Would this work? Warning: Cheese

[TimeWizard]

I was just wondering, hypothetically, if a someone with shapeshifting were to turn into a star fish, be cut in half, and regrow into two starfish... could they then revert into two of the same character?

[Zincorium]

I was just wondering, hypothetically, if a someone with shapeshifting were to turn into a star fish, be cut in half, and regrow into two starfish... could they then revert into two of the same character?

The 2nd one wouldn't revert to anything. You'd simply have a character and a starfish that used to be part of him. Or at least that's the way I'd play it, there probably doesn't exist an official answer to this.

[Citizen Joe]

I think they detailed that sort of thing under regeneration... check trolls for their regenerating from a separated part.

[TimeWizard]

addendum: If you did have two characters, did their absorbed-into-their-body magic items double or get divided up?

[ChomZ]

If I was DMing and ran into this situation, I'd treat is a two characters, the old one from the larger half, keeping all items, memories, experience, class features, etc. and a new born child that happened to be his exact twin.

[NEO|Phyte]

I was just wondering, hypothetically, if a someone with shapeshifting were to turn into a star fish, be cut in half, and regrow into two starfish... could they then revert into two of the same character?

Depending on the magic used, no, or maybe.

Alter Self or Polymorph has severed parts immediately revert to their normal form. Shapechange and the Change Shape and Alternate Form abilities leave severed parts as they are, but whether the severed part would still be 'you' and able to change back is debatable.

[Armads]

Doesn't this question also apply if a wizard cast Shapechange and turned into one of those splitting oozes? (Black Pudding, issit?)

[averagejoe]

When this happened in Animorphs it created two Rachels, but her personality also split, making both halves together less effective than the whole personality.

[Raolin_Fenix]

Were I DMing and this came up in the game, and the player made a nuisance of himself about it, I would accept it.

Then I would NPC the newly-regenerated part, and play it as the evil twin who absolutely loathes and despises his brother and seeks his death through any means necessary.

[Devin]

When this happened in Animorphs it created two Rachels, but her personality also split, making both halves together less effective than the whole personality.

I was going to say that(most of it, anyway), but I didn't know how to do spoilers on this board, and I was afraid of breaking the rules. I guess it's not that much of a spoiler, then?

[Townopolis]

Were I DMing and this came up in the game, and the player made a nuisance of himself about it, I would accept it.

Then I would NPC the newly-regenerated part, and play it as the evil twin who absolutely loathes and despises his brother and seeks his death through any means necessary.

Indeed

/steeplefingersandlaughevilly

[TheOOB]

I would rule that when the creature is broken into two, only one half retains the powers and abilities of the original, the other is just a star fish. No normal magic can split a soul into multiple separate parts that retain the originals functions, thus the soul would remain in one part (likely the bigger part), while the new part would gain a new soul and become an independent creature of it's own right. Beings it is a star fish when it got it's soul, it has the skills and abilities of a star fish.

Through powerful magic (eg epic or artifact level) it may be possible to dub your soul into the new form, but the creature would be an independent copy, though there is a good chance that the cognitive dissonance from meeting an exact copy of oneself would make at least one of the pair seek to murder the other before anything else (like the mirror of opposition).

[CASTLEMIKE]

Since it was cut in half each creature gets half the magic items and thinks it is the original creature.

[CASTLEMIKE]

No normal magic can split a soul into multiple separate parts that retain the originals functions, thus the soul would remain in one part (likely the bigger part), while the new part would gain a new soul and become an independent creature of it's own right.

Through powerful magic (eg epic or artifact level) it may be possible to dub your soul into the new form, but the creature would be an independent copy, though there is a good chance that the cognitive dissonance from meeting an exact copy of oneself would make at least one of the pair seek to murder the other before anything else (like the mirror of opposition).

Champions of Valor has the level 3 Conjuration Create Lantern Archon spell made from a small part of your life force.

[Kurald Galain]

This shouldn't work in principle, except in the rare case where the Law of Drama dictates otherwise.

[TimeWizard]

This shouldn't work in principle, except in the rare case where the Law of Drama dictates otherwise.

Yeah, I figured this much going in, but I was hoping to get my very own "RAW doesn't saw it doesn't work, so, hypothetically, yes" situation. Which is basically a gold star in forum going, is it not?

But the question at hand is, are there Rules As Written dictating the outcome?

[DraPrime]

Things like this are completely up to the DM. I'd simply rule that one of the halves would keep the characters intelligence and personality. The other one would be a mindless version of the original character.

