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http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic#TOC-Transmutation

While under the effects of a polymorph spell, you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities that depend on your original form (such as keen senses, scent, and darkvision), as well as any natural attacks and movement types possessed by your original form. You also lose any class features that depend upon form, but those that allow you to add features (such as sorcerers that can grow claws) still function. While most of these should be obvious, the GM is the final arbiter of what abilities depend on form and are lost when a new form is assumed.

Being Elven means being immune to sleep (and getting other bonuses to charm spells and whatnot), which is presumably either Ex or Su and not a spell-like ability (the entry doesn't say). Does this mean Elves are no longer immune to sleep spells when polymorphed into something else?

Related:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/alchemist/discoveries/paizo---alchemist-discoveries/mummification-ex

The alchemist’s type does not change, but he becomes immune to cold, nonlethal damage, paralysis, and sleep.

This is an ex ability, and it isn't something that is "activated" (like a draconic bloodline sorc claws ability, explicitly pointed out in the transmutation text above). Is it lost when polymorphed?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The link to the Alchemist's Mummification discovery seems odd; is there a particular reason you're linking it, or is it just that it calls Mummification (which, in turn, grants immunity to sleep) an Extraordinary Ability? \$\endgroup\$
    – minnmass
    Jan 12, 2017 at 23:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ Just as separate questions about related abilities to contrast against each other--they both grant sleep immunity, but are the ways they grant sleep immunity different enough for the two to be treated differently by poly spells, or do they get consistent interpretations (whatever that interpretation ends up being)? \$\endgroup\$
    – A. Wilson
    Jan 12, 2017 at 23:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ah. My take on it is that Mummification is but one way that PCs can get immunity to sleep without playing an race with that ability (albeit one of the few from a quick search). That Mummification itself is Ex doesn't necessarily mean that the abilities it, in turn, grants are Ex, nor that the same ability granted via a different path would also be Ex in that case. \$\endgroup\$
    – minnmass
    Jan 12, 2017 at 23:56

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No, they don't.

Nowhere in the elf page is it said that their immunity to sleep is (Ex) or (Su). It's also implied by the fact that in the race builder the immunity to sleep in "Elven Immunities (2 RP)" is not marked as supernatural or extraordinary ability, whereas others are.

However, it depends on the GM's interpretation.

While most of these should be obvious, the GM is the final arbiter of what abilities depend on form and are lost when a new form is assumed.

Cases can be made both for and against that. The elven immunities could be a part of their physical qualities, like a dragon's fire-breathing ability or a spider's web spinner. In that case, it would be polymorphed away. On the other hand, they could be an inherent quality of the elven mind - it just working so different from other creatures' that it doesn't even know the concept of sleeping. So it's up to the GM.

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    \$\begingroup\$ The GM caveat's a given of course. To the other point, elemental immunities are also on the race builder list, and are not Ex or Su abilities, but are commonly modified by polymorph spells (particularly high-level Giant Form and Elemental Body). Do racial elemental immunities persist through polymorph by the same reasoning? \$\endgroup\$
    – A. Wilson
    Jan 12, 2017 at 23:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ Signs point to "yes", unless the race explicitly calls them out as such. I wouldn't be surprised if your GM is stingier with elemental resistance/immunity coming along with a polymorph than they are with elves not needing to sleep, though (arguing that the resistance/immunity is dependent on the creature's form - thick skin/racial heritage/etc...). \$\endgroup\$
    – minnmass
    Jan 12, 2017 at 23:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ All sounds plausible to me, I think I've played enough Devil's Advocate for now \$\endgroup\$
    – A. Wilson
    Jan 13, 2017 at 2:59

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