The Gaming Den

Spellcasters can Shapechange into creatures and use their beefy supernatural abilities.

Psions can gain the feat Metamorphic Transfer which lets them use the supernatural abilities of a creature whose form they've assumed.

What are some of the highlights? What are some of the strongest and/or most versatile powers to assume?

In terms of versatility, I found two from the Book of Exalted Deeds:

Shiradi (BoED 171): Can make a Protective Aura which acts a double-strength Magic Circle Against Evil and Lesser Globe of Invulnerability (CL = Hit Dice)

Moon Dog (BoED 179): Can Bark to Dispel Evil (CL 12), or Howl to Dismiss evil outsiders (CL 12). They can also Whine to auto-dispel illusions.

...any others?

I'm assuming that you already know about Balor mining, Jovoc Aura of Retribution and Phoenix Immolation - if not someone can fill those in below. Going with the book I have in front of me now, here's a good one:


Elemental Grue, (Complete Arcane 153): Spell Disruption: imposes largely meaningless caster level tjecks on enemy spellcasters, but more importation allows you to target any spell effect withint 40 feet of you with a targeted dispel magic (caster level 10), **as a free action**. With no use limit per round or anything.

Chronotryryn(mm2): Make two full-round actions each round
Gambol(mm2): 3.0 haste
Mithril Golem(elh): 3.0 haste
Choker: 3.0 haste.

Good things to Change into:

Chronotyrin Seriously, WTF? You get two rounds worth of actions every round, and you can reuse once/round abilities in the second one (you can take two 5' steps, for instance). Also you get a bunch of other stuff, but every shapeshifter should have this baby on speed dial. Fiend Folio.

Blink Dog Want to move, really fast? How about having dimension door as a supernatural ability as a free action once per round. That's adding 400+40*hit dice to your total movement each round. Monster Manual.

Caryatid Column Complete immunity to non-magic ranged weapons. This severely needs consideration in any transformational hierarchy. Fiend Folio.

Bhut You can possess bodies indefinately, making you effectively unkillable. Fiend Folio.

Dark Ones Pick up your choice of Evasion or Poison Use. Fiend Folio.

Dark Weaver Supernatural Shadowwalk. Also the ability to confound sonar with darkness, which is always handy, if somewhat hard to explain. Fiend Folio.

Alkilith Become a frickin Cloudkill cast at your hit dice. Fiend Folio.

Klurichir Get a really good Fear Aura. Also a good bruiser form, with an 18-20 to chop some fool's head off if you can grapple them. Fiend Folio.

Maurezhi You don't even need shapechange, its ability to eat people to gain permanent, stackable, unnamed Intelligence increases is an extraordinary special attack. Fiend Folio. Also allows you to Alter Self into specific individuals.

Movanic Deva Double-strength McCircle and Minor Globe of Invulnerability, but you also get to deflect arrows against targetted spells. Fiend Folio.

Paeliyon Like all Baatezu, it gives you the ability to see in magical darkness. It also lets you heap on the Charisma damage. Fiend Folio.

Xerfilstyx Not a really good Baatezu, but it gives you 10 ranks in every Knowledge Skill. This should be on everyone's speed dial. Fiend Folio.

Disenchanter Unlimited Detect Magic. Also allows you to destroy magic items to gain temporary hit points that ever go away.

Ethereal Ooze: Shift back and forth to the Ethereal Plane at will. Fiend Folio.

Ethergaunt: See 40' through darkness, invisibility, and silence. Also Dominate Monster on a stick. Also do broad spectrum mental ability damage. FF

Shadow Giant Get a death attack, available with regular polymorphing. FF

Hullathoin: Shoot Bloodfiend swarms at people. Also, you gaiin rebuking, which allows you to power divine metamagic. So you could Divine Persistent Shapechange, turn into a Hullathoin, then use its ability to power Divine Persistent again, and become a Hullathoin again two rounds later and repeat. FF.

Living Holocaust: Actually, that's really a lot of fire and wind control you get. FF

Nerra: Go to the plane of mirrors as per Shadow Walk. FF.

Ocularon: You can animate skewered eyeballs! This is an attack. FF

Aurumach On the downside, you are a Rilmani. But on the plus side, you pick up a +12 armor bonus as a Su ability, and you do 2d6 points of antithesis damage to everyone as a damage shield per non-neutral alignment they have. FF

Rukanyr 12d6 of sonic damage against all of an opponent's armor and weapons? That destroys basically anything. For when swag just isn't worth it.

