Well, this is all off to a wonderfully strange start. Just the way I like things to go too!
And as this is a thread of D&D knowledge (both mechanic and flavor/trivia) I offer this little bit of advice concerning a little of both flavor and mechanics: Polymorphing can be a pain in the arse.
No matter what side you look at it from (the DM, the player polymorphing, or all the other players waiting for someone to polymorph), it does little more than slow down a game session. Imagine your party runs into a group of ogres. You're fighter goes charging in screaming, the rogue ducks aside waiting to sneak attack something, your sleric throws of a mass buff spell of some sort, and then the wizard decides to polymorph into something. Of course, your group didn't expect ogres, so now this player starts flipping through monster manuals, looking for something particularly nasty that he can change into. And unless he/she has something in mind, this can take several minutes. And to anyone who has played D&D can tell you that slowing down combat for more than a minute is not only a mood killer, but earns the one doing the slowing a fair amount of disdain and animosity. On top of all this, once the polymorphing individual has made his selction, it usually turns out be little help in combat, since the big restriction in polymorph lies with your Hit Dice.
There are some obvious ways of reducing this particular problem. One, you can do what the RPGA is doing now and simply restrict or outright forbid polymorph. You know something has become a real piece of crap when the RPGA says "F#@& it! We just won't use it anymore." Then there's the option of restricting its use to non combat situations, when the option to polymorph has usually come about as a part of some plan, and the user already has something in mind, thus cutting down on the slowing down. But the option I use for my games is the "stop-being-lazy-jackass-and-plan-ahead" method. Essentially, anyone who wants to prolifically use polymorphing abilities, must have all stats and data they need to smoothly be their choosen form on stand-by. Generally, if it takes more than six seconds for you to be ready, it's too long.
This has been another download of stuff from my brain to the internet. Enjoy.
"Apparently getting your ass kicked is now part of a complete breakfast." -
Roy Greenhilt,
Order Of The Stick- An Answerer of questions, and Questioner of answers.