Poly-Cripple?

[Dannyalcatraz]

By magical logic, definitely not.

By SOME magical logic, but not all. There are tales of grizzled Hags who, despite being one-eyed and hunchbacked, may take on the forms of perfectly beautiful young women. In some, it is illusion or lamer, but in others, it is a genuine alternate form.

 

[S'mon]

By SOME magical logic, but not all. There are tales of grizzled Hags who, despite being one-eyed and hunchbacked, may take on the forms of perfectly beautiful young women. In some, it is illusion or lamer, but in others, it is a genuine alternate form.

Usually it's either an illusion or a specific alternate form. And often marks such as scars and missing eyes are preserved in every form; eg Gygax's Graz'zt is noted as having 6 fingers in every form. Often the hag's beautiful form still has to pop in a glass eye, giving the smart hero a clue to the truth.

I think you're right there is not 100% consistency, but I don't see any reason to give polymorph even more power than it has already. If the one-armed wizard wants to fly, let him cast a Fly spell or one that grows extra flying limbs, not a polymorph - Turn into Bird - spell.

 

[fenriswolf456]

Usually it's either an illusion or a specific alternate form. And often marks such as scars and missing eyes are preserved in every form; eg Gygax's Graz'zt is noted as having 6 fingers in every form. Often the hag's beautiful form still has to pop in a glass eye, giving the smart hero a clue to the truth.

I think you're right there is not 100% consistency, but I don't see any reason to give polymorph even more power than it has already. If the one-armed wizard wants to fly, let him cast a Fly spell or one that grows extra flying limbs, not a polymorph - Turn into Bird - spell.

Why not? The polymorph spell is already giving the caster body parts they didn't have before ... tails, feathers, beaks, horns, and so on. By this definition, casters shouldn't get any of those either. Can no one turn into an octopus then, or assume a six-legged basilisk shape, or become a centaur? Or would a caster only be able to control 4 limbs of said creatures? If the caster doesn't get the use of extra limbs, then the powerful spell is becoming far less powerful, and really for all intents-and-purposes, become a version of an illusion spell.

There is a difference between mythic/story created shape-changing and a generic rpg polymorph spell. The latter is inspired by the former, certainly. The reason for the one-eyed witch always has one eye, or Graz'zt having 6 fingers all the times, isn't the polymorph, but their inherent nature/evilness showing through the shape-change. Now if your one-armed mage is cursed because of that fact, say, then I can see the argument. In general, though, the spell should give full mobility.

 

[delericho]

Why not? The polymorph spell is already giving the caster body parts they didn't have before ... tails, feathers, beaks, horns, and so on. By this definition, casters shouldn't get any of those either. Can no one turn into an octopus then, or assume a six-legged basilisk shape, or become a centaur?

The "mythic magic" version of that spell would allow a one-armed caster to turn into an octopus with one severed tentacle, a basilisk with one missing leg, or a one-armed centaur.

Which is a reasonable interpretation, though I would argue it's not consistent with the spells as written for D&D (in pre-4e RAW - I can't comment on 4e).

 

[Celebrim]

Here is an interesting question that has come up in one of the games I run.

“If a character is paralyzed and cannot use her legs, would polymorphing into another creature ,even if it is another bipedal creature, enable the character to walk?”

The answer is, 'It depends'.

If the paralyzation is the result of magic, then the answer is definitively 'No'. A curse follows you whereever you go until you break it. Try to wiggle out of a curse by changing form will certainly fail.

If the paralyzation is the result of physical trauma, then the answer is 'maybe' depending on the rules you use to establish what being paralyzed means and the specific rules you use for shapechanging.

In my game, there are specific disadvantages like 'Lame' or 'One Eye' you can take during character creation. Those disadvantages specifically mention that shapechanging cannot cure the defect. Whatever you change into will suffer an equivalent effect. They are presumed to be the result of curses or similar powerful magic.

