Try and get a familiar and communicate through it?
I have a Pixie Dragon (special circumstance in my game) as a familiar, who I communicate telepathically with, and then it communicates with another member of the party (4 of the 6 speak draconic).
You could have one of the parties carry around a deck of cards. Each suit would mean something different and the face cards would each mean something different as well. Kind of like a Tarot deck without the Majors. Assuming that one person in the party is good friends with the Druid, a lot can be communicated with just a deck.
With my Dire Wolf form (love Circle of the Moon for getting me those fierce animals early!) we've kept it brief. My DM reminded me that I do have my human-form intelligence and sense of self, so a little bit of Lassie/Littlest Hobo "Timmy fell down the well" miming has worked for anything that's come up so far.
I've toyed with the idea of taking a piece of leather and marking it with symbols and letters (similar to ouija board) and giving it to another character before I wild shape. Then I can point/tap out messages.
Druids cannot speak in wild-shape, no. However, they can wildshape into forms with the ability to speak (i.e. those with mimicry) and they could still definitely write in soft soil or such by scratching out a message. Spiders also have the ability to spin web, so there's that. However, most of the time, it's probably worth it to just eat the short rest unless time is of the essence. In that case, maybe do some of the above suggested by other people in having things pre-arranged for druid communication.
You might also homebrew interpret a high-level-but-not-archdruid druid being able to perform verbal components of a spell while in wildshape as them being able to finally speak as an animal, but that isn't explicitly given.
Being able to speak a language is listed in the beasts stat block and since changelings can't change game statistics with shape change, I wouldn't allow it in my game.
My Druid has a large piece of leather he gives to another party member. One side has words like “safe, danger, back, forward, up, down.....” and the other has all letters and numbers. When he is wild shaped and does not want to change back he goes over to that piece of leather and uses it to point out what he’s trying to communicate. That’s used more for scouting and not in a combat or time sensitive situation obviously.
From personal experience there are multiple ways to describe how you translate information. I had a hermit druid that would be the party's horse for a majority of the adventuring (he didn't like towns, so blended in as the horse). At low level, he would whinny or snort to reflect a good/bad reaction to things, which also works as yes/no. As we got to higher level, we had a totem barbarian (so could speak with animals as a ritual) and had a bard with a instrument of the bards (Fochlucan bandore) which also allowed for Speak with Animals.
I did manage to achieve one session online (it was a Roll20 campaign) when my microphone broke to respond to everything using purely gifs of the horse from Tangled. Trust me, it worked.
At high level, since you can cast in wild shape, I used mold earth as a method of literally writing in the dirt.
Your best options are either to take two levels of Great Old One in Warlock for the Telepathy or have someone else in your party gain Speak with Animals to allow for fluid communication. That said, it is best to remember that Wildshape doesn't last forever and is EXTREMELY limited. Half your Druid level rounded down. Once you Wildshape, the counter starts ticking. Meaning, if you are doing an exploratory mission at level 10, you only have 5 hours. You don't need to waste half of that communicating via a Ouija board type system. Keep communication simple and straight forward if it cannot be done fluidly. I always have the DM, if I'm playing, keep tabs of in game time - or I keep reminders going. For instance, if you are in a party disengaging traps or casting a ritual. In real life, that moment may have only taken a couple minutes, in game it could have taken a good hour or more. You don't want to take the wild shape for granted and waste it. Make the most of it and don't overthink or overcomplicate communication.
Y’all are making this so much more difficult that it needs to be. The druid can just... write. In whatever language they want.
Though it was hilarious watching the druid in my game trying wildly to communicate with gestures to someone with an INT of 8 for twenty minutes before I reminded his player that written language exists.
Example...change into bat for stealthy searching an area. Would like to communicate direction to party. Possible?
have a party member cast speak with animals? That'd be easy. or telepathic bond or something. Alternatively you could be sneaky - take magic initiate wizard ( take find familiar) use your telepathic bond to your familiar - choose raven with mimic - speak through your familiar
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It doesn't matter how smart you think are you. No one will want to work with you if you're an *******.
If you allow UA material, 1 level in Sorcerer (Psionic Soul) does the trick. Two way telepathic contact with a party member for d4 hours at range d4 miles :)
Y’all are making this so much more difficult that it needs to be. The druid can just... write. In whatever language they want.
Though it was hilarious watching the druid in my game trying wildly to communicate with gestures to someone with an INT of 8 for twenty minutes before I reminded his player that written language exists.
Technically, no, they can't. Mechanically speaking Druids actually lose the languages they speak when they transform; language proficiency is not one of the things that are maintained when wildshaping.
Even if they didn't... what kind of fine motor control do you think animals have? Writing isn't that easy, when you don't have thumbs.
First, you retain the benefit of any feature from class/race/whatever, so long as the new form is capable of using it. This includes languages, which are for the most part racial features. Of course, “your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your beast form.”
Second, have you truly never seen a child write a message with one finger dipped in paint?
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Luckily this hasn't been much of an issue with my group because the Bard has Message.
If I'm not talking to the Bard then I just point in a direction and the others usually follow me.
