Talk:Polymorph

Creature weapons and unarmed strike
I'm trying to understand how Polymorph works behind the scenes.

If a PC is polymorphed into... say... a troll via Polymorph Self spell... Does he need the Improved Unarmed Strike feat to avoid AOOs from Armed opponents?

The Weapon field on the character sheet says "Unarmed," but the troll attacks with creature attacks. So does a polymorphed PC have creature weapons? Chamalscuro 16:21, 22 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Most of the standard polymorphs have either a creature weapon or an equipped weapon. If you were to polymorph into a form that has neither, then, yes, you would need improved unarmed strike to avoid AoOs from opponents (both armed and unarmed opponents, by the way). In the specific case of a troll, the shape has creature weapons (claws inflicting 1d6 damage).

So which forms are truly unarmed? All the polymorph forms normally available to players have a creature or equipped weapon. The forms that do not are "Heurodis", "null human", "mimic", "boy", "girl", "morph earth elemental" (not one of the druid forms), and "boat". There's also "golem automation" that ends up without a weapon because of a bug in. --The Krit 18:56, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Polymorphed race and item racial damage / slay properties
I question this statement, especially the latter part of it.

"Since creatures do not change types, a slaying or bane weapon designed to kill or harm creatures of a specific type affects those creatures even if they are polymorphed. Likewise, a creature polymorphed into the form of a creature of a different type is not subject to slaying and bane effects directed at that type of creature."

--85.230.165.61 28 March 2009


 * I tested and it is the reverse, slaying and bane are based on the polymorph race rather than the natural race. WhiZard 16:39, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

PC Properties / action queue lock-out issue
I played with a shifter character for the first time today and crashed into the PC Properties / Polymorph bug that locks the action queue the first time a character polymorphs during a game session (see, for instance, this thread on the old BW forums). I hope my wording isn't too jumbled, but I added a note about the restriction for mounted characters and a note about the bug with a link to the Vault page with the life-saving fix. -MrZork 23:06, February 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * Sorry about that. (If I was faster, I might have been able to fix that before 1.69 went into lockdown.) The wording doesn't look jumbled, but there is something about it that "feels" like it should be improved. I can't put my finger on exactly what, though. I'll take another look at this later and maybe it will come to me. --The Krit 04:01, February 20, 2011 (UTC)
 * No need to apologize; it seems like you came up with smart fix for a pretty annoying bug. Unless you were in charge of writing the polymorph/mount code for 1.69, you are the hero here. I only blame you for being too modest to link to your overrides here in the wiki! :-) -MrZork 02:38, February 21, 2011 (UTC)


 * I was not in charge of it, but I was involved in the beta testing, so it is possible I could have gotten a fix in, similar to how I got revisions to the string library included. If I had known at the time about this symptom, I would have reversed the order in which I worked on those two scripts. (Then again, if the symptom had been known by anyone at the time, maybe changes would have been accepted after the lockdown.) Hindsight is 20/20. Or maybe 20/10 in this case. :) --The Krit 16:17, March 1, 2011 (UTC)

Polymorph and spellbooks
In response to this addition "Polymorphed creatures are unable to cast spells. They may use spell-like abilities and feats that mimic spells, though." Polymorph creatures can use their spellbook through ActionCastSpell... and ActionUseTalent... commands while polymorphed. They cannot also use the polymorph assigned spells though (without cheat casting). When a creature uses a spell from a spellbook while polymorphed the number of remaining uses does not decrease. So, for PCs, disabling the spellbook GUI commands is likely to avoid exploits (as a PC would then be able to cast their own spells an unlimited number of times). Standard creatures will not be hindered in their normal spell-casting though, but in fact benefit from an infinite casting routine. WhiZard 02:00, February 22, 2012 (UTC)