DM says he chooses the beast when a player casts polymorph. True?

3 thoughts on “DM says he chooses the beast when a player casts polymorph. True?

  1. D. Walker says:

    First up – hey Mike, what happened to the old mantra of “It the spell worked that way, it would say so”?

    Polymorph is designed to do what the caster wants. It doesn’t have a random element to it beyond the caster’s control, like some spells do.

    Taking away the player’s ability to choose what they turn a target into is pretty similar to taking away the player’s ability to choose which creature they target. It’s invasive and unnecessary, and it’s a good way to make the players feel like the DM isn’t trying to help them have fun, but rather is trying to “beat” them and find ways to make them lose.

    “I want to polymorph them into a harmless frog.”
    “Nope, sorry! You turn them into a Tyrannosaurus Rex.”
    “What?! That’s not what I wanted! That’s not fair at all!”
    “Sure it is! The target is high enough level to become a CR 8 beast!”
    “But that’s not what I wanted to do with the spell!”
    “Too bad. DM gets to choose how it works.”
    “It doesn’t say that in the spell description!”
    “Too bad. House rule. Mike Mearls said it wasn’t unreasonable.”
    “So what – all I can do is end the spell, transforming them back?”
    “If that’s what you want to do.”
    “But now I’ve used my action AND a spell slot, and gotten nothing out of it!”
    “Too bad. That’s just how I’ve decided it’s going to work.”

    “Alright, since I can’t Polymorph them, I’m going to cast Fireball on them.”
    “Nope, sorry! You cast Fireball on yourself. DM gets to choose how it works.”
    “…”
    “House rule. Mike Mearls said it wasn’t unreasonable.
    “…”
    “Wait, where are you going? Come back! The game isn’t over yet!”

  2. tideoftime says:

    Yeahhhh… this old reply of Mike’s is indicative of why most people would wait for Jeremy to (hopefully) respond to something. “…house rule; but not unreasonable”? — house rule, sure; not unreasonable — it directly undermines the spell-as-presented. No player would/should ever play in a game where a DM ruled as such barring establishing underlying metaphysical elements as to why (e.g.: an added material component is a piece — hair, scale, tiny bit of skin, drop of blood, etc. — of the form the target is to be polymorphed into… *that* would be a “not unreasonable” house rule).

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