Druid wildshapes how do they do

[lyko555]

k quick question that i haven't found a simple answer to how "familiar" does my druid have to be to wildshape into a critter.

[Yuki Akuma]

There are absolutely no rules about this whatsoever. Ask your DM.

[SSGoW]

As a DM? You need to spend a large amount of time with said animals and get to know more than their stat block.

As a player? I rolled 20 on my knowledge check... I have a +12 from knowledge nature.... I know everything about it including its genome ... I can use the Raptor right?

[docnessuno]

I cannot remember the source (sorry) but familiarity with a creature was defined as "Having studied the creature for one day or having fought with it once"

A common house rule is being "familiar" with any creature with HD (or CR) equal or lower to your appropriate knowledge skill ranks (or skill modifier).

[prufock]

Normally as DM I would say that a druid is familiar with any wildlife common to the region in which they live, no check necessary. Any wildlife not common to their region requires either a successful knowledge check (fairly simple for most druids) or encountering one (not necessarily combat) during gameplay.

[Talya]

Normally as DM I would say that a druid is familiar with any wildlife common to the region in which they live, no check necessary. Any wildlife not common to their region requires either a successful knowledge check (fairly simple for most druids) or encountering one (not necessarily combat) during gameplay.

This is almost what my DM does, although he doesn't necessarily allow a knowledge check.

[Togo]

I once kept a log of every creature my character encountered. In general I'd say that most GMs will let you turn into whatever you want. This becomes less common when you start asking about dinosaurs, or the 'legendary' animals.

It becomes even more of a problem if you go MoMFs, of course.

The best arguement to win over your GM is to point to equivalent arcane magic, that has no familiarity restriction at all.