Dragon Polymorph and Items

[tearnImale]

So I'm having a dragon NPC help out and eventually fight the party that I have. However, I want him to be good at disarm so he can try to disarm a character once/round.

More to the point, if I equip him with certain items while he is in human form (such as Gauntlets of the Skilled Maneuver, or maybe even a belt of mighty strength), will the "constant bonuses" still apply when he returns to his true form, or do the constant bonuses not work going from polymorphed to unpolymorphed?

Also, from human to/from dragon, would a headband merge with the form, and if so, could the NPC thus have two headbands?

If anyone cares, the dragon I'm using is here:

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/dragons/dragon/chromatic -blue/young-blue-dragon/

Any insight would be helpful!

[Meirril]

So this is a dragon polymorphing into a human, correct? This goes differently than the other way around. Since the entire magic item system is centered around humanoids, if a dragon has an equivalent item slot then the item would end up there in the humanoid form.

There are no set rules for what slots a monster has. There are rules for animal companions and familiars so you can use that as a basis. Considering that dragons have UMD as one of their skills they get a racial bonus on, its also safe to assume they can manipulate items like wands. Honestly, its probably best to just assume that a dragon actually has all slots that a humanoid has to keep things simple.

When the dragon transforms into a humanoid, the equipment other than armor and weapons should automatically resize and remain in the humanoid's same slot. So our dragon would only want a polymorphic pouch to carry around a few pieces of gear for his disguise. Also you could put the appropriate enchantment on the armor and weapon to have them resize with the polymorph effect. If you want an armored dragon?

I'm also assuming the dragon has a piece of gear to help with the polymorph, since its too young to learn spells? Strangely a dragon only needs to be a first level sorcerer to learn Alter Self and become humanoid.

The provisions for having gear subsume into the body is because Polymorph assumes a humanoid is changing into other things. Under polymorph there is no clause for having gear subsume into the body when transforming into a humanoid. Though if you gave dragons some sort of new magic item slot (like letting them wear 4 wrist items) the slots with no equivalence should get subsumed into the body.

When the dragon lets go of its polymorphed state and reverts to being a dragon...there is no magic involved to temporarily absorb magic items. The dragon is reverting to its true form. If the dragon put on boots for his human disguise...the boots should be removed. Possibly damaged or destroyed in the process. Or its a full sized dragon wearing boots over its claws. However you want to play it as a GM. But having items get subsumed when you revert to your true form? No. No reason for that to happen.

[Cevah]

Meirril wrote:

Strangely a dragon only needs to be a first level sorcerer to learn Alter Self and become humanoid.

Not quite. Alter Self is a 2nd level spell. True Dragons cast as Sorcerers, so they don't get 2nd until 4th caster level.

The blue dragon doesn't get CL 4+ until an Adult.

/cevau