Personally speaking, I go TriForm. Seeing how useful Nova can be when your Kheldian is sidekicked by high-level characters, and yet you can blast and debuff at the same time, I'd say that Nova is very useful and its worth taking even on a temporary basis, especially if you're going to use the 2nd build to be just Human/Dwarf.
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
My PB is 25 at the moment, almost 26, and I never took Nova. A friend advised me against skipping it if only for when I ran into quantums and voids, but beyond taking on a seeker and losing pitifully at low level, I haven't missed it. I hit hasten and build up and blow the smithereens out of Q's and V's, and regular groups have, thusfar, been no problem at all.
I have no IOs yet and only a few DOs that haven't been outlevelled. No SOs. It's been fine. YMMV, though. Actually, at 20 when I took dwarf, I sort of wish I'd taken stamina first and dwarf at 22, since stamina was the only area I ever really felt a sting.
I felt I should add that I've almost entirely soloed. I did a sewer team to 5 or 6 and I've joined in one one radio mission. The bank missions have been a blast to solo since previously I'd been playing a controller and didn't manage to solo a single one 
I'm trying a human-only PB now for concept reasons (it's actually a Kheldian-built power suit being worn by a human so while it can duplicate many of the powers, it can't duplicate the form shifting), but generally I find nova form extremely useful. If you go WS it's your ONLY means of using flight as a travel power and it's AoE damage is very useful on teams.
I also find it very useful for tanking. Seriously. My Tr-Form has a 40.5% ranged defense so I can survive a ranged alpha pretty easily. So I open on a large spawn with scatter and detonation to draw my initial aggro, then shift to dwarf form as they're closing to hold it (and as a bonus, +3 minions are generally already half-dead by the time they get into range of my flare).
If I were going to solo it, I would take nova. If I were planning to team, I probably wouldn't bother because it doesn't take that long to get to 20.
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
yes
perma jump is ---> /up 1
Howdy. Quick question here. If you were planning on creating a human/dwarf build for either PB or WS, would you take the Nova form to help along the road to level 20 and then abandon it via respec or dual-build later?
Just curious, and thanks in advance for any replies.