Has anybody else used the Shapeshifter Talents (Shapeshifter and Improved Shapeshifter) from Realms of Terrinoth? If so how do you guys flavor it in your games?
It totally comes off to me like one of two things, the first is druid transformation (which is probably better handled through the augment spell), the second is lycanthropy type curse result as it buffs physical stats, gimps mental ones, is uncontrolled and causes major social issues.
However, there is nothing in the description that prevents the PC from using any weapons other than ranged or any skill other than magic ones. It seems to me that this is ripe for abuse as you could have a melee fighter character who intentionally burns a bunch of high strain costing abilities only to exceed threshold, pass out and transform into an even more effective melee fighter (with full strain to boot). The only trade off being they are stuck in the new form and its social skill checks for the 8 hour duration. If you're the type of player who doesn't care about social encounters or int/will checks then its all gravy, and that feels wrong for a Tier 1 talent with that level of physical stat buff and strain recovery.
I would figure that Shapeshifter as a Tier 1 is there to give people the opportunity to perform druidic transformations, in which case you are locking yourself out of some of your abilities in order to do it. Alternatively you could use it to have a lycanthrope character, but in that case triggering your transformation is actually something that the character would try to avoid and when it did trigger then the GM should play the PC. If its a GM plays the PC, why would a character voluntarily buy this talent since it forces them to lose control of the character? You could mitigate that some by having the player and GM come to an agreement on how the PC behaves when transformed, but that behavior should be rather counter to the PC's normal goals and alliances. Adding improved to it helps the PC trigger it when they need to, or avoid it, but doesn't necessarily give them any more control when it occurs.
Anyway, as you can see, I'm a bit confounded on how to integrate these two talents appropriately into the setting.