If the wildshape druid can't talk, how can they whisper a reply?
Yeah, Message would not work for this. It's not telepathy.
Try and get a familiar and communicate through it?
I have a Pixie Dragon (special circumstance in my game) as a familiar, who I communicate telepathically with, and then it communicates with another member of the party (4 of the 6 speak draconic).
No one tell my DM that
You could have one of the parties carry around a deck of cards. Each suit would mean something different and the face cards would each mean something different as well. Kind of like a Tarot deck without the Majors. Assuming that one person in the party is good friends with the Druid, a lot can be communicated with just a deck.
With my Dire Wolf form (love Circle of the Moon for getting me those fierce animals early!) we've kept it brief. My DM reminded me that I do have my human-form intelligence and sense of self, so a little bit of Lassie/Littlest Hobo "Timmy fell down the well" miming has worked for anything that's come up so far.
I've toyed with the idea of taking a piece of leather and marking it with symbols and letters (similar to ouija board) and giving it to another character before I wild shape. Then I can point/tap out messages.
Druids cannot speak in wild-shape, no. However, they can wildshape into forms with the ability to speak (i.e. those with mimicry) and they could still definitely write in soft soil or such by scratching out a message. Spiders also have the ability to spin web, so there's that. However, most of the time, it's probably worth it to just eat the short rest unless time is of the essence. In that case, maybe do some of the above suggested by other people in having things pre-arranged for druid communication.
You might also homebrew interpret a high-level-but-not-archdruid druid being able to perform verbal components of a spell while in wildshape as them being able to finally speak as an animal, but that isn't explicitly given.
I've been pondering a changeling druid...
Since a changeling can change their voice... Would a changeling druid be able to alter their voice box while in beast form and be able to speak?
Being able to speak a language is listed in the beasts stat block and since changelings can't change game statistics with shape change, I wouldn't allow it in my game.
My Druid has a large piece of leather he gives to another party member. One side has words like “safe, danger, back, forward, up, down.....” and the other has all letters and numbers. When he is wild shaped and does not want to change back he goes over to that piece of leather and uses it to point out what he’s trying to communicate. That’s used more for scouting and not in a combat or time sensitive situation obviously.
From personal experience there are multiple ways to describe how you translate information. I had a hermit druid that would be the party's horse for a majority of the adventuring (he didn't like towns, so blended in as the horse). At low level, he would whinny or snort to reflect a good/bad reaction to things, which also works as yes/no. As we got to higher level, we had a totem barbarian (so could speak with animals as a ritual) and had a bard with a instrument of the bards (Fochlucan bandore) which also allowed for Speak with Animals.
I did manage to achieve one session online (it was a Roll20 campaign) when my microphone broke to respond to everything using purely gifs of the horse from Tangled. Trust me, it worked.
At high level, since you can cast in wild shape, I used mold earth as a method of literally writing in the dirt.
Current Player In: The Guild as Elsara Deepmoon
Your best options are either to take two levels of Great Old One in Warlock for the Telepathy or have someone else in your party gain Speak with Animals to allow for fluid communication. That said, it is best to remember that Wildshape doesn't last forever and is EXTREMELY limited. Half your Druid level rounded down. Once you Wildshape, the counter starts ticking. Meaning, if you are doing an exploratory mission at level 10, you only have 5 hours. You don't need to waste half of that communicating via a Ouija board type system. Keep communication simple and straight forward if it cannot be done fluidly. I always have the DM, if I'm playing, keep tabs of in game time - or I keep reminders going. For instance, if you are in a party disengaging traps or casting a ritual. In real life, that moment may have only taken a couple minutes, in game it could have taken a good hour or more. You don't want to take the wild shape for granted and waste it. Make the most of it and don't overthink or overcomplicate communication.
They need an "animal shape speaks with party" spell.
A good DM would make the druid role play "Charades" with party. Would be awesome live streamed.
Y’all are making this so much more difficult that it needs to be. The druid can just... write. In whatever language they want.
Though it was hilarious watching the druid in my game trying wildly to communicate with gestures to someone with an INT of 8 for twenty minutes before I reminded his player that written language exists.
have a party member cast speak with animals? That'd be easy. or telepathic bond or something. Alternatively you could be sneaky - take magic initiate wizard ( take find familiar) use your telepathic bond to your familiar - choose raven with mimic - speak through your familiar
It doesn't matter how smart you think are you. No one will want to work with you if you're an *******.
If you allow UA material, 1 level in Sorcerer (Psionic Soul) does the trick. Two way telepathic contact with a party member for d4 hours at range d4 miles :)
Technically, no, they can't. Mechanically speaking Druids actually lose the languages they speak when they transform; language proficiency is not one of the things that are maintained when wildshaping.
Even if they didn't... what kind of fine motor control do you think animals have? Writing isn't that easy, when you don't have thumbs.
So, neither of those things is true.
First, you retain the benefit of any feature from class/race/whatever, so long as the new form is capable of using it. This includes languages, which are for the most part racial features. Of course, “your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your beast form.”
Second, have you truly never seen a child write a message with one finger dipped in paint?