Editing Familiarity Question (section)

==Things a DM can do==
As a DM you have the final say in what your players will or will not do. As such it is in your power to say no to [[powergaming]] shenanigans, but keep in mind that your players want to have fun. So there's a few things you can do. Whatever you do, to make sure to tell this to your player while you're still in the character creation stage and not right before the start of a session.

===Tell your player to do all of the above===
Simply put, the steps above give the player the most freedom (and indulge their desire to play a shapeshifter), at the cost of breaking the game. Make sure to stress the importance of the non-Munchkinnery statement for them, the party and the campaign as a whole.

===Limit depending on the character's abilities===
A more convoluted way of dealing with them. Determine how many forms a character can know based on some kind of stat (flat number plus one of its stats, maybe level or a skill as well). This might appear arbitrary to a player and might end with them minmaxing to get the most out of their character, which may result in them not having a good time.

===Have them roll Knowledge (whatever)===
Elegant on paper, useless in practice. Druids can turn into natural animals, but since those are all bound to the same skill it's just a matter of minmaxing it (or just plain old leveling up) to reliably roll for the specific creature's Knowledge DC. Do try and avoid invoking [[Bear Lore]], beause as we all know that's just stupid. On the other hand, a character such as a [[Prestige classes|Master of Many Forms]] who can turn into monsters linked to a variety of different sources (kind of how an [[Archivist]]'s class feature works). This means that there are at least five Knowledge skills the character will need to invest in (not all of whom will be on their skill list) to get the most out of their character, which will result in the player trying to minmax his character, which is not a desirable result.

===Limit them to whatever they have seen===
The [[WYSIWYG]] solution. Only allow your player to change shape into the the creatures their character has seen, with perhaps some basic forms. On one hand this will make the forms in question limited and easy to manage, and might be a desirable solution when dealing with new players. For a more experienced player however this will cripple their character and greatly limit their most important class feature, which will not be the solution the player is going for.

===No shapeshifters===
The simplest yet most rigorous solution: ban shapeshifters altogether. If you want to do something like this make sure to tell the players in advance, right at the first steps of the campaign. If you do this while setting the tone for the campaign you can have players know what to expect and will design their characters with this in mind. If you do this all the time however this might eventually create resistance from your players, who'll want you to change this or, perhaps for the best, have them give it a shot at DMing.