Since most will agree that the Gorilla is the worst offensive form why not give it an extra skill or something that can lag, or make his smashing fist attack lag? How about giving them the option if able to pick the edge 'go for the throat' that it would work with their facebite? They're grabbing your face, might as well go for the throat? Any love for the Gorilla?

Given the relative easy of ranking shifters and the low investment required in playing them, I think it's by design that while all forms have ups and downs, unique skills, etc., every foci simply needs one or two forms that are marginally worse (in general) than the others.

The class wouldn't be fair if every offensive form was as good as rhino or lion or whatever you like best in any given scenario.

The fact that you might not get one of the forms you want and will instead get a form that is merely adequate or in your opinion, less so, is what makes the class fair.

Just be glad that now you have the option of trading edge points for a new one.

You need to look at the individual's experience. How is it fair or fun, from the player's standpoint, to get a form that is, as you say, "marginally worse than the others" for no other reason than because fate decided to poop on them?

All final forms should be strong.

I don't think any final form is so bad that it's worth deleting over. I definitely think there are forms I would sacrifice some edge points for a random re-roll though.

Part of the shapeshifter class is randomness. It's what you agree and accept by rolling and ranking one up. I'd say that's more than fair given that the odds you'll get "bad forms" are well under the odds you'll get a combo that can go toe-to-toe with a lot of very challenging opponents while having put (comparatively) almost no work into your character. Hence all the throwaway / auto-deleted shifters.

When you play a shifter, you don't have the expectation of getting only the best forms in the pool. It's based on fate, as you call it, and people who don't like that simply don't play shifters often. In return for the easy-come nature of shifter power is the chance that that you might get the short straw. If you don't like that, don't play shifters.

(And FWIW, I definitely know what it feels like to have fate "poop on me", as I recently spent a crippling amount of edge points on re-rolls and attunement edges with a shapeshifter of mine. I still think its fair.)

ntnt