New to DnD and I'm loving druids capabilities but I'm a little confused by the health points and how it works. In the druid class features, it says that you "assume the beast's hit points and hit dice" but I read an unofficial guide say your hit points don't increase even though the official material says "assume" the hit points. The wild shape description also states "When you revert to your normal form, you return to the number of hit points you had before you transformed" unless it's because you revert because your hit points hit zero. They give an example of how the hit points work with the spell but it didn't make sense to me. Before the example the book talks about the druid taking excess damage if (your presumably wild shape form) drops to 0HP forcing you to revert, then gives an example saying you take damage and "have only 1hp left" so revert and take damage.
So my question is:
Does wild shape almost act like a secondary health bar?
EX: Let's say I choose to turn into a Brown Bear that has 34 HP. If I choose to transform back to normal at say 20HP do I take no damage or do I still subtract 14HP from my health? What if my druid only has 12 HP left b4 using wild shape, do I get knocked unconscious and revert once the Brown Bear form takes 12 damage?
True. All druids are Tanks. Even a non-moon druid can wildshape so they are all tanks.
While non moon druids can wildshape with very few exceptions they do not want to do so in combat. A level 3 druid can wild shape into something like an elk but 13hp will not last long with an AC of 10 and wild shape requires an action for them. Offensively they will generally be much weaker in wildshape. A typical combat might take the form
Round 1 wildshape
Round 2 make an attack (loses wildshape form
Round 3 use second wild shape
Battle is over before 4th Round action
Even if they get a charge in they will do much less damage they do compared to cantrips and this ignores the various subclass options, for example my stars druid can use wildshape to go into archer form effectively doubling damage output.
As stated above: during WS, your HPs are the beasts HPs. If the beast is reduced to 0 HPs, WS ends and you return to your druid form with all of your druid's HPs before they WS-ed. If the beast takes damage that would take it below 0, your druid incurs the extra damage. With limited weapons (scimitar, club or quarterstaff are the druid weapons that do the most damage) and being limited to non-metal armor, their AC is always below martial classes. They're not designed for melee combat. All druids have are spells and wild shape. And their spells are limited to battlefield control, summoning and healing. For most druid subclasses, WS is for utility purposes, e.g., scouting, fleeing, etc., rather than combat. The Moon Druid is the exception. If the DM allows a Moon Druid to WS into any CR 1 beast at level 2 and doesn't enforce the requirement that the druid must have seen the beast they're WS-ing into, the Moon Druid is a total tank at level 2. (I hope the scaling of Moon Druid level-beast CR level gets fixed in 1DND.) Their tanky-ness lasts until around level 6 when other martial classes catch up to them for DPR in melee combat. After level 6, druids are likely spellcasters first, and WS-ers second. At level 10 Moon druids can WS into elementals, which provide a lot of HPs, but doesn't provide the DPR that martial classes provide at level 10. Air elementals provide the most DPR, the earth, water and fire elementals don't prove a lot of DPR. But elementals have immunities (and the air elemental has a good fly speed) so elementals are most effective situationally.
New to DnD and I'm loving druids capabilities but I'm a little confused by the health points and how it works. In the druid class features, it says that you "assume the beast's hit points and hit dice" but I read an unofficial guide say your hit points don't increase even though the official material says "assume" the hit points. The wild shape description also states "When you revert to your normal form, you return to the number of hit points you had before you transformed" unless it's because you revert because your hit points hit zero. They give an example of how the hit points work with the spell but it didn't make sense to me. Before the example the book talks about the druid taking excess damage if (your presumably wild shape form) drops to 0HP forcing you to revert, then gives an example saying you take damage and "have only 1hp left" so revert and take damage.
So my question is:
Does wild shape almost act like a secondary health bar?
EX: Let's say I choose to turn into a Brown Bear that has 34 HP. If I choose to transform back to normal at say 20HP do I take no damage or do I still subtract 14HP from my health? What if my druid only has 12 HP left b4 using wild shape, do I get knocked unconscious and revert once the Brown Bear form takes 12 damage?
Any damage dealt to the wild shape's HP does not transfer to your HP.
If the wildshape has less HP than the damage it takes, the extra damage carries over. If you play magic, it is like trample.
Moon druids are super tanky because they effectively have 3 HP pools.
Hope that helps.
True. All druids are Tanks. Even a non-moon druid can wildshape so they are all tanks.
While non moon druids can wildshape with very few exceptions they do not want to do so in combat. A level 3 druid can wild shape into something like an elk but 13hp will not last long with an AC of 10 and wild shape requires an action for them. Offensively they will generally be much weaker in wildshape. A typical combat might take the form
Even if they get a charge in they will do much less damage they do compared to cantrips and this ignores the various subclass options, for example my stars druid can use wildshape to go into archer form effectively doubling damage output.
As stated above: during WS, your HPs are the beasts HPs. If the beast is reduced to 0 HPs, WS ends and you return to your druid form with all of your druid's HPs before they WS-ed. If the beast takes damage that would take it below 0, your druid incurs the extra damage. With limited weapons (scimitar, club or quarterstaff are the druid weapons that do the most damage) and being limited to non-metal armor, their AC is always below martial classes. They're not designed for melee combat. All druids have are spells and wild shape. And their spells are limited to battlefield control, summoning and healing. For most druid subclasses, WS is for utility purposes, e.g., scouting, fleeing, etc., rather than combat. The Moon Druid is the exception. If the DM allows a Moon Druid to WS into any CR 1 beast at level 2 and doesn't enforce the requirement that the druid must have seen the beast they're WS-ing into, the Moon Druid is a total tank at level 2. (I hope the scaling of Moon Druid level-beast CR level gets fixed in 1DND.) Their tanky-ness lasts until around level 6 when other martial classes catch up to them for DPR in melee combat. After level 6, druids are likely spellcasters first, and WS-ers second. At level 10 Moon druids can WS into elementals, which provide a lot of HPs, but doesn't provide the DPR that martial classes provide at level 10. Air elementals provide the most DPR, the earth, water and fire elementals don't prove a lot of DPR. But elementals have immunities (and the air elemental has a good fly speed) so elementals are most effective situationally.
Started playing AD&D in the late 70s and stopped in the mid-80s. Started immersing myself into 5e in 2023