Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7152919" data-attributes="member: 6787650">HP is the big problem here. I agree that the game would be better off with a different kind of shape-changing, and from the links you post, I think the Pathfinder method is reasonable.5E would probably have been better off if Wildshape and Polymorph had been written with stat-changing instead of stat-replacement. Stat replacement was a superficially simple solution, but I think it actually complicates things once you take player agency into account. If Polymorphing into a T-Rex just changed your size and Strength, etc., and gave you a bite attack, but let you retain your various capabilities like Extra Attack, I think it would still be useful and fun--and yet multiple Polymorphs wouldn't be broken the way they are today.5E's Polymorph mostly &quot;balances&quot; Polymorph by just not having any powerful beasts, but that doesn't fit with the rest of the CR system, which pretty much says that CR is supposed to be CR is supposed to be CR, no matter how it happens. The fact that RAW Polymorph breaks badly the moment a DM introduces powerful beasts into his campaign (like Fifth Edition Foe's Chain Worms, or Tome of Beast's Spinosaurus) is, to me, an indication that Polymorph was already broken, and these beasts just exposed the bug. It's not the DM's fault for having powerful beasts--it's the PHB's fault for letting a 4th level spell hand out another full PC's worth of HP.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 7152919, member: 6787650"] HP is the big problem here. I agree that the game would be better off with a different kind of shape-changing, and from the links you post, I think the Pathfinder method is reasonable. 5E would probably have been better off if Wildshape and Polymorph had been written with stat-changing instead of stat-replacement. Stat replacement was a superficially simple solution, but I think it actually complicates things once you take player agency into account. If Polymorphing into a T-Rex just changed your size and Strength, etc., and gave you a bite attack, but let you retain your various capabilities like Extra Attack, I think it would still be useful and fun--and yet multiple Polymorphs wouldn't be broken the way they are today. 5E's Polymorph mostly "balances" Polymorph by just not having any powerful beasts, but that doesn't fit with the rest of the CR system, which pretty much says that CR is supposed to be CR is supposed to be CR, no matter how it happens. The fact that RAW Polymorph breaks badly the moment a DM introduces powerful beasts into his campaign (like Fifth Edition Foe's Chain Worms, or Tome of Beast's Spinosaurus) is, to me, an indication that Polymorph was already broken, and these beasts just exposed the bug. It's not the DM's fault for having powerful beasts--it's the PHB's fault for letting a 4th level spell hand out another full PC's worth of HP. [/QUOTE]

Verification