Conjure Woodland Beings + Polymorph

Question

I have a question for you. The spell Conjure Woodland Beings allows the druid to conjure pixies. Pixies can cast the spell polymorph. From the Player's Handbook:

The transformation lasts for the duration, or until the target drops to 0 hit points or dies. The new form can be any beast whose challenge rating is equal to or less than the target's (or the target's level, if it doesn't have a challenge rating).

Here the question occurs to me:

Is it possible to turn a level 12 player into a Tyrannosaur (CR 8) for example? I understand yes, since the player does not have a CR, consequently as the spell says its level can be taken as reference. Thank you

Answer 1

Yes, you can turn a level 12 character into a T-Rex

You cite the correct text from polymorph

The new form can be any beast whose challenge rating is equal to or less than the target's (or the target's level, if it doesn't have a challenge rating)

The character as a target of the spell does not have a CR, so you use its level. The CR of the T-Rex is 8, equal or less to that level of 12. So you can turn the character into a T-Rex.

Please note that the DM gets to decide what kind of fey you summon with conjure woodland beings. As the player, you only can decide the number and maximal challenge rating of the fey creatures you want, the DM decides the actual creatures to appear -- for example they could have sprites appear instead of pixies. If you get pixies however, then you can have them polymorph the character.

If you are wondering how a CR 1/4 pixie from conjure woodland beings could be able to create a monster that is that much more powerful than itself — it doesn't, it is merely transforming one creature that is already powerful into another. The power issue with conjure woodland beings is more that you can generate a lot of actions with 8 creatures, and that with pixies you get 8 level 4 polymorph spells by casting a single level 4 spell. That is the reason some DMs may be careful about giving you pixies with it.

Answer 2

If the DM allows the pixies, it works as described.

If the DM permits the pixies, this is quite straightforward. The pixies can cast polymorph, and since they obey your commands, you can tell them who to polymorph into what, according to the limitations provided in the description of polymorph, as you describe in your question. However, there is an important caveat here:

The DM decides what creatures are conjured.

This is addressed in the Sage Advice Compendium:

When you cast a spell like conjure woodland beings, does the spellcaster or the DM choose the creatures that are conjured?

Some spells of this sort specify that the spellcaster chooses the creature conjured. Other spells of this sort let the spellcaster choose from among several broad options.

The design intent for options like these is that the spellcaster chooses one of them, and then the DM decides what creatures appear that fit the chosen option. A spellcaster can certainly express a preference for what creatures shows up, but it’s up to the DM to determine if they do. The DM will often choose creatures that are appropriate for the campaign and that will be fun to introduce in a scene.

So for this to work, the DM has to permit the summoning of the pixies. Every DM I have tried this with has not allowed this because of how obscenely powerful it is, and I've forbidden it before in my own games. So the important thing here is:

Ask your DM about this before you try it in play.

This is the sort of unbalancing loop hole that DMs really like to be briefed on before they come up in the game. Again, this combo is obscenely powerful for what it costs, and it can be a source of sore feelings when it is a surprise. Once the party planned their assault of a chapter villain around summoning pixies and polymorphing the whole party into a gang of giant apes, while assuming that the caster was allowed to choose. They didn't tell me, the DM, of their plans, and had never used conjure woodland beings before. When the moment came, the druid declared:

I use conjure woodland beings to summon eight pixies!

I took the wind out of their sails when I informed them that they didn't get to pick, and I would be choosing randomly which sort of creature appeared:

You don't get to choose, it's up to me, and I like to determine it randomly. Do you still want to cast the spell, or do you want to take a mulligan?

The druid decided to take the one in four chance for pixies, and ended up with a pack of rabid blink dogs. The dogs still helped, but all of their eggs were in the basket of giant apes, and the druid was pretty salty about the plan not working out, and improvising their way through the fight made it far more difficult than they were expecting.

Answer 3

Yes, but it might be short-lived.

Conjure Woodland Beings requires concentration, and the conjured fey disappear when the spell ends. The target's game statistics, including mental ability scores, are replaced by the statistics of the chosen beast. Polymorph requires concentration (by the fey), and the polymorphed creature returns to its normal form when the spell ends.

However, there's nothing that says a tyrannosaur can't concentrate, even if they can't spellcast. In fact, the game-makers have spoken on this! Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford are members of the rules design team at WotC.

