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Message: <blockquote data-quote="_Michael_" data-source="post: 9602973" data-attributes="member: 7045276">Why not just use Option 1, and change the spell to require constant focus and concentration to maintain the form? Cuts out the ability to cast spells while polymorphed, gives a grounded explanation (because maintaining the form of a dragon requires a lot of mental effort), and doesn't come across as quite nerfed?This is also a solution that can be used with Option 1 above, and you could go further and require the player who wants to be a shapechanging archmage to have skills in Knowledge (Dungeoneering) or other appropriate categories, and each monster would have to be researched (leading to the wizard's notebook becoming something of a plot device itself as such notes would be highly sought by other wizards...) and studied for a minimum period of time/a minimum number of successful knowledge checks made.I'm actually planning on doing something similar within my own version of 3.5e that I'm tweaking specifically for my campaign world (a low-magic campaign), and using books like, The Practical Enchanter and other books that introduce folk magic and witchcraft in a way that doesn't involve use of spells and the like. That, in turn, provides a way for characters to get healing without requiring the landscape be dripping in magic. It also sets up conflicts with locals who now have a ready source of superstition and regions where witchcraft and folk magic is outlawed entirely.Also, why not build out the subskills more? Has anyone tried expanding skill lists and/or expanding their subskill uses? I'm putting together a list of tweaked Skills to be added to the SRD skills (mostly Craft, Knowledge and Profession with a few others not in those categories) specifically so that players have more options within their own skill sets to do the stuff normally done by magic, or at least, able to be accomplished without magic. I'm drawing from the Ultimate Game Designer's Companion, Experts v.3.5, 101 New Skill Uses by Rite Publishing, and other more obscure 3.5e third-party supplements, and putting them together in a list to offer players that is (hopefully) far superior to the standard skill list. Doing this will, I hope, encourage players to get more creative with their skill checks and use them more than falling back on magic.</blockquote>

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