D&D 5E True Polymorph - Too powerful?

[MarkClemoze]

I've been watching for a while (and dming!) here and taking everybody's insight but I finally created an account to ask a pressing question.

I gave my players 1 day to prepare for a final boss fight that we are having next week. They have a lot of resources from nearly saving a continent. One player true polymorphed into a hydra and all they have been doing is cutting and re-growing heads and healing. It now has 1069 heads after we did the math on how long they have. I am worried that next week they will just kill the BBEG with 1069 attacks in one turn. Do you guys ban true polymorph in your game to prevent this from happening?

There are 5 players and my wife (elf cleric) and I are very close to Ben (wizard minotaur) so I don't want to make it awkward just removing what the party did. Also Ben kept making jokes about giving my wife and "giving head" because haha hydra. My wife seemed to find it funny so I don't want to be a sour sport.

What would you do here. I don't want to ruin any friendships. I'm thinking of banning true polymorph from future games.

Thanks for the help!

 

[jgsugden]

As a DM, you sometimes need to add rules to the game when the players step outside the expected rules. If PCs were doing this in my game, I'd have the extra heads wither away after a few hours, for example. There is no reason to have this in place for a monster description that is expected to be slain when first met - but it makes sense for it to be there now as otherwise there would by hydras biting their heads off to become unstoppable like this somewhere along the line.

 

[J-H]

I don't like the joke bit, but would address that privately.

Whatever PC got turned into a Hydra has INT 2 and CHA 7 and can't use magic items*. That now-dumb character has had his friends cut off one or more heads over 1,000 times, and is likely no longer capable of intellectually understanding why.

I'd go to the player, frame it that way, and ask what an animal-brained hydra would do to "friends" that attacked it that many times. What would a dog do? The player characters may not survive to face the BBEG.

*except those added after the polymorph and that fit its new form, so not many. I assume a hydra brain is in the body, so a circlet of intelligence on head #95 doesn't help.

 

[niklinna]

The solution to your problem – 325 The Test of the Body - Giant in the Playground Games

 

[MarkClemoze]

As a DM, you sometimes need to add rules to the game when the players step outside the expected rules. If PCs were doing this in my game, I'd have the extra heads wither away after a few hours, for example. There is no reason to have this in place for a monster description that is expected to be slain when first met - but it makes sense for it to be there now as otherwise there would by hydras biting their heads off to become unstoppable like this somewhere along the line.

Hydras only have 2 int so I doubt they would come up with this plan on their own.

 

[jgsugden]

Hydras only have 2 int so I doubt they would come up with this plan on their own.

They have wisdom of 10, however, and then there is the infinite monkey approach - given enough time and enough hydras in the world, one would stumble across it - or someone with the intellect you think is necessary would come up with the idea and find a way to tame a hydra on which to use it.

 

[Stormonu]

Well, personally, I would have stopped it at 12 (or maybe 15) heads.

And, as others have mentioned, he's only got 2 Int...

 

[MarkClemoze]

I don't like the joke bit, but would address that privately.

Whatever PC got turned into a Hydra has INT 2 and CHA 7 and can't use magic items*. That now-dumb character has had his friends cut off one or more heads over 1,000 times, and is likely no longer capable of intellectually understanding why.

I'd go to the player, frame it that way, and ask what an animal-brained hydra would do to "friends" that attacked it that many times. What would a dog do? The player characters may not survive to face the BBEG.

*except those added after the polymorph and that fit its new form, so not many. I assume a hydra brain is in the body, so a circlet of intelligence on head #95 doesn't help.

Well, personally, I would have stopped it at 12 (or maybe 15) heads.

And, as others have mentioned, he's only got 2 Int...

The thing is it says it keeps its personality and alignment. Raw it should work right?

 

[billd91]

The thing is it says it keeps its personality and alignment. Raw it should work right?

But not intelligence.
In any event, functionally infinite heads is unsustainable. Cap it at 15-20 or so and call it a day.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

When the players get there, sit down and ask them: "Do you want to just say you win? Or do you want to play this out to it's inevitable conclusion?"

Assuming they say the later...and they probably should, unless "winning" is more important than "having fun" (in which case you have MUCH bigger problems than a 1069 headed hydra!), I'd then follow it up with...

"Ok to save some time, I want you, Hydra-wizard-of-a-thousand-heads, to make 1,069 d20 rolls for me please. I'll go play a video game until YOU are done...nobody else can roll to help you. You brought this on yourself"

Then, IF he actually rolls 1069d20, I'd start the first round. "Roll initiative" ... then, if the PC(s) win, say "Ok then...your initial barage of attacks is... ineffective. It was an illusion! You hear laughing coming from the shadows and then see the REAL BBEG! ... Oh, right, make another 1069d20 rolls and call me when your done" ...then I'd stand up again and leave the table to get back to my video game.

If I was REALLY feeling salty, after (IF) the Player rolls all those attacks, I'd look at the numbers and say "Huh. You kill him and get the treasure. So...what are we doing for the next campaign/game next week?".

The entire point of this is to try and show the players that the goal of the game isn't to "win"...because if that was the case, the DM would win EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. So the DM doesn't do that. They remain Neutral and Fair (or at least I do...or try to be). If the Players aren't going to play the game in "good faith", then neither am I....and that's only going to lead to nobody having fun at the table. So don't do it.

..
Anectdote: I had this 'conversation' with one player when we were playing Dominion Rules RPG for a while. He was a 'wizard' type character. In the DR rules, wizards have 'skills' of Witchcraft like "Hex" or "Arcana" or "Sorcery", with each covering a 'type' of magical effect. He thought about using Arcana to create a spell allowing him to 'see through the very living rock' of the dungeon...effectively a very over powered Wizard Eye type spell. His spell would basically allow him to just "see the whole dungeon map" and note where everything was in it...including secret doors, pit traps, bad guys, and the 'end goal'. We sort of let it slide for THAT instance. After the game (which was much shorter after that...obviously...!). I was positing that I was going to find a way to come up with some kind of "limitation" or "drawback/risk" for doing such things...fair, but something we could all agree on. At first he wasn't too keen...but then I said "Ok, so the next time you guys are in a ruined castle and an Evil Witch lives there, I can just roll a dice then say 'You all wake up dead. Make new guys', because they cast a spell or two specifically designed to see where you were and then convert the air around you all into lava. All I have to do is roll using Luck and some AP's and he can't fail".

The Players all suddenly realized that yeah, there needed to be some kind of world rational for WHY Witchcraft practitioners (or Priestcraft for that matter!) haven't either taken over everything, or cause the planet to explode.

Kinda the same thing I'm seeing here. Just because you CAN do something... doesn't mean you SHOULD.

^_^

Paul L. Ming