Can druids switch between human and wild shapes at will as long as the effect of this ability lasts, including alternating between several wild shapes, or do you need to choose only one?
It would be very interesting if I became a wolf, I could revert to human and wolf at will while the effect of using the wild form lasted. If I switched to bear, for example, or if the duration of the wild form ended, then I should spend another use of it, a pity not to work like that.
The record keeping would be a little complicated, because damage to your beast form and your humanoid form come out of separate HP pools... but not insurmountable. It requires an Action to Wild Shape into a Beast, and a Bonus Action to revert to humanoid, so if the Druid were permitted to shape-shift back and forth... there's some reasonable action economy limitations that would prevent you from doing anything stupid like trying to mix Bite attacks with offhand attacks or spells, or use your humanoid AC offturn with Beast attacks on turn, or that sort of thing. Druids are allowed to maintain concentration while in Beast form but not cast, so being able to pop back to humanoid for a round or two to throw up a new spell and then dive back in would be a definite power boost... but not an out of control one, seems like it would be mostly useful for re-upping self-buff spells that you want to keep concentrating on but which had a shorter duration than your Wild Shape, or for throwing out a utility spell or emergency heal mid-combat before diving back into the fray in Beast mode.
All of which is to say: if your DM wanted to houserule that in their game, I think it would be a useful buff to the Druid, but wouldn't necessarily be gamebreakingly powerful, or too complicated to keep track of. Druids (especially moon druids) are already pretty potent, so they're probably not in a big need of a buff to Wild Shape... but I don't think it would be a very difficult allowance to make. If I were that DM, I'd put my foot down and require you to be going back and forth between the same Beast each time for the duration, instead of swapping freely between Wolf and Riding Horse and Frog as your whims dictate, but it sounds like you already agree on that point.
Can druids switch between human and wild shapes at will as long as the effect of this ability lasts, including alternating between several wild shapes, or do you need to choose only one?
It's one form per use of the power.
Okay, let's say I chose the wild wolf form. Can I transform into a wolf, return to human form as many times as I want for the duration of the ability?
No. Each transformation is a use of the power.
Well, transforming from wolf back to human is not a use of the power, it's just dropping the power. But yeah, 1 charge per wolf.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Each instance of becoming a beast is 1 use of the ability.
If you become a wolf, that is 1 use. If you immediately return to human, then back into a wolf, that is a second use.
It would be very interesting if I became a wolf, I could revert to human and wolf at will while the effect of using the wild form lasted. If I switched to bear, for example, or if the duration of the wild form ended, then I should spend another use of it, a pity not to work like that.
The record keeping would be a little complicated, because damage to your beast form and your humanoid form come out of separate HP pools... but not insurmountable. It requires an Action to Wild Shape into a Beast, and a Bonus Action to revert to humanoid, so if the Druid were permitted to shape-shift back and forth... there's some reasonable action economy limitations that would prevent you from doing anything stupid like trying to mix Bite attacks with offhand attacks or spells, or use your humanoid AC offturn with Beast attacks on turn, or that sort of thing. Druids are allowed to maintain concentration while in Beast form but not cast, so being able to pop back to humanoid for a round or two to throw up a new spell and then dive back in would be a definite power boost... but not an out of control one, seems like it would be mostly useful for re-upping self-buff spells that you want to keep concentrating on but which had a shorter duration than your Wild Shape, or for throwing out a utility spell or emergency heal mid-combat before diving back into the fray in Beast mode.
All of which is to say: if your DM wanted to houserule that in their game, I think it would be a useful buff to the Druid, but wouldn't necessarily be gamebreakingly powerful, or too complicated to keep track of. Druids (especially moon druids) are already pretty potent, so they're probably not in a big need of a buff to Wild Shape... but I don't think it would be a very difficult allowance to make. If I were that DM, I'd put my foot down and require you to be going back and forth between the same Beast each time for the duration, instead of swapping freely between Wolf and Riding Horse and Frog as your whims dictate, but it sounds like you already agree on that point.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Exactly! Thank you Champ Chicken
Oddly, NPC wild shape (e.g. Lizardfolk Shaman) does not have a separate hp pool.