Shedu Astral Projection. Make your DM cry. FF

Sunwyrm: Incorporeal and retain a nonsensical and contradictory breath weapon? Score!

Swarms Swarm forms give you swarm traits, which include weapon immunity. A cranium swarm also gives you a mind blast. Bloodfiend Swarms can tansform creatures into Fiendish Vampire Spawn under your control. It's madness. FF

Urgurstasta Breath Weapon does a d6 of Con damage on a successful save (3d6 on a failure). Also comes with 2d4 skeletons under your control whose attacks inflict Con damage for a d6 rounds. FF

Vorr that's quite a shadow form it has. FF

Yuan-Ti Anathema: You can implant those stupid Yuan-Ti grafts into people.

Zodar You can double your strength. I'm not even making that up. The example is that 25 goes to 50. Presumably, 55 goes to 110. FF

That's the Fiend Folio, more to come....

-Username17

Wow, the fiend folio has lots of broken stuff...

Are these monsters broken to play against, or are you saying it's broken to allow PCs to have these creatures' (Su) abilities?

I think he means the latter.

And in the Monster Manual II:

Abeils By the whacked definitions, casting as a 16th level druid is still a natural ability, so you get it if it's your terminal form. MM2

Banshee All kinds of goodies, Incorporeality, Plant Stunting, Con Damage as a gaze aura and a Wail of the Banshee any time you want. MM2

Boggle Grease at will. MM2

Bone Naga Continuous free concentration on detect thoughts, with a relatively big DC because it's a Su ability. MM2

Breathdrinker Paralytic Gaze, Free Action Invis, and the ability to gain unlimited temp hit points because it can gain them from inflicting Con damage instead of Con drain. MM2

Catoblepas Nifty Deth Ray. MM2

Cerdival Your choice of curing poison or disease, automatically dispelling an illusion, or dismissing with a touch attack. MM2

Lupinal Deflect Arrows 3/round. MM2

Chaos Roc Ever wanted a caster level 20 prismatic spray at will? MM2

Cloud Ray 125 pound Telekinesis at will. MM2

Corollax Color Spray at will. MM2

Corpse Gatherer Desecrate and Soul Bind. Yes, Soul Bind. For free. Also transform into a number of medium zombies equal to your hit dice when you hit zero hit points - think of the fun you can have with magic jar! MM2

Jovoc Infinite damage. MM2

Zovvut Create unlimited Wights under your control. MM2

Kelvezu Uncanny Dodge, 8 dice of sneak attack. MM2

Amnizu You can no longer suffer ill effects from Contact Other Plane. MM2

Dune Stalker Your Kiss of Death stuns enemies even if it doesn't succeed. Holy crap.

Effigy Body Jumping from Shapechange. Combine this form with Phoenix form for one-spell combo that duplicates phoenixes. MM2

Ether Scarab Open Portals from anywhere to anywhere.

Ethereal Doppelganger Acquire all of the abilities of anyone. Forever. MM2

Ethereal Slayer Detect Magic, Dimensional Anchor (with no SR, try that on a Greater Planar Binding!), and Plane Shift. MM2

Fiendwurm The Demonic Belch is repeatable, so you can get as many fiends as you want. MM2

Flesh Jelly All creatures with 10 or fewer hit dice must make a fort save or lose the fight. MM2

Fomorian DR 5/- and Fast Healing 5. MM2

Frost Salamander Every creature within 20 feet takes a d8 of non-magical cold damage per round with no save or to-hit roll. Keep that on the speed dial against a variety of creatures. No save, no SR, no DR, no Magic Immunity, only Cold Resistance negates. MM2

Galeb Dhur You get a hide check result of 30 anytime you aren't moving. Also your tremorsense goes 300 feet. MM2

Gambol: Fear Aura, Evasion, a Deflect Arrows that works gainst any attack roll, and an extra partial action each round. This stacks with Chronotyrin and Choker based speed effects. MM2

Ocean Giant: Rock Catching, Immunity to Blunt Weapons, and you can make your transformation into an Ocean Giant immune to dispelling because the Ocean Giant has the ability to transform into an Ocean Giant for as long as it wants in a manner that cannot be dispelled. MM2

