Shifter

A Longtooth and Razorclaw Shifter.

Shifters are one of the races to come out of the Eberron setting, alongside the Changeling and Warforged and oft-forgotten Kalashtar. The basic idea is that they are werebeasts-lite, having similar shapeshifting into beast powers without being as utterly broken as true lycanthropes. It's commonly believed that they are the descendants of humans and lycanthropes, hence the watered down shapeshifting power.

On their own world, they suffer from something of a bad reputation; this is because Eberron has twelve moons (and used to have 13), which means that, originally, werebeasts were A Big Fucking Problem. It got so bad that the Church of the Silver Flame, the resident "uber-good church", led a genocidal anti-lycanthrope crusade that pretty much wiped them all out. However, since this is Eberron and thusly squeaky-clean black 'n' white alignment isn't a thing, the Silver Flame also got trigger happy and massacred thousands of innocent, harmless shifters in the process. The shifters have never really forgiven the Silver Flame for this and tend to be some of its most zealous criticisers, if not full-fledged anti-church terrorists in the most hard-up cases.

Initially, they weren't very popular, perhaps because the art made them absolutely butt-fuck ugly. Seriously, even your typical furry wouldn't bang the Eberron corebook shifters. Perhaps noting the attempts by fans to redraw them as monstergirls, WoTC prettied them up in subsequent art and they steadily grew more popular, though Warforged have always beaten them out.

Shifters weren't in the 5e Player's Guide, but were part of the Eberron web-enhancement Unearthed Arcana, which can be found on the WotC website if you're willing to sniff around.

3e Stats

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4e Stats

Ability Scores: Longtooths get +2 Strength/+2 Wisdom, Razorclaws get +2 Dexterity/+2 Wisdom

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares (30 feet)

Vision: Low-Light

Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics and +2 Endurance for Longtooths, +2 Acrobatics and +2 Stealth for Razorclaws

Racial Power - Shifting: When bloodied, as a minor action, you can Shift into a more bestial form until the end of the encounter. The precise bonuses you get from your shifted form depend on your subrace. Longtooths gain +2 damage and Regeneration (2/4/6) whilst bloodied, and Razorclaws gain +2 Speed, +1 AC and +1 Reflex.

Saurian Shifters

Although Shifters kind of got ignored for most of Eberron's publication, Dragon Magazine did throw them a few bones. Perhaps the biggest of which was the Saurian Shifter variant race in Dragon #328, which replaces the mammalian traits/origins of the classic shifter with saurian ones. Or, in other words, it turns the shifter race into a way to play your choice of were-dinosaurs, which is either awesome or the stupidest thing you ever heard of, depending on who you ask.

Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma

Racial Classification: Humanoid (Reptilian, Shapechanger)

Size: Medium

Base Land Speed: 30ft

Low-Light Vision

Racial Skill Bonus: +2 to Balance, Climb and Jump checks.

Shifting (Su): Each saurian shifter has one dinothropic lineage, chosen from the list of seven below. This choice is set at character creation and cannot be changed afterwards. Once per day, the saurian shifter can tap into this lineage, gaining bonuses dependent on their lineage. Shifting is a free action and lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the saurian shifter's Constitution bonus (using the increased bonus caused by any Constitution boost gained from shifted form, if appropriate). As with normal shifters, a saurian shifter can increase this duration and how readily it may take shifted form by taking Shifting Feats; shifting duration increases by +1 round per Shifting Feat taken, whilst every 2 Shifting Feats taken increases the amount of times a saurian shifter can shift each day by +1. If shifting grants a natural attack option, a saurian shifter may only make one natural attack each round, even if they have a base attack bonus high enough to grant multiple attacks.

Favored Class: Ranger

Saurian Shifter Lineages:

• Beasthide: +2 Constitution and +2 natural armor bonus.
• Broadwing: +2 Dexterity, ignore the first 40 feet of a fall.
• Junglerunner: +2 Dexterity and increase base land speed by +20 feet.
• Longtooth: +2 Strength, grow fangs that bestow a natural attack (bite) that inflicts 1D6 + 1 per 4 character levels damage. A shifted Longtooth can make its bite attack as a secondary attack with a -5 penalty.
• Raptorleap: +2 Strength, +4 to all Jump checks, always counts as having a running start for Jump checks.
• Razorclaw: +2 Strength, grow claws that bestow a natural attack (claw) that inflicts 1D4 + 1 per 4 character levels damage. A shifted Razorclaw can make an attack with one claw as a standard action or with both claws as a full-round action (in both cases as a primary natural weapon). They can also use their claw as a secondary attack (light off-hand weapon), with a -2 penalty.
• Widetail: +2 Constitution, grow a powerful tail that bestows a natural attack (tail slap) that inflicts 1D6 + 1 per 4 character levels damage. A shifted Widetail can make its tail slap attack as a secondary attack with a -5 penalty.

