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you into a form that is unlike your original form (subject to GM discretion). If your new form does not
cause your equipment to meld into your form, the equipment resizes to match your new size.
While under the effects of a polymorph spell, you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities that
depend on your original form (such as keen senses, scent, and darkvision), as well as any natural attacks
and movement types possessed by your original form. You also lose any class features that depend upon
form, but those that allow you to add features (such as sorcerers that can grow claws) still function. While
most of these should be obvious, the GM is the final arbiter of what abilities depend on form and are lost
when a new form is assumed. Your new form might restore a number of these abilities if they are
possessed by the new form.
You can only be affected by one polymorph spell at a time. If a new polymorph spell is cast on you (or you
activate a polymorph effect, such as wild shape), you can decide whether or not to allow it to affect you,
taking the place of the old spell. In addition, other spells that change your size have no effect on you
while you are under the effects of a polymorph spell.
[Descriptor]
Appearing on the same line as the school and sub-school, when applicable, is a descriptor that further
categorizes the spell in some way. Some spells have more than one descriptor.
The descriptors are acid, air, chaotic, cold, curse, darkness, death, disease, draconic, earth, electricity,
emotion, evil, fear, fire, force, good, language-dependent, lawful, light, meditative, mind-affecting, pain,
poison, shadow, sonic, and water.
Most of these descriptors have no game effect by themselves, but they govern how the spell interacts
with other spells, with special abilities, with unusual creatures, with alignment, and so on.
• Acid: Acid effects deal damage with chemical reactions rather than cold, electricity, heat, or
vibration. This descriptor includes both actual acids and their chemical opposites, called bases or
alkalines (such as ammonia and lye).
• Air: Spells that create air, manipulate air, or conjure creatures from air-dominant planes or with
the air subtype should have the air descriptor.
• Chaotic: Spells that draw upon the power of true chaos or conjure creatures from chaos-aligned
planes or with the chaotic subtype should have the chaos descriptor.
• Cold: Cold effects deal damage by making the target colder, typically by blasting it with
supernaturally cooled matter or energy. Cold effects also include those that create ice, sleet, or
snow out of nothing. They can cause frostbite, numbness, coordination problems, slowed
movement and reactions, stupor, and death.
• Curse: Curses are often permanent effects, and usually cannot be dispelled, but can be removed
with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish.
• Darkness: Spells that create darkness or reduce the amount of light should have the darkness
descriptor. Giving a spell the darkness descriptor indicates whether a spell like daylight is high
enough level to counter or dispel it.
• Death: Spells with the death descriptor directly attack a creature’s life force to cause immediate
death, or to draw on the power of a dead or dying creature. The death ward spell protects
against death effects, and some creature types are immune to death effects.
• Disease: Disease effects give the target a disease, which may be an invading organism such as a
bacteria or virus, an abnormal internal condition (such as a cancer or mental disorder), or a
recurring magical effect that acts like one of the former. Creatures with resistance or immunity to
disease apply that resistance to their saving throw and the effects of disease spells.