D&D General Was the court Wizard right to Polymorph The heir from A Teenager into A Baby because she knew the villain would kill A Teenager but not A Baby?

[JMISBEST]

Another question about another Campaign Idea I had many years ago

Basically their was a coup against the throne that all but 1 member of the royal family was dead, the last living member was A 14 year old female and the situation was so desperate that the court Wizard choose to use Polymorph Other to Polymorph The heir from A 14 year old Teenager into A 5 month old Baby because she knew that even though the villain would not hesitate to kill A 14 year old Teenager that even if he knew that The 5 month old Baby was A Polymorphed 14 year old Teenager that even he wouldn't be able to bring himself to kill A 5 month old Baby

My question is was The Court Wizard right to use Polymorph Other to Polymorph The heir from A 14 year old Teenager into A 5 month old Baby because she knew that because of how little time they had left it was the only thing they could do that was guaranteed to ensure The Princess's survival, after all the entire court knew that even though the villain would never hesitate to kill A 14 year old Teenager that even if he knew that The 5 month old Baby was A Polymorphed 14 year old Teenager that even he wouldn't be able to bring himself to kill A 5 month old Baby

 

[RuinousPowers]

Does polymorph allow for age changes? If so, yet another vastly superior version of immortality to lichehood.

 

[Immeril]

Basically their was a coup against the throne that all but 1 member of the royal family was dead, the last living member was A 14 year old female and the situation was so desperate that the court Wizard choose to use Polymorph Other to Polymorph The heir from A 14 year old Teenager into A 5 month old Baby because she knew that even though the villain would not hesitate to kill A 14 year old Teenager that even if he knew that The 5 month old Baby was A Polymorphed 14 year old Teenager that even he wouldn't be able to bring himself to kill A 5 month old Baby

If the court wizard is powerful enough to cast True Polymorph, why didn't he use Power Word Kill on the villain, or use Time Stop to hide the surviving member of the royal family, or use any other useful spell?

 

[aco175]

In this version of the spell, would the baby know it is the 14yo girl, or is it just a baby now? If it is just a baby with no knowledge of who she is/was, then the BBEG can convert her to the dark side and not worry about taking over the throne since he has the heir and is acting as a proxy behind the scene.

If the baby has the knowledge of 14yo girl then there is a strong argument of the BBEG just killing her. The point of everyone in court knows that the evil warlord would never kill a baby, but has no qualm about a 14yo. Then the question is; what a bout 13 or 12- where is the cut-off? Does the villain consider a stage of development like being able to speak or being potty-trained the line of reasoning?

The magic of the game allows for a lot of leeway with morals and ethics. There are many situations where our modern-day feel on things blur what would go on in the game. Things like rape or slavery or infanticide or incest or things that deal with law and politics are looked at through a modern lens. Using magic to change the girl into a baby, or a puppy or a spider may draw certain feel based on the player or even the NPC, but having magic also allows for the BBEG to change the baby to a snake so he feels ok again killing it?

 

[plisnithus8]

Does polymorph allow for age changes? If so, yet another vastly superior version of immortality to lichehood.

Interesting thought: My first reaction would be "Of course you couldn't change a creature's age."
But some creatures -- say dragons -- have stat blocks for different ages of that creature.
I can't think of similar stat blocks for humanoids, but just because a stat block doesn't exist doesn't mean that it would be impossible.

 

[Immeril]

Interesting thought: My first reaction would be "Of course you couldn't change a creature's age."
But some creatures -- say dragons -- have stat blocks for different ages of that creature.
I can't think of similar stat blocks for humanoids, but just because a stat block doesn't exist doesn't mean that it would be impossible.

And a younger version of someone/something would technically speaking have a lower CR. OP is on to something here.

 

[JMISBEST]

In this version of the spell, would the baby know it is the 14yo girl, or is it just a baby now? If it is just a baby with no knowledge of who she is/was, then the BBEG can convert her to the dark side and not worry about taking over the throne since he has the heir and is acting as a proxy behind the scene.

If the baby has the knowledge of 14yo girl then there is a strong argument of the BBEG just killing her. The point of everyone in court knows that the evil warlord would never kill a baby, but has no qualm about a 14yo. Then the question is; what a bout 13 or 12- where is the cut-off? Does the villain consider a stage of development like being able to speak or being potty-trained the line of reasoning?

The magic of the game allows for a lot of leeway with morals and ethics. There are many situations where our modern-day feel on things blur what would go on in the game. Things like rape or slavery or infanticide or incest or things that deal with law and politics are looked at through a modern lens. Using magic to change the girl into a baby, or a puppy or a spider may draw certain feel based on the player or even the NPC, but having magic also allows for the BBEG to change the baby to a snake so he feels ok again killing it?

To be honest I never actually decided if The Royal Family was Good and the person that wiped it out evil, after all just because The Pcs have been told that The Royal Family was Good and the person that wiped it out evil doesn't mean that its true, meaning that its possible that most of The Royal were evil, that even the 1 or 2, 3 tops, members other then The Polymorphed Princess that were neutral were old enough to be killed as A Routine precaution and its possible that the 1 that wiped out the royal family was a well intended extremist that choose his duty to the people over his duty to the throne and the people that sit on it

If The Guy that wiped them out was the kind of Lawful Evil person that if he or she, he in this case truly believed that killing A Child, but not A Toddler or A Baby, would benefit millions, then he'd do it, he wouldn't like doing it but he'd do it, to sort of quote Spock "the needs of the many, in this case 10's of millions that are definitely innocent, out weight the needs of the few", 1 child that despite who her family is may be innocent

 

[JMISBEST]

If the court wizard is powerful enough to cast True Polymorph, why didn't he use Power Word Kill on the villain, or use Time Stop to hide the surviving member of the royal family, or use any other useful spell?

I actually forgot to mention this but their was a very good reason for that, and to amuse myself I decided that the reason why was 1 of the following 4 and that I wouldn't decided which 1 I would use until the day of the session that The Pcs would learn why The Court Wizard protected The Princess the way she did

Reason 1 is that The Court Wizard's level isn't high enough to let her cast True Polymorph, Power Word Kill or Time Stop, as far as I knew all 3 of them were 9th level Spells, so to cast any of them you had to be at least 17th level and she was 14th level

I bet a lot of people are thinking why didn't I think to have The Court Wizard use Limited Wish?, well I will admit that yes I actually forgot about existence of Limited Wish, A 7th level Spell that she could have used that would definitely succeeded

Reason 2 is that The Court Wizard's level is high enough to let her cast True Polymorph, Power Word Kill or Time Stop but she doesn't have any of them in her Spellbooks

Reason 3 is that The Court Wizard's level is high enough to let her cast True Polymorph, Power Word Kill or Time Stop and she does have 1 or both in her Spellbooks but preparing to cast then the casting either True Polymorph, Power Word Kill or Time Stop takes more time then they have but they do have enough time to prepare to cast then casting Polymorph

Reason 4 is that he Court Wizard's level is high enough to let her cast True Polymorph, Power Word Kill or Time Stop and she does have all 3 in her Spellbooks and theirs time to prepare to cast then cast either True Polymorph, Power Word Kill or Time Stop and the reason she settled for Polymorph is that The Court Wizard is always the highest level Magic User in The Country and she knows that the 2nd highest level Magic Users in The Country, who will replace her if she gets killed, level is high enough to Dispel A Polymorph Other cast by her but isn't high enough to Dispel A True Polymorph cast by her

 

[Charlaquin]

Plot twist, the 14 Year Old Teenager is a succubus.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Why does it matter if the Wizard did the roght thing? Isn’t it sufficient that they thought they did the right thing?