What are your most glorious and ingloious uses of Polymorph

[MarkVIIIMarc]

My Bard just picked up the spell last session. So far I used it to turn our Monk who had been dropped to single digit hit points and had lost some intelligence into a Bear of some sorts. So what's our Monk do? Him and his 42 hit points wander to the back of the room and ready an attack for when he gets attacked.

I mean I know I didn't pick the Giant Crocodile or Giant Ape but we were inside a temple and I didn't entirely trust the floor. Plus I figured it was my first time casting it and I didn't want the DM to get all picky on what animals I could turn ppl into. But still, the Cave Bear retreated and watched the battle!

What are the most glorious or foolhardy examples you've been part of or seen? I would happily hear Druid examples as well.

[Eldamar]

Half-Orc Warlock, about level 12.


Flew up a few hundred feet.

Polymorph self into a Whale.

Fall on top of Goristro.

Both take damage.

Both go to 0. Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance kicks in.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Half-Orc Warlock, about level 12.


Flew up a few hundred feet.
Polymorph self into a Whale.
Fall on top of Goristro.
Both take damage.
Both go to 0. Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance kicks in.



It pays to know your falling damage! That's great.

[DarkKnightJin]

Half-Orc Warlock, about level 12.


Flew up a few hundred feet.

Polymorph self into a Whale.

Fall on top of Goristro.

Both take damage.

Both go to 0. Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance kicks in.


Now THAT'S weaponizing your Hitchhiker's Guide!
You know.. Without chucking the book at someone.

[holywhippet]

Last battle we were facing off against a beholder. The dwarf cleric had already taken one disintegration ray and would have died from another. The beholder had also floated up out of range so nobody could hit him in melee. So I polymorphed the cleric into a giant ape. He grabbed the beholder who tried to float above even him then dragged him down and helped pummel him to death.

[Cespenar]

Story 1

Out of the Abyss. We're on edge after navigating the Purple Worms' nest for a while and getting what we came for, but one of them finally ambushes us despite our best efforts.

The wizard casts Polymorph. The purple worm rolls a 1. We pick up the turtle, put it shell down on the ground, and run like hell.

Story 2

Again, Out of the Abyss, final fight against Demogorgon.

Conjure Woodland Beings into 8 Pixies. (Yeah, I know, but the DM let it run).

4 of the 8 Pixies Polymorph 4 of us into T-rexes.

Other 4 stands back, hidden, and come forward to recast Polymorph in case someone's T-rex form pops off.

[MrStabby]

Scryed the main bad guy - found him surrounded by a lot of support. Decided we needed to prep for the fight.

Wizard polymorphs the Barbarian into a T-Rex before going in (barbarian was out of rage use).

Paladin charges in and one-shots a lieutenant with a big smite.

Wizard goes in and pops a fireball hitting three of the bad guys.

Bard moves in and drops hypnotic pattern.

T-rexified barbarian surges forward and wedges his head in the 5ft wide doorway, getting throughly stuck. Strength check to slam through the wall was failed. Wizard drops concentration and barbarian rather more sheepishly enters the room in his natural Gnome form.

[Quoz]

Had a very wierd setup where our paladin had been possessed by a disembodied mind flayer. Basically, whenever under high stress it was a roll off to see which one was dominant. Then they got tricked into using a helm of opposite alignment, and we had a LG mind flayer mystic and CE oathbreaker paladin in the same tiefling body.

Solution to the problem: we acquired a means of soul transference (magic jar I think) and our bard polymorphs a duck into an elf, holding it until it becomes permanent to serve as the new vessel. Then separate the two souls, and deal with the paladin via remove course and atonement.

This led later to our bard polymorphing several other animals into body doubles of PC characters to fake deaths, misdirect, or otherwise cause chaos.

[SkylarkR6]

Polymorph BBEG into a snail.

Place BBEG in a jar, preferably glass.

Cast Catapult on jar to fire out over dramatically placed cliff

[Herabec]

Polymorph BBEG into a snail.

Place BBEG in a jar, preferably glass.

Cast Catapult on jar to fire out into dramatically placed cliffside

Assuming you mean off a cliff...

BBEG lands, takes appropriate falling damage and reverts to his original form, brushes himself off and confirms that while 20d6 is annoying, it's not much of an inconvenience when compared to taking a full round of smites from a paladin. Also he now presumably has several rounds to buff/heal himself or further strategize.

I feel like a lot of people at the table forget that things revert to the hit points they had pre-polymorph when killed in polymorph. (Minus some spill-over damage, of course.)

[Atalas]

in a maze with a blinded goristro. Exit is sorta in sight, goristro finds the party. Wizards polymorphs it into a lobster. goristro uses its turn to commit suicide as it only has 1 hp and reverts back

[Laserlight]

In SKT, we're on an airship, cruising along at 1000ft. A green dragon takes exception to our passing over his territory, and attacks us by surprise, reducing the party's HP by half in one breath weapon attack. The dragon turns and move past the ship, barely 30ft away from us. I've just gotten Polymorph, so "I polymorph the dragon into a koi. Oh, and it rolls an eight on its saving throw--Portents, you know." We lost sight of the dragon as it plummeted to earth, and it apparently decided not to try again.

