For five levels Hikaru the wizard was happy to be a burn mage. He picked up a Fireball spell, started leveling as Elemental Savant... and discovered it wasn't enough. Every combat was the same: Haste, Fireball, lots of magic missiles. It was rote, it was dull, and it wasn't doing enough damage to take down the monsters like it used to. Besides, irritating party members getting in front of his fireballs. Hikaru decided it was time for a change. He switched his studies from Knowledge skills to Tumble and Move Silently. He quit the boring Fire Savant prestige class and practiced as basic wizard for just a little longer. On gaining seventh level he allocated some feats he'd been saving and picked up a pair of swords... He went out adventuring with his party again, not really telling them anything was different. When a group of levelled orcs attacked, rather than the usual Fireball tricks he polymorphed into an annis hag and waded into melee combat. The combat... well, let's just say it didn't go well. Part of this stemmed from the fighter's initial confusion about whose side the hag was on. The party did not win, though they did all escape alive. There was a bit of an argument once everyone got back to the city. The party was unhappy: they'd taken him on as a burn mage, they wanted a burn mage, and a burn mage he would stay. The party fighter didn't want the competition, and the cleric and druid had some sort of squeamish objection to fighting alongside an annis hag. Hikaru and his party parted ways, on less-than-ideal terms. Fine, said Hikaru. He bought himself a Hat of Disguise and got used to wearing it. He changed his name to "Zagato" and made up a story about how he was a wandering knight, exiled from some foreign country in some sort of horrible injustice that he hoped someday to avenge. (When pressed for further details, he would claim not to want to talk about it.) He wandered off looking for another party to join as a melee fighter. ============= Implementation details: Zagato's annis hag form is 7'7" tall - just barely Large size. Zagato's human form is 5'7" tall. A Hat of Disguise can compensate for a one-foot change in height, so Zagato maintains a constant height of 6'7" whether polymorphed or not. The spell Polymorph Self lasts for an hour per level. Zagato memorizes two per day, giving fourteen hours of combat-effectiveness. When those run out, he tries to get the party to stop and rest.