Would it be cannibalism to eat a polymorphed chicken?

[Doug Sundseth]

No, no, no.

By that logic, shilelagh doesn't work.

"Your own nonmagical club or quarterstaff becomes a weapon with a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls."

The description doesn't say it becomes anything other than "One touched nonmagical oak club or quarterstaff". (While that's an arguable inference, I don't know that it will stand before full-blown pedantry.)

 

[Hypersmurf]

"Your own nonmagical club or quarterstaff becomes a weapon with a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls."

The description doesn't say it becomes anything other than "One touched nonmagical oak club or quarterstaff". (While that's an arguable inference, I don't know that it will stand before full-blown pedantry.)

"Damage reduction may be overcome by special materials, by magic weapons (any weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus, not counting the enhancement from masterwork quality), certain types of weapons (such as slashing or bludgeoning), and weapons imbued with an alignment."

The Shillelagh is a weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus, and is therefore a magic weapon. Can a club be a magic weapon and a nonmagical club at the same time?

The target of Heat Metal is "Metal equipment of one creature per two levels, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart". If I cast it on the metal equipment of two creatures twenty feet apart, and then they both back up ten feet, does the spell end since the metal equipment is now the metal equipment of two creatures forty feet apart?

Liveoak has a target of "Tree touched" and a non-instantaneous duration. When the tree becomes a treant, is it no longer a valid target for the spell, and does the spell end immediately?

Animate Object targets an object, and causes it to become an animated object; an animated object is a Construct, and therefore a creature; an object is defined as 'not a creature'. An animated object is therefore not an object; is the animated object no longer a valid target for the spell, and does the spell end immediately?

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hopefully. Those injector doo-dads work wonders, too.

Bang!

-Hyp.

 

[Doug Sundseth]

Fair response. Given that, the polymorph probably shouldn't expire on the death of the target as written.

In that case, I would expect Detect Magic and possibly Dispel Magic would be common parts of preparation of a body for burial. They're low-cost and the cost of making a mistake could be quite high.

There might be a decent adventure idea there: Target is polymorphed into the shape of an imposter and then killed, while the imposter is polymorphed into the shape of the original target. Nobody is missing, and if the imposter was a small creature (because of the weight limit of the spell), the polymorph spell is hidden by Magic Aura. The reveal would, of course, involve dispelling the polymorph, perhaps after the expiration of the Aura.

Hmm, if a Magic Aura is cast on you while you are dead and you are subsequently raised, the Magic Aura should still work (using the same logic train). I suspect there is some sort of horribly unbalanced sequence of spells here, involving the enchantment of a polymorphed corpse and selective dispel magics, but I haven't the time or inclination to work it out. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.

 

[Felix]

Regarding JRRT's middle earth the author tells us that, orcs, humans, elves, and halflings are all the same species.

I don't recall this. Where does he say it?

 

[Umbran]

I don't recall this. Where does he say it?

Orcs are derived from elves, and there's suggestion of men who breed with orcs. Men can breed with elves, to produce half-elves. In modern genetic parlance, that is a large step to calling them all sub-species of one master species.

I don't know where he's getting the idea that halflings are also in the same mix, though.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Under Baleful Polymorph, it retains it's alignment, continues to understand language, and if it could work out some "chicken scratch", it could even write!

Seems to me that ain't no normal chicken. Sounds a whole lot more like a person in a really, really good chicken suit.

Good call.

But I'd still say, under that definition, it'd be more like murder than cannibalism. I wouldn't call it cannibalism to eat a blink dog, or something "awakened," though they're quite clever.

 

[Sejs]

I still maintain that with regards to Shillelagh, that casting the spell doesn't make the club or staff into a magic weapon - it remains a mundane weapon with a spell effect on it.

If you cast Dispel Magic at a magic weapon, its properties are suppressed for a few rounds. If you cast Dispel Magic at a club or staff with Shillelagh on it, the effect is destroyed completely - it doesn't come back on its own.

 

[Zimri]

This is a rather delicate subject , anyone want another slice ?

 

[Hypersmurf]

I still maintain that with regards to Shillelagh, that casting the spell doesn't make the club or staff into a magic weapon - it remains a mundane weapon with a spell effect on it.

If I cast Magic Weapon on a dagger, does it bypass DR X/Magic? Is it subject to Mage Hand or Shatter?

-Hyp.