Druids and shapechanging

[Vintenar]

So, I am running a PnP campaign with some friends and I have a player who is playing a druid. This druid plans to utilize shape changing into animals and pointed out to me that anything currently in the druid's inventory melds into them when they change.

My question is, what is to keep a druid from completely avoiding a large encounter or dungeon entirely by just changing into a bat/cat/rat (anything that ends with "at") and flying/crawling/sneaking in, taking the Ancient Jewel of Uberness needed to save the castle from impending doom and shapechanging back into said form again. All of course without ever attracting the attention of any monsters/guards/traps.

Now, I know that is a rather harsh example, which could very easily be rectified by DM plot intervention. However, I have a player group that tends to get whiny when I take out the DM nerf bat on their well "thought out" plans. Also, this "item melding" could cause all sorts of other issues such as weight reduction or transporting otherwise hard to move/illegal/weird items.

Any thoughts/rules I don't know of? I thought it would be hilarious as a house rule if druids dropped everything when changing and were naked on changing back (unless they had certain feats for armor etc.) but he didn't like that idea very much.

[Vendrin]

I would just have the dragon smell the rat or whatever. Or limit the melding to non artifacts and stuff.

[danielmn]

Indiana Jones preasure plate trap under the object the PC is going after....

when getting to the object is only half the problem.

[Nalo Jade]

Druidic shapeshifting is a powerful tool...

Be careful not to have the player feel like you are "nerfing" them. They pointed the ability out to you probably because they intend on using it for just that reason.

Let the player know ahead of time that ... Druids and shapeshifting are not unheard of, so they should be careful...

Sight the example given about pressure plates and ... hitpoints ...

IIRC their hitpoints change to match the creatures ... I.E. you may be a bat ... but when you get to the jewel of uberness and trip the trap you didn't see then you go splat.

They are limited in the number of times per day they can shape shift.

They would have to return to normal, grab gem and then shapeshift again.

Have dungeons filled with natural predators for bats and rats ....

But above all ... let him/her use that power, its no fun playing a character that the DM doesn't allow to shine...

Healing is pretty powerful too, would you play a Cleric if the DM's house rules were all heal spells roll a 1 automatically and you must take feats like empower in order to get your healing better...

Balance... and watch the animated disney version of the "Sword and the Stone" ... what if a female rat takes a liking to the druid and wants to get all hot and nasty with him...

[danielmn]

Rathumping FTW!

[Mayhem]

If any player, no matter how stealthy they think they are, wants to go solo into a dragons den, let 'em.

Dragons have, in many cases, genius level intelligence. They are also shapechangers themselves, and so know all about it.

Plus, the cave might easily be inhabited by plenty of other creatures that would geve humans or dragons no problem, but that are going to be really nasty to a rat. Encounter one in a tunnel which is too small to change in, and things will get very bad very quickly...

[hollyfant]

Don't most lairs have an ordinary, simple, old fashioned watchdog? You know, of the sort that sniffs out invisible foes and eats rats, cats, bats and brats?

[danielmn]

Aye, stick a gelatenous cube that takes up the whole freakin tunnel in there. That'll slow em down!

[Rotku]

I love the idea of coming across a cat in a small tunnel, or even a spider or something. If players think of a unique way to tackle a situation though, don't punish them too hard. Just don't let them use the same unique way time after itme and time.

[Mayhem]

Fair point, Rotku, but changing into something small to do sneaking isn't *that* original idea, especially against creatures that have had a loooooooong time to think about defending their lairs.

[Mayhem]

. Also, this "item melding" could cause all sorts of other issues such as weight reduction or transporting otherwise hard to move/illegal/weird items.

Will he be expecting the benefits of any of his magic items in shape-shifted form?

[Rotku]

Fair point, Rotku, but changing into something small to do sneaking isn't *that* original idea, especially against creatures that have had a loooooooong time to think about defending their lairs.

Sure, against a dragon. But against a cave full of orcs?

[Prvt. Bob]

Give the player credit for a good idea but the player, if that person has any sense, knows that splitting up the group for what ever reason is often the path for trouble for the missing PC.

Like people have already mentioned, put things in there that are to test the druid player. Also keep in mind the druid's level. Is this person's druid capable of shape shifting into a tiny creature? That is 11th level off the bat, unless the player is using the Master of Many Forms prestige class out of the Complete Adventurer, then that would be a bit earlier.

Also like a previous post, if there are any "guard dogs" chances are the owner of the place would know of any small tunnels, especially if he owner is a dragon like in a previous post. Remember, dragons have blind-sense out to a far range. They would be aware of a lot of things that the typical adventurer would not be.

For the item melding, yeah that is a sneaky way around encumbrance, but like a post said, make it were the item in question has something about it that makes it where it cannot be melding into any form. Artifacts and relics (being the Ancient Jewel of Uberness) should not be capable of being acquired easily. Have the item in question be in the inventory of a person or creature who knows how to use or make use of some of the functions. Makes walking up in any form and taking it a bit tough.

And after all that, and the player successfully does what he is attempting to do give them props, then make notes on their class features and abilities and make sure it doesn't happen again. You wouldn't want the player thinking they can use the same cheesy trick over and over again.

[Brokenbone]

Treasures lying on floors = sloppy.

Ratproof locks = better.

[Vintenar]

Thanks for all the input on the subject everyone.

After some thought, a very simple solution seems to be to just put in a locked door with no holes around it, forcing the player to shape shift back in order to open it, thus wasting a time per day.

I think, whatever way I used to make it less effective, I would try to also reward them so they don't feel nerfed, such as give them valuable scouting information or notice a trap that otherwise might have killed a member of the party. I might also try to consider that with great reward comes sacrifice, and using such a powerful skill to easily defeat an otherwise insurmountable task might make the players realize they also missed out on a great treasure for example, or freeing an imprisoned goodly aligned creature etc. Basically to let them know that finding the easy work around sometimes leaves things left unfinished.

I do however think that it would be a good tool for getting around Hillsfar which they will eventually be entering, unless anyone here knows whether they have magic wards in place. I figured it would get them fairly far unless they wandered into the Red Wizard enclave, in which case the mages there might just black mail the players into working for them, less they break their secret.