Polymorph and Martial Adepts

[Adverb]

The new-new reading of polymorph says you lose class features, so, am I right in thinking that a Tome of Battle-driven character usually wants to avoid being polymorphed? I mean, sometimes you need a fly speed or water breathing or whatever, but for the most part, losing class features is terrible.

[Troacctid]

Polymorph is based on Alter Self, which specifically says you retain all supernatural and extraordinary abilities derived from class levels. This is an exception to the general rules for spells of the polymorph subschool.

[Adverb]

So, to be clear.

They made a new polymorph subschool, to nerf polymorph effects. And they said "any spell based on alter self or polymorph is now a [Polymorph] spell" and thus subject to the nerf. But then they said, "the existing rules text takes priority over this new subschool," and most spells are based on polymorph and polymorph is based on alter self.

So they nerfed [Polymorph] without actually changing the spell Polymorph at all? I am lost.

[Troacctid]

Welcome to polymorphing. It's confusing. The rules behind it are such a nightmare that the creators publicly apologized for creating it.

[Duke of Urrel]

So, to be clear.

They made a new polymorph subschool, to nerf polymorph effects. And they said "any spell based on alter self or polymorph is now a [Polymorph] spell" and thus subject to the nerf. But then they said, "the existing rules text takes priority over this new subschool," and most spells are based on polymorph and polymorph is based on alter self.

So they nerfed [Polymorph] without actually changing the spell Polymorph at all? I am lost.

I'm not sure what changes the Polymorph subschool has actually made to any spell that belongs in this subschool. I believe the rules for the subschool merely add to the rules of the specific spells, so as to fill in some gaps between them. Troacctid is correct about the principle that the text of a specific spell always cancels any general rule. "Specific trumps general."

The general rule that polymorphed creatures lose their class features does in fact apply to one spell in the Player's Handbook v. 3.5: the Baleful Polymorph spell, which (alone among all Polymorph spells in this volume) is not in any way based upon the Alter Self spell. Indeed, the following two general rules from the Polymorph subschool also apply to the Baleful Polymorph spell, but not to any Polymorph spell that is based upon the Alter Self spell:


The subject is treated as having its normal Hit Dice for the purpose of adjudicating effects based on HD, such as the Sleep spell, though it uses the assumed form's Base Attack Bonus, Base Save Bonuses, and all other statistics derived from Hit Dice.


Any part of the body that is separated from the whole remains polymorphed until the effect ends.

The emphases are my own.

Postscript: Actually, even though the Shapechange spell is based upon the Polymorph spell, which is based upon the Alter Self spell, the description of the Shapechange spell effectively restores the second rule quoted above, after the Alter Self spell canceled it. So in effect, this rule of the Polymorph subschool does apply to the Shapechange spell.

[Chronos]

I think that the intention of the new Polymorph subschool spells was that, if you used those new spells in your campaign, you'd remove the old, broken ones in their place. But they couldn't come out and say directly that that was a rule, because players don't like being told that they can't use things.