Polymorph Self & Shapechange

[Demivrgvs]

The following shapeshifting forms are "completely new" because I decided to create full custom sub-spells and files, and as I've done with IR's shapeshifting spells I've opted for a solution which is half-way between the broken vanilla's one and the "optimal" one that can be found in Refinements. My solution is very very similar to Refinements' one, but instead of having the equipped item re-cast itself continuosly, a dispel will just revert the caster to it's original form. Anyway he can re-polymorph himself as many time as he wishes (during the spell duration of 5 turns), even after a dispel.

 

Any comment/suggestion to balance/refine them is welcome.

 

Polymorph Self

Not too much has changed for Flind (erroneously called Gnoll), Ogre and Sword Spider, though they are slightly better fighters now. The Mustard Jelly instead is greatly improved (fixed resistances and immunities), and its physical melee attack has been replaced by a ranged acidic attack. Bears have been removed because they were redundant, being much weaker than both Flind and Ogre and not offering any interesting special quality/ability. The common wolf has been replaced by a cooler Winter Wolf.

 

 

Flind

Str 17, Dex 17, Con 16; AC 1, THAC0 10;

2 Attacks per Round, 1D10+3 piercing +1D6 fire damage (Halberd +2)

 

 

Ogre

Str 18/00, Dex 9, Con 18; AC 3, THAC0 8;

2 Attacks Per Round, 1D10+8 crushing damage (Morning Star +2)

 

 

Mustard Jelly

Str 14, Dex 9, Con 16; AC 4, THAC0 10;

1 Attack Per Round, 5D5 acid damage + slow (Corrosive Spore +2)

Slow: target is slowed for 3 rounds (save vs. polymorph negates)

Immune to backstab, poison, charm, confusion & hold effects;

Immune to normal weapons

Electrical Resistance 100%, Cold Resistance 50%

 

 

Sword Spider

Str 17, Dex 10, Con 15; AC 3, THAC0 14;

4 Attacks Per Round, 1D6+3 piercing damage + poison (Legs & Bite +1)

Poison: 4 hp/round for 4 rounds (save vs. poison negates)

Immune to web and poison effects

 

 

Winter Wolf

Str 18, Dex 17, Con 15; AC 2, THAC0 10;

2 Attacks per Round, 1D6+3 piercing + 1D6 cold damage (Frostbite +2)

Cold Resistance 100%

 

 

Shapechange

Here I've radically changed many things. For some reason I've decided to do the two elemental transformations, but I don't see any reason to keep them as the Iron Golem surpasses them in every aspect (and they'll instead work fine as druid's HLAs). Finally the Giant Troll was just a much weaker version of the Greater Wolfwere, thus I've decided to make it much more interesting...by making it a Spirit Troll.

 

 

Earth Elemental

STR 23, DEX 8, CON 21; AC 2, THAC0 0;

2 Attacks Per Round, 2d10+14 crushing damage (Fist +4)

Immune to hold, poison, sleep & stun effects;

Immune to normal weapons

Slashing, Piercing & Missile Resistance 40%

 

 

Fire Elemental

STR 18, DEX 19, CON 18; AC 0, THAC0 3;

2 Attacks Per Round, 2d10+5 slashing +2d8 fire damage (Fist +4)

Immune to hold, poison, sleep & stun effects;

Immune to normal weapons

Fire Resistance 100%;Physical Resistance 20%

 

 

Iron Golem

STR 24, DEX 9, CON 9; AC 3, THAC0 -2;

2 Attacks Per Round, 2d10+16 crushing damage (Fist +4)

Immune to weapon of enchantment lower than +3

Immune to backstab & poison effects

Magic Resistance 100%;

Acid, Cold & Electrical Resistance 100%, Fire Resistance 125%

Slashing, Piercing & Missile Resistance 40%, Crushing Resistance 20%

 

 

Greater Wolfwere

STR 21, DEX 20, CON 25; AC -4, THAC0 1;

