New FAQ contradicts itself?

[JimAde]

So WotC has a new version of the main 3.5 FAQ out. One of the new entries is:

When my sorcerer shapechanges into the form of a
creature with special attacks, what Hit Dice do I use to
calculate the DC of those abilities—the creature’s normal
HD, my caster level, or something else?

When you use shapechange (or related magic) to assume
another creature’s form, your Hit Dice are considered to be the
same as your normal Hit Dice.
For example, an 18th-level human sorcerer shapechanged
into a dire bear would be treated as a 12-HD creature (and not
an 18-HD creature) for the purpose of determining what effect
an evil cleric's blasphemy spell might have upon him. A 17th level
elf wizard shapechanged into a horned devil would use
the horned devil's 15 HD (rather than his own 17 HD) to
determine the save DC of his fear aura, stun, and infernal
wound supernatural attacks.
This has no effect on your hit points or any other statistics
derived from your HD, such as base attack bonus, base save
bonuses, and so on.

Am I hallucinating or does this answer contradict itself completely?

 

[shilsen]

You're right. The first sentence of the answer contradicts the examples. They must be getting Customer Service to do the FAQ now

 

[JimAde]

Ok, I don't need new glasses.

Most of the text is pretty explicit, so I assume they mean

"When you use shapechange (or related magic) to assume
another creature’s form, your Hit Dice are considered to be the
same as the creature's normal Hit Dice."

 

[Mordane76]

Hmm....


*thwacks head against wall until blood flows freely*

Now... that feels better.


Ahem... I'd think the rules would be according to the first sentence, not the text examples; it would seem that using shapechange would otherwise create serious liability issues for the caster, and not be as useful to the caster as it presently can be.

 

[azmodean]

The only way it would be consistent is if it read:
"When you use shapechange (or related magic) to assume
another creature’s form, your Hit Dice are considered to be the
same as your normal Hit Dice, except for the purposes of the forms special abilities."

As that is what the example is implying.
Not that that is necessarily the case, it could just be a typo or mistake.

 

[Prism]

And does this bit really hint that 1+1=1

How many Hit Dice does my 1st-level pixie rogue have?
What would his effective character level be?
Unless noted otherwise, all 1-HD creatures (other than 1-
HD humanoids) lose their racial HD when they gain class
levels. Thus, your pixie would have 1 Hit Dice: one from his
race, and one from his class level.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

lol that's pure comedic genius!

 

[Knight Otu]

Not really, since pixies do mention that they lose their racial Hit Dice.

Edit: In correcting some previous errors, new errors were introduced into the FAQ. The pixie answer, for instance, originally said the character would have two HD, which was wrong.

 

[JimAde]

The only way it would be consistent is if it read:
"When you use shapechange (or related magic) to assume
another creature’s form, your Hit Dice are considered to be the
same as your normal Hit Dice, except for the purposes of the forms special abilities."

As that is what the example is implying.
Not that that is necessarily the case, it could just be a typo or mistake.

But one of the examples also says to use the new form's Hit Dice to determine whether you are affected by somebody else's spell. That just seems weird to me.

 

[Ranger REG]

Am I hallucinating or does this answer contradict itself completely?

I don't know. Which issue of Dragon magazine did that "Sage Advice" question came from?

(Practically all the FAQs Q&A are derived from the "Sage Advice" column.)