[Alex12]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/fission.htm

I'd do it something like this. Once you shift back (i.e. the duration of the spell that's making you a starfish ends) the "you" that was severed immediately comes back to you.

[Overlard]

If a player tried this, I'd say that he was split into two, but the split wasn't perfect...

His conscious mind remained in one starfish, while his magical abilities (the spell effect) went into the other. So at the end of the spell's duration, you'd have one starfish turn back into the original form, but have the mind of a starfish, and back in the water, a now-permenant starfish with the mind of the character, desperately wishing someone would cast speak with animals.

[hewhosaysfish]

A starfish can survive being split in half. People can't. When the spell ends, he turns into two half-wizards and dies. Unless they were just curious rather than trying to abuse this idea, in which case they merge back into one, as others have suggested. Funny thing about RPGs: the physical (and magical) laws vary according to how much of an ass you're being.

[DraPrime]

I had another idea. You do in fact get 2 intelligent people, but neither of them is the original person. They have completely different personalities. One can be a mass murderer, while the other is a kind person. Neither of these new personalities can be the same as the original person. How you get the two personalities together into the original person is the PCs problem.

[Kurald Galain]

Yeah, I figured this much going in, but I was hoping to get my very own "RAW doesn't saw it doesn't work, so, hypothetically, yes" situation. Which is basically a gold star in forum going, is it not?

No, according to the rules, it is that "RAW doesn't say it does work, so, therefore, it doesn't".

[Raolin_Fenix]

No, according to the rules, it is that "RAW doesn't say it does work, so, therefore, it doesn't".

I don't think that's how it works. I mean, the rules don't say what happens when the Amulet of Yender is dunked in lava, either. Possibly because the Amulet of Yender is a magical item created by the DM rather than the book. I believe that what the rules say is, "Anything not covered by the rules is resolved by DM's discretion."

[Kurald Galain]

DM's discretion figures into everything, but in essence what you're stating is equivalent to letting players rob the bank in Monopoly, because the rules don't state that you can't rob the bank.

Obviously a homebrew artifact like the Amulet of Yendor is a poor example, but any regular or magical object will, when dunked into lava, take 20d6 points of damage per round minus its hardness.

[TheOOB]

If your player does this, just say they turned into one of the many species of star fish that don't regenerate in that way, medieval biology knowledge leaves much to be desired.

[valadil]

As a GM I wouldn't allow players to clone themselves in this fashion.

I've heard that only the half of the starfish with the internal organs ends up surviving. A lone leg may wriggle off (in the same manner as a lizard's tail) but it wouldn't grow a new starfish.

Failing that, your character still only has one soul. That soul would end up in one of the two bodies. The extra copy would basically be a corpse of the character. I suppose if the body with the soul was destroyed beyond hope of raise dead, I'd allow raise dead into the other body.

Depending on the game though I would consider taking the soulless clone and using it against the party as was previously suggested. I like NPC teams that mirror the PCs and this would be a very effective way of achieving that. It would probably be something to the effect that the PCs get rid of the extra body because they can't use it, but the BBEG finds it and can turn it against them. Oooh. I really like the idea of switching that character in when the players don't notice. One of my groups likes to use PCs even when the player is absent. It helps alleviate the problems that arise when the cleric doesn't show up. I'd enjoy swapping in the clone and kidnapping the main character while covering for an absent player.

[Rex Blunder]

I seem to remember this question was answered in a really old Sage Advice from 1e or 2e - regarding earthworms. As far as I remember, Skip Williams' answer agreed with hewhosaysfish - when the spell ends, you end up with the top and bottom half of a wizard.

[kjones]

DM's discretion figures into everything, but in essence what you're stating is equivalent to letting players rob the bank in Monopoly, because the rules don't state that you can't rob the bank.

Obviously a homebrew artifact like the Amulet of Yendor is a poor example, but any regular or magical object will, when dunked into lava, take 20d6 points of damage per round minus its hardness.

I thought that sort of damage ignored hardness...

[DraPrime]

I seem to remember this question was answered in a really old Sage Advice from 1e or 2e - regarding earthworms. As far as I remember, Skip Williams' answer agreed with hewhosaysfish - when the spell ends, you end up with the top and bottom half of a wizard.

I guess that works, but in the end, as always it's up to the DM.

[goat]

Give each limb a number. When the bit gets chopped off roll a d4. Hunk of starfish becomes relevant limb, and the character later reverts to a form with one less limb, but a healed up stump. While in regenerating form, the starfish can become whole again, but that leg on the floor is still his leg on the floor.

Mr shape-changed into a giant starfish is thus harder to kill, but you better hope your Cleric has Regenerate for when you're finished.