Wouldn't it be harder to generate fire, ice, and whatever the else out of thin air than transform something that already exists?
You could ask the same about technology. Why is it that we can produce a flame easily but not rewrite a whole person?
It seems completely reasonable that something that is altering a functioning living being into another form at every level, while keeping it alive, would be far more complex than generating a blob of something elemental. Especially when elemental is, by definition, the simplest form.
Just a matter of how logical you want your magic system to be vs "it's magic, don't worry about it."
Edit: But I have no idea what the garbage in OP is from, so if it's a no-rules system, I agree.
Boom. If they cast a spell they'd actually change sex just like they would actually turn a person into a crow or a snake.
But then there'd be no controversy. That person IS, as a matter of fact, the thing they changed into.
They actually enjoy the idea of pretending to be something they aren't and then either A) getting everyone else to knowingly validate the lie. Or B) you don't acknowledge them and they play the victim.
Either way they get attention and try to make others endure a humiliation ritual.
You could ask the same about technology. Why is it that we can produce a flame easily but not rewrite a whole person?
It seems completely reasonable that something that is altering a functioning living being into another form at every level, while keeping it alive, would be far more complex than generating a blob of something elemental. Especially when elemental is, by definition, the simplest form.
Just a matter of how logical you want your magic system to be vs "it's magic, don't worry about it."
Edit: But I have no idea what the garbage in OP is from, so if it's a no-rules system, I agree.
Boom. If they cast a spell they'd actually change sex just like they would actually turn a person into a crow or a snake.
But then there'd be no controversy. That person IS, as a matter of fact, the thing they changed into.
They actually enjoy the idea of pretending to be something they aren't and then either A) getting everyone else to knowingly validate the lie. Or B) you don't acknowledge them and they play the victim.
Either way they get attention and try to make others endure a humiliation ritual.
It's Dragon Age, it's the Harry Potter rule of "magic does and doesn't do whatever is convenient to the plot"