Polymorph for non-transmuters?

[Egon the Monkey]

I do understand why it was nerfed, considering the entire theme of Johannes's excellent update was to make spellcasters better at what they specialise in and worse at what they don't. However, I'd argue Polymorph was taken too far.

Other spells have been nerfed by some small fraction of their usual power usually and buffed for experts, or just buffed for experts. Polymorph's duration has been cut in half for non-transmuters, and it's not exactly a overused spell at the best of times. It's a cool but fragile tactic, because you have to be in close combat to use the forms, where a dispel will leave you high and dry if you're hit. Reducing the duration unless you take a focus just serves to push players away from using a spell that's rarely seen anyway because it's not worth the risk.

Yes, a GSF transmuter gets double duration which is cool, but that alone should be enough to promote using it if you're a transmuter, or taking Transmutation if you want to use buffs+polymorph a lot. Cutting it so you only get three minutes of Polymorph at L7 stops most PCs using it for the many RP opportunities it presents as a disguise, and makes effectively useless a spell that's frankly really fun. It's great to occasionally load up on it and smash things, danger be damned. For 3-4 minutes of fun though, I'd rather load up an icestorm if I want to wreck things up with a wizard.

My suggestion:
GSF Transmutation doubles duration. SF transmutation allows use of the Boy, Girl, Goblin and Kobold forms from the crafting menu. Without SF, you only get the combat forms. This makes wizards wanting to use an effective disguise more inclined to be a Transmuter, but doesn't ruin the chance for everyone to have fun Polymorphing.

[Canzah]

GSF Transmutation doubles duration. SF transmutation allows use of the Boy, Girl, Goblin and Kobold forms from the crafting menu. Without SF, you only get the combat forms. This makes wizards wanting to use an effective disguise more inclined to be a Transmuter, but doesn't ruin the chance for everyone to have fun Polymorphing.

This. If possible.

I remember rocking a polymorph and just smashing things in melee for the rare occassion could be an amazing relief when playing a wizard. Besides, it's darn fun roleplaying a smashtroll.

[SilentSouth]

A good point, seem fair and well balanced to me.

[ExileStrife]

If we were going that route, I'd rather have the good combat forms only unlocked by GSF Transmutation, keeping the simpler forms for those with only limited experience with the spell.

[Professor Death]

I agree with the notion that further reducing the duration of the spell makes it nigh useless for a level 7, especially for its disguise or fun RP function.  I would also agree with Exile's comment that maybe the solution is to reserve the really good combat forms for those with the specializations in transmutation.

[Garem]

I vote that Polymorph gets awesome new options instead of lame-o ugly trolls and creepy bug-like Umber Hulks.

(I'm 100% biased, and half joking. No opinion on anything that's relevant to the OP's topic, but I suppose my apathy says something in and of itself.)

[Egon the Monkey]

The point underlying this whole suggest really is that I can't see how crippling Polymorph unless you take a feat makes the server more interesting. Nobody was complaining as it was that Polymorph was overpowered, and rarely was it used.

Giving GSF Transmutation casters auto-doubled is a big step forward in making it an attractive spell, but halving it for vanilla casters is a huge step back because players aren't inclined to try it out and see how it's best used on EFU. I suggested locking the "disguise" forms so that everyone could use it offensively, but the RP purposes were limited to Transmuters. The point being that this update seems designed to allow greater RP and showing off from specialists. If there were maybe one or two combat nonstandard forms that Transmuters got, that would balance it better than taking stuff away. It would be "ooh, I want to have that" not "man, why'd you stop me using that".

[Spiffy Has]

More forms for Polymorph would be amazing.