Glimmerskin: Heroic Bond, mothafvckahs! Holy crap, batman, this is nuts. You can ride shotgun in your own familiar and give him crazy bonuses while making yourself immune to attack. MM2

Gravecrawler Speak with Dead on a stick. Also has a Con damaging aura that will petrify corporeal undead who fail a fort save. Try this baby out against Vampires and such - it's really brutally effective. MM2

Greenvise One of the only ways to get the Woodsense
ability. MM2

Grell Extraordinary Featherfall. Just something to keep in mind. MM2

Hellfire Wyrm A breath weapon that's half "Infernal Power". If you find a way to get "Infernal Power Resistance", I think you deserve it. Also comes with Shapechange that will turn you into "any devil". Bust out the BoVD and find some of the bigger Devils, it's wonderful fun. MM2

Jahi You're incorporeal and deal Charisma Damage with no save. You kill Devastation Beatles for breakfast. MM2

Kopru Dominate Person on a stick, lasts 8 days. MM2

Marrash Every time you turn into one of these bad boys gets a Taklif Arrow that can make real Marrash. MM2

Meenlock get a fear aura, a 300 foot range wisdom attack, and a dimension door. You can also turn people into Meenlocks. MM2

Morkoth You get Hypnotization and reflective spell reflection. MM2

Myconid Make free Potions. MM2

Neogi Dominate Monster on a stick. Immunity to Mind Affecting effects. MM2

Nethersight Mastiff True Seeing and the ability to attack ethereal creatures. MM2

Nightmare Beast Hit every single sleeping creature within 10 miles with a nightmare spell that doesn't have any possibility of hitting you back. MM2

Ormyrr Negate multiweapon fighting penalties as an extraordinary special quality. Also you get martial weapon proficiency as an Ex ability. MM2

Phoenix Phoenix duplication is a well-named infinite power loop. Shapechange + Magic Jar + Phoenix Form = Hillarious. It's also capable of telepthically communicating and flying through the planes. MM2

Blade Fury 20d6 of damage by walking through people. You can become invisible and see the invisible. MM2

Tatterdanimal This Raggamoffyn makes you immune to blunt weapons. You can also wrap on people and control them. MM2

Reaon Stealer You can get all of the abilities and skills of any creature you kill for 24 hours. MM2

Rogue Eidolon You can force your enemies to attack other enemies. MM2

Rukarazyll You can spit grey ooze, get profane bonuses to stuff, evasion, and the ability to fungus people. MM2

Shadow Spider Grease on a stick. MM2

Sirine Intelligence attacks and your Charisma bonus as a deflection bonus to AC. MM2

Spellweaver: Spell weaving is an ability that you get. The spell levels you can cast are based on your number of arms. That's changeable. MM2

Spellgaunt Detect Magic on a stick. Disjunction on a stick (you can destroy artifacts with no risk or meaningful chance of failure if you do it right). Create force effects at will. MM2

Teratomorph Crazy chaos powers that are hard to even describe. MM2

Yak Folk You can use any staff. You can also force a Janni to do whatever you want. MM2

More to come...

-Username17

Everyone, thanks for the input so far. You crazy guys rock.

And now, fun things from the Monster Manual 3. As always in this setup, we are talking 3.5 Shapechange, because it is the most brokety borken thing that was ever broken:

Ambush Drake Breath Weapon causes slow. They have a poison ability written to affect all of their attacks (they only have one, but as an Ex Special Attack this can go into stacks). MM3

Arcane Ooze Takes infinite SR to a new level, also allows you to turn other peoples' spell slots into temporary hit points. MM3

Astral Stalker Like all monsters in the MM3 who have Poison, it goes on the stack. This one paralyzes. You also get 2 dice of sneak attack, a shitty but long range thrown weapon style attack, the ability to ignore the shitty 3.5 hiding rules, a penalty to people tracking you, evasion, swift tracking, charisma to armor class and savingsthrows. You get all the benefits of being a multiclass Ranger/Rogue/Paladin. Good times. MM3

Avalancher You can... cause avalanches. Very poorly described ability. You also get immunity to bludgeoning weapons for no reason and all-around vision. This monster was designed with a set of darts and a list of game rules. MM3

Battlebriar This is one of the most obscene combat forms I have ever seen. As a free action you can attempt to make a grappled opponent helpless with a grapple check. There's no limit to the number of times you can do that, or text preventing you from coup de gracing enemies who are impaled, so this is the win. In any case, you also get a bizzare, stackable version of Combat Reflexes. MM3

