When seen by detect magic, a polymorphed beast will glow magical (Transmutation). Since the creature is magical, do their attacks count as magical for overcoming resistances?
[RPG] Are a polymorphed beast’s attacks magical
damage-resistancednd-5epolymorph
Related Topic
- DND 5E Spells Magic Summoning Damage Resistance – Do Attacks from Conjure Animals Count as Magical?
- Dnd-5e – Do Attacks from Bag of Tricks Creatures Count as Magical
- Polymorph Beast’s Innate Abilities – Can Beast’s Innate Abilities Be Used While Polymorphed in D&D 5E?
- DND 5E Druid Wild Shape – Are Natural Weapon Attacks Magical?
- [RPG] When specifically stated “this weapon is magical for overcoming resistances” does that mean it does full damage against a character in rage
Best Answer
Usually no
A polymorphed beast has the stats of whatever it has been changed into. Unless the creature it is transformed into has some ability that makes their attacks magical, the creature's attacks are not inherently magical.
For example, a Barbed Devil, does not have any features that make its attacks magical. Nor does the more powerful Bone Devil. However, when we get to the extremely powerful Pit Fiend, we see the feature 'Magic Weapons', which states:
A general rule is that more powerful creatures, or creatures with a lot of magical lore, will exhibit a feature like this. Sometimes it will appear described as something else, like with the Deva's Angelic Weapons:
The key to knowing if a creature's attacks (physical and ranged) are considered magical is some feature in the stat block says they are.
As an aside, I did a quick review of all the beasts available on DNDBeyond and could not find any beasts that had an ability similar to what I've described above. This does not mean that won't change in the future with the release of additional content, but for the purposes of this question, it seems that across the board all beasts' attacks are non-magical.