jodyjohnson
Adventurer
After seeing the changes to Divine Favor and Righteous Might it seems much more likely to me that Polymorph may get officially changed in Complete Arcane (like Tome and Blood, and seemingly every edition change).
Reasons for hope:
1. Skip's Rules of the Game methodically gives every benefit granted by the rules as written. The sum total of the abilities is massive and disproportionately high considering the power of the analogous Cleric version (Righteous Might).
2. The exhaustive nature of the series failed to mention the longstanding problems players were having with the spell and few 'house rule' options were granted. If anything, the 'power game' side of Polymorph was strengthened by the codification including the relaxed item retention rules.
3. Skip revised the MM including the delineation of Special Attacks, Special Qualities, and creature type Traits and Features. Most of the more powerful traits of creature Type are also listed under the Special Qualities creatures entries. The spell grants creatures type and then inconsistently exclude Special Qualities which frequently also contain Type traits (most notably the Plant creatures). The PHB was primarily revised by Andy Collins.
4. Skip's opinion during a chat was that Wildshaped Druid's should not be allowed to use Animal growth on themselves (which stems from the 'gain type' power of Polymorph). I surmiss that the inclusion of the 'gain type' provision of Polymorph was ill-advised and shortsighted (while likely solving some other consistency the design team was struggling with - like playing whack-a-mole). Especially given the duration of Wildshape and its foundation in Polymorph.
Enough about Skip (especially as he is no longer employed with the design team).
5. The Wild feats in Complete Divine are abysmally poor feat choices compared to the normal abilities of Wildshape based on Polymorph. Blowing a wildshape use for 'one' of normally many creature powers seems a very low powered option.
6. The number of game designers outside of the Wizard's R&D team who are modifying, rewriting, or outright banning Polymorph seems to be growing. Our campaigns frequently avoid use of the spell because of its ability to 1) stop the game for stat rewrites, 2) stop the game for creature selection, 3) turn the party into a bands of 'optimal monsters' rather than heroic adventurers, and 4) an endless source of power game permutations every time a new creature book is published.
How it comes together:
Generally speaking most folks are fine with Alter Self as written. Polymorph builds upon AS adding a long list of additional gained abilities. Polymorph Any Object, Wildshape, and Shapechange all build further upon the middle man of Polymorph (also Baleful Powermorph but I don't see much of a problem there - 5th level Save or "die" is fine).
The problem with rewriting Polymorph is that Druid power is partially based on it and primarily how in the world do you find the perfect solution for a spell people have been rewriting for the last 15 years without success.
I suspect they may have had a planned change to Polymorph ready during the design of Complete Divine and designed the Wild feats with that in mind. However taking the results of the latest rewrite (3.5 version) into consideration opted not to print a new Polymorph (and the subsequent change to Wildshape) in CD but do more testing and refine it for Complete Arcane - the next logical placement (which would also allow noted adjustments to Poly Any Object and Shapechange in addition to a nod to Wildshape).
With the power of Righteous Might, Enlarge Person, and the Wild Feats in mind is effect that a new version of Polymorph would be much less powerful than what is current (especially given that they opted not to reduce the duration of Druid Wildshape in Complete Divine).
Abilities:
Chose form as current - limited by Hit Dice, knowledge, and minimum size.
Core abilities closer to what is granted by Alter Self.
Gained abilities based on a menu system like the Astral Construct I-IX power in the new psionics book. Specific powers listed would be comparable to the Druid wild feat abilites in CD grouped by form archetypes (strong form, dextrous form, sturdy form, disguise form, multi-attack form, etc.)
Overall power level would be comparable to combining 2-4 low level transmutation spells (Enlarge/Reduce Person, Alter Self, stat buffs, Fly, Spider Climb, Water Breathing, Claws/Bite of the XXX, etc.)