Bearhound Trackless Step, Wild Empathy, a +1 Enhancement bonus to all your natty attacks, and trip. It's just like being a Druid. MM3

Bone Claw Add your Charisma Bonus times your hit dice to your hit points. MM3

Broodkeeper DR 5/-, SR 26, Evasion, Fast Healing 5, and the ability to create a friendly Broodkeeper Larva Swarm. MM3

Cadaver Collector Magic Immunity that is very complicated and a bretah weapon that makes enemies helpless. MM3

Charnel Hound Heal yourself when you deal a killing blow. Add your Charisma Bonus times your hit dice to your hit points. MM3

Chelicera Flawlessly mimic any noise (including speech) that you have ever heard. MM3

All the damn swarms The Monster Manual 3 has more swarms than a hooker's privates. Becoming any of them is almost always broken because you get weapon immunity from a lot of them.

Death Shrieker You get a +1 Profane bonus for every 3 hit dice you have, no cap. Just some fan service for the Epic players.

Arrow Demon Close Combat Shot and the ability to use Oversized Weapons. Both of these are stackable and available from Polymorph. Also Telepathy, which is not. MM3

Sorrowsworn Demon Double-strength Bane Aura. If that doesn't pique your interest, how's about the ability to force some fool to make a save or be unable to fight back for three whole rounds, as a Free Action? MM3

Dread Blossom Swarm You don't get weapon immunity, only resistance. But you make every fool within 15 feet save against parlysis every round. MM3

Drowning Aura Remember how some people thought that old school Miasma was the most crazy broken thing? You get a version of it that skips straight through the thirty rounds of not killing people right to the good part. And you get Charisma to hit points.

Dust Wight 5' radius aura of Save-or-Die. MM3

Storm Elemental DR 5/-, healing from electricity and sonic, and some other crap. But the important part is that you can turn into these cholos as a Druid even under the most restrictive reading possible. So that's more free feats...

Ephemeral Swarm Inflicts Strength Damage with no save or attack roll. I'm not even kidding. MM3

Geriviar Ignore half the toughness of any unattended object. DR 10/Magic Adamantine, SR 28, Run at x6 speed. MM3

Death Giant: Add Charisma Modifier to Initiative, Saves, Spot Checks, and Listen Checks. Stacks with Divine Grace. Also Soul Bind dying enemies as a free action. You also get to be healed by positive and negative energy.

Eldritch Giant +6 on Willpower saves, Read Scrolls and use Wands as if you were a wizard. Something for Druids to keep on their speed dial. MM3

Sand Giant Quickened Blur on a stick.

Glaistig Extremely long range and confusingly written Charm Monster on a stick. MM3

Forestkith Goblins Tree Shape on a stick. MM3

Golems The Golems in the MM3 are written so shittily that it makes blisters appear where they shouldn't. They are immune to Supernatural Abilities that allow Spell Resistance. Just let that sink in. But the Shadesteel Golem gives you a 12d6 negative energy pulse. The Web Golem has Spider Climb on a stick.

Grimweird They really like giving you Charisma Bonuses to AC and Saves. This does not stack with others of its kind. MM3

Grisgol surrounded by a cloud that inflicts Con Damage, and its touch both paralyzes and inflicts negative energy damage.

Gulgar You can talk below the normal hearing range. This goes farther and cannot be heard by anyone without funky hearing. MM3

Harssaf Fire Aura and Sand Form. Also you can shoot blinding sand in a 30 foot radius burst around yourself. Alertness and Lightning Reflexes as bonus feats, Yo! MM3

Justicator Smite Chaos. MM3

Kenku You get an additional +1 on any skill check that you are aided on. MM3

Living Spells You can duplicate all kinds of crazy spells from Ray of Enfeeblement to Blasphemy. MM3

Lumi Immunity to Positive and Negative Energy. Also immunity to vorpal weapons and +2 AC while flanked. MM3

This list is incomplete....

....more to come...

-Username17

Oh, I'm feeling the cheese on page 126 of the MMIII, with the Protean Scourge.

