How do things like +str and +dex work when shifted? Is my understanding correct that if you have +8 dex from gear that will not carry over into form?

So if you are in form and even when you have a bunch of +stat gear on, will things like cranial and impale, etc. decrease your dex based from the baseline of your form (and not count any gear +stats)?

So as a general rule for shifters, different than pretty much all other classes, you want to gear for all +hp and +mana and don't care about the other + or - stats from gear...is this right?

I don't play shifters but my understanding was that they were changed and that stats (+dex, -svs etc.) DO matter in form now. Only progs don't, I think.

This is correct to the best of my knowledge. If you are wearing +stat gear then it will give the bonus regardless of form, human or beast, but the thing that changes are the base stat values ie. your tigers base stats are different than your gnomes. Having said that, not all stats work this way fully.

There are some gray areas in that, +wis gear, for example, will not translate to added practices when you rank in form where as it will if you rank as whatever humanoid you pick ie gnome/human etc.

An example of some of the above could be like if you have +5 str in form you should have base form str with a little (5) next to it saying that you have an overage of +5. If you are hit with a maldict that saps 4 then you still throw out the same damage as you normally would because the str gear prevents damage loss by str but, there are also grey areas in that some skills seem to have more effect on the body than simply -str or -dex. Hurl could be a good example of one of these skills which hurling at someones legs seems to hurt their dodging even if they have max stats otherwise.

Gearing for Hp is still a good idea but +physical stats and saves are also viable options depending on how you like to play.

Disclaimer:
The above is based off of my experience in playing shifters and of course reading lots of gameplay questions concerning things like this.

Shapeshifter level gains are based only on their unshifted stats, which will only include gear if you are in your unshifted form. This applies to Wisdom, Int and Con and thus can influence HP, Mana and Practice gains.

nor do resists and vulns that are not in affects list.