D&D 5E Polymorph vs. Petrified

[Reynard]

Or individual medusae each do a different type of stone, so that in an investigation you can narrow down an individual because the victims are a particularly rare type of stone.

Or go body horror to remain consistent with the actual mechanics of the condition: petrification is actually a form of aggressive bone growth through and over the entire body.

 

[Dausuul]

I'd say a petrified creature is still a creature. But, if you polymorph it into a different creature, it remains petrified. So, the only way that would be helpful is if you polymorph it into something very small. Turn that man statue into a mouse statue for easy transport.

That would be my ruling as well. Partly because it is the one consistent with RAW, and partly because it feels most natural to me.

If petrification turned you into an object, you would be merely a statue, and turning you back into flesh would result in a lifeless body. The fact that your soul remains attached to the petrified form, and removing petrification returns you to normal, strongly suggests that you remain a creature, just transformed in substance. So you should be a legit polymorph target.

But polymorph doesn't undo the petrification magic. (Rules-wise, it doesn't remove conditions.) A petrified person can be polymorphed into a petrified mouse, but they stay petrified either way.

 

[MNblockhead]

This is one of several spells that I don't try to stick entirely to RAW and homebrew a bit. I don't really have to go over it in session zero because I've been gaming with the same group for years and it is just one of those things we've discussed in the past and they know how I generally rule in these situations are a fine with it.

Generally, petrification in my games mean the creature is turned to stone and it in a kind of suspended animation. There is no consciousness. Not even dreaming. If the petrification is reversed centuries or longer later, the restored creature is restored to the exact mental and physical state at the time it was petrified.

The petrified creature is treated as an object for most cases, except greater restoration.

Except! If a finger, nose, limb, eye, etc. it damaged or broken off, when restored, the restored creature would have comparable damage to its body. Since greater restoration only reverses one effect, multiple casting would be required to restore a petrified creature that was also damaged. Some damage, such has breaking of the head or breaking the body in half would cause instant death as soon as the creature is unpetrified. Better move the statue carefully!

Note, no need for dinosaurs. A single draft horse and pull 8,000 pounds of weight. It would make more sense in dungeon or wilderness terrain to jerry rig a sledge or travois and polymorph someone (or druid wild shape) into a draft horse or, better, a mule (for up to 2000 pounds, less weight, but mules are better adapted for rough terrain).

If you have multiple magic users or want to go slow and burn through lots of spell slots, multiple floating disks could work. But there is danger of the statue dropping an breaking if they are dispelled or you don't time their durations well. At higher levels, animate objects and/or demiplane can make this easier. But at that level one would hope you'd have a divine caster in the party who can cast Greater Restorate.

Failing a test of worthiness imposed by a minor deity.

So that changes things a lot. Would the clerics deity even allow greater restoration in this instance, even if a different deity than the one who cursed the PC? 5e does differentiate much between "divine magic" and character cast spells, something that has come up in my game more with wishes. Of course this is all up to your world building, but I would require that other party members to do something to propitiate the deity, or find favor with an opposing deity (and the ramifications of that), or perhaps allow the greater restoration to work but thaving a geas imposed on the restored PC.

 

[Baron Opal II]

The situation: One of the party members was petrified at the end of the last session, with no means on hand of reversing the effect.
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Possible solution: One character has access to polymorph, and could cast it at least a few times, which would get them a significant portion of the way there if it can lighten the weight.
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Which way would you go, or is there a fourth option I haven't considered?

My fourth option is, the target is an object with some person-like qualities.
Having been overwhelmed with a catastrophic infusion of elemental Earth, they are now a statue for all intents and purposes. Any mind is suppressed, although not absent, as thought is an uncommon attribute of stone. As they are stone, they have the needs of stone. They aren't going to perish from lack of human needs. Polymorph would not work as it is a spell made to shape softer flesh and that produced from such. Even if the caster was puissant in transformation to the point of grasping the echo of flesh in the target, it is also a property of Earth to resist change. Magic sufficient to shape the stone or remove this curse is notably potent by itself.

