Beast Shape and my new campaign

[hdan]

So one of my players is playing a Tribal Shaman, and decided to blow nearly half his starting spell level allotment on Beast Shape.

But the description for (Beast) Shape doesn't include a duration, and the spell costs 4 MP to cast. Which seems like quite a lot of MP for a standard duration spell.

Looking at other 4 MP "transformative" spells, it seems that "INT Minutes" rather than "INT Rounds" is the rule for such 4 MP spells.

Is the lack of duration in (Beast) Shape a simple typo or omission? I supposed a consensus answer isn't critical, since I've already decided to make it "INT Minutes" for consistency, but I'm still curious.

Also, how do you handle wounds taken while in (Beast) Shape? In many other rules and traditions, shifting will also heal you to a greater or lesser extent.

I'm inclined to say that any minor wounds are healed during the shift, but major wounds and death wounds stay with you. Since the Beast form is likely to have different HP, any major wounds will be "shifted" back as the Major Wounds level. IE, a 10 HP character shifts into a 20 HP Tiger. That tiger takes 12 HP of damage in one swipe, The character shifts back, and suffers a 5 HP major wound. Had the Tiger taken 4x3 HP wounds, the character would shift back at full health. OTOH, maybe it's ok to say that the character won't survive the shift back without some healing first in Beast form. Thoughts?

 

The player's reason for choosing this spell is actually quite wonderful - his character is the son of the Tribe's shaman. He and the other player's character (Minor Noble from the same Tribe - 3rd Son of the Chief) were out studying Nature when their village was attacked by an enemy tribe. They Sensed something was wrong in time witness the destruction, and had to fight off 3 enemies on horseback. (Ranged attacks and "Agony" while they closed helped a lot) After a chaotic and grisly struggle involving some rather special attacks with the Prince's broadsword and the Shaman's sorcerous attacks, the two managed to escape with their lives and a pair of horses. That night, the Panther Spirit visited the Shaman's son in a dream, telling him of his father's death, granting him the Panther Shape spell, and departing with the cryptic statement, "When you are worthy, I shall return."

Now two of my players are hiding out in a nearby town, with their scant bronze trickling away on stable fees and food while they try to figure out what to do next. Revenge is an obvious path, but they are not ready. This campaign has gone in a completely different direction than I first imagined, and everyone is loving it. I have one more player to introduce. She wasn't present last night, and I don't know if she'll choose to be another escaped tribe member or someone entirely different.

The setting is shaping up to be in the vein of "Jason and the Argonauts" crossed with "Conan" - a Mythological Greek "Black Sea" type setting, rather than the more classic Medieval style.

[Nick J.]

I have done it RAW and it seems to work just fine that way, but do whatever works for your game. At first blush, I think the minutes vs. rounds duration is no deal-breaker; it just makes it five times longer, I could see allowing that. However, I think effectively rolling a healing spell into the transformation is farther than I would go. Of course if you did combine a "heal" into the transformation, you could always just make it a 6-8 MP spell and rename it to something like Greater Beast Shape (8)?

Sounds like a fun setting and very reminiscent to my Antediluvian alternate-Earth setting I created.

 

[hdan]

You're probably right about the auto-healing. I suppose that applying wounds directly, and just killing the character if they exceed the caster's original HP capacity is just a danger of using that spell.

Since I plan to allow casting while in "beast form", the caster could either cast Heal(2) or use Physik (licking the wound?) to try to mitigate damage before the spell expired.

Maybe the concession will be that wounds will never convert "up" to major wounds during transition to a form with fewer HP, but will effectively stay single minor wounds, just with a huge HP cost.

Duration is only an issue if the player has shifted in order to get better stealth or something, and is out scouting. I think I'll go with Minutes for that reason. The player wants it to be hours, so he could shift for a day, but I'm not so sure about that. (In this case, he's a Shaman, and the Puma Shape is tied to his "spirit animal", so I might allow it for thematic reasons. But I'm not sure.)

And one other question that isn't really addressed in the RAW - what happens to the shifted character's equipment? I think I'm going to have it shift with them for my campaign, especially if the shift is only a few minutes long.

[Nick J.]

Here's another possibility. Tie in some progression for the power/duration of beastshape with the Allegiance system. If the character reaches apotheosis in The Balance, then perhaps they can transform into a given beast shape for POW hours?

With respect to equipment, I suppose I'm old-school and don't want things to be too easy for players. I have equipment drop off of them (or clothes/armor rip if they assume a larger SIZ creature's shape).

No wrong answers here, just matters of taste.

[hdan]

Ooh, I like the idea of tying in to the Allegiance system.