>Could you make this partial shift actually useful?

Did you practice hand to hand?

>At
>present, it POTENTIALLY does much more damage than horns of
>the bull, but unfortunately, most of the time, it's only
>potential. I would guess that roughly 90% of the attacks from
>claw of the lion just miss completely--not parried or dodged,
>but total miss. I once was trying to use this spell in the
>Vale on wilder elves, and sat there for dozens of rounds
>trying to kill the weakling, but only ever missed. I wielded
>my practice dagger then (with only 71% in dagger), and had it
>dead in three rounds (it was still perfect health).

At level 8 with hand to hand and claw of the lion at 75%...

Spell: 'claw of the lion' for a very short time.

civilized <100%hp 83%m 63%mv 3600tnl (0.00%) 4 PM> kill 2.
Your vicious clawing hits a dockworker.
A dockworker has some small but disgusting cuts.

civilized <100%hp 83%m 63%mv 3600tnl (0.00%) 4 PM>
A dockworker's punch misses you.
A dockworker's trip misses you.
Your vicious clawing hits a dockworker.
A dockworker is covered with bleeding wounds.

civilized <100%hp 62%m 78%mv 3600tnl (0.00%) 5 PM> 2.
Your vicious clawing decimates a dockworker!
A dockworker is convulsing on the ground.

civilized <100%hp 62%m 78%mv 3600tnl (0.00%) 5 PM>
A dockworker's punch misses you.
Your vicious clawing misses a dockworker.
Your vicious clawing misses a dockworker.
A dockworker is convulsing on the ground.

civilized <100%hp 62%m 78%mv 3600tnl (0.00%) 5 PM>
A dockworker's punch scratches you.
Your vicious clawing decimates a dockworker!
A dockworker is DEAD!!
You receive 39 experience points (35% bonus).

So long, and thanks for all the fish!