A Druid's Quandary

[calar]

Hey guys. I'm currently DMing a campaign that has had a situation come up that I am unsure of how to rule as a DM. The party was running away from a Greater shadow after having run out of spells and having few tools otherwise to combat it. The party druid uses wild shape to change into a polar bear and decides to attack the shadow straight on (not knowing that mundane bear claws would have no effect anyway). The shadow beats him down to within an inch of his life and he is forced to run. Here's the thing. The shadow did enough strength damage to kill the druid if he hadn't wildshaped, but not enough to kill him as a bear. I ruled that breaking wildshape would instantly kill him since the strength damage would surpass his normal base strength.

Now, every caster in the party is out of spells, and the druid has only 7 and a half hours left of his wildshape. He was thinking that as an elf he could rest for the night, only requiring 4 hours of sleep, and then spend an hour to prepare a bunch of lesser restorations to save himself (he has natural spell).

My questions are:

1. First, am I correctly ruling that the strength damage would carry over after breaking wildshape thus killing him instantly?

2. If an elf druid is wildshaped, does he "meditate" the 4 hours as an elf or sleep 8 as a bear?

3. Can wildshaped druids prepare spells?


Any help would be much appreciated. Please cite core source material if you can.

[Tyger]

1. Yes. The ability damage hasn't been healed, so it carries over.

2. Meditate for 4 hours due to elf type. The alternate form ability, upon which wildshape is based specifies that "The creature retains the type and subtype of its original form." That's from the SRD on alternate form.

3. No reason he can't, so long as his wildshape duration is long enough. The ability specifies that the "effect lasts for 1 hour per druid level, or until she changes back." Doesn't provide any limitations on what you can or can't do during that time period.

[LOTRfan]

Strength damage can't kill you, even if reduced to 0. You are thinking of Constitution damage.

[calar]

Strength damage can't kill you, even if reduced to 0. You are thinking of Constitution damage.If it comes from a shadow, yes it can.

[Tyger]

Strength damage can't kill you, even if reduced to 0. You are thinking of Constitution damage.

Except the Shadow entry notes that any creature reduced to zero strength by the Shadow's attacks dies.

[LOTRfan]

Whoops, sorry. :smallredface:

[Cog]

A Druid can only prepare spells (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/divineSpells.htm#preparingDivineSpells) at a particular time of day, so simply resting for a bit isn't good enough.

How much excess Strength damage did the character take? If they can get to a town, a wand of Bull's Strength might be enough to tide them over.

[calar]

A Druid can only prepare spells (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/divineSpells.htm#preparingDivineSpells) at a particular time of day, so simply resting for a bit isn't good enough.

How much excess Strength damage did the character take? If they can get to a town, a wand of Bull's Strength might be enough to tide them over.He needs to recover 8 strength and the nearest town is currently being burned down by wizards. Bull's Strength only lasts a few minutes anyway. As for the time of day its not really a problem since its almost dawn anyway.

[Cog]

Even better. The recent casting limit (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/divineSpells.htm#divineRecentCastingLimit) applies, so hopefully not all of those spells were used too recently, but unlike arcanists, divine casters don't need sleep to prepare spells.

[calar]

Even better. The recent casting limit (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/divineSpells.htm#divineRecentCastingLimit) applies, so hopefully not all of those spells were used too recently, but unlike arcanists, divine casters don't need sleep to prepare spells.

Huh, I think I've been calling that wrong for awhile now, I thought they did need rest. Thanks for the heads up. As for recent casting, its not an issue either.

[Cog]

Yeah, arcanists get the eight hour rest limit (which being an elf doesn't get around, by the way) to (presumably) balance out the ability to do it any time of day.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Seeing as the wildshape is lasting at least 8 hours (if the druid has 71/2 hours left) he must be at least level 8 and this have 3 wildshapes a day, can the druid not stay as a polar bear or other high strength beast indefinitely of did he use up a couple of wildshapes earlier in the day?

Also if dawn is only a few hours away he will get his 3 wildshapes back and can carry on being a bear forever!