polymorph any object

[Braininthejar2]

Is it possible to keep your mental stats (if better) when transforming with this spell?

There is a lengthy diplomatic-espionage misson where it would be helpful to be a fire giant, but becoming one mentally kind of defeats the purpose.

[noob]

Unlike polymorph, polymorph any object does grant the creature the Intelligence score of its new form. If the original form didn’t have a Wisdom or Charisma score, it gains those scores as appropriate for the new form.

You gain the int of it but you do not explicitly get its personality or any other mental stats(if you did have wisdom and charisma they are not replaced).
So it is just a matter of what the GM thinks since he is already houseruling the spell.
(For diplomacy social interaction and lying you do not need your int you only need wisdom and charisma)

[Braininthejar2]

True. But for roleplaying purposes, Int of 10 can represent a significant drop. (obviously, the easiest solution is to get a headband of intellect, but I was hoping for something more elegant.)

[noob]

Mind jar in a fire giant?

[InvisibleBison]

Is it possible to keep your mental stats (if better) when transforming with this spell?

There is a lengthy diplomatic-espionage misson where it would be helpful to be a fire giant, but becoming one mentally kind of defeats the purpose.

On reading your question, my mind immediately leapt to the spell feeblemind (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/feeblemind.htm), which also has magic reducing your mental stats, but provides a way to undo it.

If your DM is willing to allow some creative rules-bending, use one of the spells that reverse feeblemind to undo the Int-reduction of polymorph any object. If you'd rather a more RAW-ish approach, have cast feeblemind on yourself, then PAO into a fire giant. If my understanding of the spells' interaction is correct (which it might not be, I admit), the PAO would increase your Int but wouldn't remove the feeblemind effect, so when you have the feeblemind removed your Int would return to its original value.

[Crake]

Specify that Polymorph Any Object turns you into a Fire Giant with base ability scores similar to your original form, then apply the racial modifiers to each score. Since Fire Giants have 10 Int, their racial modifier is +0, so you'll keep your original Int score.

That is not how polymorph spells work in 3.5. They give you the ability scores of the average specimen of the form you transform into. If you are a human with 18 in str/dex/con, but you polymorph into an elf, you'll have 10/12/8 now, not 18/20/16, it doesn't adjust your scores, it sets them to a specific number.

As for keeping your scores, why do you need to use polymorph any object? Someone suggested using magic jar, but there are other ways to achieve this. Illusions, namely permanencied enlarge person and a hat of disguise works perfectly for this and is much more accessible than a series of polymorph any object spells. If you're worried about being caught with true seeing, don't worry, true seeing would see through polymorph any object just as well, so you'd be just as screwed either way.

Of course, nothing's saying everyone needs to use the same method. The fighter might prefer to have 10 int and instead gain the fire giant's 31 strength, while the wizard uses enlarge and a hat of disguise to maintain his 26+ int so he can cast spells.

[Psyren]

Is it possible to keep your mental stats (if better) when transforming with this spell?

There is a lengthy diplomatic-espionage misson where it would be helpful to be a fire giant, but becoming one mentally kind of defeats the purpose.


Mind jar in a fire giant?

This. Find one and possess it. This has the added benefit of beating True Seeing, Discern Shapechanger etc.