3 Attacks Per Round 3, 2d8+12 Slashing Damage (Paw +3)

Immune to weapon of enchantment lower than +1

Regeneration: 2 hp/sec

Magic Resistance 40%; Elemental Resistance 50%

 

 

Mind Flyer

STR 12, DEX 14, CON 12; AC 3, THAC0 9;

1 Attacks Per Round, 1d4+2 damage + devour brain (Touch +2)

Devour Brain: -4 to target's INT

Psionic Blast: stuns opponents within 15' radius (save vs. spell negates)

Magic Resistance 90%

Spellcasting isn't disabled while in this form

 

 

Spirit Troll

STR 19, DEX 18, CON 2; AC -4, THAC0 8;

2 Attacks Per Round, 2d4+9 slashing damage + drain (Claw +2)

Ability Score Drain: -1 to target's strength (save vs. death negates)

Improved Invisible; Immune to normal weapons

Regeneration: 3 hp/round; Cold Resistance 100%

 

In PnP Spirit Trolls's attacks have a life draining effect too, but I think it may be too much (and the creature regenerates anyway). If you think it's so cool I have to implement it at least I'll allow the target a save.

[Galactygon]

Something you might consider is toning down the bonuses but enabling spellcasting (as per AD&D). In AD&D, the troll's regeneration ability is much slower than what you see ingame, and the golems are much slower.

 

-Galactygon

[Salk]

Personally I am not so fond of Galactycon's proposal about polymorphed spellcasting while I like the rest.

 

Not being able to spellcast when polymorphed has always been a trademark for the game and even if I usually welcome warmly P&P changes, I would not like this one. In conclusion, I will keep things exactly like Demivrgvs made them.

 

What I would welcome would be the improvement of the Wolf to Winter Wolf (this is perhaps material also for IR's cloak of the wolf).

[Demivrgvs]

In AD&D, the troll's regeneration ability is much slower than what you see ingame

You're right, but if you notice I've used the correct PnP's regeneration rate for Spirit Troll.

and the golems are much slower.

I like the idea. Will test asap.

Something you might consider is toning down the bonuses but enabling spellcasting (as per AD&D).

Well...allowing some creatures like the Iron Golem or the Werewolf to cast spells would be really unbalancing unless I nerf them to the point where thet don't look anymore as the original creatures.

I've chose to implement it to the Mind Flyer because:

a) the only real advantage of the form is the magic resistance (unless you like to exploit the INT draining during Time Stop), not much considering the spell slot we're talking about

b) Mind Flyers are spellcasters (most of the other forms aren't), and as a "bonus" they already have spellcasting animations too

 

It might be different if we talk about the Flind or the Ogre form.

 

What I would welcome would be the improvement of the Wolf to Winter Wolf (this is perhaps material also for IR's cloak of the wolf).

I'll do it right now. Cloak of the Wolf's background does mentions Lycanthropy, thus the Werewolf is much more appropriate.

[Salk]

I didn't know that you revised Mind Flayers so that they can cast spells (I must be blind because you wrote it clearly above).

 

I don't think it's a good decision because I'd rather have all polymorphed creatures unable to cast spells.

 

But it would be good to remove that feature and instead implement more psionic abilities on top of their devastating Mind Blast (please confirm me that target saves at -4 like it should)!

 

Example: a polymorphed Mind Flayer might have innate Domination, Hopelessness plus the ability to Teleport without Error, just like the Astral Deva of P&P Celestials (the Monstrous Compendium says: "The mind flayer's mental talents also allow it to use the following powers, one per round, as 7th level mage: suggestion, charm monster/person, ESP, levitate, astral projection and plane shift).)

 

About the Cloak of the Wolf, you are very right. We had already discussed it even and I simply forgot.

[Demivrgvs]

But it would be good to remove that feature and instead implement more psionic abilities on top of their devastating Mind Blast (please confirm me that target saves at -4 like it should)!

