Does character retain (continue gaining/having) benefits of feats that augment/change his physical form while under polymorph effect (all spells of X shape lines)?
Examples:
1) Merfolk with improved natural armor in his original shape has +1 nat armor in addition to his natural +2, which makes it +3 nat. armor. Then he uses beast shape I to polymorph into small animal - bird. That means his new form has +1 nat armor. But does the feat work and does he have +2 nat armor or +1 nat armor in the form of the bird?
Essentially is the feat linked to original form or not?
2) Kobold with tail terror feat using beast shape II polymorphs into tiger. He still is a kobold and he has a tail. He meets prerequisits. So can he use his tiger-kobold tail to make a natural attack or not?
3) Catfolk with improved natural attack (claws) polymorphs into tiger. Does his new claws benefit from improved natural attack (claws) or not?
4) Human with Fiendskin (Damnation feat) polymorphs into tiger (beast shape II). Does his tiger form also have resistances to elements or not?
5)Human with Nightmare Scars feat polymorphs into something. Does his new form has those scars and does he gain benefit provided by them?
Bump.
Yes to all of them. The feats are not dependent on your base form. As long as you meet the pre-reqs in your current form, they work.
That sounds really great and a bit broken, but that means my druid is gonna be really tough.
I agree with MPL - a pretty common occurence it seems! The relevant text:
"While under the effects of a polymorph spell, you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities that depend on your original form (such as keen senses, scent, and darkvision), as well as any natural attacks and movement types possessed by your original form. You also lose any class features that depend upon form, but those that allow you to add features (such as sorcerers that can grow claws) still function. While most of these should be obvious, the GM is the final arbiter of what abilities depend on form and are lost when a new form is assumed. Your new form might restore a number of these abilities if they are possessed by the new form."
No mention of feats. Your GM might restrict some feats if they have a pre-req that relies on an original form or class feature that is lost, but there's no direct precedent.
Yes, this can create breaks in verisimilitude. Pathfinder's polymorph rules deliberately sacrifice verisimilitude for ease-of-play.