If the conjurer had his option of two archons. Either the normal one, or the buffed, half-duration archon.

When a shifter gets a quest form, they don't LOSE any of their previous abilities. They can do absolutely, 100% EVERYTHING exactly the same as they did before. There is NO tradeoff.

The only thing they get is a new form. That's it. They give nothing up in return. If they don't like it, they can use it exactly never and their character will never notice a difference.