Here's his Split, a Supernatural ability:

MM III, page 126 wrote: Split (Su): When damaged, a protean scourge splits into two identical versions of itself. This ability is not an illusion; each new protean scourge is fully capable of dealing real damage and poses a real threat. Each version of the protean scourge has all the current statistics and acess to all the current abilities of a single creature, including any remaining uncast spells. However, any spells cast by either split protean scourge come from the total pool of remaining available spells. So, the two versions share access to remaining spells; each does not get its own spell list or spells per day. Neither half of the protean scourge can change shape as long as the creature remains split.
Each version has the protean scourge's current hit point total (they do not split remaining hit points), and both versions of the protean scourge must be slain to kill the creature.
The split protean scourges can recombine into a single creature in a process that takes 1 minute. While it recombines, the protean scourge is helpless.

That's just plain ridamndiculous. First of all, there's no apparent limit on how many times a "single" scourge can do this, nor is there a time limit. I really don't see why there aren't hundreds of Scourges running around in a campaign world that has even one of them.

Second, each version seems to be about as real as the original; one of the most substantial differences is that they share a spell pool. I don't see why a Scourge wouldn't create lots of copies of himself, and disburse them to the four corners of the world. That way, they could each get on a different sleeping schedule (and spell replenishment schedule). Hence, the "adventuring" Scourge would get his spells refilled several times a day.

Third...the "shared pool" restriction explicitly only applies to spells.

That's nuts.

That means that, say, a psion that Metamorphs into one and then uses Metamorphic Transfer to use the Split ability does not use a shared pool of power points.

There's no reason such a psion wouldn't march into battle with a small legion of versions with him, each one with a close-to-full supply of power points, and slight damage (which can be repaired with Body Adjustment).

Let's see how many versions a Metamorphed Psion using Metamorphic Transfer (which has a 3 uses/day restriction) could create a day:

First psion takes damage, uses Transfer to split. Each remaining version has two uses left. This second generation of Scourges beats itself up a bit; eventually, there's four of them with one use left. Each third-generation scourge smacks its friend, leaving a final total of 8 scourges. Each scourge will have some minor HP damage, and will be missing at least 11 PP since the first Scourge (aka the PC psion) had to use Metamorphosis in the first place.

So, you can have a total of 8 of these guys on the first day. After a night of rest, there's no reason why each third-generation protean scourge can't end up creating a net profit of 7 more the next day, for a total of 64 Protean Scourge Psion versions on day two. And so on and so forth. Each with its own pool of power points and per-day abilities.

Am I missing something here? Is this as crazy I think? Less crazy? More?

Power Points for Psionics work like spells for every purpose that mumble mumble mumble...

That is to say, the shared pool doesn't say "do not split power points", it doesn't address them at all. So the question is thus whether you think that Psionics is enough like spell slots to be hit by this effect - and it is entirely a workable reading that it is. So no, there is no unambiguous loop of infinite power points, although it is kind of close.

Mostly I'm concerned about the provision that you can't change shape while divided. That's fvcked up.

-Username17

Well see, here's the thing.

The psionics/magic transparency is relatively well-detailed in the XPH, especially on page 55.

This transparency is not perfect; the simplest example is that metamagic feats cannot modify psionic powers, metapsionic feats cannot modify spells.

So, in the case of a unique situation like the Split ability, you've got to simply go by what you have there.

And it's a real problem, and it would have been pretty simple to solve. For example,a clause could have been added that all abilities with limited uses per day come from the same pool.

This clause doesn't only make sense just in regards to psionics, it makes sense according to the core rules. What if a Protean Scourge picks up several Druid levels? Druids have per-day abilities in the form of Wildshape.

It's not like the designer of the creature didn't know that the Scourge isn't capable of gaining additional abilities--they give him class levels on the next freakin' page!

Honestly, Split is just written so terribly that virtually unlimited psi is just one of its problems. Even if the designer of the power would have thrown in a clause to make sure every ability with limited uses per day came from the same pool, it wouldn't even address the fact that there's no limit to the number of Scourges you can generate!

You'll see wrote:Mostly I'm concerned about the provision that you can't change shape while divided. That's fvcked up.

-Username17

Yep, that's really strange. A psion that Metamorphs into a scourge and then uses this ability will be in Scourge form for a very, very long time. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

I noticed the scourge also doesn't say what happens to items. By the wording, specifically the "two identical versions" and "access to all abilities" it seems that you could infinetly duplicate your items (as if there wasn't enough ways already). Or, you could always keep a body on cold storage, and be pretty much unkillable. Just a horribly worded ability all around. I personally found many like that in MMIII. I liked the book as a whole, but WotC definetly needs some better proofreaders.

