Polymorph any object

[Quiddle]

Does anything stop me from using polymorph any object to turn something, lets say a pebble into a star for 20 minutes and competly wipe the prime material plane?

[Morcleon]

Does anything stop me from using polymorph any object to turn something, lets say a pebble into a star for 20 minutes and competly wipe the prime material plane?

Besides quite a a lot of DM-thrown books? Nope! :smallbiggrin:

[Aharon]

The fact that you are limited to 100 cu. feet per level, and the fact that it would make catgirls sad or even dead, depending on how physically correct you intend the star to be.

[Clistenes]

Does anything stop me from using polymorph any object to turn something, lets say a pebble into a star for 20 minutes and competly wipe the prime material plane?

The gods perceive it before it happens (portfolio sense) and kill you the day before you prepare the spell.

[Morcleon]

The fact that you are limited to 100 cu. feet per level, and the fact that it would make catgirls sad or even dead, depending on how physically correct you intend the star to be.

Actually, the 100 cu. ft./CL is the target, not the resulting object. Thus, you can create anything as large as you want.

[Quiddle]

The target is 100 cu. feet per level, I don't think it has an upper limt to what it can make.
edit: ninjaed

[Aharon]

It's late over here, I misread it. Sorry :smallredface: That only leaves the catgirls.

[Morcleon]

It's late over here, I misread it. Sorry :smallredface: That only leaves the catgirls.

But then you can PAO a pebble into a super-advanced, non-magical technology that can resurrect catgirls! :smalltongue:

[Clistenes]

But then you can PAO a pebble into a super-advanced, non-magical technology that can resurrect catgirls! :smalltongue:

You can make all the catgirls you want with PAO. You can make them from human girls, or you can make them from cats, so no worries, we won't run out of catgirls.:smalltongue:

[StreamOfTheSky]

I really would like a sensible clarification on exactly how the spell works. For uses that aren't incredibly cheesy...

Like, as written, it works as polymorph so you still have a 15 HD limit even though you can't even cast it before CL 15. And you don't gain Ex special qualities of the form, so apparently if you turn a tree into a sheet of paper, you would be unable to rip apart the paper. Also, per RAW, it would seem an object turned into a larger object or a creature would, as per the polymorph spell, retain its own original (awful) hit points. You can turn a pebble into a stone wall, but it still only has like 5 hp!

I'd like to make use of this spell which my Transmuter prepares daily, since it's a core game and the other 8th level trans spells all suck, but the apparant RAW makes the spell quite worthless for reasonable, non-game-breaking applications. (And yeah, there are literally save or dies at 4th spell level, so the term "reasonable" is relative here)

[ericgrau]

Find creative non-combat uses of it. PAO doors that are in your way. Create living breathing decoys. Don't transmute a 1 hp pebble, but transmute a boulder for more hp.

Or find combat uses, but go for a longer duration to prepare more of them ahead of time. But note that these creatures aren't under your command.

You can use it like a SoD. Heck unlike polymorph and most SoDs it works on undead, and undead have terrible fort saves. But the key to using it most effectively is the versatility. Maybe there's a lower level spell to do some of the same things, but not 1 spell by itself; it takes several different ones.

For the theoretical op questions I think the star would burn up its 1 hp so fast no one would even notice the heat. It's still odd that with a liberal interpretation you could change a pebble into a castle though, even if it's an easily destroyed one. Or a tougher one from a boulder. Not much in a siege, but it would be sturdy enough to live in. I think the RAI is that the new form has the same volume limit.

[Snowbluff]

Actually, the 100 cu. ft./CL is the target, not the resulting object. Thus, you can create anything as large as you want.

Even if it was, making a singularity instead would have a very similar effect.

EDIT: Or just make it into a similar object made of antimatter.

[Vaz]

Getting stabbed in the eye with a crumpled can of coke by your P'd off DM is usually a good enough stopping method.

[Acanous]

Humanoid->Half Dragon (Or any other template a Humanoid can take) should work, though.
That's ONE non-cheesy thing you can do.

Hey, free template.

[Alefiend]

Assuming you could make the star, it wouldn't destroy the Prime Material. It would destroy the world your caster was on, and probably wreak havoc on the rest of the star system.

The preceding statement does not apply to those few games where the world the PCs play in represents all of creation.

[Namfuak]

If you wanted to destroy existence, you could always PAO something into a black hole in Sigil. Let's see how the Lady of Pain deals with that.

[Clistenes]

Humanoid->Half Dragon (Or any other template a Humanoid can take) should work, though.
That's ONE non-cheesy thing you can do.

Hey, free template.

The wording of PAO is so confusing it's difficult to know if it overrides the "You cannot take the form of any creature with a template, even if that template doesn’t change the creature type or subtype." clause from Alter Self.

Most people agree that since Polymorph "...functions like alter self, except that you change the willing subject into another form of living creature." means that you can't use Polymorph to duplicate a template.

But PAO, on the other hand, says "This spell functions like polymorph, except that it changes one object or creature into another.", which is so open that it could be argued that is allows templates or not, or even that it allows Outsiders or not.

Anyways, I wouldn't allow to just add a template to the character, and would force him to pick a creature from the MM and add a template on top of it.

EDIT: I found WoTC's official answer.

Polymorph: "The subject cannot take the form of any creature with a template, just as with the alter self spell."

Polymorph Any Object: " It works on any creature or object, and it can turn the subject into any other creature or object (but not an incorporeal or gaseous creature or object)." And it don't mentions anything about Outsiders or Templates...So yes, you can become an outsider or a templated creature, but I think you can't add a template on yourself, you have to become an average (standard or maybe elite array) human/elf/dwarf/halfling/gnome/whatever with the template.