Pathfinder Baleful Polymorph and Awaken

[g3taso]

I got a question asked that kind of stumped me. A situation has presented itself where someone has cast Baleful Polymorph on an bloody skeleton, and at the moment that mindless undead is an adorable hedgehog. Now the druid wants to cast Awaken on it.

This should work, shouldn't it? The spell says works on animals (or trees), and says nothing about whether it has a TYPE it works with. My second question is what happens when someone get around to casting Dispel Magic on that Baleful Polymorph. My assumption is that I now have a bloody skeleton with real int/wis/cha.

Any word from the smart rules guys and girls about this?

[Brova]

If PF baleful polymorph changes type, then yes it works that way. The only meaning "animal" has in D&D is "creature of the animal type", meaning that awaken can target a creature which is temporarily an animal. As there is no text in baleful polymorph indicates that mental scores change, and awaken sets Int bypassing the nonability problem you'd normally have with a Skeleton.

So in answer to your questions: No, it totally works and Yes, the skeleton has Int/Wis/Cha as it would from awaken.

That's assuming the PF changes aren't too massive here.

[Crake]

The big problem here is that baleful polymorph is fort negates, and undead are immune to all effects that require a fortitude save, unless that effect can also target objects. So in this case, the skeleton would have been immune to baleful polymorph to begin with.


If PF baleful polymorph changes type, then yes it works that way. The only meaning "animal" has in D&D is "creature of the animal type", meaning that awaken can target a creature which is temporarily an animal. As there is no text in baleful polymorph indicates that mental scores change, and awaken sets Int bypassing the nonability problem you'd normally have with a Skeleton.

As an aside, PF baleful polymorph does not change type, as it is based on beast form, which does not, and PF baleful polymorph DOES set the mental ability scores to that of the animal it is turned into, should the creature fail a will save.

[Sayt]

I think the breaking point is that polymorph spells don't, as far as I can tell, actually override your type, they merely put you into the shape of a creature of a different type, so the 'hedgehog' is still undead, rather than an animal.

[g3taso]

Hmmm...

Pathfinder has curses and cursed items, and perhaps that might be a good avenue. There are cursed items that change alignment and even gender as standard, so maybe a cursed polymorphing item that actually applies the template? If you fail your mental save not only do you get those special abilities of the creature, you gain the type also!
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33–34 Character's race or kind changes. (from Drawback Table on http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/cursed-items)

A cursed item (or a curse case on someone already under Baleful Polymorph) sounds good!