Building a successful Polymorpher

[Mark Hoover 330]

So I understand there are a couple guides and several threads out there to building a wizard, sorcerer or other arcane full caster that uses Transmutation spells to become a monster in melee. What I don't understand is how said full-caster overcomes low BAB and base stats?

Start with a 20 pt buy on a wizard. They know they're going to prioritize Transmuting into a monster so at level 1 assume an 18 Str. From there advance the wizard to level 10. WBL and stat increases along with their Transmuter bonus puts their base Str at 26 (18 base, +1 level 4/+1 level 8, Str belt +4, Transmuter class ability at level 1).

That means in melee with a BAB +5 this wizard has a +13 to hit. The wizard casts a level 5 Tranmutation spell to become a Huge monster. They get a -2 Size penalty to attack, a +6 Str bonus; that nets out to a +1 to hit in melee. Figure they also have an Amulet of Nat Attacks +1, Weapon Focus: Natural Attacks for a total of +16 to hit in melee, in their new monstrous form.

The average CR 10 monster has a 24 armor class. The wizard is good, hitting about 2/3 of the time. I suppose that's a good thing. But they also had to spend both their stat increases, 1/5 of their feats and almost 1/3 of their WBL to hit this. Plus said wizard is also on the front line, hopefully with a Mage Armor running prior to turning into this creature, b/c they'd get a +6 Natural Armor bonus but a -4 Dex penalty and a -2 Size penalty, for a net increase of only +2 AC. All while rocking the standard HP of a Wizard 10 (avg of 47 + Con bonus/level).

Considering the avg CR 10 monster has a high attack of +18 to hit and deals an avg of 45 HP on a successful hit, this poor wizard might not even survive the first Full Attack from their enemies.

So how much am I missing, and how far off am I? How does a full caster with 1/2 BAB and low HP become a melee monster?

[BENSLAYER]

This is not my area of expertise but from Wizard 11 you could really start to do some nice things :

* Cast a Polymorph Spell that retains Spellcasting, (e.g., Form of Dragon++/Fey Form/Monstrous Physique/Undead Anatomy/later Giant Form, Frightful Presence, Polymorph [Greater] or Shapechange).
* Cast [6] Transformation - this is a Transmutation Spell without the Polymorph Sub-school, so it should Stack without dismissing the Polymorph Spell.

You do lose a Round for the set-up but you get Full B.A.B., Proficiency with Martial Weapons and a +5 Competence Bonus to Fortitude. Some benefits would be ignored for those that do not Stack, (such as Enhancement Bonuses to Strength), but you would still take the better option.

If you want a form that does not usually allow Spellcasting, (e.g., Beast Shape or Shapechanger's Gift+), your Wizard could obtain a [18 900gp] Beast Talisman to gain up to a +8 Enhancement Bonus to Natural Attacks in that Animal form for 5 minutes per [4] Spell expended, (no limit on daily uses). If you do use Shapechanger's Gift+, you can also obtain a [56 000gp] Ring of Continuation at upper mid-level to make those form changes last 24 hours, (just expending a [1-4] Spell when necessary).

[deuxhero]

Using a Gish chassis is best for a dedicated polymorpher. Paladin 2/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight 2 with the Shapeshifter bloodline, Prestigious Spell caster and Robes of Arcane Heritage (16,000) is less squishy (your saves are really high) and has their polymorph effects last close to all day at 10 hours with Magical Knack (considering you spend 8 hours asleep and the divine/book casters spend 1 hour preparing spells you only have to worry about 5 hours, not even that if you get an extend rod or some CL boosters).

[Volkard Abendroth]

A strength focused transmuter can stack enough bonuses to compensate for the BaB, and Monstrous Humanoid spells can give you up to six natural attacks.

Buffs, like Heroism, are long enough duration to last most of the adventuring day.

Arcane Strike is most likely going to be a better investment than Power Attack, unless the target is low AC. If the target is low AC, use both.

The Deathsnatcher, for example, is a medium sized monstrous humanoid that gives your access to a large number of natural attacks with decent base damage.

As you level up, you start getting more of the special abilities, including pounce when you use Monstrous Physique III (also fun to use with a strength based magus).

[MrCharisma]

The other thing to remember is that Natural attacks don't use iteratives, so if you can get 6 Primary Natural Attacks you'll be doing those attacks at full BAB.

So at level 11 even though you're at -6 compared to a full BAB character the numbers might be in your favour: Fighter is at +11/+6/+1. Let's say the chances of him hitting are 95%/70%/45%, that's 210% (or 2.1 hits per round). You're at +5/+5/+5/+5/+5/+5), so your chances to hit would be 55%/55%/55%/55%/55%55%. That's 330% (or 3.3 hits per round). Even if the fighter is hitting 50% harder than you he's still doing slightly less damage (chances are a well built fighter has some other tricks as well, so this isn't a prefect simulation).

It also doesn't have to be better than the fighter, just comparable. Even if you're not quite keeping up with the damage you can hopefully contribute in other ways as well - you can mix it up in melee with the fighter and can also cast teleport and fly on the party.

EDIT: I messed up my percentages a bit. The numbers should have been slightly more in favour of the wizard, but since I wasn't taking into account a whole lot of things it probably ended up more accurate this way, so I'll leave it.