Pathfinder

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Called Skinwalkers in Pathfinder. The basic Skinwalker is the product of a tryst between a lycanthrope and an intelligent humanoid. The vast majority of Skinwalkers are half-human, although halfling, dwarf, orc or elven (and possibly even gnome) Skinwalkers are said to be possible. Deciding to RP as a non-human Skinwalker does not affect their base stats, the only thing it might effect is your size and thus the things that your size would effect (such as the size of the damage dice you would roll for natural attacks, and since Skinwalkers are natural attack machines, choosing to be a small race is gimping yourself).

The bog-standard Skinwalker is descended from a non-descript werebeastie, but with variant bloodlines rules released in later splatbooks you can say who's your daddy. Complete with different modifiers to Ability Scores, skills and unique spell-like abilities. Some are absurd and niche, but some are pretty awesome. New options include:

• Aerieborn: Wereraptors. Of the predatory bird variety, not the "Clever girl" variety. Wise and perceptive and one of the few "nice" Skinwalkers. They can't fly naturally, at best they can only feather fall, which is lame.
• Bloodmarked: Descended from werebats! They are like quasi-vampires, valuing their flock hierarchy and having a thirst for blood. Can turn into bats to fly around and do bat things.
• Coldborn: The only truly good Skinwalker, the were-bear derived Coldborn is a stoic and powerful defender of the natural order of things.
• Fanglord: Arrogant tiger assholes. They are strong and agile, capable of great cunning and tend to rise to the top of human organizations by means of charisma, intimidation and treachery.
• Nighskulk: Sneaky wererat spawn which typically infest urban areas and cities. Physically underwhelming (compared to other Skinwalkers), but they can sicken with a natural attack.
• Ragebred: The spawn of a wereboar. They will fuck you up with natural attacks, making them a perfect choice for a barbarian in a race that already makes a stupendous choice for a barbarian.
• Scaleheart: Cold and patient swamp-dwellers. Somehow said to be the most common type of Skinwalker, because I know when I see a crocodile the first thing that runs through my mind is "I wanna fuck that!"
• Seascarred: Fuckin' were-sharks! They tend to think highly of themselves as kings of the sea, with their ferocity they can continue to fight on the brink of death. Most of their ability is tied to the water and aquatic life, but they can survive on land indefinitely.
• Witchwolf: Werewolf? Herewolf. Savage and cunning as their sires, they tend to be found near forest and field, often in the service of witches. They get 1/day Magic Fang to add a little more bite to their bite.

To make things more confusing, the splatbook Ultimate Wilderness introduced the Shifter as a Pathfinder class. This is a kind of hybrid fighter-druid, and has some vague similrities to the Warden; a melee warrior character whose identity revolves around its ability to shapeshift at will, invoking animal "aspects" that grant different abilities. Unlike the druid, it gains only a few different "aspects" - 5 in total, by 20th level. Initially, it can only invoke Minor Forms, but at 4th level it gains its own version of the Wild Shape feature, which lets it invoke a Major Form - that's shifting into the animal into the animal in question. For example, the Bat Aspect grants Darkvision as a Minor Form, and the form of a Dire Bat as a Major Form. In all cases, the potency of both Minor and Major Forms increases as the Shifter levels. It can combine minor forms with its Chimeric Aspect class feature, produce Shifter Claws as a defensive weapon, and its Defensive Instinct ability encourages it to embrace its theme of forsaking metal armor by letting its Wisdom modifier affect its Armor Class and CMD.

For the full run-down, see Shifter (Pathfinder).

The Races of Pathfinder
Player's Handbook:	Dwarf - Elf - Gnome - Half-Elf - Half-Orc - Halfling - Human
Advanced Race Guide:	Aasimar - Catfolk - Changeling - Dhampir - Duergar Drow - Fetchling - Gillman - Goblin - Grippli - Hobgoblin Ifrit - Kitsune - Kobold - Merfolk - Nagaji - Orc - Oread Ratfolk - Samsaran - Strix - Suli - Svirfneblin - Sylph Tengu - Tiefling - Undine - Vanara - Vishkanya - Wayang
Bestiaries:	Android - Astomoi - Caligni - Deep One Hybrid - Gathlain Gnoll - Kasatha - Munavri - Naiad - Orang-Pendak Reptoid - Rougarou - Shabti - Trox - Yaddithian
Adventure Paths:	Being of Ib - Kuru
Inner Sea Races:	Ghoran - Monkey Goblin - Lashunta - Skinwalker Syrinx - Triaxian - Wyrwood - Wyvaran
Ultimate Wilderness:	Vine Leshy
Blood of the Sea:	Adaro - Cecaelia - Grindylow - Locathah - Sahuagin - Triton
Planar Adventures:	Aphorite - Duskwalker - Ganzi