[Master of Many Forms] Do you get casting spells from monster you wild shape into ?

[Condé]

Hello people from GitP

I can't find the answer to my question anywhere. Maybe I'm not really good at it.

In the "Updated Master of Many Forms Bible + official wild shape rules (recovered)", a lot of informations are given BUT I'm not really sure at 100% if there's not an errata or a sentence somewhere that disable what I'm willing to do.

At level 7, you gain the ability to assume Extraordinary Special Abilities and should already assume Special attacks from monsters you turn into...
as you can see here :

Extraordinary Wild Shape (Ex): Starting at 7th level, a master of many forms gains the extraordinary special qualities of any form she assumes with wild shape.

Since you gain almost everything, my question is... Do you get spells from any monster you turn into ?

For example, if I turn my character into a Nymph, am I going to be able to cast spells from this particular monster like :

A nymph casts divine spells as a 7th-level druid.

Typical Druid Spells Prepared (6/5/4/3/1, save DC 13 + spell level)
0—cure minor wounds, detect magic, flare, guidance, light, resistance; 1st—calm animals, cure light wounds, entangle, longstrider, speak with animals; 2nd—barkskin, heat metal, lesser restoration, tree shape; 3rd— call lightning, cure moderate wounds, protection from energy; 4th—rusting grasp.

Could you, for example, at the end of the day, turn into a Nymphh, heal and cure your teammates before going to sleep with your last wild shape of the day ?

Because I do not see anything about spellcasting. And since you retain your spellcasting abilities while taking other form, I wonder if you can take spellcasting abilities from monsters or if you have any, you must only have yours and can't have spells from them.

Thank you in advance.

[JeminiZero]

No.

"Special Qualities" refers to this very specific line in the creature's entry (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/nymph.htm):



Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/cold iron, low-light vision, unearthly grace, wild empathy


And among the Special Qualities, you only gain items which are "Ex". Spellcasting is not one of them.

[Kelb_Panthera]

You'll likely read in the coming posts people arguing both for and against. The reason for this is simple; the rules text is inconclusive.

That being the case, I would -strongly- advise any DM rule against it. It completely negates the opportunity cost of going for MoMF instead of going for a caster class and allows you access to essentially all spells through some of the more powerful forms the class gets later on.

[Eldan]

One important keyword is "extraordinary". Special qualities and abilities are classified as extraordinary, supernatural and spell-like. Except for non-SLA spellcasting, which they never bothered to define. So technically spellcasting isnt' defined as extraordinary and you only get extraordinary abilities.

[Condé]

Woah, thanks for your answer. That was pretty quick.

If I understand correctly, you can only obtain things that got a (Ex) otherwise, you wouldn't get it while wild shaping ? Interesting.

BUT.
If you take "Exalted Wild Shape" it says :


You gain the extraordinary and supernatural abilities of the creature.

So, if you turn yourself into a unicorn, you should be able to use its spell-like abilities, right ? Which means you could use these :


Spell-Like Abilities
Unicorns can use detect evil at will as a free action.

Once per day a unicorn can use greater teleport to move anywhere within its home. It cannot teleport beyond the forest boundaries nor back from outside.

A unicorn can use cure light wounds three times per day and cure moderate wounds once per day (caster level 5th) by touching a wounded creature with its horn. Once per day it can use neutralize poison (DC 21, caster level 8th) with a touch of its horn. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Right ?

[Eldan]

Eeeeh?
Probably not. Again, for some annoying reason, Spellcasting isnt' defined. I you look at other abilities, they have either (ex) or (sp) or (su) behind them. Spellcasting doesn't. So strictly by the rules, you'd get the permanent magic circle which is marked Su, but not the spellcasting.

[Condé]

What a bummer. But I can understand why they did that.

Thank you all. :)

[tyckspoon]

There are a few oddball creatures that explicitly have their spellcasting flagged as a special trait with a type tag - the ones that are most commonly referenced are the special Hobgoblin types in Monster Manual V, the Warsoul and Warcaster. They both have (Ex): This creature casts as a 4th level (Warcaster)/9th level (Warsoul) Wizard. So you unambiguously get that if you can transform into one of them with something that gives you Ex Special Qualities. It mostly just opens up new 'go ask your DM' questions, tho. Like does taking on that talent somehow give you a spellbook? When you transform, are your spells already prepared, or do you have to rest and prepare like a Wizard normally would to get new spells?

(Also, the Warsoul has an Ex Special Quality which is basically 'this monster has minions'. So you get that too. 2d4 Hobgoblin Warriors just.. appear, I guess? Similar to how Balrogs have a special quality for 'this monster always has a Vorpal sword'.)