It recently came up that when polymorph is cast it replaces the creatures mental abilities. I am not the caster of the spell here and I am pretty new to dnd (only ever played as a martial class.) However, I had thought that even though they had been polymorphed it would not affect their memory or their motives. The DM and someone else in our group said that they would just become stupid essentially and not do what they were wanting to do or maybe make a roll. So like if I was polymorphed into a mouse, I would just think about cheese or something rather than go through the tiny hole that was in front of us to scout or something as an example.
How does polymorph work exactly? It seems restrictive if it makes you forget what you were going to do and what not. (I don't think it does, but I could absolutely be wrong.)
The target's game statistics, including mental ability scores, are replaced by the statistics of the chosen beast. It retains its alignment and personality.
If interpreted strictly, that means that if a Neutral Good Fighter called Bob who's gruff and surly gets Polymorphed into a mouse, they'll be a Neutral Good mouse who's gruff and surly, period. Not Bob, the Neutral Good mouse, who's a friend of the other party members, and wants to scout in their new form.
Some DMs are a bit more lenient, and allow the target to retain memories and intentions, and therefore Bob could in fact go scouting as a mouse. But strictly speaking, that's not how it works. And yes, that means that polymorphing party members, including yourself, isn't as useful as it sounds, if the spell's run "by the book".
Well the way we play it at our table is if lets say you were to become a Tyrannosaurus Rex you would be a mindless killing machine driven by more base motivations where as if you became a Giant Ape you would have enough intelligence to recognize your allies but still be a little too dumb to do more complex things.
According to Jeremy Crawford, the language of the spell is meant to mean that the polymorphed character is still them, memories, personality, intentionality, and all. They just take on new stats and form. Thus, I tend to treat unintelligent forms as "Perfectly Trained" versions of what it could be. A dog or bird can be very clever, and may seem to just be an excitable version of the player, whereas a moth simply lacks the capacity to make much sense of the world. The moth still remembers its plan, but that isn't worth much when you can't put it into practice.
You don't lose you memories or forget your plan, but you might lose your ability to understand why the plan is what it is.
If you have the kind of personality where you do what you're told (by people you trust), then there is no reason you wouldn't still enact the plan. And even if you're the kind of person that is always second guessing others, you will remember that you agreed to (or maybe even came up with) the plan.
Hey everyone,
It recently came up that when polymorph is cast it replaces the creatures mental abilities. I am not the caster of the spell here and I am pretty new to dnd (only ever played as a martial class.) However, I had thought that even though they had been polymorphed it would not affect their memory or their motives. The DM and someone else in our group said that they would just become stupid essentially and not do what they were wanting to do or maybe make a roll. So like if I was polymorphed into a mouse, I would just think about cheese or something rather than go through the tiny hole that was in front of us to scout or something as an example.
How does polymorph work exactly? It seems restrictive if it makes you forget what you were going to do and what not. (I don't think it does, but I could absolutely be wrong.)
If interpreted strictly, that means that if a Neutral Good Fighter called Bob who's gruff and surly gets Polymorphed into a mouse, they'll be a Neutral Good mouse who's gruff and surly, period. Not Bob, the Neutral Good mouse, who's a friend of the other party members, and wants to scout in their new form.
Some DMs are a bit more lenient, and allow the target to retain memories and intentions, and therefore Bob could in fact go scouting as a mouse. But strictly speaking, that's not how it works. And yes, that means that polymorphing party members, including yourself, isn't as useful as it sounds, if the spell's run "by the book".
Well the way we play it at our table is if lets say you were to become a Tyrannosaurus Rex you would be a mindless killing machine driven by more base motivations where as if you became a Giant Ape you would have enough intelligence to recognize your allies but still be a little too dumb to do more complex things.
[ SageAdvice ]
According to Jeremy Crawford, the language of the spell is meant to mean that the polymorphed character is still them, memories, personality, intentionality, and all. They just take on new stats and form. Thus, I tend to treat unintelligent forms as "Perfectly Trained" versions of what it could be. A dog or bird can be very clever, and may seem to just be an excitable version of the player, whereas a moth simply lacks the capacity to make much sense of the world. The moth still remembers its plan, but that isn't worth much when you can't put it into practice.
You don't lose you memories or forget your plan, but you might lose your ability to understand why the plan is what it is.
If you have the kind of personality where you do what you're told (by people you trust), then there is no reason you wouldn't still enact the plan. And even if you're the kind of person that is always second guessing others, you will remember that you agreed to (or maybe even came up with) the plan.
Thanks everyone for the insight I truly appreciate it. :)