atonal's page

and I will say that when you get into the subtleties of Come and Get Me it would be wise to have both a reach weapon and a non-reach weapon available to you - my guy carries a Bardiche and wears an Earthbreaker strapped across his back with the claws he manifests as his fallback option.

I'm using a +2 furious courageous transformative adamantine greatsword. The adamantine is arguably unnecessary, but I liked the idea of being able to rip through anything in my way.

The benefits:

* You can transform it into any other 2H martial weapon, such as a bardiche for the reach property. Otherwise you can leave it as a greatsword to hit adjacent things. If you're disarmed or grappled, fall back to the claws. [transformative]

* +4 enhancement bonus when raging. [furious]

* Any morale bonus gets +1/2 the weapon's enhancement bonus. This has synergy with furious. Multiple things benefit from this, such as Rage, Superstition, and Desperate Battler. [courageous]

* Break through pretty much any non-magical barrier with it. [adamantine]

I know this one might be silly, as its really just some annoying fog, but what I mean is that this is another one of those "absolute" spells, in that it doesn't matter what strength a target of this spell has, no matter what, your movement is reduced to 5. If you had a creature with a 500 Strength and a 10,000 mile per round movement, he is reduced to 5' movement, just the same as my dear old Aunt May, who is 94 years old, has a 5 strength, and a base 10 movement rate.

Does anyone see any gain in tweaking this spell?

I think a STR check that gives an improved movement speed as a full-round action would be fair. Your size could also give a bonus to the check.

My reasoning is thus: If you can't at least buy yourself a round vs. a barbarian horde with this spell, you're wasting a spell slot. If you attempt to cast this spell on a Purple Worm, however, it's your own damn fault for wasting your spell slot.

Also, keep in mind that the adverse effects of this spell can be countered with a Gust of Wind spell. Our group has come to a reasonable assumption that this form of dispersal is instantaneous, as opposed to normal wind dispersal which takes 1 round.

Robert Brambley wrote:

Just for clarification:

Are the various "GiantShape/ElementalShape/Beastshape" etc actually change the 'type' of the creature?

What about Wildshaping?...

As written, you are correct in that nothing is said either way. From the intent expressed in the Designer Notes: Polymorph Problems sidebar on pg. 171, though, it seems like the spells in question will transmute your physical body, but will not alter *creature type* which is a more inherent trait. Certain templates can alter it, as can permanent magics, but the presented spells for changing shape are all duration-based, and as such would not to my way of thinking. If that is the case, rules-as-written the Enlarge Person would effect the subject whereas Animal Growth would not. Inasmuch as the Wildshape rules specifically refer to the spells in question, the same rules would apply, whatever those rules might be. If it is the intention of the Wildshape ability to make the Druid able to benefit from the animal-targeting spells, that would need to be specified in the Wildshape description or it would imply that everyone using those spells is in the same boat.

~Doskious Steele

It wouldn't hurt to add an explicit statement to the rules stating:

"X does not change the subject's creature type."

where X is Wild Shape, Foo Shape, and/or the Polymorph sub-school.

I think 3.x set a precedent for knowing the answer to questions involving shape-changing and creature type. From a rules look-up perspective, it's a little annoying to have to dig through rules on spell chains, class features, and a magic sub-school for a non-answer.