Using polymorph for a huge boost in AC

[Uller]

Natural armor and armor bonuses stack.

If polymorph self is used to change into a form that uses equipment, your armor also changes to fit your new form.

This leads to a small problem. PCs can use polymorph to gain rather absurd ACs.

For instance, in my group we have a Src11/Ftr4 who likes to polymorph into a Formian Myrmarch. She wears Mithral Breastplate +5 (+10 Armor bonus).

So with that one spell, her AC reaches 38: 10(base) - 1 (size) + 4 (dex) + 15 natural + 10 armor.

She also has a +1 ring of protection. Add Haste (+4) and Shield (+7) her AC is now up to 51!!! This far far exceeds the rest of the party.

Now...to be fair we are using a house rule that reduces the arcane spell failure of armor and counts as a +1 enhancement to the armor per 5% of reduction so her armor counts as +8 for cost purposes. But even so...I think you can achieve the same crazy ACs without worrying about that (like if the party mage uses Polymorph Other to boost the tank fighter). Am I doing this wrong? Is there some limitations to the amount of stacking you can get out of nat armor and armor bonuses?

 

[Bastoche]

Polymorph other is permanent...

 

[gfunk]

My group has simply concluded that Polymorph Self and Polymorph Other were simply broken and we all voted (unanimously I might add) to ban it.

I was the main culprit actually. When my sorcerer hit level 8 she picked up Polymorph Other and prior to our dungeon crawls we would all polymorph into Trolls and gain the following:

+ 7 Natural Armor
23 Str
23 Con (though hp were unchanged)
14 Dex
Large size + 10' reach
90' Darkvision
Always considered armed (natural weapons)

In addition, since Trolls are of the type Giants, they keep all of their equipment as per the Polymorph Other spell description.

We were simply breezing through adventures crushing everything in our way. In the unlikely event that the spell was dispelled, my Sor could simply re-cast it on the same round or the next.

We played this way for quite some time before we realized that no one was having fun, so we stopped.

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but this is how we handled it.

P.S. You are correct about natural armor and armor bonuses stacking.

 

[Bastoche]

And don't forget that polymorph change your physical abilities.

If you're a 18 str fighter and you get polymorph into a halfling, for example, you do not keep your 18 str. You get an average halfling strength score (11 ?). Same for dex and con.

And you get a -2 on pretty much every rolls IIRC.

 

[Uller]

Polymorph other is permanent...

And? What fighter-tank-type wouldn't want a permanent increase in str, con and natural armor? Plus reach and other hack 'n slash goodness. If need be, the mage can cast it again to turn him back to himself or simply dispell it (I think you can automatically succeed dispell magic checks against your own spells...I think I read that somewhere).

Of course if the mage gets whacked or for some reason is unwilling or unable to change the fighter back, that can lead to all manner of fun RP...

 

[James McMurray]

Formians are Outsiders. Unless your sorcerer is an outsider himself, he cannot polymorph into one. Granted, that just lowers the impact of the spelll some, and dropping from +15 to +11 (for Stone Giant) isn't a big drop.

There have been tons of threads on the power of Polymorph Other and Self. Good luck finding a consensus on how to best use it. I personlly allow it as written (in the Tome and Blood errattaed version). It is a bit powerful, but the party only travels around as trolls right now because of the height troubles with being giants.

 

[Bastoche]

And? What fighter-tank-type wouldn't want a permanent increase in str, con and natural armor? Plus reach and other hack 'n slash goodness. If need be, the mage can cast it again to turn him back to himself or simply dispell it (I think you can automatically succeed dispell magic checks against your own spells...I think I read that somewhere).

Of course if the mage gets whacked or for some reason is unwilling or unable to change the fighter back, that can lead to all manner of fun RP...

You could dispell it but not polymorph "back" in what you were. You would be turned into an "average same race as before creature".

 

[Bastoche]

You could dispell it but not polymorph "back" in what you were. You would be turned into an "average same race as before creature".

I stand corrected, you can be changed back into yourself without any penalities...

 

[Shirt Guy John]

I know a lot of people think powergaming's great and all, but where's the style in everyone being the same big critter with the same ability scores, just smashing stuff? Sounds like it's a waste of time to me. You wanna get big and smashy, there's other ways to do it.

I always perfer the psionic chapechanging powers, because no matter the form (you can even turn into a suit of Armor, I believe, with Metamorphosis) you can always manifest powers with almost no penalties.

It just seems to me that Polymorsh sounds great in beat-downs and such, but during play, if the DM runs things right, the game should be turned around and based on different things... of course, we never had anyone with any polymorph stuff, so I'm just hypothesizing from all the stuff about it on the boards.

 

[Alariel]

As powerful and 'broken' as it may seem, Polymorph is just as useful to the villains and NPCs as it is to the PCs themselves.