One of my players successfully Polymorphed a young dragon, and chose a hedgehog as the temporary form. The players aren't sure what to do with the hedgehog now, but they've floated several possible courses of action and are seeking clarity about exactly how Polymorph works:
Plan A: Impale the hedgehog on a huge spear of some kind. When it reverts to its dragon form, they hope that the dragon will remain impaled (and would presumably take further damage, suffer ongoing status effects...?). I'm not sure if it works that way or not. What do you all think?
Plan B: Stuff the hedgehog into some confined space, like a tight crevice or confined passageway, and reduce it to 0 HP. The players hope that the dragon will be stuck there, facing away from them, and thus unable to move or breath at them. It's unclear to me how to run this one. When it reverts, if the space is smaller than the dragon's body, what happens?
In both cases, it seems to be a question of the mechanism of polymorph. Also, in seeking clarification of this kind, my players have exposed another question -- how much knowledge does the character have about the effects of their spells, particularly in edge-cases like this, where it's not clear from the wording of the spell what might happen, and where they haven't taken similar courses of action before?
If they impale the hedgehog it would revert from the 1hp back to the dragon and the dragon would have a spear imbedded an inch into its skin, not a big deal. As for a tight space thing, I’ve ruled on a similar situation like a misfire on a teleport. Damage from being thrust out but not an instant kill for sure. Sounds like you have a pretty damn fun group!
One of my players successfully Polymorphed a young dragon, and chose a hedgehog as the temporary form. The players aren't sure what to do with the hedgehog now, but they've floated several possible courses of action and are seeking clarity about exactly how Polymorph works:
Plan A: Impale the hedgehog on a huge spear of some kind. When it reverts to its dragon form, they hope that the dragon will remain impaled (and would presumably take further damage, suffer ongoing status effects...?). I'm not sure if it works that way or not. What do you all think?
Plan B: Stuff the hedgehog into some confined space, like a tight crevice or confined passageway, and reduce it to 0 HP. The players hope that the dragon will be stuck there, facing away from them, and thus unable to move or breath at them. It's unclear to me how to run this one. When it reverts, if the space is smaller than the dragon's body, what happens?
In both cases, it seems to be a question of the mechanism of polymorph. Also, in seeking clarification of this kind, my players have exposed another question -- how much knowledge does the character have about the effects of their spells, particularly in edge-cases like this, where it's not clear from the wording of the spell what might happen, and where they haven't taken similar courses of action before?
Thanks in advance for any help!
If they impale the hedgehog it would revert from the 1hp back to the dragon and the dragon would have a spear imbedded an inch into its skin, not a big deal. As for a tight space thing, I’ve ruled on a similar situation like a misfire on a teleport. Damage from being thrust out but not an instant kill for sure. Sounds like you have a pretty damn fun group!
Thank you! Yeah my group is very creative, which is awesome.