Why did WotC start the Polymorph "Errata Wars"?

[Geron Raveneye]

I'm just curious. Over on the D20 Spotlight Forum of RPG.net, they were discussing the "problem" with the polymorph spells, which made me read the spell in its details for the first time.

Now, I have (and play) 3E D&D for the most part, and while I was reading the spell descriptions, I was wondering what reason there was to start errata-ing it and associated spells. As it is printed in the PHB, it doesn't really look like that much of a game-breaker to me. Granted, I'm not proficient in "optimizing until it breaks"...but for actual game play, was that version of the spell that buggy? I can't wrap my head around the need to change and alter it until they arrived at the weird polymorph rulings they did by now. (Makes me wonder when those will be changed, too. Probably with 4E. )

Anyway, does somebody here know, and care to answer that question for me? Or point me to a place where I can read up about the reasoning behind all those changes? Because basically, I don't see the need.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

While I don't remember all of the details of the Polmoprh "Horror Stories" I have heard; I think this link covers (at leats most of) the basics of the issue:

The Polymorph Problem

 

[Vrecknidj]

I think that RPGA play could really get spoiled by leaving the polymorph as originally written. Then again, for all I know, the RPGA just banned the spell--that would be easiest.

Dave

 

[Darkness]

I think that RPGA play could really get spoiled by leaving the polymorph as originally written. Then again, for all I know, the RPGA just banned the spell--that would be easiest.

Yeah, Jedi_Solo's link agrees; it says they did that in a campaign:

... RPGA’s Mark of Heroes campaign. As part of our continuing effort to ensure a fair and equitable play experience for all participants, the polymorph spell and several related game elements have been designed as “restricted,” meaning that they are now unavailable for use in that campaign. If you’ve found these game elements to be problematic in your home game, we recommend that you implement the same change. See this announcement for more details on that restriction. ...

 

[pedr]

The Alter Self chain of spells is indeed not used in Living Greyhawk and Xen'drik Expeditions.

Wizards seems to be recommending/suggesting to home GMs that they do not allow the use of the spells in their campaigns - hence some of the new spells which do 'transmute into a specific creature and get these abilities'. I think the main problem was this: monster designers are trying to create balanced monsters - and ones which are interesting to fight. They don't want to add another stage to the design process, namely: would this be broken if a PC (or NPC) could polymorph into it? The rules as written benefited the player who could spend the money - and time - collecting Monster Manuals and the like and thumbing through looking for the most powerful form into which to polymorph. This was exacerbated by the confusion over whether a change in Con from base form to new form led to a change in hit points. The Con 8 druid which spent the first five levels hiding and trying not to die, then spent the mid-high levels continually in wild-shaped form was not uncommon.

Now Living Greyhawk tried to limit this by only allowing polymorph into Monster Manual (1) forms and others which were discovered as adventure rewards. This was reasonably balanced but the new system for wild shape, alternate form etc was becoming pervasive in newer products so the campaign fell into line and banned polymorph completely.

 

[blargney the second]

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

 

[pedr]

They're in the latest D&D errata available from wizards.com

Note that it's not /actually/ polymorph errata. Rather it's removing any collateral reference to polymorph from the rest of the rules - so wild-shape is no longer modelled on polymorph, monsters which had the ability to take on an alternate form have that based on a different set of rules and so on.

The actual text of polymorph, alter self and PAO are unchanged - but the implicit recommendation is not to use them, and instead to start using the spells from SpC and later books which do polymorph-like things. There's a new polymorph sub-school which gives general guidelines for what to expect from those spells.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I believe Players Handbook 2 also had the new rules, along with a few spells which worked with them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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

Spell Compendium.

 

[blargney the second]

I'll have a look at those today. Thanks for the pointers, guys.