So even though a tyrannosaur doesn't have spellcasting, it won't immediately lose concentration on Conjure Woodland Beings, causing the fey to disappear, causing the Polymorph effect to end. It is subject to the same concentration rules as before, only using a different Constitution score and set of Proficiencies. Tyrannosaurs have no proficiency in any Saving Throws, but luckily, they have a decent +4 Constitution bonus to their Concentration (CON) saving throw.

Also, that Pixie concentrating on the Polymorph spell has only 1 HP, and they take turns on their own initiative, giving your opponents time between the spell and your first NOM-NOM-NOM.

Answer 4

Yes, mechanically conjure woodland beings can summon pixies, and pixies can polymorph a level 8 or higher character into a tyrannosaurus.

But, have you met pixies? Have you met T-Rexes?

It may not work out like you expect.

Maybe you want pixies, but you don't get pixies

First of all, as other answers have provided, what woodland beings you get is GM-dependent.

This should be a conversation with the GM

Every D&D game is different. Some GMs will give the caster exactly the creatures they want, in other games, they never will, and everything in between. In some games, summoning a pixie is like creating a little pixie robot stat-block, to do or die at your orders and never be thought of again. In other games, you have snatched a tiny fey from its life of magically painting flowers or whatever, and bound it to your will through the power of your magic.

So, absolutely, talk with your GM ahead of time.

What kind of druid are you?

You're a druid.

Druids:

Druids revere nature above all, gaining their spells and other magical powers either from the force of nature itself or from a nature deity. Many druids pursue a mystic spirituality of transcendent union with nature rather than devotion to a divine entity, while others serve gods of wild nature, animals, or elemental forces.

Consider your relationship to the summoned pixies. Do you care for their welfare?

The GM may consider your relationship to these pixies as well. Maybe they actually come from a forest you're familiar with.

But yes, you can successfully rip eight pixies from their homes to serve your bidding.

What's a pixie?

Read the description.

They're pixies. Yes, they "are friendly to you and your companions", because the magic compels them to, and "[t]hey obey any verbal commands that you issue to them", because the magic compels them to, but beyond that, they behave like . . . pixies.

If I'm the DM, summoned pixies likely immediately go invisible and hide, and might have arrived invisible. They may well flee, or cast detect thoughts, or even phantasmal force. A particularly interesting development is that they may choose to cast dispel magic, ending their summoning, and returning them home. Now, they don't have any special information that they're there because they've been summoned, but they know something's up, and dispel magic is a reasonable response.

In fact, I'm not sure they don't stand a good chance of figuring out what's going on here and casting dispel magic anyway, unless you manage to command them not to first.

Oh, and there's at least some chance that a given pixie already cast polymorph today. Hopefully you didn't pick the day they had planned for the polymorph fights, where they play hide and seek, trying to turn each other into butterflies.

But, let's assume you get your pixies and your polymorph.

Fear the tyrannosaurus!

I assume the whole point of this is to be able to multi-cast polymorph. Maybe you want to turn your whole party into tyrannosaurs.

This will work, just fine. But, you now have an intelligence of 2. You have no language. You're still you, but you no longer have any reasoning ability, beyond what an intelligence of 2 gives you.

In our games, the way we play that, is that whatever the PC knew before the polymorph to low intelligence, they still know, but dimly. They can have one basic plan, decided beforehand, and that's it. If there's more than one polymorphed PC, then at best, some inter-player communication through nudging or such, is allowed.

This interpretation's worked out pretty well. What has not worked out as fun for us is letting the PC have the stat-block of the t-rex or similar, but actually play it like it isn't dumb as a rock. It's too cheap, and it's not as much fun.

So, yeah, you get your gang of t-rexes to run out there and nom on those guards.

In conclusion

Mechanically, what you ask works as you've speculated, but it is highly GM-dependent.

Finally, in speculation, there are some very interesting possibilities, all highly dependent on the specific game, GM, players, and characters, but food for thought.

What if, summon woodland creatures did actually summon creatures from a place you specifically knew? What if you, as a druid, could work to attain a level of friendship with the pixies there? What if you could earn their trust and respect, and then when you summoned them, they were allies summoned at a moment's notice, not kidnap victims?

Is this RAW? Of course not. Sometimes RAW is used as a way to view D&D like a video game. RAW shouldn't be the end of the ruling, but the beginning.

As for the t-rexes, make half of them giant apes. Six t-rexes charging out of the woods at a castle is terrifying, but 3 t-rexes ridden by giant apes is actually far more deadly. With 7 intelligence, they are comparative geniuses. And they still don't have "language", but they can definitely communicate. They'll nom the guards, bust through the gate, and nom those guards, too.

RRRRRaaarrrr!