Sage Advice
Dragon Magazine #104, November 1990
"Sage Advice" is a regular column where readers can write in
with questions about the rules. This particular question was related to
the girdle. (The response is more detailed than I would have expected,
but certainly doesn't offer the player much hope of finding a cure. Needless
to say, I like the author already.  )
One of my characters was recently tricked into donning a girdle
of femininity/masculinity. What options do I have for getting the character
back to normal? If the character finds another such girdle and puts it
on, will this change him back? My DM says this won't work because the
item's description says a wish has only a 50% chance of restoring the
character's original sex. Obviously, a polymorph other spell could restore
the character, but I'm leery of dispel magic and anti-magic spell shells.
It isn't often that I get a question with so many...possibilities.
What a wish will do is irrelevant in this case; the girdle's
absolute power to change the character's gender is stronger than the wish's
general power to remove misfortune. (Several powerful miscellaneous magical
items are more potent within their limited portfolios than wishes
are.) If the character dons a second girdle, he might have his gender
restored, or he might lose all gender�and your DM might rule that this
is more likely than the standard 10% chance (DMG, page 170), since the
character is fiddling around with things best left alone. But your characters
gender will be altered if he puts on a second girdle, as
these items are quite potent.
There is nothing in the polymorph other spell listing to suggest
that secondary characteristics like age or gender can be altered by the
spell. Individual DMs are free to include the ability to change gender
along with form, but players shouldn't count on it without consulting
the DM. Furthermore, assuming that your DM does allow polymorph other
to change gender, there would be at least at 50% chance that the
attempt would fail. A wish certainly is more powerful than the
4th-level polymorph other. If the character was polymorphed
back to his original gender, a system-shock roll would be required. A
successful dispel magic would change the character back to the
"wrong" gender and would require another system-shock roll.
You are quite right to be worried about anti-magic shells, but
note tha an anti-magic shell cannot permanently dispel a long-term
effect such as polymorph other. The effect temporarily dampens
magic, it does not dispel it. If the polymorphed character entered
an anti-magic shell, he would be forced back into the "wrong"
form, and this would require a system-shock roll. Upon leaving anti-magic
shell, the character immediately would resume the "correct"
form, and another system-shock roll would be in order.
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