff to polymorph shapes is probably a bad idea, because it can be accessed by non-casters ect. Hence the suggestion for a buff to pure sorc/wiz only.

[Egon the Monkey]

I think there's a point here. You can also see that Alter Self is Alright, but a lot better on a Bard who can make use of the extra APR to get use out of the comparatively weak forms. I played with Polymorph a lot in V5 but I did it on an Apothecary Rogue and so was benefiting hugely from 2 APR and sneak attack on Minotaur Mode.

The real selling points for mages are the special moves like Wyvern Poison, Spikes, long-duration Mind Immunity etc. And a lot of that's non-obvious. For example if you're running Stoneskin and using a form with a Creature Weapon, it'll bypass Stoneskin.

So everyone defaults to Manticore because it is obvious It's not even the most useful in most places! The spikes were always a bit overrated compared to other special moves IMO. You're an okay archer and don't need many buffs, but can't break DR, rapid shot, etc. The big, big tradeoff is usually 'can't use water'. So when someone Polymorphs you need to price in '-1 Healer' and them having a harder time self-healing. The amount of times I've yelled at wizards IC to stop plinking and heal :rofl:.

If the purely melee-focused shapes without any special moves took you up to 3/4 BAB, then I think they'd be competitive.

[Mathamune]

If not implemented for all sorc/wizard, it would be a nice buff to give to transmutation school wizards and potentially a shapeshifting sorcerer perk like witchcraft (or perhaps just GSF transmutation like OP suggests).

Enhance ability spells being auto +4 really reduced the benefit of having GSF transmutation since odd stat characters generally(!) aren't as viable.

Otherwise, transmutation focused characters are sort of screwed and mostly benefit from casting slow (can be both very powerful or easily counterable).