What DO you Polymorph your enemies into?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

The 4th level polymorph.

My favorite has been a turtle. Red eared slider to be more precise as I hate to give an angry DM a snapper.

My theory is:

That turtle is too slow to get away.

It is sturdy enough not to accidentally die.

All pc's can find it.

The chance for it to communicate to any minions is small.

All pc's can carry it about.

Red eared sliders fit in Bags of Devouring or cage.

[Telwar]

I'm fond of polymorphing enemies into whales.

Absolutely not an original idea obviously; in fact, I'm pretty sure I got it here. But it's very useful:

* No land speed, so they can't move.
* Lots of HP, so they can't be turned back to themselves without serious action expenditure on the opposition's part.
* Likewise, they're not going to pop due to party AOE.

The downside is they do take up a lot of space and threaten more of it. But that's not always going to be very bad.

The last time I did that, I teased the DM by running in to the formerly-a-fae-now-a-whale's reach (on the turn after polymorphing it), and then Misty Stepped past it. Good times.

[Telok]

I generally try to be nice to the DM and go with a whale too. But I always say "tardigrade" first, just to see the expression on his face. I'd love a DM who'd let me update AD&D animals though.

[JonBeowulf]

Back when my group had access to the spell, it was sloth every time. They had their squad tactics down to an art so they rarely were responsible for popping it back into itself.

They'd have gone with megatherium if I let them.

[Yakmala]

Step 1: Polymorph the target into a small bird or bat.

Step 2: Cast Animal Messenger and send them on a journey to deliver a message to another continent. For added fun, make sure the journey takes them out over an ocean and the destination is too far away to reach before the polymorph runs out.

[Kane0]

Sheep and ducks mostly.

[stoutstien]

As a GM I try to pick thematic options that somewhat model them that don't completely take the players out. So if the barbarian gets polymorphed they will something big and hulking.

[Chronos]

The last time I used it, I turned a cave bear into a miniature giant space hamster.

Sadly, the party druid wouldn't let me throw the hamster into the face of the next monster we met.

[Leon]

Bufos hex.

Not that i have ever cast a polymorph spell in a game.

[KorvinStarmast]

The 4th level polymorph.

My favorite has been a turtle. Red eared slider to be more precise as I hate to give an angry DM a snapper.

Red eared sliders fit in Bags of Devouring or cage.
The players have turned the enemy into:
A duck, a snail, a jellyfish and a slug

in the past few months.

[RogueJK]

Step 1: Polymorph the target into a small bird or bat.

Step 2: Cast Animal Messenger and send them on a journey to deliver a message to another continent. For added fun, make sure the journey takes them out over an ocean and the destination is too far away to reach before the polymorph runs out.

Polymorph only lasts up to an hour, and Animal Messenger states that they travel 50 miles in the spell's 24 hour duration if flying, or 25 miles over 24 hours otherwise.

So at most, your Polymorphed Animal Messenger would go ~1-2 miles away in an hour. Potentially useful, sure. But not nearly far enough to get to another continent, or even out over the ocean in most cases.


(And even with a non-Polymorped actual animal, your Animal Messenger would be unlikely to reach another continent in the 25-50 miles they could travel before the spell runs out.)

[greenstone]

Step 1: Polymorph the target into a small bird or bat.

Step 2: Cast Animal Messenger and send them on a journey to deliver a message to another continent. For added fun, make sure the journey takes them out over an ocean and the destination is too far away to reach before the polymorph runs out.

That is genius. You, sir, win one (1) Internet.

[Segev]

Step 1: Polymorph the target into a small bird or bat.

Step 2: Cast Animal Messenger and send them on a journey to deliver a message to another continent. For added fun, make sure the journey takes them out over an ocean and the destination is too far away to reach before the polymorph runs out.


Polymorph only lasts up to an hour, and Animal Messenger states that they travel 50 miles in the spell's 24 hour duration if flying, or 25 miles over 24 hours otherwise.

So at most, your Polymorphed Animal Messenger would go ~1-2 miles away in an hour. Potentially useful, sure. But not nearly far enough to get to another continent, or even out over the ocean in most cases.


(And even with a non-Polymorped actual animal, your Animal Messenger would be unlikely to reach another continent in the 25-50 miles they could travel before the spell runs out.)

Yeah, RogueJK has the right of it. I will suggest that, at most generous, an animal messenger might be said to do most if not all of his travel in the first eight hours of every 24, resting for 8-16 hours much like anyone else traveling overland does. So the most generous interpretation would be that all 50 miles are covered in 8 hours, yielding 6.25 miles covered in that one hour that they're polymorphed. Which still does get rid of them.

Now, this will vary greatly by DM, but one can interpret the RAW to say that you only need to meet the qualifications of a spell's targeting limitations when the spell is cast, which can do some wonky things. If your DM is of this mindset, your target is still under the effects of animal messenger even when polymorph wears off, and is still compelled to travel for the rest of the duration. He may even get the 25/50 miles, somehow! This is a bit silly, though, and I suspect most DMs would rule him freed of the spell when he's no longer an animal.

Especially since this has particularly weird implications with beast bond, beast sense, and especially animal friendship.

[Lord Torath]

Step 1: Polymorph the target into a small bird or bat.

Step 2: Cast Animal Messenger and send them on a journey to deliver a message to another continent. For added fun, make sure the journey takes them out over an ocean and the destination is too far away to reach before the polymorph runs out.


Polymorph only lasts up to an hour, and Animal Messenger states that they travel 50 miles in the spell's 24 hour duration if flying, or 25 miles over 24 hours otherwise.

So at most, your Polymorphed Animal Messenger would go ~1-2 miles away in an hour. Potentially useful, sure. But not nearly far enough to get to another continent, or even out over the ocean in most cases.


(And even with a non-Polymorped actual animal, your Animal Messenger would be unlikely to reach another continent in the 25-50 miles they could travel before the spell runs out.)I think the idea with sending the bird/bat across large bodies of water is that the polymorph wears off 20 miles off shore, leaving the ogre (or what have you) with a very long swim if they want to stay alive. (Also, 1-2 miles per hour is exceedingly slow for a flying creature)

I personally like turtles or snails, since they don't move quickly, and are easy to capture when combat stops. If you think a whale is too big (maybe you're in a cave or castle or dungeon, you could go with a large sea turtle (leatherbacks are about 5-6 feet long) which has a much smaller reach (and presumably smaller damage per attack than a 20-foot ling flipper or fluke could do).

[Segev]

The other upside of "turtle" is that it's probably lower CR than whatever you're using the spell on, so you don't accidentally fail to make it work by trying to turn a CR, say, 2, creature into a CR 3 one.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

The other upside of "turtle" is that it's probably lower CR than whatever you're using the spell on, so you don't accidentally fail to make it work by trying to turn a CR, say, 2, creature into a CR 3 one.

Ha! Now that I think of it some DMs I play with may allow me to turn an enemy into a higher CR opponent lol.

[GloatingSwine]

The players have turned the enemy into:
A duck.

Dodged a bullet there.

Imagine if it was a goose.

[Bardon]

Orca is my go-to. Whales can be a bit too big for smaller areas, but all the same benefits apply.

Airbreathing, so it cannot suffocate and revert.
Lots of HP, so they cannot just get hit by a magic missile from their allies and revert.
Zero movement (but stay away from close to the tail or the jaw, a fair DM will let them get a swat or bite on you).
They can serve as cover!