I think that Andy Collins and Ed Stark (especially) should be out of a job soon.

Fucking hell...how much of a trouble is it to proofread these things? You know Polymorph is broken, and people want it, so you pay special attention to new monsters, right? Idiots

Here's another bit of potential cheese. I direct you to the Ghaele:

MM page 95 wrote:Alternate Form (Su): A ghaele can shift between its humanoid and globe forms as a standard action. In humanoid form, it cannot fly or use its light rays, but it can use its gaze attack and spell-like abilities, make physical attacks, and cast spells. In globe form, it can fly, use its light rays, and use spell-like abilities, but it cannot cast spells or use its gaze attack. The globe form is incorporeal, and the ghaele has no Strength score while in that form.

Now, normally, no shapechanging magic allows spells or spell-like abilities.

However, this specific ability pretty seems to explicitly allow access to these powers.

For regular Polymorph/Metamorph use, you probably wouldn't have enough time to prepare divine spells, but I really don't see why you couldn't use the spell-likes.

That includes unlimited CLWs, Hold Monsters, and Greater Invisibility, among other things.

Does this fly? Is there something I might have overlooked that would prohibit this?

MrWaeseL at [unixtime wrote:1101672321[/unixtime]]fvcking hell...how much of a trouble is it to proofread these things? You know Polymorph is broken, and people want it, so you pay special attention to new monsters, right? Idiots

I can understand new monster makers just not caring about polymorph, because to be honest I wouldn't. There's enough of a problem making the monster fun and original and a worthy challenge for the PCs as well as giving it the proper CR.

Let the guys who wrote polymorph worry about balancing it. It already doesn't work with the core monsters, so clearly it's broke by concept.

I find RC's assertion interesting.

Seriously, what's even the point of designing new monsters? Even in a book as crazy as the Epic Level Handbook, there are only precious few monsters that aren't some numerical doppleganger on the monsters published in the MMI; off the top of my head, there's the phane and the genius loci that actually do something even remotely new and original.

There are so many iterations of dragons and golems and demons and shit that it's reaching parody status. Thus, in their attempt to write up new monsters, there's no excuse for the ignorance in writing yet another monster that becomes immune to magic and/or has awesome items and shit.

RC, The Split ability is a giant problem even without shapeshifting abuse.

In general, though, I agree with your assessment of this situation.

Guest (Unregistered) at [unixtime wrote:1102298502[/unixtime]]
There are so many iterations of dragons and golems and demons and shit that it's reaching parody status. Thus, in their attempt to write up new monsters, there's no excuse for the ignorance in writing yet another monster that becomes immune to magic and/or has awesome items and shit.

Dragons I find to be the most laughable... there comes a point where they can just write up a little description, flavor text about personality and the slight description on breath weapon (steam instead of fire) as well as slightly different spell like abilities and then just say "and use a red dragon for the rest"

If you're a scourge or an initiate of mystra, the form you want to keep on shapechange speed-dial is a demilich, which, among other awesome abilities, gives you all of the bonuses of your equipment without actually wearing them.

Hell, you can wear double copies of all of your equipment, and be happy. Good times... good times...

Josh_Kablack at [unixtime wrote:1101007743[/unixtime]]I'm assuming that you already know about Balor mining, Jovoc Aura of Retribution and Phoenix Immolation - if not someone can fill those in below.

Frank wrote:Jovoc Infinite damage. MM2

Could someone please explain how the Jovoc infinite damage loop works - in detail? I've seen it glossed over and referenced before, but for the life of me, I can't see how it works with the [descriptors] in use for Shapechange.

Reg wrote:
Could someone please explain how the Jovoc infinite damage loop works - in detail? I've seen it glossed over and referenced before, but for the life of me, I can't see how it works with the [descriptors] in use for Shapechange.

No problem. All you need is to have the ability and not be Tanar'ri. Tanar'ri is a subtype, Aura of Retribution is a supernatural ability not based on a body part.

If you change form, by any means, while you have the Aura of Retribution, you keep the Aura and lose the subtype. So if you have a Jovoc, and you baleful polymorph it into a turtle, it still has the Aura of Retribution and isn't immune to it.

-Username17

(which means it takes damage from it's own aura, which triggers it's own aura...)