PHB 2's new Polymorph Subschool - How is it working?

[zoroaster100]

I'm about to implement the new polymorph rules from Player's Handbook 2 in the campaign I'm running, hoping they will work better than the old polymorph rules. At first when I read the new rules I hated the flavor, as I'd always thought of polymorph as allowing the spellcaster to keep their full mental faculties while just changing their physical shape. But as I pondered the reasons for the new rules, and as I struggle to deal with increasing complexity as my players' characters and their opponents get higher level as the campaign progresses, I'm warming up to the idea that you can just turn to the right page in the Monster Manual to see the exact stats of the polymorphed spellcaster.

Having said that, as far as I can see there are only two spells in the Player's Handbook 2 that use the new rules: the fourth level Trollshape and the ninth level Dragonshape. Has anyone actually used the new rules and these two new spells in their campaign? Did you find the spells to be balanced and not overpowered or underpowered for their level?

Are there any other spells around that use the new polymorph rules? The wizard in our group seems to like polymorph, so I was hoping to give him other options for other shapes through other spells that are balanced for their level based on the creature the spell allows the caster to turn into.

 

[zoroaster100]

Is anyone using the new polymorph rules?

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Personally I don't use the new polymorph rules in any game I GM(I use 3.0 polymorph anyway) and avoid groups that use them as a player. But there should be several threads dealing with them a few pages back in the rules forum and quite a few people said they did. Before the great crash I remember the entire rules forum being clogged up with at least a dozen polymorph errata threads but those got lost.

 

[Question]

I havent seen anyone use the new rules either. Then again i havent actually seen mass abuse of polymorph yet.....

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I know, when I first started GMing I was worried about it, but surprisingly enough aside from one particular player who's wizards throw down and melee in my experience it's been used almost entirely for sneaking around or better movement options.

Also I'm kind of curious I've always house ruled that a player using polymorph(or a druid wildshaping) needed to have the new form pre-statted and ready to go instead of ad-hoccing out of the MM. I've always wondered how common that was?

 

[pawsplay]

In the sense that I have changed most monsters to have change shape instead, and I technically own a book with spells of the polymorph subschool, yes. In the sense of kicking polymorph to the curb, no. Even errata'd, polymorph is still polymorph. Most of the errata is concerned with getting polymorph out of everything else.

 

[Bad Paper]

No one has used the new rules in my campaign yet. My current campaign (hopefully drawing to a close, though the players may not realize it yet) is the "run the WotC adventure path, lassez-faire, and see what breaks" style, so there are very few things that I have changed from when we started (right after 3.5 came out, and I am converting all the 3.0 modules).

So I houserule very very few things (and wind up with a lot of broken spells, but c'est la vie). The druid has her pregenerated wildshape stats in a big chart of my design (she's level 16, so that chart is three pages). Despite whatever stink the big Polymorph Errata Extravaganza tried to make (I still can't figure out what they want done with the druid), I have kept the wildshaping rules the same for the sake of continuity. I will tweak them heavily for my next campaign. The wizard tried using polymorph once, and it was such a pain in the ass, he just stopped memorizing it. He has memorized the new Spell Compendium spell, uh, forgot its name, Titan Warforged Shape or something. I like that one because it exactly spells things out. He hasn't used it yet, but I suspect it will make its appearance next weekend.

So I will use the new rules, but just not yet. I have a campaign that doesn't want to be interrupted.

 

[starwed]

Also I'm kind of curious I've always house ruled that a player using polymorph(or a druid wildshaping) needed to have the new form pre-statted and ready to go instead of ad-hoccing out of the MM. I've always wondered how common that was?

Certainly it's what I'd require, although I haven't yet run a game where polymorph was available. In game, it could mean that the shifter has to really study the types of forms they want to assume.