A half dwarf? Workaround or mistake???

[Tatsukun]

Hi, my primary PC (Barbarian 2, Fighter 4, Champion of Gwynharwyf 2) was in a dungeon and he (a human) got ‘Polymorph any object’-ed into a Dwarf. So he lost his human racial bonuses (of which there are none) and got the Dwarven racial mods. Of course, he didn’t get the stuff that comes from a Dwarven childhood. In short, he has the Dwarven Nature, and the Human Nurture. As a list…

Human contributions-

Any favored class
Extra feat at first level (because it’s in the past)
4 skill points at first level (also past)
One extra skill point at every level taken so far (past)

Human stuff lost-
One extra skill point at each future level

Dwarven contributions-
+2 Con, -2 Cha
Darkvision
+4 bonus for being bull rushed and the like
Intuit depth
Base speed changed to 20 Ft. (but as he’s a barbarian in medium armor, it’s still 30 ft in total)
+2 saves vs. poison
+2 saves vs. Spells

Dwarven stuff not acquired-
Bonuses to craft, appraise, fighting goblins, giants, and finding stone doors
Weapon familiarity
Favored class fighter


Now, this also happened to our halfling rogue, and he hates it (major losses and his gear doesn’t fit because he wasn’t wearing it at the time – long story-). But, since Humans and Dwarves are both medium, and the human is really frontloaded, it worked out very well for my fighter-type. So, my question is this. . .

Why doesn’t everyone do this? It seems to be a way to get the best of both worlds. Anyway, I am assuming there is a down side, I can’t believe that I’m the first person to stumble across this power gamer loophole.

-Tatsu

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

It's even slightly better than that. AFAIK, you don't gain the mental changes of your new state except intelligence... so stat mods are +2 Con.

If you're going to go that far, why not change into something silly?

Any other mammal form of the same size would be permenant... either that or larger (within 15 HD of polymorph) and stupider and/or related. I figure a stint as a Fire Giant could be amusing - figure they're related to humans...


I guess the reasons everyone doesn't do it are RP related. After all it'd be pretty weird for a human to be trapped inside a dwarfs body...

Also the duration is permenant rather than instantaneous - pretty sure that means it's dispellable. Which is going to be fun for that Fire Giant fighter, ending up normal sized in large sized armour. Not good.

 

[hong]

I guess the reasons everyone doesn't do it are RP related. After all it'd be pretty weird for a human to be trapped inside a dwarfs body...

On the other hand, it would make for a pretty good pickup line.

 

[Tatsukun]

Well, this was a 3.0 adventure, so it was acting as though polymorph was permanent. But, as we play 3.5 the DM made a quick ruling that it was in fact Poly any object (so you do get the mental changes).

I suppose it is dispel-able, but that goes against the original idea of the 3.0 trap (it was a trap after all). I'm going to lobby that our group call this an instant effect.

But, even if it weren't, we play that permanent effect are only suppressed by dispel magic, so it wouldn't be that bad.

-Tatsu

 

[UltimaGabe]

I suppose it is dispel-able, but that goes against the original idea of the 3.0 trap (it was a trap after all). I'm going to lobby that our group call this an instant effect.

But, even if it weren't, we play that permanent effect are only suppressed by dispel magic, so it wouldn't be that bad.

Those sorts of rulings make that spell (and other spells) a LOT more powerful than they should be. Just to let you know.