| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Nicolai Withander |
Posted - 11 Jan 2014 : 14:04:36
Hello...
So I was doing some light reading the other day, about spells. And I came across Shapechange, which has the following line in the text o the spell:
"You gain all extraordinary and supernatural abilities (both attacks and qualities) of the assumed form, but you lose your own supernatural abilities."
So as I read it, when you change the first time, you loose your own (Su) abilities but gain (Ex) and (Su) of the new form. WHen you change again you loose (Su) but gain (Ex) and (Su) of the new form. Meaning one set of (Su) abilities and two sets of (Ex) abilities. If you change again you loose (Su) abilities and gain (Ex) and (Su) abilities of your new form for a total of one set of (Su) and three sets of (Ex). As long as the spell is still in duration ofc.
Can anyone comment on this line of thought, and tell me, from a pure rules standpoint whether or not they believe me to be correct.
Personally I'm unsure how I would rule the damn thing in game as a DM, but after reading through the spell text a few times now, I'm pretyy sure of my self.
Thanks in advance.  |
| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Kyrel |
Posted - 12 Jan 2014 : 13:30:45
Nicolai. If you look at the sentence, its intended interpretation is IMO fairly clear.
"You gain all extraordinary and supernatural abilities (both attacks and qualities) of the assumed form, but you lose your own supernatural abilities."
The key here is "the assumed form". You can only assume one form at any given time, hence you will only have the abilities and powers associated with the creature whose form you use at the moment. You can then add on top, that running the spell in the way you mention mean that you can effectively have the EX abilities of dozens of creatures towards the end of a single casting of Shapechange, simply by assuming a new form every round, throughout the duration of the spell. Considder it for a moment in the light of game balance. No offense intended, but your alternate interpretation of the spell description is INSANE!!! It doest' just break the game, it takes it out back, beats it up, >>BLEEP<<, and then kills and dismembers it, before burning it to ashes and scattering them to the wind.
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| Kentinal |
Posted - 11 Jan 2014 : 18:33:01
One thing occurs to me, EX are sometimes class ability. A Barbarian turned into wolf still should be able to rage I would thing because it is a class ability. In effect the Wolf would have that benefit from the class. Thus having a wolf that can rage.
It might need to be a DM ruling depending on what the EX is based on and if it could be used in the changed form.
Edit:
Did a little looking and found in 3.5 SRD This:
quote:
Change Shape
A creature with this special quality has the ability to assume the appearance of a specific creature or type of creature (usually a humanoid), but retains most of its own physical qualities. A true seeing spell or ability reveals the creature’s natural form. A creature using change shape reverts to its natural form when killed, but separated body parts retain their shape. A creature cannot use change shape to take the form of a creature with a template. Changing shape results in the following changes to the creature:
The creature retains the type and subtype of its original form. It gains the size of its new form.
The creature loses the natural weapons and movement modes of its original form, as well as any extraordinary special attacks of its original form not derived from class levels (such as the barbarian’s rage class feature).
The creature gains the natural weapons, movement modes, and extraordinary special attacks of its new form.
The creature retains all other special attacks and qualities of its original form, except for breath weapons and gaze attacks.
The creature retains the ability scores of its original form.
Except as described elsewhere, the creature retains all other game statistics of its original form, including (but not necessarily limited to) HD, hit points, skill ranks, feats, base attack bonus, and base save bonuses.
The creature retains any spellcasting ability it had in its original form, although it must be able to speak intelligibly to cast spells with verbal components and it must have humanlike hands to cast spells with somatic components.
The creature is effectively camouflaged as a creature of its new form, and gains a +10 bonus on Disguise checks if it uses this ability to create a disguise.
Any gear worn or carried by the creature that can’t be worn or carried in its new form instead falls to the ground in its space. If the creature changes size, any gear it wears or carries that can be worn or carried in its new form changes size to match the new size. (Nonhumanoid-shaped creatures can’t wear armor designed for humanoid-shaped creatures, and viceversa.) Gear returns to normal size if dropped.
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| Nicolai Withander |
Posted - 11 Jan 2014 : 18:25:13
Yes I am close to agreeing but the question was directed as a pure "rules as written" question. Simply to try to understand the spell better. I want to understand thing "the right way" before I just rule something. |
| The Arcanamach |
Posted - 11 Jan 2014 : 17:26:06
Yeah I'd have to rule against keeping the new powers otherwise you lose total control of your game. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 11 Jan 2014 : 14:27:11
I would rule that you have the abilities of your current form, and not those of prior forms. Otherwise that's just sick. |
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