yes, there is no restriction I can see that prevents a rage in wildshape. it still costs a bonus action and breaks concentration on any existing spells. like the call lightning example in the phb(druid-wildshape).
I can't remember if you can ENTER a Rage while in Wild Shape form, but you do remain in one if you enter a Wild Shape form WHILE you're Raging. In my Princes Of The Apocalypse party, we had a Hill Dwarf Barb/Druid who used that combo quite often to maximize the essentially free HP from his beast forms.
You can use all of your Barbarian Class Features, and all of your race’s Features while in wild shape. Rage for defense and damage bonus, reckless attack for always-advantage, unarmored defense to bring up your bear’s armor class, and extra attack to make two poisonous spider bites (if in a frenzied rage three bites for 55.5 DPR/H)
its an incredibly good, borderline broken, combo. You can put all of your high Ability Scores into your mental traits for skill checks boosted by always-guidance, and get great defenses against many mind-muddling Magic’s.
Most of the Barbarian primal paths work well, Ancestral Guardian draws the aggro to your invincible body. Totem of the bear makes you truly impenetrable, whole totem of the wolf makes your whole party much more effective. Berserker allows for some crazy damage as it always does but works particularly well with the Giant Spider wild shape.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Learning is power, power corrupts, study hard be Evil.
There was a point made about Rage shapers and unarmored defence. Specifically Unarmored defence cant be used if your wearing armour, all animals have natural armour, and even though that might be just equal to the dex mod its still armour preventing it from ever being applied to a beast form (sad times) other Barb class features will work.
* There was an argument that rage damage increases didn't apply to animal forms as they weren't weapon attacks, but the monster manual states natural weapons are weapon attacks and the only two attack distinctions are weapon and spell. What you should look out for is if a form appears to use dex as its melee score, (check damage modifier against stat modifier) dex based attacks are not allowed to benefit from rage damage.
There was a point made about Rage shapers and unarmored defence. Specifically Unarmored defence cant be used if your wearing armour, all animals have natural armour, and even though that might be just equal to the dex mod its still armour preventing it from ever being applied to a beast form (sad times) other Barb class features will work.
These methods—along with any others that give you a formula for calculating your AC—are mutually exclusive; you can benefit from only one at a time. If you have access to more than one, you pick which one to use. For example, if you’re a sorcerer/monk, you can use either Unarmored Defense or Draconic Resilience, not both. Similarly, a druid/ barbarian who transforms into a beast form that has natural armor can use either the beast’s natural armor or Unarmored Defense (you aren’t considered to be wearing armor with natural armor).
Ah errata that errat's itself into a tangle - BARBARIAN, phb, p.48 "while you are not wearing any armour" MONK, phb, p.78 "while you are wearing no armour" and so regardless of anything the errata might suggest the question having read those lines is does Natural armour count as armour, because its certain that neither a barbarian or monk could choose to use this ability if wearing a leather jerkin providing any ac bonus. If not great, if it does sadface. I for one would like to bow down to our new Barbearian Overlords should such a question be answered in their favour.
Similarly, a druid/ barbarian who transforms into a beast form that has natural armor can use either the beast's natural armor or Unarmored Defense (you aren't considered to be wearing armor with natural armor).
Druid/barb is specifically called out here.
Now I suspect that was probably not their original intention, however this came out around the time Lizardmen became a playable race. They must have realized that they had dug themselves a hole in regards to PC races and NA so they decided to loosen up the rule.
Suspicions notwithstanding That errata is a tangle - One formula choose one not stack 2. Ok so far this makes sense. Now lets get to my point of contention.
If I can choose one then I can choose unarmoured defense when I wear armour, no you cry! Thats crazy unarmoured defense prohibits that, well does natural armour then? No you cry it doesnt, hmmm I look at the examples given, Armoured, Unarmoured (monk, Barb) Draconic res, Natural. Two of those are unarmoured the others? They do not say unarmoured. So we will disagree, and sure its unlikely your games Tortle Monks wont need to use their unarmoured defence to compensate for their 17 base ac for a while and mine will be told It just wont work. The beautiful thing is both games will be different and enjoyable for players, but I will have fewer multiclass dip characters trying to eke out AC and you will be able to use more foes with higher to hit rolls without without accidentally clear cutting the party.
not all beast have natural armor.A tiger has no natural armor listed but a dire wolf does.So I believe you can rage in animal shape,just make sure the beast selected does not have natural armor
Can a moon druid still use the regular action to shift, to follow up with a bonus action rage if mitigation is more important to them than the first round of attacks?
Combat Wild Shape When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you gain the ability to use Wild Shape on your turn as a bonus action, rather than as an action.
