Skinchangers is a decent book for antagonists. Changing Breeds is totally player-oriented. Besides the sometimes heavy-handed "ecofriendly" message, I thought Changing Breeds is a good book. Most of the aspects & details described in War against the Pure are ported over directly to Changing Breeds. The thing that bothered me, like so many others, is the imbalance between the breed examples (plus centaur men…really).
Changing Breeds incorporates the stat adjustments for the throwback & dire beast forms as presented in WatP, but not the war beast & primal beast forms. Just incorporate these adjustments, and I think the game mechanics work fairly well. Drawing upon mechanics from WatP, this is what I do:
The War Beast form provides a +6 bonus distributed amongst the breed’s Physical attributes, with at least +1 assigned to each. The form also increases Size by +2 and grants a +2 to perception rolls. Advantages are adjusted in accordance with the Physical attribute bonuses. As already stated in Changing Breeds, War Beast form automatically provides natural armor of 1/1 and unarmed attacks inflict lethal instead of bashing damage. These zero dot favors are free to all breeds.
The Primal Beast form provides a +3 bonus distributed amongst the breed’s Physical attributes. The bonus can be distributed in any way, even a full +3 to one attribute. The Primal Beast is approximately the same Size as the breed animal. For animals that are particularly small compared to the human form, the Primal Beast appears to be larger than the average animal of that species but not freakishly large. This form also provides a +3 bonus to perception rolls. Advantages are adjusted in accordance with the Physical attribute bonuses. Like the War Beast form, the Primal Beast automatically provides natural armor and lethal damage for attacks. For the sake of game balance, breeds that become smaller in Primal Beast form shouldn’t lose more than one Health in their animal form.
Just to clarify, the Throwback form does not get the free favor of natural armor 1/1.
By default, ferals are assumed to have a War Beast and Primal Beast form, but not all do. To handle this, different forms are assigned dot values. If a form doesn’t have a War Beast or Primal Beast form, they can be exchanged for additional starting Aspect dots. Alternate forms like the Throwback or Dire Beast can be substituted or added. Changing Breeds also lists a Swarm/Flock form among the list of Aspects. This form works well for particularly small species like rats or insects that are too small for a reasonable Primal Beast form. Ordinarily, a feral breed only possesses a particular set of forms, but at the Storyteller’s discretion additional forms may become available after character creation. The dot values for different forms are as follows:
••• Primal Beast form or Throwback form
•••• Throwback form (large species) or Swarm/Flock form
••••• War Beast form or Dire Beast form
As an example, suppose you are making a rat species feral, and the Primal Beast and War Beast forms seem inappropriate to your concept of the breed. Instead of using the Primal Beast form, the Throwback form is substituted. They both have the same dot value so it’s an even exchange. Instead of a War Beast form, the Storyteller decides that the breed should have a Swarm form instead, becoming a swarm of rats. Since the War Beast is a five dot value and the Swarm form is a four dot value, the breed starts with one additional Aspect dot at character creation. If the Storyteller decided the only form for the breed is the Throwback form, the breed would start with five additional Aspect dots. While the breed would lack the ferocious power of the War Beast form, they make up for it with other tricks.