Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Harmor 09-12-04, 03:03 PM	I'm confused in the description of Alter Self (http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/theraven_stephenh/spells/Alter_Self.html). If you change size categories, become large or become small, does your equipment resize to you? For example: I'm a human and I Alter Self into a Ogre. Does my equipment change size with me or meld into my form?
Iku Rex 09-12-04, 03:22 PM	I'm a human and I Alter Self into a Ogre. Does my equipment change size with me or meld into my form?According to the rules of the game, no. According to the Rules of the Game (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040525a), yes. In general, a change from one form that has a humanoid shape to another form that has a humanoid shape leaves all equipment in place and functioning. The subject's equipment changes to match the assumed form. It becomes the appropriate size for the assumed form and it fits the assumed form. --Skip Williams
carnivore 09-12-04, 03:54 PM	iku rex is correct except the rules do say yes even in the spell description: from the SRD: When the change occurs, your equipment, if any, either remains worn or held by the new form (if it is capable of wearing or holding the item), or melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional. When you revert to your true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on your body they previously occupied and are once again functional. Any new items you wore in the assumed form and can’t wear in your normal form fall off and land at your feet; any that you could wear in either form or carry in a body part common to both forms at the time of reversion are still held in the same way. Any part of the body or piece of equipment that is separated from the whole reverts to its true form.
Seeker95 09-12-04, 07:35 PM	Much as iku and I tend to find ourselves on opposite sides of the issue, he is right about the spell description "as written". What carnivore quotes does not mean items change size. It means you don't have to worry about what happens to things you cannot use in your new form. If you get large, you can still use a longsword made for a medium creature. But you suffer the penalties associated with using a weapon not made for your size. However... Skip's Rules of the Game article clears up some difficulties associated with the spell in general -- if items cannot change size, then what happens to the clothing of a skinny caster who assumes the form of a fat humanoid (whether medium or not)? Does he become a naked fat orc because his new form can't wear his skinny clothing? By applying a size-changes-too interpretation, you eliminate the micromanagement height and weight adjustment headache. Your clothes continue to fit if your new form can wear clothing. So too do your weapons and armor change, if your new form can use weapons and wear armor.
Harmor 09-12-04, 08:53 PM	So your equipment changes to your size. 1. Do thrown weapons revert to their normal size when they leave your body? 2. Do projectile weapons do damage based on the size of the weapon that fired them?
Lawrence 09-12-04, 09:23 PM	Normally, size changing did not include non-magical gear. Nearly all magical armor resizes to fit its wearer, be they brand new or changed via spell/power. But it stays as it is. leather is always leather, and always provides the same bonus. magical weapons don't apply unless they're specifically designed to change size. Some spells do state the armor/weapons grows with you, but most simply say: "If you can use it, you can have it. and if you can't, then it gets sucked into your belly". But, DM's are entitled to polite editing, and it could have changed from 3.0 to 3.5. *shrugs* As far as I recall, any spell that directly changed size (enlarge, expansion, whatever) always refers to weapons and armor changing with you. spells like polymorph, however, didn't.
Seeker95 09-12-04, 10:36 PM	1. Do thrown weapons revert to their normal size when they leave your body? 2. Do projectile weapons do damage based on the size of the weapon that fired them?1. Yes. 2. No. :D
tarkin 09-13-04, 11:03 AM	1) ranged weapons/ammunition does revert to size. 2) officially weapons do the damage based on smaller size. This is illogical from a physics perspective, but is apparently a magical issue. Why is it illogical? Because there is a "Law of Conservation of Energy" not a "Law of Conservation of speed". Total energy remains constant, speed fluctuates to keep energy constant. I.E. Throw a boulder weightin 40 pounds at 20 miles an hour. Energy = 800 pmh (Pound-Miles-Hour( In air, it changes to a 10 pound object. It's energy is still 800 pmh, so it should therefore be traveling at 80 miles per hour, and do the same damage. Note, officially, the conservation of energy rule DOES prevent the reverse action from doing "extra" damage unless the spell/item specifically says so. I.E. If you shrink an 20 lb rock to 1 lbs, then throw it at 20 miles per hour and before it hits cause it to increase in size back to 40, it ends up traveling at 1 miles per hour, and should do no more damage than if you had just thrown a regular 1 lb rock.
Iku Rex 09-13-04, 11:20 AM	2) officially weapons do the damage based on smaller size. Cite?