Fria Ligans forum

Hi everybody.
Last session one of my players has casted "Animal Form" in an unsafe way and got a mishap 62-65 which includes a line "A shapeshift goes horribly wrong and you become a dumb animal."
So now he is just a normal eagle.
He really wants to get back to normal but I don't see any described way to do this. I guess it's not supposed to exist simlar to how witches in Pratchett's books can become an animal forever if they submerge into its mind for too long, but I still want to give players a chance to accomplish it.
Of course I don't want too make it too easy because otherwise this mishap effect would not make any sense.
By now they already managed to help Virelda a copule of times and I'm thinking of using her to send the players on a quest to find some material or an artifact for a potion or a ritual that will return PC to his (somewhat) normal goblin self.

Have anyone ever encountered a similar request from a player and how you have played it out?
I would be grateful if you could share your ideas on this.

I would allow him to re-cast the spell, even though he is now a dumb animal, but I would require him to instinctively really want it, so whenever his character really needed to be goblin he will re-cast the spell. But until then he have to play as a dumb animal and that would mean to flee, hide, whatever the animal normally do and I would also restrict when he can push (only when it fits the animal type).

A complex issue. Shapeshifting allows to change the form, but NOT back. The caster must use the spell again to transform back, what means that spellcasting must be possible in animal form, despite a change of intellect. It is open to debate whether only Shapeshifting (to morph back) is possible or any spellcasting, but we agreed that if you can use Shapeshifting anything else would be possible, too, even though with limitations (e.g. w/o ingredients that cannot be carried/used in animal form).
However, I am not certain if this applies as a result of a Magic Mishap. In this case I'd reduce the PC to NPC status, without any ability of spellcasting by her/himself. There might be a ritual available to remove this curse/status, though. IMHO, the Magic Mishaps must be applied strictly because the risks they bear for the spellcaster are the only element that balances the benefits of spellcasting. You literally play with fire, and it can (and SHOULD) burn you.

Also note that the caster can only change her/himself - if the spell affects someone else through a Magic Mishap, there is NO regular way to bring the victim back to the original form; this happened in our troupe, upon re-transformation; thankfully the misdirected spell "hit" a nearby jaybird - if it had hit one of our non-human party members, this would have created multiple problems... But since then we have had to take care of a "new" human woman NPC with a bird's intellect, what has been quite entertaining, and we found out in the meantime that she has a lot of Rogue talents... Again, special ritual might exist to revoke the accident.

I would allow him to re-cast the spell, even though he is now a dumb animal, but I would require him to instinctively really want it, so whenever his character really needed to be goblin he will re-cast the spell. But until then he have to play as a dumb animal and that would mean to flee, hide, whatever the animal normally do and I would also restrict when he can push (only when it fits the animal type).

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A complex issue. Shapeshifting allows to change the form, but NOT back ....

All options kinda make sense. I also agree that rules should be applied strictly, but description of a mishap is kinda vague and allows some players to make you go insane with perpetual arguing.
While I was thinking which one should I pick (some ritual or him shapeshifting back out of pure will) I made player create a new temporary character and after 1 or 2 sessions he kinda forgot about the old one. So, I guess he is gonna stay an animal forever.

"That's life", esp. in druidic circles.

mishap 62-65 which includes a line "A shapeshift goes horribly wrong and you become a dumb animal."

I read this mishap, the second most deadly one, as an alternative way to describe that the caster is dead, or depending on the spell, likely dead.