When you perform a controlled polymorph, you are only able to turn into monsters which have HD equal to or lower than your level. If you are using a mask, or if you are polymorphing randomly, it treats you as being 10 levels higher than your actual one.
Lycanthropic and vampire shapeshifting polymorphs are exempt from this restriction.
Dipping a corpse into a potion of polymorph “keys” the potion to that specific monster type: if it is used to polymorph the player or a monster, they will be turned into the same monster type as the corpse used. The corpse and potion are not consumed by being dipped.
If the monster is no-polymorph, nothing happens.
If the potion is used to polymorph an object, it does not do anything unusual, unless the object is a type for which species matters, in which case the potion changes its species to the keyed type, which can be useful for changing a figurine to something specific.
If in a variant that has potions of specific monsters’ blood, this can also be created by dipping polymorph into monster blood or vice versa.
Telepathy currently sees things with minds. Change it (or perhaps change only the amulet of ESP, leaving other telepathy the same) so that it sees things with souls instead of minds. Mostly this corresponds with the same monsters (with a few exceptions such as mummies which are animated by the soul of the dead person), but if a monster with a soul is polymorphed into a form that normally doesn’t, it retains its original soul, and shows up as its original form to ESP.
Additionally, ESP shows the spirit of a humanoid with a soul just after you kill it if you’re blind, making some angry or resigned gestures before fading away.
Polymorphed monsters appear as “hazy [monster]” in messages, to indicate to the player they will time out and go back to their normal form eventually.
Controlled polymorph does not ask you what you want to turn into. Instead, it picks a random monster and asks you whether you want to turn into that, and you can only say yes or no.
Chaos dragon: a dragon with polymorphing breath, and whose scales grant unchanging. The dragon also has unchanging naturally (which raises the question of what happens if you polymorph into it, then die).
Add a system for casting ritual spells: more powerful and more expensive spells which have some esoteric effects you can’t get otherwise. The main differences between ritual and normal spellcasting are that they consume valuable, hopefully non-renewable components, take a number of turns to cast instead of taking effect instantly, and may require you to be in or set up certain circumstances.
Various ritual spells that have been proposed:
Ritual spells come in spellbooks like usual, but aren’t stored in your spell list. Instead, reading the spellbook prompts you if you want to begin its ritual and tells you the necessary ingredients and circumstances you need to satisfy as preconditions. If you meet all the conditions and answer yes, you initiate the ritual. (For simplicity, this should probably burn up / expend all the components instantly.) You cannot begin a ritual while in the process of casting another ritual; this should probably be implemented as a precondition.
Apart from the component cost, rituals act as a constant drain on your Pw until the ritual is complete. If something distracts you in the middle of the ritual, you can go take care of it and then resume the ritual as long as you have the Pw left to finish it. (You could also drink gain energy during the ritual.) The only way for a ritual to fail, possibly backfiring with bad effects, is for you to run out of Pw while it is incomplete.
In addition to its preconditions, each ritual also has some postconditions: common to all rituals is that you have been casting the ritual for at least some length of time, but there may be others, such as standing on the square where you began the ritual, or have another item, or kill a monster, or something. There may also be other conditions such as “moving off the space where the ritual started breaks and halts the ritual”.
Every time you stop casting a ritual (whether it succeeded or failed), it increments the spellbook’s spestudied field; the book will eventually disintegrate after casting it a certain number of times.
Add a Druid role: intended to be a more balanced form of SLASH’EM’s doppelganger race, druids are highly attuned to nature and possess innate shapeshifting abilities.
Make #polyself a non-wizard-mode-exclusive command. When used in regular play, it will:
When you attempt to polymorph an item that has polymorph magic (wand/spell/potion of polymorph, tin of meat that may cause a polymorph when eaten, etc) it explodes and creates one or more monsters affiliated with polymorph magic, such as polymorph vortices (see YANI #3669), genetic engineers, or similar.
Polymorph vortices, a monster which has a passive polymorph attack (i.e. hitting it in melee polymorphs the attacker; hitting it with missiles polymorphs the missiles) and once per turn polymorphs either one random item from its inventory, a monster it has engulfed, or a random item from that monster’s inventory. Player-style magic resistance prevents the effects to a creature or its possessions that would otherwise be affected.
Uranium wands have a small but persistent chance of causing radiation-based effects: “[The wand] momentarily glows with a sinister green light!” or “The wand momentarily feels very warm!” When this happens, one of two effects happens, each with a 50% chance: the victim takes 2d6 points of damage unless poison resistant, or the victim polymorphs.
The chances are as follows:
Eating a uranium wand as a metallivore should cause you to mutate (polymorph), either once immediately or by giving you some duration of polymorphitis.
If you polymorph uncontrolled while wielding a unicorn horn, you may become a unicorn corresponding to your alignment.
NetHack should contain something that turns you specifically into a newt.
Displacer beasts may drop a hide, which can be enchanted or otherwise crafted into a cloak of displacement. (Or else this could just work with a displacer beast corpse which could be enchanted/polymorphed/crafted, without requiring a new object for the hide).
Controlled polymorph does not allow you to become whichever polyable monster in the game you want. Instead, you are presented with a menu of several different random polyable monsters to choose one of.
