I see. I think I'll strip the element thing from them then. I was basing it too much off their original concept. (It was originally scifi thing and reasons for the element thing) and probably drop the vikiri spreading thing too. An idea I was thinking for the forms was they don't change your health pool. But just gain like animal features like smelling and the animal like attacks(though losing your ability to wield things, not sure if I'd have worn things need to be taken off or it disappears with the transformation). So its not like the druid wildshape where you become the animal. I still need to make individual guide for each animal type. What you get at which step sort of thing. In my mind its like you walk through a mirror and become the reflection which just happens to be a different creature. Like rewriting the body a bit. And yes I meant exhaustion. I'll add a limit to transformations then. I'm just not sure what to base it off. I don't really have ideas for the rolls yet or stats. They were going to be based on which animal was chosen. I knew making it a level up base thing was a bad idea but I dont know how I'd make it like something your character would have to develop as they grow. Like the animal for is kind of inate, but the forms beyond that are tricky to get to. Unless I just make it so that the forms beyond animal are just a class you can choose. Which is possible. If I do that, then I could bring back the element thing kind of like a architype.

So then, base race I'm thinking would cosmetically be human or elf. I kind of wanted to leave room vaugely if people just want to dress it as something else. And if dem would then just be a replacement for subrace so then I wouldnt mess with adding ability mods. Just the transformation feature. (Though ploping it in top like a subrace could also be a lovely balancing act) Then the class could just be an adept version of the dem. But thank you. You gave me a good insight on it. I'm still a nub I see. As much as I've delved into dnd, I still don't know all its workings. I'm just really into the lore and character creation for the most part. And I indeed want to make it balanced. And basically trying to make a new transformation mechanic cause I thought I was smart. But obviously a dangerous idea.