Why did WotC start the Polymorph "Errata Wars"?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd prefer if they had "Polymorph" like "Summon Monster" and had Polymorph I, II, II, et cetera.
Each level spell would have assorted forms tied to it, and you could use those forms or that of a lower level version.

I agree with that. Write it up!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The biggest mistake of Polymorph is allowing players to gain the statistics of monsters. The appearance is fine, but giving them all the ability scores and many (but often not the really interesting or useful, yet not overpowering special abilities) of the monsters ability will always lead to unbalancing results.

The effects of Polymorph shouldn't vastly exceed the powers of a combination of Alter Self, Enlarge/Reduce Person and Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance and Cat's Grace.
But it should retain its flexibility. That's what makes the spell interesting.

 

[amethal]

I do not use and will not use the errata related to the "polymorph wars". I use polymorph, wildshape, and the alter self chain in their pre-errata form. But I've given the alter self chain back their longer 3e durations. They've tried to balance something that should have been left to DMs and it screwed up an important part of magic.

I never had trouble with these things, they were used far more out of combat than inside combat. All it took was a ruling that any form which effected stats had to be pre-statted to be used in game.

Do you use the "Bite of" spells from the Spell Compendium?

Our druid rapid wildshapes into a dire bear (move action), then uses Bite of the Weretiger on himself and his animal companion. Followed normally by Fires of Purity.

The role of the rest of us is to keep the monster occupied for two rounds, preferably without dying.

Fortunately D&D isn't entirely about combat.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Do you use the "Bite of" spells from the Spell Compendium?

No I don't have the spell compendium yet actually. I have to drive about two hours to the nearest FLGS so I don't go very often and it seems like every time I do they don't have a copy and I buy something else they do have instead.

But I'd most likely rule them out, most all the races in my homebrew have natural attacks already and stacking that on top would just be getting out of hand.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I gave up on polymorph a long time ago. Where do I go to find the rules that are currently in effect?

You can find them here.

 

[Driddle]

Yeah, but they lack the utility of the original Polymorph. E.g. Trollshape.

You can turn into a troll. Its very nice to turn into a troll when you want to bash something. ...

I still think the ranger is broken. Anyone disagree? Yeah?! -- Well, you're WRONG!

(I can polymorph into a troll as a spell-like effect at almost any time of the day.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do you use the "Bite of" spells from the Spell Compendium?

Those make me a little nervous, since the quality of the effect doesn't seem to evenly line up with the spell level, something that became obvious to me when I tried to work out how bite of the wereweasel would work out for the kobolds in my campaign. (I'm basing this on the original set of spells in the Spellbook column on the WotC site. Maybe they've been rebalanced in the Spell Compendium.)

3E took a nice step forward with the standardized rules for spell creation, but I'd love to see WotC come out with even better rules for standard D&D spells, but made more logical and more predictable, in the same way magic items were re-evaluated for the Magic Item Compendium.

 

[Flynn]

What would have been very interesting to me would be to have Polymorph become a template that the spell applies to the target. The template would be designed such that you have a list of options you could choose, based on your level, etc. and essentially allowed you to pick and choose the special abilities at the time of casting. Then you simply describe your new form as a specific animal you've encountered, get DM approval for the abilities compared to the description, and go from there.

But that's because I think templates are a cool idea for D&D, and would provide the DM and PC with a way to moderate stat changes, etc., within specific parameters.

With Regards,
Flynn

EDIT: Wow, now I've had a chance to check out Rick Berlew's version, and that's it exactly. Very cool!

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Here's my version of polymorph:

You become the creature, straight out of the monster manual, keeping your own hit points and mental stats. You get ALL the abilities, though learning to use them may take time (an elf polymorphed to an eagle might not fly very well at first.) You must make a DC 6 constitution check each time you are polymorhed and a natural one always fails. Failure means you die. Gear is absorbed into the form and becomes useless unless the creature could wear the item. Gear does NOT enlarge with the form, if the shoe don't fit, it gets absorbed into the form and is useless.

This way a barbarian 20 can't add his base attack to hit, he'd use the trolls or whatever. This makes the spell more of a utility spell for mages and not an attack form for warriors.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Okay, first thing, thanks for the pointers as to where to find some atempts at explanation. Is appreciated.

But to be honest, Andy's reasoning is a bit...huh...off, in my opinion. Saying that the options for a caster with Polymorph Self ae only limited by the number of monsters out there shows a bit how even the designers got caught in the wave of "E-DM-ancipation" that was brought along by 3E. The number of options is, usually, limited as well by the DM. The solution could be as easy as the one for the thousands of spells published...you point to those monster books that represent the monster population of your campaign world. If a player brings up a monster from Book X not on the list, you can simply say "No". Or is that such a novelty by now?

The thing is...what do I gain by having my fighter transform into a troll? Nothing except the ability increase, scent, darkvision, +7 natural armor, natural attacks, and reach. At least when I look at the "first" version of the spell. And that's for a 4th level spell. You don't even change your creature type, you stay "Humanoid". Questions about equipment? If the new form can use it, it adapts to the shape, if it can't, the equipment melts into the new shape and is unusable. And hit points don't increase despite the Con change. The only real question I have is about Feats and Skills of the new shape...personally I'd say they are not gained, as they are neither physical nor natural abilities.

Just as an experiment..if anybody wants to join. Lets take the MM1 and try to find a monster that is Large, not templated (only the "average" version of the monster allowed), and would be a serious problem compared to a 7th level game under the conditions of a 3E Polymorph Self/Other spell? *digs out MM1*

Edit: I dare say a Fire Giant would be a better choice for a fighting shape anyway.