[RPG] Wild Shape + Master of Many Forms + Spellweaver = Sorcerer casting

dnd-3.5eoptimization

first time posting. I encountered a spellweaver for the first time last night, and now I'm trying to figure out how to be one as a PC.

Five levels of Druid and you can Wild Shape to turn into animals.

Master of Many Forms lets you turn into Monstrous Humanoids at level 3, and assume Extraordinary Special Qualities while Wild Shaping at level 7.

Spellweavers can Spellweave, which is when you can cast up to 6 levels of spells at once by using multiple arms to cast. That's an Ex, so I'm pretty sure it's legit. I'm also pretty sure you still don't gain their spell-like abilities.

But the Spellweaver monster entry also says they can cast spells as a sorcerer two levels higher than their hit dice.

Can a Druid 5/Master of Many Forms 7 gain the ability to cast as a sorcerer when they Wild Shape into a Spellweaver?

Best Answer

RAW, yes, but no one lets that happen.

The spellweaver’s spellcasting ability is not marked Ex, Sp, or Su; that makes it a “natural ability” of the spellweaver. Natural abilities are defined thusly:

abilities a creature has because of its physical nature.

They are also explicitly placed in a category separate from Special Abilities. This is relevant to the text of Alternate Form.

Wild Shape is per Alternate Form, which means a number of things. For example:

  • The creature [...] does not gain any special qualities of its new form.

  • The creature [...] does not gain the spell-like abilities or attacks of its new form.

This spellcasting is not a special quality, is not a spell-like ability or attack.

On the other hand, you do get the form of the alternate creature, by definition. You have the physical nature of the creature you become, and for the spellweaver, that includes spellcasting.

But no one plays that way

This breaks the game into itty bitty pieces. Don’t be the guy who makes your DM explicitly ban it; it’s not good for the game.