Quite an interesting idea...though I still like mine too. I'll think about it, which psionic abilities should I give and how they would affect the balance of this form. Except the two elemental forms which are clearly the weakest, I've testem them againg today and I can assure you that Iron Golem, Greater Werewolf and now Spirit Troll too really kick butts!

 

As a side note. I've finished few minutes ago to implement and test the Winter Wolf, I'll update the first post asap.

 

P.S If anyone has a suggestion about replacing or even removing the two elemental forms let me know.

[Raj]

Bug report: I cast a web spell, then morph into a spider, walk in my own web and it hits me

 

P.S. Elemental shapes should only belong to druids, they have to go

[Demivrgvs]

Bug report: I cast a web spell, then morph into a spider, walk in my own web and it hits me

You're right, it misses the spider's immunities. Actually this spell in PnP doesn't allow the caster to gain them, but I think it may be the only way to make this spell really interesting. And it's currently the only reason Mustard Jelly form is gorgeous.

 

As soon as I decide what to do about it fixing it is a matter of seconds, and the "fix" for that doesn't even require to re-install.

 

P.S. Elemental shapes should only belong to druids, they have to go

I do agree, you'll never use them anyway because Iron Golem outperform them in every aspect. I've done them for completeness, but I'd like to add at least one form if I remove those two...possibly one with ranged attacks.

[Raj]

I'd like to add at least one form if I remove those two...possibly one with ranged attacks.

 

Magic Golem? There're only 3 of them in the whole game, looks like a waste of a nice model

[Arkain]

I'd like to add at least one form if I remove those two...possibly one with ranged attacks.

 

Magic Golem? There're only 3 of them in the whole game, looks like a waste of a nice model

 

Enemies being forced to hit you with normal weapons because nothing else works?

[Demivrgvs]

Magic Golem? There're only 3 of them in the whole game, looks like a waste of a nice model

Ehm...really overpowered and exploitable.

 

Refinements gives to Conjures an HLA to summon them though, you may want to try that out if you'd like to see more of them.

[Grand_Dracolich]

I think Mind Flayers being able to cast is a good idea (if you read Paul S. Kemp's Resurrection, Gromph Baenre was still able to cast when Shapeshifted into a Shadow. Out of all of the shapes in BG2 you can take, the Mind Flayer seems to be the only one that makes sense, balance-wise).

 

I, actually, never really used any shape besides the Greater Wolfwere, for the regeneration. I can imagine the Iron Golem being really cheesey in spell deuls, though.

[Raj]

Magic Golem? There're only 3 of them in the whole game, looks like a waste of a nice model

Ehm...really overpowered and exploitable.

 

Refinements gives to Conjures an HLA to summon them though, you may want to try that out if you'd like to see more of them.

 

I just like the model, nerf the shape if needed ^^ I liked the idea of a shape with a ranged attack. Then what about behold..*cough*

 

Ettin? very few of them too.

 

If you're sick of brutes ( with the wolfwere, iron golem and spirit troll availabe.. even if I'd swap troll for ettin just for sake of feel different ... ), some 'roguish' shape like shadow demon ( improved backstab, invisibility ) could be nice for rogue/mages.

[Raj]

reporting a very odd bug : my game always crashes when I attempt to morph Aerie into a flind I have no issue using that shape with a male human protagonist, and Aerie is able to use the other shapes , but somehow the flind shape is a big no for her. The only change I made to Aerie was add her a mage kit ( Illusionist, anyway her forbidden school is necromancy while polimorph self is alteration ).

[Demivrgvs]

reporting a very odd bug : my game always crashes when I attempt to morph Aerie into a flind I have no issue using that shape with a male human protagonist, and Aerie is able to use the other shapes , but somehow the flind shape is a big no for her. The only change I made to Aerie was add her a mage kit ( Illusionist, anyway her forbidden school is necromancy while polimorph self is alteration ).

Very strange indeed. You've added the kit to a multiclass character? I doubt it's a problem, though I do consider it quite a cheat. I've only one guess I'm going to teast right away...I may have flagged the halberd as a two-handed weapon, and it may cause problems if she has a shield equipped...