Eating a wand of wishing polymorphs you into a djinni.
Hitting a shambling horror with polymorph should not polymorph it into something else; instead it should rerandomize its stats and attacks.
This would be better if shambling horrors were randomized per monster rather than per species; it doesn’t make much sense to polymorph a horror on dungeon level 20 and a preexisting horror on dungeon level 17, or new horrors that haven’t even generated yet, get rerandomized.
Artifact tinning kit that makes special tins out of corpses; the tins when eaten polymorph you into that monster.
Polymorphing while wearing crystal plate mail, leather armor, or iron mail can cause you to merge with the armor and turn into that respective material of golem (glass, leather, or iron), with the armor returning unbroken when you revert back to your normal form.
With polymorph control, you can only polymorph into creatures that you have seen before in the game. You can still opt to not choose something to turn into, which could still give you a random form.
In wizard mode, the #polyself command (and only that) enables you to polymorph into a non-allowed form, with a confirmation prompt and/or warning message.
A polymorphed monster will turn into a monster of similar difficulty to its current form, rather than a monster of difficulty appropriate to the current dungeon level.
When a container is polymorphed, its contents spill out onto its square rather than vanishing. The contents do not get polymorphed from the same source.
Polymorphing into any Tiny monster, or a Small non-humanoid monster, allows you to get free of any iron chain around your ankle even if your new form still has legs.
Make it so that dying in a polyform carries a severe, possibly permanent penalty, such as losing some Constitution, maximum HP, or forcing you to a low percentage of current HP regardless of what you had when you first polymorphed.
Eating too much royal jelly polymorphs you into a killer bee.
When you polymorph into a monster which reduces your carry cap so that you’re burdened or worse, you automatically unequip and drop your worn items until you are unencumbered.
New Biologist role, which revolves around polymorphing monsters, brewing potions (probably non-alchemically), and possibly collecting samples from monsters.
Possibly, they start with a number of potions of booze, but are penalized for drinking booze; it’s intended to use for brewing with samples. They also possibly have a guidebook describing recipes (other roles can do this too, but lacking a guidebook they won’t be able to do it very well).
Starting equipment may contain:
One take on the quest: it sees you fighting the Black Mold (a mold that constantly multiplies itself and attacks with random elemental damage, including possibly disintegration, when touched). The quest artifact is the Elixir of Immortality, but this is not possessed by the nemesis; instead you have to brew it yourself using an ingredient found on the goal level and which will be destroyed by the Black Mold if you don’t get there first. The Elixir isn’t needed; the quest is counted complete if you destroy all the Black Mold.
They can get Expert in only a few skills, including knife.
They are penalized for “animal testing”, which is polymorphing or otherwise abusing living peaceful or tame monsters. Or possibly it’s okay as long as the subject isn’t killed. However, they are rewarded for other forms of experimentation.
Add a random throne effect that polymorphs you into a level-appropriate royal monster.
Replace the existing polyself nerf that 20% of polymorphs turn you into your own race. Instead, have it so that the longer you stay polymorphed, each successive polymorph has a shorter duration. If you stay in your normal form for a while, polymorphs will return to their original duration.
Stat shuffling through self-polymorph should be slightly biased towards reducing stats.
When you fail to polymorph and get the “new man/woman” message, prior to this print a message that makes it clear that the polymorph fails. You don’t get this message when you deliberately try to polymorph into your own race.
Polymonsterless conduct: you never intentionally polymorph a monster. (Though defining “intentionally” is probably quite tricky.)
You can wish for “polymorph”, which makes you polymorph. Possibly you get control over the polymorph.
Spell of baleful polymorph: a beefed-up version of polymorph (or an advanced form) that, when it polymorphs a monster, allows you to determine what to change it into. Perhaps this does not work on pets, so you can’t give yourself a army of titans.
Polymorphing a corpse does not turn it into random food, but instead turns it into the corpse of a random level-appropriate monster. Discards any oextra information about the previously existing monster.
An artifact that occasionally polymorphs the monsters it hits.
Polymorphing into a big scary monster like a dragon or minotaur causes some monsters (failing a resistance roll?) to flee.
Polymorph beams stop at the first square on which there’s an object or a monster they affect. In addition, golem formation is made much more aggressive and item-destructive to discourage one-large-stack polypiling.
A race where you start polymorphed into a low level monster and with every level you gain, you can polymorph into a stronger monster.
If you polymorph, and are not helpless, all of your torso armor that has a delay of 1 or less and isn’t stuck under slower armor is automatically removed. This includes all cloaks and shirts.
The chance of failing to polymorph into a target monster (whether chosen randomly or intentionally) depends on the base level of that polyform relative to your own level.
Polymorph traps do not instantaneously polymorph you; instead they start a short timer during which the player has time to either stop the polymorph from occurring (through healing potions, or prayer, or some other decently common consumable) or put on a ring of polymorph control or amulet of unchanging. However, magic resistance no longer protects against this effect.
Polymorphing a highly enchanted object will vaporize it if it turns into something that normally can’t be enchanted that high.
Players can polymorph dungeon features by zapping a polymorph beam down at it, with some special cases:
