"You can only be affected by one polymorph spell at a time. If a new polymorph spell is cast on you (or you activate a polymorph effect, such as wild shape), you can decide whether or not to allow it to affect you, taking the place of the old spell."
If you cast Alter Self (which is a polymorph spell) to turn into a half-elf, could you then cast Paragon Surge? You count as a half-elf at the time of casting, and you could allow Paragon Surge to work and Alter Self to wear off.
So, my Aasimar Sorcerer could burn some spell slots to gain a temporary feat?
Most polymorph spells do not change your type or subtype. You take on the form of a creature that belongs to that type, but you don’t gain it yourself.
No, that does not work. But if your Aasimar Sorcerer has the Scion of Humanity race trait to count as a Human (which is usually popular just so you can use the Human race's favored class bonus) he could use the Racial Heritage feat to qualify as a half-elf for Paragon Surge.
It is kind of funny that something that convoluted actually works where a polymorph spell does not.
For completeness, I'll bring up an android trait that touches on this issue:
Cellular Match [Link]
Source People of the Stars pg. 7
Requirement(s) Android
Whenever you are affected by a polymorph spell or effect, your nanites adjust completely at a molecular level. For the duration of the polymorph effect, you are treated as only a humanoid for the purpose of effects that target creatures by type. For example, a ranger’s favored enemy bonus against constructs wouldn’t apply to you while you are polymorphed, but nor would spells such as make whole. This trait modifies part of the android’s constructed racial trait, but otherwise that trait is unchanged (a polymorphed android still can’t gain morale bonuses, is still immune to fear, and so on).
Notice that even if the android polymorphs into an animal, it is still of the humanoid type.
I remember Paragon Surge being a problematic spell....I think it must have been before a clarification that specified the feat you gained was always the same (on a given day). Before that I recall people using it to gain a different feat each time it was cast giving them a lot of versatility.
The abuse was buying wands of it (not cheap, but viable) and with a little UMD investment (and maybe a Wand key ring) you could have full BAB classes casting this spell that lasted at least 5 minutes. Pretty useful pre-buff if you wanted an extra feat.
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The abuse was buying wands of it (not cheap, but viable) and with a little UMD investment (and maybe a Wand key ring) you could have full BAB classes casting this spell that lasted at least 5 minutes. Pretty useful pre-buff if you wanted an extra feat.
Before the FAQ, spontaneous spellcasters were using it to take Expanded Arcana and temporarily add one or two spells to their known spells, exactly the ones they needed to resolve a problem. It gave them the versatility of a cleric or wizard with one or more empathy slots to fill as needed, while retaining the benefits of being an oracle or sorcerer.
Generally, way less costly than buying several Pages of spell knowledge.Doing that had even the benefit
The abuse was buying wands of it (not cheap, but viable) and with a little UMD investment (and maybe a Wand key ring) you could have full BAB classes casting this spell that lasted at least 5 minutes. Pretty useful pre-buff if you wanted an extra feat.Before the FAQ, spontaneous spellcasters were using it to take Expanded Arcana and temporarily add one or two spells to their known spells, exactly the ones they needed to resolve a problem. It gave them the versatility of a cleric or wizard with one or more empathy slots to fill as needed, while retaining the benefits of being an oracle or sorcerer.
Generally, way less costly than buying several Pages of spell knowledge.
Doing that had even the benefit
Yeah, that was definitely a bigger benefit. It's been years since this was relevant, so my memory on the topic is fuzzy at best.
But the main thing I remembered was abusing it via the extra feat, not the other benefits of the spell.
And to those saying you had to be a half-elf, true. But if you were already playing a half elf, it was a convenient little thing you could do.
Also, you didn't need even a decent charisma (unless you consider not dumping it below 10 to be "decent"). That's what the wand key ring was for. Invest 1 skill rank into UMD. Wand key ring + take 10 allowed any half elf to use the wand (DC 20).
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You can't take 10 on UMD.
Special: You cannot take 10 with this skill. You can’t aid another on Use Magic Device checks. Only the user of the item may attempt such a check.
I don't recall any class or archetype that changes that.
There are several traits to make UMD a class skill, and one to use Intelligence with it, so reaching +9 in the skill requires, at worst, 6 skill points. With that and the ring, you can activate the right wand even with a roll of 1.
You can't take 10 on UMD.
Special: You cannot take 10 with this skill. You can’t aid another on Use Magic Device checks. Only the user of the item may attempt such a check.I don't recall any class or archetype that changes that.
There are several traits to make UMD a class skill, and one to use Intelligence with it, so reaching +9 in the skill requires, at worst, 6 skill points. With that and the ring, you can activate the right wand even with a roll of 1.
My bad, it's been so long since looking at the PF1 rules in depth I forgot that bit.
But to your point, with the wand key ring, and the right trait and a little skill point investment it's trivial to get to a point where you can use it confidently. There's also the fact that depending on how much you want to invest, you could get several wand key rings for several common buff wands. With enough prep time even if you aren't guaranteed a success on each roll, you can spend a minute buffing yourself. The only problem is if you roll a nat 1 which will stop you from using the item for 1 day. So outside of rolling a nat 1, and assuming your trying to buff with minute per level spells it's a pretty viable prebuff plan. And once you get enough ranks, you can even do it mid combat with shorter duration buff spells.
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You are unable to use UMD again (for a day) on a specific item only if you roll a nat 1 and fail. As it is a skill check, a nat 1 alone isn't an automatic fail.
The paladin in my group learned craft wand so that he and my magus together were capable of crafting Wands of Shield with a CL of 2 for his use (two minutes was more convenient for buffing).
He produced our CLW wands, too.