Paralyzation through physical trauma is expressedly equal to permanent dexterity and/or strength drain in my game. Hense, shapechanging only 'cures' it if it can provide sufficient increase in dexterity or strength to ensure mobility. Whatever you change into will carry your strength and dexterity drain with you, which may result in limited mobility - effectively you went from being unable to move to gimped. (Which makes me think I should implement some natural encumbrance rules, now that I think of it.)

There is some sound basis of this in mythology, and I generally agree with S'mon. Disfigured shapechanging magical beings would always reveal their true identity because, regardless of what form that they changed into, they would be forced to include some sort of disfigurement. For example, the witch who shapechanged into the form of a beautiful maiden, would be forced to conceal a wart or grosteque mole or other give away of her true nature. Fairies could change their form at will by use of their glamor, but would always have some defect (which varied from fairy to fairy) such as six fingers or feet being on backwards. Odin gave up his eye to the Norns, and changing his appearance and form couldn't fix that. Likewise, Oberon was short, and could not by altering his form appear as other than short.

 

[S'mon]

There is a difference between mythic/story created shape-changing and a generic rpg polymorph spell.

I prefer to have the former inform the latter.

 

[Umbran]

The answer is, 'It depends'.

If the paralyzation is the result of magic, then the answer is definitively 'No'. A curse follows you whereever you go until you break it. Try to wiggle out of a curse by changing form will certainly fail.

If the paralyzation is the result of physical trauma, then the answer is 'maybe' depending on the rules you use to establish what being paralyzed means and the specific rules you use for shapechanging.

Agreed. The base D&D game does not have rules of physical trauma resulting in limb-loss, paralyzation, and so on, so we cannot speak to the results unless we know the rules, or at least the detailed logic, involved.

 

[Nebrok]

In this case the character was paralyzed in a rock slide. The character is a female Halfling rouge/sorcerer that saved the life of a worg and now the worg shows his gratitude by serving as a mount (in exchange to plenty of food too.). The Halfling has a special saddle that locks her in place so that the worg and her can act as one unit, even going so far as to manuver in interior areas like crypts and dungeons. The player wanted to play a character that overcame her handicap by other than magical means. She is lower level and doesn’t have access to the type of magic that can restore her. Not the sort of player likely to abuse a polymorph spell.

In the end I decided that if the polymorph spell and grant extra limbs like a dragon that has both a powerful tail and large wings, then the spell also provides the nervous system and brain configuration so that the character can control and use the new limbs. With that line of thinking why not also say that the spell reshapes the damaged nerves temporally for the duration of the spell. After all, what is the sense of ruling that the player will always turn in to a cripple creature? Being cripple or lame while polymorphed would ruin the usefulness of the spell. I suppose that one could chose to be a serpent-like creature, flying creature, or even an aquatic creature to get around having useless legs. But honestly I have never seen how the spell unbalances the game like others talk about. Sure you could polymorph into a griffin, but you don’t have your spells, magic weapons, armor, or other equipment. To me, negating all magic items while polymorphed is enough to balance the spell.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

In the end I decided that if the polymorph spell and grant extra limbs like a dragon that has both a powerful tail and large wings, then the spell also provides the nervous system and brain configuration so that the character can control and use the new limbs.

That's the risk of applying modern thinking to magic I doubt any wizard knows anything about the nervous system.

But honestly I have never seen how the spell unbalances the game like others talk about. Sure you could polymorph into a griffin, but you don’t have your spells, magic weapons, armor, or other equipment. To me, negating all magic items while polymorphed is enough to balance the spell. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/FONT]

Depends on the edition. If it's 3.x, it's quite possible to do so. Perhaps the character could create a custom spell to temporarily fix paralysis.

 

[frankthedm]

If the trauma is greater than would be healed by the polymorph spell, then the Morphed form is just as injured. By the other side's "logic", Polymorph should heal all wounds completely. That is obviously not the case.