Depending on the wording of the new Polymorph, Wildshape and Polymorph Any Object could be left as is. Shapechange might need some changes but parts of the testing phase would include how the new version alters the power of Shapechange as already written.
Reasons for hope:
1. Skip's Rules of the Game methodically gives every benefit granted by the rules as written. The sum total of the abilities is massive and disproportionately high considering the power of the analogous Cleric version (Righteous Might).
2. The exhaustive nature of the series failed to mention the longstanding problems players were having with the spell and few 'house rule' options were granted. If anything, the 'power game' side of Polymorph was strengthened by the codification including the relaxed item retention rules.
3. Skip revised the MM including the delineation of Special Attacks, Special Qualities, and creature type Traits and Features. Most of the more powerful traits of creature Type are also listed under the Special Qualities creatures entries. The spell grants creatures type and then inconsistently exclude Special Qualities which frequently also contain Type traits (most notably the Plant creatures). The PHB was primarily revised by Andy Collins.
4. Skip's opinion during a chat was that Wildshaped Druid's should not be allowed to use Animal growth on themselves (which stems from the 'gain type' power of Polymorph). I surmiss that the inclusion of the 'gain type' provision of Polymorph was ill-advised and shortsighted (while likely solving some other consistency the design team was struggling with - like playing whack-a-mole). Especially given the duration of Wildshape and its foundation in Polymorph.
Enough about Skip (especially as he is no longer employed with the design team).
5. The Wild feats in Complete Divine are abysmally poor feat choices compared to the normal abilities of Wildshape based on Polymorph. Blowing a wildshape use for 'one' of normally many creature powers seems a very low powered option.
6. The number of game designers outside of the Wizard's R&D team who are modifying, rewriting, or outright banning Polymorph seems to be growing. Our campaigns frequently avoid use of the spell because of its ability to 1) stop the game for stat rewrites, 2) stop the game for creature selection, 3) turn the party into a bands of 'optimal monsters' rather than heroic adventurers, and 4) an endless source of power game permutations every time a new creature book is published.
How it comes together:
Generally speaking most folks are fine with Alter Self as written. Polymorph builds upon AS adding a long list of additional gained abilities. Polymorph Any Object, Wildshape, and Shapechange all build further upon the middle man of Polymorph (also Baleful Powermorph but I don't see much of a problem there - 5th level Save or "die" is fine).
The problem with rewriting Polymorph is that Druid power is partially based on it and primarily how in the world do you find the perfect solution for a spell people have been rewriting for the last 15 years without success.
I suspect they may have had a planned change to Polymorph ready during the design of Complete Divine and designed the Wild feats with that in mind. However taking the results of the latest rewrite (3.5 version) into consideration opted not to print a new Polymorph (and the subsequent change to Wildshape) in CD but do more testing and refine it for Complete Arcane - the next logical placement (which would also allow noted adjustments to Poly Any Object and Shapechange in addition to a nod to Wildshape).
With the power of Righteous Might, Enlarge Person, and the Wild Feats in mind is effect that a new version of Polymorph would be much less powerful than what is current (especially given that they opted not to reduce the duration of Druid Wildshape in Complete Divine).
Abilities:
Chose form as current - limited by Hit Dice, knowledge, and minimum size.
Core abilities closer to what is granted by Alter Self.
Gained abilities based on a menu system like the Astral Construct I-IX power in the new psionics book. Specific powers listed would be comparable to the Druid wild feat abilites in CD grouped by form archetypes (strong form, dextrous form, sturdy form, disguise form, multi-attack form, etc.)
Overall power level would be comparable to combining 2-4 low level transmutation spells (Enlarge/Reduce Person, Alter Self, stat buffs, Fly, Spider Climb, Water Breathing, Claws/Bite of the XXX, etc.)
Depending on the wording of the new Polymorph, Wildshape and Polymorph Any Object could be left as is. Shapechange might need some changes but parts of the testing phase would include how the new version alters the power of Shapechange as already written.