We're attacking a group of giants; our plan to lure them out has backfired, and they turtled up instead. I suggest "We might want to pull back and--" but our barbarian bellows "Here I am, come and get me if you dare!" In short order the barbarian and tempest cleric get pretty battered, leaving me and the rogue to hold the doorway. I didn't consult with our rogue, I just said "Oh, by the way, Messina--you're a T Rex." The player was taken aback for a second, then got this great big grin....

Last week, we're on a pirate ship. Our barbarian was occupied; our rogue couldn't roll higher than a 5 to hit; the pirate captain had beaten our cleric unconscious and then kept attacking her, ready to kill her one one more hit. I decided to solve the "pirate captain" problem and the "cleric's hit points" problem with two spells--Healing Word to wake up our cleric, then Polymorph her into a Giant Ape. The pirate captain turned pale when he realized he was standing under Queen Konga, and tried to flee, but that provoked an OA....The ape then parkoured off the mast, bounced to the fo'c'sl where a pesky enemy caster was hiding, punched through the door. When she pulled her paw out, it was covered with mage jam. We'd been one chain-lightning/fireball from TPK, and that Polymorph saved us.

[Pex]

Monk was low on hit points. Bard casts Polymorph turning her into a giant ape, "healing" her and let her continue contributing to the combat in a meaningful way. She had enough hit points she was willing to take one for the team when my Fireball was necessary, but she couldn't get out of the way. She was asked first, of course. She made the saving throw.

[Zilong]

Another giant ape story. Playing as a bard, our party encountered a green dragon and a squad of hobgoblins. The field of battle was a canyon with a bridge spanning the two sides and the hobgoblins and dragon were guarding the bridge. Long story short, I polymorphed myself into a giant ape and during the course of the battle went to try to leap into the air to grapple the dragon to the ground. Glorious part was leaping off a tower at the dragon. The inglorious part was failing the grapple and falling into the river at the bottom of the canyon and spending the next few rounds climbing back up. The hobgoblins were promptly murdered when I got back up and the dragon fled.

[Ding]

Party and I (all about level 7) tracked down some high level NPC rogue who had murdered a shopkeeper and had (more importantly, of course) taken some of our cool stuff while we slept. She ambushed us, and it quickly became clear we weren't going to just beat her down without a couple of casualties, so our bard launched Polymorph (his first time casting it, actually) at her to try to buy some time. She failed the save and he chose to make her a slug. After much deliberation about the exact rules of polymorph and how to ensure enough damage was dealt to KO her normal form, the wizard used Fly on the bard to let him climb up a few thousand feet and drop the slug. The rogue and myself (vengeance paladin) readied actions to beat/smite the crap out of her once she landed, and the bard dropped concentration on Polymorph just before impact. She was very, very dead.

If our wizard was a little bit more competent (i.e. used spells other than fireball and cantrips, like Hold Person or something) we probably could have still won the fight without casualties, but this way sure was a lot more fun. Laughs were had by all, including the DM.

[SkylarkR6]

Assuming you mean off a cliff...

BBEG lands, takes appropriate falling damage and reverts to his original form, brushes himself off and confirms that while 20d6 is annoying, it's not much of an inconvenience when compared to taking a full round of smites from a paladin. Also he now presumably has several rounds to buff/heal himself or further strategize.

I feel like a lot of people at the table forget that things revert to the hit points they had pre-polymorph when killed in polymorph. (Minus some spill-over damage, of course.)

I did indeed mean off a cliff, thank you. Besides that though, the thread is for fun or epic uses of Polymorph and it was quite fun since the boss was running low.

20d6 is average 70 damage. A "full round of smites" would assume a 15th level paladin to do 2 attacks at 2d8+5d8+7 if s&b with dueling is 38 each average. Unless you're talking GWM. In which case kick it up to 49 each with greatsword. It will do much better on a crit of course but other then that, I don't see how your argument that something I did at level 8 was merely "inconvenient". An equal leveled paladin only has 2nd level spell slots. If I'm missing something in this scenario please let me know.

Also most people I've played with, including myself, understand the reversion and roll over damage quite well. It's spelled out quite explicitly in the spell text. It was a fun way to Keyleth a boss.

[WickerNipple]

I decided to solve the "pirate captain" problem and the "cleric's hit points" problem with two spells--Healing Word to wake up our cleric, then Polymorph her into a Giant Ape. .

While cool, this isn't legal. You can't cast a bonus action spell and a regular spell in the same turn, unless one of them is a cantrip. pg 202 PHB.

[AHF]

While cool, this isn't legal. You can't cast a bonus action spell and a regular spell in the same turn, unless one of them is a cantrip. pg 202 PHB.

Probably dipped 2 levels of fighter and action surged! ;)

[Sariel Vailo]

So my best use of polymorph was not to kill bbeg but to disturb bbeg. I fed a dragon to hill giant while it was a halfling. cn is fun the dragon learned a lesson eating other sentient beings is terrible and he now hates hill giants above all other beings.