You GAIN the ability, there is no indication that you lose the old ability. Obviously there will seldomly be a reason to use wild shape as an action but rage is a solid example.
Cheers!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Would a barbarian mc'd druid be able rage in wildshape?
yes, there is no restriction I can see that prevents a rage in wildshape. it still costs a bonus action and breaks concentration on any existing spells. like the call lightning example in the phb(druid-wildshape).
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
I can't remember if you can ENTER a Rage while in Wild Shape form, but you do remain in one if you enter a Wild Shape form WHILE you're Raging. In my Princes Of The Apocalypse party, we had a Hill Dwarf Barb/Druid who used that combo quite often to maximize the essentially free HP from his beast forms.
There's nothing prohibiting initiating a rage while already in wild-shape as long as you have an available bonus action.
You can use all of your Barbarian Class Features, and all of your race’s Features while in wild shape. Rage for defense and damage bonus, reckless attack for always-advantage, unarmored defense to bring up your bear’s armor class, and extra attack to make two poisonous spider bites (if in a frenzied rage three bites for 55.5 DPR/H)
its an incredibly good, borderline broken, combo. You can put all of your high Ability Scores into your mental traits for skill checks boosted by always-guidance, and get great defenses against many mind-muddling Magic’s.
Most of the Barbarian primal paths work well, Ancestral Guardian draws the aggro to your invincible body. Totem of the bear makes you truly impenetrable, whole totem of the wolf makes your whole party much more effective. Berserker allows for some crazy damage as it always does but works particularly well with the Giant Spider wild shape.
Learning is power, power corrupts, study hard be Evil.
There was a point made about Rage shapers and unarmored defence. Specifically Unarmored defence cant be used if your wearing armour, all animals have natural armour, and even though that might be just equal to the dex mod its still armour preventing it from ever being applied to a beast form (sad times) other Barb class features will work.
* There was an argument that rage damage increases didn't apply to animal forms as they weren't weapon attacks, but the monster manual states natural weapons are weapon attacks and the only two attack distinctions are weapon and spell. What you should look out for is if a form appears to use dex as its melee score, (check damage modifier against stat modifier) dex based attacks are not allowed to benefit from rage damage.
Unarmed defense still works, it just doesn't stack with Natural Armor. You choose one way to calculate your AC or the other.
From the sage advice compendium: http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/SA-Compendium.pdf
Ah errata that errat' s itself into a tangle - BARBARIAN, phb, p.48 "while you are not wearing any armour" MONK, phb, p.78 "while you are wearing no armour" and so regardless of anything the errata might suggest the question having read those lines is does Natural armour count as armour, because its certain that neither a barbarian or monk could choose to use this ability if wearing a leather jerkin providing any ac bonus. If not great, if it does sadface. I for one would like to bow down to our new Barbearian Overlords should such a question be answered in their favour.
Um, just to quote again...
Druid/barb is specifically called out here.
Now I suspect that was probably not their original intention, however this came out around the time Lizardmen became a playable race. They must have realized that they had dug themselves a hole in regards to PC races and NA so they decided to loosen up the rule.
Suspicions notwithstanding That errata is a tangle - One formula choose one not stack 2. Ok so far this makes sense. Now lets get to my point of contention.
If I can choose one then I can choose unarmoured defense when I wear armour, no you cry! Thats crazy unarmoured defense prohibits that, well does natural armour then? No you cry it doesnt, hmmm I look at the examples given, Armoured, Unarmoured (monk, Barb) Draconic res, Natural. Two of those are unarmoured the others? They do not say unarmoured. So we will disagree, and sure its unlikely your games Tortle Monks wont need to use their unarmoured defence to compensate for their 17 base ac for a while and mine will be told It just wont work. The beautiful thing is both games will be different and enjoyable for players, but I will have fewer multiclass dip characters trying to eke out AC and you will be able to use more foes with higher to hit rolls without without accidentally clear cutting the party.
not all beast have natural armor.A tiger has no natural armor listed but a dire wolf does.So I believe you can rage in animal shape,just make sure the beast selected does not have natural armor
rage restriction is: while not wearing heavy armour.
natural armour is fine, to rage in.
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
Can a moon druid still use the regular action to shift, to follow up with a bonus action rage if mitigation is more important to them than the first round of attacks?
Yes
from the rules:
Combat Wild Shape When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you gain the ability to use Wild Shape on your turn as a bonus action, rather than as an action.
You GAIN the ability, there is no indication that you lose the old ability. Obviously there will seldomly be a reason to use wild shape as an action but rage is a solid example.
Cheers!
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.