D&D 5E The Decrease in Desire for Magic in D&D

[Voadam]

This made me laugh. Classic AD&D. Of course, the magic system has been laid out so rationally and consistently that this must of course be true... Who would think otherwise?

Entropy in action. So of course you can't increase int, but decreasing is an easy fall.

 

[Maxperson]

I normally go with RAW and ignore Sage advice as it is just someone offical giving their statement and interpretation of the RAW and seems only valid to the point their argument on RAW seems persuasive, but I gave this a listen (for at least the beginning 12 minutes or so).

Driving a new chariot seems a good analogy. Same driver, different vehicle with different capabilities.

A driver switching from a formula racing car to a monster truck or ATV.

This came up in the video as a counter to the idea that if you are starving in the jungle and get turned into a panther that you would attack your friends.

Right. It was a combination thing. You retain ONLY the CORE of your personality, the peaceful nature, irritability, etc., and then because they don't want you to eat your friends, they tack on friend recognition as RAI. If orcs are invading town and you turn the barbarian into a black panther, he's not going to eat the party, but he won't differentiate between the orcs and Bob the Baker, except that the orcs will likely be in numbers and have metal claws, so Bob is the likely lunch.

As Crawford says at 10:21 the core of your being is not erased.

Right. CORE personality, not entire personality. Memory beyond friend recognition is gone. You will have your core personality, but not the memories(similar to an amnesiac), with the exception of friend recognition. That core personality is not erased.

 

[Maxperson]

Entropy in action. So of course you can't increase int, but decreasing is an easy fall.

Well, you can now! Crawford in the video said that he could see a barbarian with a low roll on int being turned into a beast that is smarter and becoming more intelligent.

 

[Vaalingrade]

"Retain X and Y" is different from "Retain only X and Y"

It is dangerous and dark on the island, retain your speargun and flashlight when you come out of the ocean.

"It doesn't say you retain your skin, so it just flops off your muscles. This is RAW and very important."

 

[Lanefan]

A dog cannot read and cannot be taught to read. It's nature would not allow you to read if polymorphed into one.

How do you square that with someone of a "bookish" personality being poly'ed into a dog?

 

[Lanefan]

The spell does not say everything except alignment and personality. There is no phrasing of "everything" or "except".

It says the target's game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the chosen form. It says the target retains its alignment and personality. If there is something not covered by either I would say the spell does not change it.

Do you consider game statistics everything? Do you consider memory a game statistic?

Yes; in my view memory directly falls under Intelligence. That's why wizards need high Intelligence, so as to be able to learn and memorize their spells. If one is poly'ed into a creature of much lower Int, one's memory takes a hit right along with it.

 

[Lanefan]

"It doesn't say you retain your skin, so it just flops off your muscles. This is RAW and very important."

Doesn't say you retain your muscles, either.....

 

[Maxperson]

How do you square that with someone of a "bookish" personality being poly'ed into a dog?

My dog loved to chew up my D&D books and novels! Maybe he was a bookish person in a former life.

 

[MichaelSomething]

So after 50ish posts about polymorph, did anyone change their mind about DM judgement being the best way to keep magic in check?

 

[Lanefan]

So after 50ish posts about polymorph, did anyone change their mind about DM judgement being the best way to keep magic in check?

I think the polymorph discussion serves to prove this point quite well: the rules aren't perfect (in some instances they're nowhere close) and it's on the DM to bend, staple, and fold them into something closer to perfect.

That said, the one thing a judgment-based DM has to maintain is consistency. If you make a ruling once, it sets a precedent for that campaign so for hell's sake write it down so when the same thing comes up again you already know what to do. For example: whatever rulings you come up with around polymorph, write them straight into the spell description; and yes this means you might have to print out your own write-ups for some spells (or have them online somewhere).