Shattered Kingdoms

I know that polymorphing makes you take on the characteristics of that race, but this seems like a bug to me.
My 144 year old sorceror polymorphs into a human and not even five minutes later I get this:

I died because I was polymorphed into a race that I was too old to be.

Seems reasonable to me. Since you take on all of the strengths and weaknesses of the race you're polymorphed to, seems reasonable that age limit would be one of those strengths or weaknesses.

That. Is. Great.

If that's the case though and polymorph is that thorough of a transformation, then the spell should be more of a permanent thing. You shouldn't have to hold it and it would stay up in non magic rooms, and you would have to repolymorph back into your self. No, it does not seem reasonable since it is still an easily cast off magical effect.

I guess we can add another to the 101 ways to die in SK though...

Well, I would suggest, then, that polymorph not transfer any of the strengths or weaknesses of the race polymorphed into. Meaning a polymorphed deep-elf is still vulnerable to bolt of glory, a non-giant polymorphed to a giant is not granted access to bash, a non-halfling polymorphed into a halfling is not granted hide/sneak.

Just because it's not permanent and is a magical effect is really completely unrelated to the transferance of racial benefits.

This is a feature, not a bug!

You polymorph into a giant and you get bash, but most of your gear falls off and needs resized and as a sorc you'll need a lot of str gear to be able to hold such enormous eq. You polymorph out of a deep-elf and you're no longer vulnerable to BoG, but your INT takes a hit and so on.
However there is no advantage for polymorphing when it comes to age, only drawbacks. You polymorph into a giant when you're older than 85 and you die, so that's no longer an option even though chars supposedly become more wise and intelligent as they age. The inverse however isn't an option. You'll never see a 100 year griffon because as soon as you log out, you drop polymorph and will have to recast it when logging back in. You might be able to prolong a bit, but sooner or later, it'll catch up with you and the char will be dead.
So while most spells become more powerful as time goes on, polymorph becomes less powerful. A 201 year old (deep-)elf hasn't even hit 3/4 of their age and now can only polymorph into the non-playable races.
That's a dumb feature.

As long as you log before a tick, and polymorph before one upon login, you won't die. I'd say that's a feature.

Except that there is no way to know when a tick is coming until you're actually in the game, which means, like I said, you'll only get so lucky for so long.
Allow polymorph to carry over through logging out? Then it's not such a dumb feature, as age can be a strength or weakness, not just a weakness.