Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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If a character with the War Caster feat is affected by the 2024 Polymorph spell, does the character retain War Caster's benefit of Advantage on Constitution saving throws made to maintain Concentration? The 2024 Polymorph spell says “The target’s game statistics are replaced by the stat block of the chosen Beast, but the target retains its alignment, personality, creature type, Hit Points, and Hit Point Dice.” The 2024 Wild Shape feature explicitly says the Druid retains “class features ... and feats,” but Polymorph does not contain that language.However, the Sage Advice Compendium states regarding Polymorph: “Polymorph replaces only the target’s character sheet or stat block with the stat block of the chosen form. Other effects, such as other spells, still exist.”
Does “game statistics are replaced” cause permanent feats such as War Caster to cease functioning, or does War Caster remain an ongoing effect/benefit of the character?
At first glance, it appears that Feats are not retained while under a Polymorph spell.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (original Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
Yes but permanent effects are entirely not mentioned and are a separate category in their own right - which is why I’m unsure
Is that the 5e or 5.5e SAC you're referencing?
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
What difference would it make? Also I don’t remember 😅
This same answer appears verbatim in both the 5e and 5.5e Sage Advice iterations.
It pretty clearly does not refer to things like feats, though, which are definitely part of the "game statistics" that Polymorph replaces. It's referring to external effects that have been applied to the target. If the target had Bless on it, for instance, it would retain the benefits of that spell in its new form.
pronouns: he/she/they
Yeah, I'm running into the same issue with my Shapechange spell. Just gained access to it, super geeked, and realized partway through that (while I do keep my spellcasting) I lose a TON of abilities (feats, class abilities) that help keep me alive, roll successful concentration checks, etc.
Still fun. But not as powerful as I first thought. Same goes for polymorph.
As HarmAssassin said, feats are not retained, and I'd add neither class features nor traits. Similar thing with True Polymorph.
I recall a similar question in 2024 Polymorph Rules Phrasing
EDIT: I was commenting that something similar happens with Shapechange, but at least with this spell "If you have the Spellcasting feature, you retain it too", then I then realized this was already mentioned by TieflingLew... sorry!