Tenser's Transformation - Not So Useless Now

[Brobdingnagian]

Okay, Tenser's Transformation... sucks. Nobody would ever use it. Umm... ever. The best idea for it is to have a crapload of contingency buffs go off as you cast it. Well... still sucks.

I get the idea behind it. It's essentially supposed to make you into a Fighter without bonus feats or (in the case of RoW) without uber-cool tactical abilities. That's fine. I'm okay with that idea, really. It's cool to have a spell that's basically a last-dicth effort to beat down the opposition. But it doesn't do that job, and for a few reasons.

Tenser's Transformation - Level six spell. You get full BAB, +4 enhancement to STR/DEX/CON, +4 natural armour, +5 to Fortitude saves, and martial weapon proficiency.

It's a Wizard spell, meaning your hit points... still suck. Also, there are two spells of lower level on the Cleric list (meaning a Wizard could 'research' them) that do the same job... except better.

Righteous Might - Level five spell. Go up a size. +8 size to STR, +4 size to CON, +4 natural armour, and DR/good or evil.

Now that may not seem as effective (due to not getting full BAB), but coupled with the following...

Divine Power - Level four spell. Full BAB, +6 enhancement to STR (stacking with the size bonus from Righteous Might), and 1 temporary HP per caster level.

The two-spell combo that totally kicks TT in the crotch. How to solve this problem? Simple.

The first thing to do is drop TT to a level five spell. That still, however, doesn't give you the HP necessary. So we add this the spell's description.

- When this spell is cast, you gain 3 temporary hit points per caster level. This total is considered your maximum hit points for the duration of the spell. When the spell ends, you lose the amount of hit points you gained. This can not bring your current hit point total below -9. If your hit points are brought to negative by the effect of this spell ending, you are automatically stabilized.

That pretty much covers the HP problem. Now we have almost as much as a Cleric. Any questions?

EDIT! Fixed the HP gained and lost.

[Cielingcat]

Doubling hit points is bad. How about you give them 3 temporary hit points per caster level, which are considered your maximum hit points for the duration?

[Brobdingnagian]

Good point, there's too many ways to cheese that out. I'll fix that.

[Catharz]

What you're essentially using is a 'character replacement polymorph.' You want a new character of similar (though slightly lower) CR to the caster to replace him for a while.

So how about doing it that way?

[Josh_Kablack]

You could just delete it and point people towards Greater Heroism, which is a much cleaner spell that doesn't have the legacy balance factors limiting it to use for Persistant Spell or Share Spells cheese that Tenser's does.

[NineInchNall]

If what you want is to increase the character's HP total (both current and maximum), then increase the character's Con mod. Don't bastardize the way temporary HP work. So if you want the character to gain 3 hp/level, give him an extra 6 Con in addition to the other bonus.

For example, the new spell might give a +4 enhancement bonus to Con and a +6 competence bonus to Con. (Precedent for competence bonuses to stats is the Chameleon.)

The spell is still totally worthless, though, as it just turns you into a damn NPC Warrior. It actually needs to grant some form of fighting ability in order for it to be worth casting. Clerics get their divine power-righteous might one-two punch "I'm better than a Fighter" combo without giving up their spellcasting. Make tenser's actually turn the Wizard into a fighting machine, otherwise the spell is just a set of (relatively minor) ability score boosts that a character has to lose his class features in order to get.

[MrWaeseL]

1177522515[/unixtime]]What you're essentially using is a 'character replacement polymorph.' You want a new character of similar (though slightly lower) CR to the caster to replace him for a while.

So how about doing it that way?

This is right on the money. Now, you're still able to cheese this spell by finding some obscure wizard PrC which grants full BaB.
Simply make this spell replace your class abilities with those of a fighter of caster level-2 and you're golden.

edit: And HP and saves

[User3]

Why not just let the caster keep casting spells while transformed (but only for Tensor's, not any of the other poly type spells) so it basicly just becomes Arcane Power and call it a day. (granted, there's probably a spell called that already, but you get the idea)

That way, the spell goes from being one of the the worst spells in the game to suddenly being the Fighter/mage's buff of choice, since it no longer causes the caster to trade a set of really good class features to get a set of really bad ones.

And while we're at it, lets remove the rather silly ASF from the Stone/Iron/Whatever Body spells to buff up their usefulness as well.

Then...

then...

...we quietly delete fucking Polymorph from the game.

[JonSetanta]

The basic stat-buffs like Bull's Strength and the 5 others should scale better instead, like +1 to the appropriate stat per caster level. Would solve most problems there.

[Brobdingnagian]

Isn't there one called Owl's Insight from the Spell Compendium that does something like that?

Anyway, my entire reason for bothering with the spell at all is really just that I was really cheesed at the absolute suck of it. In all honesty, Wizards can cast Divine (Arcane) Power and Righteous (Magical) Might just as easily as Clerics, and only have slightly less HP.

What you want to do is Contingent Spell your Arcane Power and Magical Might to go off when you use Tenser's. But whatever.

Also.

I agree with deleting Polymorph. As much as I love the flavour, it's too hard to manage.

[NineInchNall]

Really, Tenser's has to scale better than polymorph (looking only at "reasonable" uses of polymorph; e.g., troll, dire bear, war troll) for combat. The bonuses that the spell gives should be dependent upon caster level somehow.

As things stand, polymorph, IMO, is about right on the mark as far as combat buffs go. I'd like the higher level, combat-only Tenser's transformation to be better, 'cause even polymorphed a high level Wizard is generally better off just casting an overtly offensive spell. (Unless he expects to be fighting all day or something.)