Bad Form
A bad form is any of the transformations the player character can suffer when affected by a beam of polymorph, a weapon of chaos, or a Transmutations miscast effect. Beams can always be resisted with magic resistance if the player didn't zap himself. Mutation resistance doesn't work, but undead players and those already affected by a bad form are immune. Followers of Zin can be protected by their god.
While you cannot cancel a bad form with the End Transformation ability (even if you know the spell that lets you enter the form at will) or change form using Transmutations, you can end a form early by quaffing a potion of cancellation.
These are all the transformations that can happen:
Bat Form : 15.4%
Fungus Form : 15.4%
Pig Form : 15.4%
Tree Form : 15.4%
Wisp Form : 15.4%
Spider Form : 3.1%
Ice Form : 3.1%
Statue Form : 0.77%
Hydra Form : 0.31%
Dragon Form : 0.15%
Strategy
Bad forms generally render you nearly helpless. Very few of them can use any form of weapons or armour; Unarmed Combat specialists have an advantage here, but some forms (like bat form) render even that useless. Furthermore, many of the most common bad forms (bat, fungus, pig, and wisp) outright disable your ability to cast spells; even some of the other forms may hinder spellcasting (spider form) or prevent certain spells from working (for example, tree form prevents Sublimation of Blood and Translocations like Blink from working). Fortunately, wands still work in all forms.
History
- Porcupine Form was removed in 0.20.
- Most bad forms were added in 0.12. A jelly form was added (eats items, acidic attack but terrible defenses, no item use), but disabled before the branch for testing bad forms was even merged into trunk, let alone a stable release.
