Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Chicken Poly on items would be SO much fun!

Just trying out DOS2 after a long hiatus, nice improvements so far.
The first thing that comes to mind with poly is that it would be awesome to turn an item into a chicken that runs around randomly then turns back into an item. Because the chicken runs randomly it severely limits any blatant abuse (tele is much more simple).

*turns co-op partners much needed potion into a chicken, chicken runs into a group of enemies, checkmate*

*co-op partner is into role play, serious role play partner's seat is suddenly a chicken*

*co-op partner is holding a weapon -> stealth pickpocket and poly chicken -> co-op partner is now holding a chicken -> co-op partner is no longer holding a chicken, weapon has run off*

*co-op partner is cooking, fire place turns into a chicken and runs off*

If you like having a bit of fun with your co-op partner (like me), this just seems like a fairly simple tweak to an existing spell that would be quite fun. Characters that are jesters/tricksters would be immensely pleased.

There may be the argument that turning an inorganic item into an organic animal goes against 'polymorph rules'. Mechanical chicken might fix that if its a problem for players? I don't think its a huge problem, it is magic after all. I think the comic effect of an organic looking chicken far outweighs the more realistic effect a mechanical chicken would bring.

Anyone have thoughts as to whether this would be fun or not? Any situations where this may break the game?

It could be a problem in online multiplayer with random people. Turn an AFKS items all into chickens and steal the items once they turn back into said items. You would have to make sure that player items could only be picked up by the owning player after being turned into a chicken.

I do think it would be a small addition that would add a lot of fun. If anyone can see problems, comment away!

NOTE: I'm assuming that if the chicken dies, the item just appears where the chicken used to be. Otherwise you could lose items permanently, which would not be fun.

The first problem is that you think that would be a "small addition".
The second problem is that it isn't useful for anything except trolling your partner.
The third problem is that it would be very difficult to program and would be insanely buggy.

I don't know about polymorphing just about anything into chickens, but I think a hilarious AND useful skill would be to polymorph barrels into living characters that you can control and run across the battlefield. Polymorphing chests into mimics would awesome too, though both abilities are sort of crossing into summon territory and require several new models.

The term "small" is obviously relative. Its small in comparison with creating an entirely new skill with all the animations, particle effects, programming, textures, mapping and bug fixes (etc) associated with it. Its VERY small in relation to creating an entirely new skill tree. The whole pick-pocket system is pretty much designed to troll your co-op partner, so its pretty clear Larian is on board with trolling your mates. There would obviously be issues that need to be worked out, that is a given with every single thing you change. But that doesn't mean its not worth looking into. Once you look past the difficulties of implementing it, is it something that would be a fun addition to the game? Its not necessarily useful, but it is fun, which is useful in itself.

Another way to do it, would be an "animate object" ability. Basically, anything on the ground (not in your inventory) becomes sentient and is controlled by the player who cast the spell. The objects could simply move by jumping which means you still use the same model, hit box and base size etc. It would mean creating jump animations for each item in game. It would still be work, but would be quite fun. Although I suppose its pretty much the same as using a teleport spell, except its a bit slower moving. It would be fun if NPC's saw an animated object as its own entity, and an animated object attacking an NPC would not aggro the NPC on your party, just on the animated item.

Another way that is more simple, would be to "summon wings" on any object. So it essentially moves the same way telekinesis works, just with flight animations instead.

I'm aware that DOS2 has a long way to go still, and these suggestions are not trying to take away from the resources and time that Larian has to complete and balance the game. Its simply a suggestion for another way to make DOS2 even more fun