#true polymorph

True Polymorph

a friend of mine was talking about the possibility of casting True Polymorph on a familiar, which is an incredibly funny use of both those spells I think. anyway here's Melliwyk's familiar, Baxter, as A Guy

This series has been way too long. Probably because I’m only making a couple items at a time because life but also because I feel like it’s pointless to have the entire series finished and THEN post it all because I could be working on this for months (realistically, several hours spread across several months) and then get like 5 notes so it’s probably better to post it in pieces as I finish them because 1) it helps fight my self-defeating perfectionistic tendencies and 2) because notes = validation, unfortunately, and 3) because I hate being one of those creators that disappears for like 5-9 months, then comes back with like 2 cryptic sentences - and by the way those creators are TOTALLY VALID, life happens, burnout happens, etc, I just want to be consistent-ish.

Probably.

~

Shadow Blade

Weapon, very rare

Martial weapon, melee weapon

Not to be confused with the spell of the same name.

A longsword, shortsword, or greatsword made of mysterious black rock – like obsidian meets meteorite.

You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. Shadow blades deal double damage to objects.

The only thing that can destroy a shadow blade is another shadow blade.

(I’d call the shadow blade from the series a longsword, but do whatever you want I’m not your dad)

Teapot of Flight

Wondrous item, very rare

A fancy teapot with an avian motif.

When a sapient creature consumes tea brewed in this pot, they transform into any non-magical bird of their choosing. This transformation lasts indefinitely; but after 1 hour, the creature’s old personality fades, completing their transformation into birds. The fade starts in the last 10 minutes and escalates quickly. Side effects start with lapses in memory, and experience more and more bird-like tics.

can you undo a permanent true polymorph with another true polymorph? just say “I polymorph them back into their original form?”

I think what I’d do as a DM (if I decided to allow it) is make them roll an arcana check, and if they roll high enough they realize that transmutation is at least partially ruled by the caster’s perceptions. If not, the next bit comes as a surprise.

I would take the caster aside and have them tell me what they thought the person’s personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws were, and what order they thought the person’s ability scores were from highest to lowest.

I would then take the polymorphed character’s sheet and replace their personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws (or add, maybe? it’s very situational), and move their ability scores around so that they fit the caster’s idea of who the character is.

then, if the character is a PC, they either get roleplayed with their new personality or become an NPC while the player makes a new character.

(naturally, of course, I’d discuss with the polymorphed character’s player beforehand)

Ahahahaha.  Oh, the end conditions for True Polymorph, that age-old debate.

First of all: anyone who says that it’s universally agreed, or even “normally” agreed, that True Polymorph is maintained even into death is highly mistaken.  The truth is that there is no universal agreement on how to interpret the rules here.  Jeremy Crawford, a leading WotC game designer and more or less the dude in charge of the PHB, has suggested on twitter that the spell ends at 0 HP.  Mike Mearls, who co-created 5e, says that it doesn’t.  So what does that mean?

The truth is that sometimes, in D&D as in life, there isn’t a universal answer.  As a DM it’s largely my responsibility to decide on specific, consistent interpretations of the rules for the world of the game we’re playing.  This isn’t so much about changing the rules as deciding which version of the rules is true for this campaign, in this universe.  Sometimes that’s about the players and striking mechanical balance.  Sometimes it’s about the worldbuilding, lore, or crafting a cool story.  (Sometimes I literally roll a die and go, “okay, cool, that’s how Awakened Squirrels work now.”)

RAW isn’t holy.  Any game should have a set of rules that everybody involved knows and can use, because that’s how a game works, but it’s not always that important what those rules are.  In my game, cats have darkvision and True Polymorph is ended at 0 HP.  Also heavy smoke does AOE damage to swarms of wasps, the party’s donkey can use a bite attack for minimal damage if he’s particularly annoyed, and the bard’s fox doesn’t have to roll saving throws.  Any DM is going to use their own judgment on how the written rules fit into their own game.

I ended up going with ‘true polymorph ends at 0 HP’ because it made certain pieces of lore more interesting, basically.  I could write like ten essays on it, and the whole conflict of magic vs non-magical reality in this campaign setting, and how this particular setup let me do things I wanted to do with both the Hero Resolve lore and this bard’s backstory.  I’m pretty sure I’m homebrewing a 9th level spell that can make any spell with a duration permanent and undispellable.  Going this direction has actually led to a lot of cool worldbuilding stuff for this campaign, for me, and I’m excited about it!

Someone asked a question on Reddit, and being really bored while packing for a trip, I did some working out to answer their question.

And worked out how to turn a D&D character into a Tarrasque.

It also just works as a way of defeating a Tarrasque.

BEHOLD: