I'm trying to find any way to get around the whole "you can only choose an animal up to 1 size category different than yourself" rule for Lycanthropes, Shifters who are going Weretouched Master, and characters entering the Primeval prestige class from Frostburn.
So far, the closest thing I have come up with is being a Goliath (or using the Old Blood feat from Bastards & Bloodlines and choosing Goliath), then going Barbarian 1st level and choosing the racial substitution Mountain Rage. My logic is that Mountain Rage makes me large while raging, therefore the size limitation can now be applied to large size rather than medium, so I can choose a Huge animal. But that would tie the shapeshifting specifically to rage, which I suppose I can live with, especially if I can convince the DM to houserule that shifting can work as a substitute for rage in this instance due to the reading on the Shifter racial entry for that ability.
Any idea how I could break that size restriction another way? Any idea how I could stay a medium size character and use the listed template or race and class ability to transform into something larger than huge?
(I don't want to play a Druid because they have no real connection to the animals they turn into and are able to just turn into any animal they come across, so the feel isn't really the same. It's fluff reasoning I know but the whole reason I'm going with the stated races and classes is that the character is connected to/related to/a part of that particular animal.)