best sound design plugins for pro tools?

[Tomposer]

Hey,
I enjoy all sorts of sound design in Pro Tools by recording my own sounds from microphones and/or synthesizers and mangling them. As I get quicker at this, I'm looking for plugins that help me to speed up the process.

In particular I'm looking for samplers which permit radical tweaking, like pitching, mixing, modulating, and/or other interesting audio effects.

Or otherwise, any other indispensable Plugins for sound design specifically in RTAS.

Also.... I'm interested in Reaktor, but the web site says it's only for Pro Tools 9 and I'm still operating with 8.... any suggestions here?

Cheers!