Bloodwort's page

Recently started AoW, and we're about halfway through the Whispering Cairn (the actual cairn).

Best scene so far:

my problem is the text that says "can be wielded as a shield". The monk must "wield" it so that means he loses his monk bonus to AC.

Actually anyone who wants the ring's "shield" bonus to armor must have a hand free to wield/grab it.

Just tell your GF to get the feat "double slice" and she can use her full strength bonus on damage with her shield bash.

Yes, shields are an "off hand" attack.

A fun way to play with shield bash is go the TWF route and just use small shields in your off hand (light weapon).

My question for the group would be... if I have a large/heavy shield made out of mithril, should it count as a light weapon for my off hand attack?

Question for the Pathfinder community.

I need some clarity on the Polymorph Any Object.

I believe Paizo did a good job trying to balance the lower level polymorph spells and removed any significant opportunities for abuse.

However, I would like some clarity on the PaO spell. It's an 8th level spell, so obviously it's supposed to be pretty powerful.

The example in the book is as follows:

Duration factor....(example)
0----20 minutes........Pebble to Human
2---- 1 hour............Marionette to human
4---- 3 hours..........Human to marionette
5---- 12 hours.........Lizard to manticore
6---- 2 days.............Sheep to wool coat
7---- 1 week...........Shrew to manticore
9+--- permanent......Manticore to Shrew

Based on the following factors:
Changed subject is: increase to duration factor
same kingdom (animal, vegetable, mineral)....+5
same class (mammal, fungi, metals, etc).........+2
same size........................................................+2
Related (twig is to tree, wolf fur to wolf)......+2
same or lower intelligence...........................+2
*add all that apply, look up total on duration factor table.

I did read on one of these message boards that Jason Bulman said the polymorph spells do not change your "type". If a human fighter is polymorphed into a troll his type is still humanoid, not giant. He's a human that's been shaped into a troll. His essence is still human. That makes sense.

Question #1)
However, does that mean on the table above that a pebble PaO'd into a human has a "type" of stone/pebble or does it have a new "type" of humanoid for the 20 minutes it's affected? Which would make it subject to any spell that targets humanoids.

Question #2)
What if I changed the party's human fighter to a storm giant. Is it permanent? Same kingdom (animal): Yes +5. Same class (mammal): Yes (+2). Same size: No +0. Related (hmm.. twig to tree, human to giant human?) you could say Yes (+2) even if you said no what about the next one. Same or lower intelligence. The beastiary list a storm giant with a 16 intelligence. What if the fighter has a 16 intelligence. Does that mean Yes (+2).

This could easily be a permanent transformation based on the above numbers. I assume that this is still dispellable since it would be a spell effect with an unlimited duration.

Question #3)
Let's look at that pebble again. What if I wanted to change the pebble (made of stone) into a stone wall. The spell says 100 cubic feet/level. For a level 15 wizard that's 15 10x10 cubes or 30 5x10 chunks of rock. Wouldn't this also be permanent?
kingdom: yes +5, class: yes +2, related: yes +2, intelligence: yes +2 = total of 11. All I needed was a 9.
Am I figuring this correctly? I assume this is a shapeable wall by the wizard.

Here's another example:
Let's say our level 15 wizard is in a dungeon or cavern with a stone wall. If he casts PaO on the wall and turns it into a stone golem. How long will it last?
same kingdom: yes +5, same class: Yes? +2, same size: yes/no/maybe. Related (look at the example in the book again) possibly Yes (+2) same or lower intelligence: no.
That's easily a duration factor of 7 or 9 maybe 11 which means 1 week to permanent duration. Am I right? That could be a really cheap way to have an army of stone golems.

Question #4)
Naturally most of these questions have to do with the duration of the spell. What if I had a dragon scale/bone/tooth, whatever. I could turn it into a dragon.. but how do I calculate the duration and how big of a dragon would it be? How do I mesh the 1500 cubic feet of power into dragon size? Is that huge? Colossal?

same kingdom: Yes or No.
it's a dragon scale. is it in the animal kingdom?
same class: I would say yes. +2
same size: no.
related (their example: wolf fur to wolf) so I would say yes. +2
same or lower intelligence: no.
That's either a rating of 4 or a rating of 9 depending on the kingdom question. So I either have a dragon for 3 hours or it's permanent.

You could argue, based on some of the other polymorph spell descriptions that maybe "form of the dragon III" would be most appropriate.

Question #5)**Control**
Let's take a look at the: human (from a pebble), wolf (from wolf fur), Manticore (from a shrew, Paizo's example), Dragon (from dragon scale), Stone golem (from stone).....
If the wizard created these things.... Do they now follow my commands? Or are these free willed beings to do what they want (help me, attack me, or just run away). The spell description doesn't shed any light on this aspect of the spell.

Are there additional questions that need to be asked that I'm not asking? What am I missing here?

I would really appreciate your opinions on these questions. We're going to be running a high-level game soon and I know this will come up.

Thank you in advance for your thoughtful response.

Bloodwort