The shapeshift playstyle is very underpowered, as while you get more HP bars in theory, if you are aggro/solo combat, your HP bars get blown up in 1 turn/less. More HP doesn't mean higher defense vs magic/physical... particularly vs lvl 4+ mobs. The only form that sometimes survives a full enemy rotation is the bear, all others can get killed immediately, sometimes on a single attack from a single mob.
Moreover, all the combat is melee (technical exception of fire web spider tactic), not ranged. You can only really effectively hit 1 mob at a time per turn, in most cases. If you try to engage a party (i.e, goblins), the coordinated ranged attack spam of the enemy will outmaneuver you every time, particularly in closed spaces. You spend the time chasing after everyone. Very easy to die fast.
Granted, I played through the game without companions, so as the game appears balanced in 4-party groups there are various ways to avoid. But individually speaking, the shapeshift form is very limited combat-wise, especially since AI likes to target all attacks on the player, it seems. It is possible to combo human druid spells with shapeshift for effect, but they are of course only last so many turns, not effective for sustained shapeshifted gameplay. Without spamming (healing) items, the pure shapeshift playstyle is very restrictive/difficult.
Finally, note that the numerical stats of the animal forms appear fixed for now, meaning that once more levels are added (i.e., lvl 5-20), every form will be worthless. I assume higher levels will scale it up somehow, but we have to see.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Mad S. Tist 
