Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Branto 06-13-07, 12:32 AM	Yeah, I'm guessing the answer is no, but just to be absolutely certain.. using Alter Self are you limited to only turning into actual pre-existing species (and if that's that case.. how do you turn into something you aren't familiar with? Wouldn't you need to like, have actually met one, or make a knowledge check or something?) or could you basically say.. "I turn into a human.. with bony plates for a natural armor bonus" or "I turn into a Large version of me." or even what was suggested in the thread title, a human with wings? Now that I think of it, turning into "yourself with ____" would probably qualify as a template, wouldn't it?
runestar 06-13-07, 12:41 AM	It must already exist in a splatbook, though your dm is free to decide just how familiar you must be, since its exact boundaries are not delineated in the spell's desc. If it is a winged humanoid you want, you will want the avariel found in races of faerun. It is basically a winged elf.:)
Bedevere 06-13-07, 03:16 AM	IIRC, all the old polymorph type spells, Alter Self included, specify you turn into an average member of the species. Therefore, unless the average member of the human species in your game have wings, bony plates, or heat beam eyes, this little trick is going to need some more work from you... :)
Kevin Andrew Murphy 06-13-07, 04:22 AM	Rather than go with the "average member of the species" business, I go with the "analogous form" rule, so if you're a big burly human, you become a big burly elf or whatever. As for winged men, tailed men and so on, you need to either have personally met these various monstrous humanoids or else succeeded in a Knowledge Nature check to know that in the Jungles of Akk, there are people with monkey tails, and if you were a person with a monkey tail, you would look like this. I think it's also very possible that soon, in a D&D world near you, Green Hags will be able to walk down the streets undisguised and be able to claim with all believability that they're just ordinary mages who polymorphed into that form for the armor bonus.
El_Machinae 06-13-07, 10:39 AM	There's a winged humanoid in the Races of the Wild; their HD restrictions on flight would need to be debated with the DM, though.
Mai_ariti 06-13-07, 01:37 PM	There is a Humanoid race for almost any situation and if push comes to shove, you can become an average member of one of the 'elemental races' from Unearthed Arcana, Air Humans to fly or what have you. . .
NobodyRemembersThis 06-13-07, 02:03 PM	Elemental races are native outsiders, not humanoids. So that's a no go.
utilitarian 06-13-07, 02:06 PM	Aye, Winged Elf or Raptorian are your best bets for this sort of thing.