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Any news on the Polymorph spell? It's a lot of fun, and wizards just slapped a band-aid on it and oped for the best.
I say get rid of it altogether.
Otherwise allow it to do one thing and one thing only - to LOOK like a creature - no change in stats, abilities, natural armor, nothing.
Its for the purpose of disguise only. And perhaps mode of movement (polymorphing into a shark can allow you to swim)
Robert
Oooh, yet another reason to be impatient for next week. It's kind of like a little kid waiting for their birthday : )
Polymorph has seen some rather extreme revision in release 2. Look for it next week.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
Excellent. Polymorph has always been a headache for the DM. I've always thought it should have been either a series of spells (from low level "just the shape" to high level where you get the full monty of abilities etc.) or a series of much more specific spells allowing you to take just one (or a limited number) of shapes...
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Excellent. Polymorph has always been a headache for the DM. I've always thought it should have been either a series of spells (from low level "just the shape" to high level where you get the full monty of abilities etc.) or a series of much more specific spells allowing you to take just one (or a limited number) of shapes...Polymorph has seen some rather extreme revision in release 2. Look for it next week.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
Its simply abused and misused by players. The spell is still broken even after so many re-writes - and that is because most players just use it to create a min/maxed power build character by looking for the most powerful creature at any given level throughout the monster manual without taking into consideration as to if said character would really want to look like that creature; or if the creature is even all that well-known. How does a PC know that this creature has the best Natural Armor over any other creature at that given Hit Dice?
I recently had the party wizard in my game constantly casting that on the paladin and turning him into a Hag - just for the +9 Natural Armor. Sure thats a great way not to get hit - but finally i confronted the player (who is a really good role-player) and I asked him - Why would your paladn - a shining example of heroism, bravery and chilvary want to be looked at as a hag? How is that inspiring to others? I told him that I won't make him NOT do it; but I just asked him to think on this. He liked the natural armor bonus, but ultimately he came back and told the wizard the next game - "do not polymorph me into any creatures that are known to be evil - this is not the way to be endearing to my god."
I gave the player major thanks and kudos.
Now for a fix for the problematic spell: I was thinking that a material component be needed - something of the body of a creature type that you want to turn into - say the skull for instance - so that you can only get one per creature (with obvious exceptions of hydras and ettins etc).
Robert
Now for a fix for the problematic spell: I was thinking that a material component be needed - something of the body of a creature type that you want to turn into - say the skull for instance - so that you can...
Nice. I like that. Elegant and simple. If nobody else tries your idea, I think I will. Thanks :)
Good luck finding that Red Dragon skull people...
As long as you can even theoretically dumpster dive through the monster books and gain specific sections of monster entries in any way, the spell is overly complicated and horrendously broken. Remember that many "abilities" are actually limitations and that not getting certain parts of monsters (hit points, abilities, movement rates, attack progressions, or whatever) can be an advantage if you select the appropriate critter. Running a rubric that combines your character and a monster manual entry in any way will always be too much work and always be game breaking. It doesn't matter how you are allowed to select the monsters, it doesn't matter how the combinatorial is defined. Always. Broken.
However, a spell that grants specific bonuses and has a side effect where it allows you to look like whatever you want could be entirely balanced as a 4th level (or any level) buff spell. It would be simpler to apply in game, more fun, and more balanced. I seriously don't understand why people keep bringing up individual monster entries into the equation at all - in previous editions of the game you never did that and polymorph abuse didn't happen.
-Frank
I'd be rather happy with a simple list of effects-
you get x natural attacks that are level appropriate-damage wise (divorced completely from the caster's physical stats), just set the attack bonus and the CMB (or whatever its called) to an appropriate number for the duration of the spell
and the choice of a couple linked lists of extraordinary abilities including movement modes (waterbreathing for swim speeds)
Everything else can be cosmetic
Then either toss in greater polymorph at level 6/7 (take out polymorph any object) and shapeshift at 8 or 9, with higher adjustments, better movement speeds, etc.
Keep in mind, if it takes up more than four paragraphs of text, it has enough loopholes that its pretty much an automatic failure.
I seriously don't understand why people keep bringing up individual monster entries into the equation at all - in previous editions of the game you never did that and polymorph abuse didn't happen.
You're saying no one ever abused Polymorph Other in AD&D? Or Polymorph Any Object (turnip to purple worm Pokemon)? Your memory is a little different than mine, sir. :-)