Hypothetically, the players polymorph a giant into a tiny frog and find a very tiny, unbreakable space to put the frog.
Ignoring the difficulty of finding such a space, what happens to the giant when the polymorph wears off? It reverts to its original form and is in a space much to small for it.
Does it get crushed to death, is it just squeezing, does it pop out for some reason?
This isn't a real scenario we're just trying to get our heads around the rules for this type of thing since we can't find any that answer the question.
Say the players make an adamantine safe that has 10 ft thick walls and use dozens of adamantine rods to hold the door closed. The inside is only big enough to hold a single tiny frog.
They also enchant it so its unbreakable somehow.
What happens to the giant when the polymorph wears off?
That's up to the DM. The official game rules aren't designed to account for exploiting magic in these kinds of ways.
Generally, anything that would be an "Instant Win" is at least given a reasonable Saving Throw to create an opportunity for survival. I would probably suggest using the same consequences for teleporting into a solid object. Take some amount of Force Damage, and appear in the nearest open spot.
There aren't rules for this specific interaction (there really should be given all the ways something could change size).
To discourage shenanigans I rule that the thing get popped into an empty space and only takes a little bit of force damage (like 1d10 per 5 feet it had to move). Basically the same as Memnosyne, but I don't give a save.
If you let it be instant death, it will be the only thing the party does and your combats will get boring.
I really dislike that this edition has boiled down to back and forth damage battles with little room for creative solutions.
I was thinking of having it be single use and require some kind of side quests to build. Then they gotta tote it around, cast polymorph, grab the thing, put it in, and wait.
Be fun if it was difficult to pull off but effective. Make it increasingly difficult to make another one. Gate it that way rather than just saying no.
Saying no always seems like a super lazy way out. Like I was too dumb to come up with a way to make it balanced and fun so just shut it down.
I really dislike that this edition has boiled down to back and forth damage battles with little room for creative solutions.
I was thinking of having it be single use and require some kind of side quests to build. Then they gotta tote it around, cast polymorph, grab the thing, put it in, and wait.
Be fun if it was difficult to pull off but effective. Make it increasingly difficult to make another one. Gate it that way rather than just saying no.
Saying no always seems like a super lazy way out. Like I was too dumb to come up with a way to make it balanced and fun so just shut it down.
I'd be really surprised if your players bothered building and hulling a special safe just to try this.
More than likely you are going to have situations like a swallowed druid turns into a whale (or any beast larger than what swallowed it) type scenarios. Or them using enlarge/reduce on a rock and forcing it down a throat. Or simply digging a deep but narrow hole to drop the shrunk enemy in.
When they get "creative" it will be a plan of convenience, not one that requires multiple side quests, months of downtime, and hundreds of thousands of GP then still might not even get to try it...
Yeah, for the whole swallowed druid into whale thing the save to pop out the mouth makes a ton of sense. There is a straight forward explanation and exit there.
Anything that has a plausible exit I think a save for half damage and appearing in next open space makes a pile of sense. I'd reward the creativity of the idea and move on.
The safe idea came up in a convo about pushing polymorph to the limit after the idea of polymorping monsters into seahorses and putting them in buckets to suffocate didnt pan out.
Maybe just don't give your players this? If I had to rule, thought, I'd say that it reverts and instead of growing, it instantly reverts and the box ends up inside of it. Not good for RP, but seems like the most RAW way out.
Hypothetically, the players polymorph a giant into a tiny frog and find a very tiny, unbreakable space to put the frog.
Ignoring the difficulty of finding such a space, what happens to the giant when the polymorph wears off? It reverts to its original form and is in a space much to small for it.
Does it get crushed to death, is it just squeezing, does it pop out for some reason?
This isn't a real scenario we're just trying to get our heads around the rules for this type of thing since we can't find any that answer the question.
Say the players make an adamantine safe that has 10 ft thick walls and use dozens of adamantine rods to hold the door closed. The inside is only big enough to hold a single tiny frog.
They also enchant it so its unbreakable somehow.
What happens to the giant when the polymorph wears off?
Thanks
That's up to the DM. The official game rules aren't designed to account for exploiting magic in these kinds of ways.
Generally, anything that would be an "Instant Win" is at least given a reasonable Saving Throw to create an opportunity for survival. I would probably suggest using the same consequences for teleporting into a solid object. Take some amount of Force Damage, and appear in the nearest open spot.
There aren't rules for this specific interaction (there really should be given all the ways something could change size).
To discourage shenanigans I rule that the thing get popped into an empty space and only takes a little bit of force damage (like 1d10 per 5 feet it had to move). Basically the same as Memnosyne, but I don't give a save.
If you let it be instant death, it will be the only thing the party does and your combats will get boring.
I like to reward creativity.
I really dislike that this edition has boiled down to back and forth damage battles with little room for creative solutions.
I was thinking of having it be single use and require some kind of side quests to build. Then they gotta tote it around, cast polymorph, grab the thing, put it in, and wait.
Be fun if it was difficult to pull off but effective. Make it increasingly difficult to make another one. Gate it that way rather than just saying no.
Saying no always seems like a super lazy way out. Like I was too dumb to come up with a way to make it balanced and fun so just shut it down.
I'd be really surprised if your players bothered building and hulling a special safe just to try this.
More than likely you are going to have situations like a swallowed druid turns into a whale (or any beast larger than what swallowed it) type scenarios. Or them using enlarge/reduce on a rock and forcing it down a throat. Or simply digging a deep but narrow hole to drop the shrunk enemy in.
When they get "creative" it will be a plan of convenience, not one that requires multiple side quests, months of downtime, and hundreds of thousands of GP then still might not even get to try it...
Yeah, for the whole swallowed druid into whale thing the save to pop out the mouth makes a ton of sense. There is a straight forward explanation and exit there.
Anything that has a plausible exit I think a save for half damage and appearing in next open space makes a pile of sense. I'd reward the creativity of the idea and move on.
The safe idea came up in a convo about pushing polymorph to the limit after the idea of polymorping monsters into seahorses and putting them in buckets to suffocate didnt pan out.
Maybe just don't give your players this? If I had to rule, thought, I'd say that it reverts and instead of growing, it instantly reverts and the box ends up inside of it. Not good for RP, but seems like the most RAW way out.
DMing:
Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Playing:
None sadly.
Optimization Guides:
Literally Too Angry to Die - A Guide to Optimizing a Barbarian