Phae - four topics for you! EDITED, oops, can't count at this hour.
Looking at items for Blisss, I run into this problem: His natural form is water, so with past DMs he held his items with his natural ability that has now been named Liquid Form, and simply merged them into himself. It's neither polymorph nor shapechange though it's like them; it's significantly more specific and limited in what shapes he can take, but more thorough and powerful in what happens when he takes a form. The most important difference, about this question, is: his magic items still work when merged. This is contrary to your general rules about polymorph, so the question is, do his magic items work?
I didn't have this in the writeup explicitly previously because it wasn't an issue for the DMs - for example Quillwraith was fine with it when I raised the question. Here is the writeup I added to the "One With Its Environment" ability that deals with the Liquid Form differences for Glaciadragons - seemed like the right place to put it:
"The Glaciadragon may hold its Magic Items by merging them using Liquid Form. For Glaciadragons, holding any Magic Item would be difficult, if not impossible, in their natural watery form, even more so if they change back and forth between forms as they do frequently. The Glaciadragon’s Magic Items retain their functions when merged into any form the Glaciadragon may take using Liquid Form provided that the particular function of the Magic Item is not dependent on its physical shape. Two examples: For a +1 sword with a function when held, the d6 die roll for slashing damage does not apply to attacks when the sword is merged, but the +1 and the held function apply. For a +1 Ghostward suit of armor, the AC bonus of the physical suit does not apply when merged, but the +1 and Ghostward do apply. Other items are decided on a case basis. Glaciadragons commonly use Liquid Form to change into their own form but with the Magic Item held by merging it."
Are you OK with this? Obviously, what I do about items depends a lot on how this will work.
I offered to Quillwraith that Blisss could have no magic items, and the same applies for your game - we'd work something else out. Or not... if he's underpowered for lack of items, so be it.
Next topic: I saw the "no off-brand spell lists to power up items with spells at lower levels than usual".
Blisss can learn spells from any list; what about learning spells from those lists to power up his slots? FYI, he can know 2 spells of 0-3 and 1 at 4th so his personal list is very small, though he can spam them every 5 minutes/encounter.
Before you decide I'll confess to the wild idea here: Greater Dispel from Trapsmith, plus Bottomless Metamagic, produces at-will Greater Dispel? It's an idea. Of course with the power level of some of the other characters in the party we may have something like this already, so maybe it's not a big deal.
I saw the No Flaws. In Blisss' most recent incarnation I took 2 Flaws and spent them on buying the 2 Feats needed for Cure Light Wounds at will. Why? Because the character would only learn and take healing spells otherwise, shutting down the whole Blue Mage flexibility thing - Blisss is just that kind of guy; he wouldn't let others die around him when he could save them just by only learning one type of spell. And the Flaws were flavorful.
The 2 Feats:
Attune Node, Improved Attune Node to
Positive Plane Ability: Infusion, Cure Light Wounds at will as Swift Action (DC15, +4 1/2CL +2 Int = +6, or healing is halved)
The 2 Flaws:
Free Spirited Effective weight of gear is doubled, armor check penalties doubled/tripled swimming
Cute Things Lover WILL Save against cute creatures, DC 15 + the creature's CHA mod, or Fascinated for 1 round plus the creature's CHA mod
Are you OK with this?
While on this general subject, I had two traits; the one I would drop is this:
"
Iron LiverBenefit: Immune to alcohol's detrimental effects
Drawback: -1 on Fortitude saves against any other recreational drug
Blisss flavor: He stayed in the Inn for years, likes water, drank what liquids there were, didn’t know some had alcohol, didn’t notice. Other recreational drugs? Never met any, not interested. Alcohol isn’t a recreational drug for him anyway – for him, it’s pretty much just like water, does nothing whatsoever. Amusing roleplay."
Not a big deal to drop it, but it's flavorful, and seems like not a big deal to keep it. What do you think?
The whole Blue Mage thing was expanded by Blisss carrying a small library of spells on scrolls so he could un-learn a spell he knows, cast one on himself from a scroll and learn it thereby, use it for a while, and then switch back. He then re-writes the scrolls to keep the library replenished so he can switch what he knows in the future. Remember he can only know 9 spells total at any given time: 2 0, 2 1st, 2 2nd, 2 3rd, 1 4th so this was a way to expand his repertoire.
The way you play them, scrolls are used to transmit knowledge. Would they still work for him to learn simply by reading in lieu of a spell cast on himself, since that's in general how a Blue Mage learns them? Could he replace one spell with another by simply reading the scroll, and if so would the spell go away or would the scroll still be intact? That, of course, would give him a lot more flexibility to switch spells as desired.