Question: In trying to set reasonable limits on a PC's usage of the polymorph chain of spells. Is it plausible to require that the PC have some form of interaction with the target creature? Or can a PC polymorph into a creature that the PC has only heard about? Or read about in a book? Or seen just a painting of? From a solid role-playing standpoint, it seems reasonable to require that a) the creature exists in the multi-verse that the DM is running, and B) the PC has some knowledge of the creature. What is the minimum "knowledge" that the PC must have in order to polymorph into such creature?

Answer: 
Polymorph Effects Are Dangerous
-------------------------------

It is a **very** good idea to limit them. At the extreme, changing into a Sarrukh from *Serpent Kingdoms* while using Assume Supernatural Ability (*Savage Species*) or *shapechange* is the opening gambit for becoming Pun-pun, a character with **+Yes** to everything and every ability ever published (and arguably abilities not published, as well).

So you definitely want to limit them somehow.

This Rule is Not Enough
-----------------------

If you implement this rule, you will now have to second-guess every monster you ever use. You’ll probably never use a Sarrukh, but you might use, say, a Dire Tortoise (*Sandstorm*). A smart Wizard or Druid will see that, and from then on get to act in every Surprise Round ever – even if there wouldn’t otherwise *be* a Surprise Round. You can, of course, nerf the Dire Tortoise, but a lot of players will cry foul if you do that after you used it.

Two Real Solutions
------------------

### Trust Your Players

This is the simple one. You don’t even need to add your houserule if you just trust your players. I’d really strongly suggest that, if you cannot trust your players, your group has bigger problems than Polymorph. Make it clear to all players that Polymorphing is something very dangerously powerful, and you will **not** appreciate it if players use it to break the game. That should be enough for most players to keep things reasonable.

Thematically, you may want certain limits, but you don’t have to say it’s specifically having encountered the animal. It seems thematically appropriate for a Wizard to be able to take the forms of animals he’s studied in intimate detail. And it’s also fair for a Druid to include encounters with a variety of animals in his backstory, and you could argue that Nature/the spirits of animals themselves are lending him their forms, even creatures he’s never met. It depends on how magic works in your setting.

### Ban Open-Ended Polymorph Effects Altogether

Replace the Druid’s Wild Shape with Shapeshifting from *Player’s Handbook II*. Ban *alter self*, *polymorph*, *polymorph any object*, and *shapechange*. Use the spells from the [Polymorph] subschool introduced in *Player’s Handbook II* – unlike e.g. *polymorph*, those spells each have a single form you can take.

Alternatively, you might consider a spell that is like *wild shape I* that lets you turn into a creature from the *summon nature’s ally I* list, or a *polymorph III* that lets you get creatures from *summon monster III*. Those lists are rather limited and should prevent the greatest abuses. In fact, they may be *too* weak – consider having *wild shape I* use the *summon nature’s ally II* list, and *polymorph I* might even use *summon monster III* – the Celestial and Fiendish templates really do very little for a player character, since the main draw is the Intelligence bonus. I have not actually looked at the lists, though. Ideally, really, you’d create all-new lists that are tailored to each level.
I've taken to a risk v reward method for Polymorph. I make only one simple alteration. If you nat-1 on a Polymorph, you accidentally summon whatever you were trying to alter yourself or others into.

Nice and tidy, it deters anyone from doing anything too terrible or dangerous and is rare enough that occasional massive risk can result in great fortune. It retains the power of the spell, while preventing it from being abused.

A potential addition that I considered but didn't include was increasing the failure rate for monsters that the player hasn't encountered before or hasn't passed a knowledge test to know about. That could work, but the risk of accidentally making the battle unwinnable seems to be enough for my players.