As to Dasuul's comment of a soul being tied to the statue, this is an excellent point. I would say this is what allows the petrification to be reversed, while the spell (greater restoration) has simply no effect on a random statue. Stone to flesh would also not restore a transformed statue to life, but rather create a limp and lifeless statue of flesh.

Having access to polymorph magic, I would say the best option would be to fashion a sledge and transform into strong beasts to drag the unfortunate friend to the helpful priest.

 

[MarkB]

So that changes things a lot. Would the clerics deity even allow greater restoration in this instance, even if a different deity than the one who cursed the PC? 5e does differentiate much between "divine magic" and character cast spells, something that has come up in my game more with wishes. Of course this is all up to your world building, but I would require that other party members to do something to propitiate the deity, or find favor with an opposing deity (and the ramifications of that), or perhaps allow the greater restoration to work but thaving a geas imposed on the restored PC.

This isn't actually a major issue for this party. I was keeping things reasonably generic in the OP, but in this instance the "friendly cleric" is actually an enchanted spring the party found some time ago that allows any creature that imbibes it to gain the benefit of a greater restoration spell. I'm not going to be a stickler for the "imbibe" part - if they can get the statue into the spring, it'll work.

EDIT: This is also why the "bring the friendly caster to the statue" option doesn't work.

 

[Steampunkette]

RAW suck. A lot. Trust me. I write them.

There's a lot of edge cases we don't think about. Like Greater Restoration only targeting a creature.

And since it cures petrification, petrified creatures are still creatures. Solid stone inanimate objects, but creatures.

 

[Lanefan]

In D&D 5E RAW petrified creatures don't suffacuate because they can breath. Petrificaiton does not prevent breathing. Further a petrified PC is not a statue.

Which leads to the rather bizarre situation where a petrified character, if pushed into the bay, would drown.

That, and to me "petrified" implies absolute rigidity: you can't blink, your heart stops beating, and your chest can't rise and fall so as to allow breathing.

There's also the corollary question of whether a petrified character can still see-hear-feel what is going on around it while in that state. For me the answer would be no; contrasted with the paralysis brought on by Hold Person where the victim can still see-hear-feel what it normally would.

 

[Lanefan]

Another fun thought: different kinds of Medusa that petrify enemies into different materials. "Midas medusae" would be highly sought after, for example.

In my game I had a foe use a weapon of petrification, except that on a failed save after a hit it turned the victim to ice rather than stone. This presented not only the challenge to get the victim turned back to flesh but also to prevent him from melting in the meantime.

Yes I'm evil.

 

[MarkB]

Which leads to the rather bizarre situation where a petrified character, if pushed into the bay, would drown.

That, and to me "petrified" implies absolute rigidity: you can't blink, your heart stops beating, and your chest can't rise and fall so as to allow breathing.

There's also the corollary question of whether a petrified character can still see-hear-feel what is going on around it while in that state. For me the answer would be no; contrasted with the paralysis brought on by Hold Person where the victim can still see-hear-feel what it normally would.

That last is spelled out in the condition: "The creature is incapacitated (see the condition), can't move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings." Personally I'd go with them also being unconscious and unaware of the passage of time, just to leave out any darker implications of long-term sensory deprivation, but that's a DM call.

Ultimately the creature is made of stone. It doesn't have lungs to absorb oxygen, blood to transfer that oxygen to the brain, or brain cells to be dependent upon that oxygen supply for their existence.

 

[Clint_L]

Annnnnnd we are back to saying that if it is a creature, they would die in 3 minutes from lack of breathing. Unless the ceasing to age clause means they do not need to.

It seems that the poor wording by the designers is the main problem. You need to target a creature to use petrify and then they continue to use the word creature instead of something such as "petrified statue formerly known as a creature". Then true resurrection targets a creature instead of saying something just as silly.

I don't see the wording as a problem at all. I see it as a feature, not a flaw - I like that 5e uses natural language and trusts DMs to make the ruling that makes sense to them. I'll take that over everything being written in legalese any day of the week, or the designers feeling they need a rule for every possible permutation.