Polymorph

[erik]

My preferred Teleport is basically opening a shimmering, crackling portal which appears on both sides and takes a few rounds to stabilize and it ain't silent. Then users jump through like Sliders/Stargate. Higher level casters make bigger portals.

Basically, it gives the other side a some rounds to get ready which takes some of the piss out of scry and die.

And you can make them into magic items! Permanent portals are cool. And of course, you could even make magic items that shoot out portals even. Wheeee!

[...You Lost Me]

Problem is that giving teleport a random death chance does the opposite of what you want then.

Major villains won't really use it, because if it dies off screen to a random chance you have a pretty shitty story.

Players won't use it for travel, since travel time is mostly meaningless (you skip three weeks ahead!)

But for dangerous tasks (like grabbing the MacGuffin or the other examples) it would be useful, because not teleporting also most likely gives you a chance of failure/death.

This. Random death teleport is bad and advocates of it should feel bad.

[RobG]

What problems does this solve, exactly?

I was hoping for some more specific criticism but here goes

Main Point 1- It eliminates "Dumpster-Diving" (Taking too much game time to figure what to change into)

You have to specify what you will change into when you prepare the spell. If you take the True Polymorph feat you have a few more choices, however, you will have been using most of the same forms for awhile as you can only change out 1 per level. The decision of which one to use in a given situation should be pretty cut and dried.
~

Main Point 2- It helps shift the Implementation problem out of game. (Taking too much game time to convert to your new stats)

You have one form to choose from. There is no excuse for not writing out the stats beforehand. If you have more choices then you have taken a feat and hunted down/ spent gold on material focuses. You've obviously spent a significant amount of character resorces just on this one spell and I'd assume you'd be serious enough about it to write out a few statblocks.
~

Main Point 3- Power Level increase is Good but not Too Good

I've never had a problem with not getting the Su and spell-like abilities of the form you change into. If you want stuff like that then you should consider that you are a freaking Wizard. You already have stuff like that. You get the best magical abilities in the game.

I'm taking this point more from the HP, Damage and AC perspective. The off-the-RNG AC potential is gone. You can choose your new forms AC or yours. As for HP and Damage I have a baseline I compare to:

BARBARIAN 8
~
HP 81 (97)
str 22 (26) con 16 (20)
attk (rage) 18/13
dam 2d6+13+1d8+1d6acid= 28avg
+1 raging gsword w/ acid crystal

Average damage of 37.8/round without crits/buffs vs AC 23 (level+15)

BARBARIAN 12
~
HP 119 (155)
str 23 (29) con 16 (22)
attk (rage) 25/20/15
dam 2d6+21+1d8+1d6acid= 36avg
+3 raging, collision gsword w/ acid crystal

Average damage of 75.6/round without crits/buffs vs AC 27 (level+15)

In other words, if it's better in combat than a fairly-well built raging Barbarian it's probably too much. I've gone though MM1,2,3 and skimmed over MM4 and 5 (don't own them). There are a few creatures that are close or even but nothing I see that goes significantly over the baseline. IF YOU FIND ANYTHING I WOULD APPRECIATE KNOWING ABOUT IT.
~

SECONDARY POINTS

SKILLS
You have to change some of your skills or you get things like an Eagle with a +1 to spot and an elephant with a +20 to tumble.

Here you can avoid things like that and still turn into a Tiger and stalk your prey with his skill stats. It's sensible and a grand total of 33 words long plus the note on UMD. Not complicated.
~
CONDITION SUPRESSION
Having one form to change into makes the spell a whole lot easier to deal with but less versatile. Condition Supression adds back some versatility. I always thought that while you're giving yourself a new set of eyes they might as well work properly.

You'll still need the real healing spell later but this can be pretty useful. It's the reason for the "myself but better-looking" option if you hadn't guessed.

This option may be a bit too good. One of the things I tried to do with my ruleset was to spread out the healing more amongst the other casters to take the load off the Cleric. Too good? Let me know.
~
SPELL SUPRESSION
The buffs in this game are pretty good even without Polymorph and I fear that using it with Haste, Heroism (greater), Recitation, Bardic Music, etc. just contributes to throwing things off.

Having Polymorph not stack with the other buffs keeps the power level and complexity down. Things like the Cave Troll (MM3) and the Firblog (MM2) are already pushing the baseline too and I'd like to keep the other buffs for the fighter types. I think Polymorph is a good enough boost on it's own.
~
ALLOWABLE FORMS
Any Animal, dragon, fey, giant, humaniod, magical beast or monstrous humaniod from tiny to large size with a natural heart.

Note the lack of Outsider. Polymorphing into an Outsider is most of the power level problem with 3.5 Polymorph. Gone is that problem. The large size cap gets rid of the Hydra, Remorraz and a few other problem creatures. Plants and Vermin are gone, don't think anyone will miss them.

Abberations are gone. Maybe that one will be missed but going through the MMs and trying to figure out how the all the weird abilities could possibly interact with everything else was really giving me a headache. A cop out on my part but I think it's probably for the best.

The small-sized cap on the familiar is obviously to keep from doubling up on the powerful forms. There are good small forms though. The Pixie is a great form. You can adjust the HD upward to your caster/character level so a good form can remain relevant for many levels.
~
ALLOWABLE ABILITIES
Any Su or Sp abilities of the creature may not be used. Any DR, resists, immunities or fast healing may be used but no SR.

Getting resists and immunites is a classic use of the spell so I wanted to keep that.

I'm using the Armor as DR rules (Unearthed Arcana) for my ruleset so adding (nonstackable) DR isn't that big a powerup for my game. You may think differently.

I also noticed that the best DR creatures also tended to be the ones with the lowest HP (Fey). Fast healing is another nice but not too overpowered ability. Good SR (the 10 to 15+hd kind) is too good. It had to go.
~
YOUR STATS
Stuff that stays the same: Saves, Init, Mental Scores and probably AC

Don't change 'em if you don't have to. Improving your Saves and Init aren't primary uses of the spell and changing your Saves is a pain in the ass anyway.

Improving your AC has been a primary use of the spell in 3rd ed and not in a good way. It's been the biggest reason for off the RNG AC scores through the stacking of armor and natural armor. Screw that. Just use your AC or the creatures. Probably yours. Keep it simple.

Stuff that changes: Senses and Movement, Psysical Scores, Attacks and probably HP.

This is why you use the spell in the first place: See like an eagle, sprint like a cheetah, swim, burrow, see in the dark, use scent, fly and turn yourself into something-really-big-that-kicks-ass.

Note the marked increase in HP potential here. Dragons have d12 hp and Giants have a d8 and huge CON scores. This assumes you wiil need these HP as you will be engaging in melee combat. If you keep your spellcasting you lose all this extra HP. This is as fair as I can make it. Wizard spells with Barbarian HP is just overpowered.
~
FEATS AND CLASS ABILITIES
Mostly work normally. Sneak attack and Flurry don't because they can go past the baseline. Imagine a 9hd Girrilion with 5 sneak attacks per round at 5d6 extra damage and you start to see why.
~

Well, that's my explaination of why the spell is what it is. I think it does what people want it to without being overpowered or too hard to implement. A good Polymorph spell.

If it's tl/dr then I guess I was waiting to answer criticisms piecemeal rather than all at once. Nobody had any specific points.

RobG