Moon Druid, change Wild Shape in one turn

[etrpgb]

During a game yesterday, our Moon Druid was in Bear form and defeated an enemy, while another one was escaping. When it was the Moon Druid turn he said: I change my form to a fast War Horse and go after it!

- How? (Asks the master)
- To human form as Bonus Action and to War Horse form as Action. I can do this as a Moon Druid, no?
- Let's check it out.


Here is a quote from the manual, what does it mean? The Moon Druid can use Wild Shape either as Bonus Action or as Action or it means that the Moon Druid has to use Wild Shape as Bonus Action?


COMBAT WILD SHAPE
When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you gain the ability to use Wild Shape on your turn as a bonus action, rather than as an action.


Please consider we are not English native speakers, we are confused because the "you gain the ability" implies that the Moon Druid can do both, but the "rather than" bit implies otherwise.

[KnotaGuru]

Wildshape is normally an action. A moon druid instead uses a bonus action. The player should be able to wildshape from a bear to a horse as a bonus action. There is no need to go to human form.

[Arkhios]

During a game yesterday, our Moon Druid was in Bear form and defeated an enemy, while another one was escaping. When it was the Moon Druid turn he said: I change my form to a fast War Horse and go after it!

- How? (Asks the master)
- To human form as Bonus Action and to War Horse form as Action. I can do this as a Moon Druid, no?
- Let's check it out.


Here is a quote from the manual, what does it mean? The Moon Druid can use Wild Shape either as Bonus Action or as Action or it means that the Moon Druid has to use Wild Shape as Bonus Action?

COMBAT WILD SHAPE
When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you gain the ability to use Wild Shape on your turn as a bonus action, rather than as an action.

Please consider we are not English native speakers, we are confused because the "you gain the ability" implies that the Moon Druid can do both, but the "rather than" bit implies otherwise.


Wildshape is normally an action. A moon druid instead uses a bonus action. The player should be able to wildshape from a bear to a horse as a bonus action. There is no need to go to human form.

I'd like to point out that the wording of Combat Wild Shape is a bit vague, so there's no definitive answer. However, I am of the solid opinion that the Bonus Action usage of Wild Shape does not exactly override the normal Action. The way I read it, Combat Wild Shape says that you gain a new option to use Bonus Action for Wild Shape. There is no 'instead' implied anywhere. Nothing is revoked from the Wild Shape ability. The ability to use an Action is still a valid option.

That said, KnotaGuru is not entirely wrong; the druid could've just changed from Bear to War Horse without first turning back to human.

[Cespenar]

"Gain the ability" implies both, yes. Otherwise it would go something like this:

"Your Wild Shape now takes a bonus action, instead of an action."

Also, is there anything limiting a direct transformation from one Wild Shape to another? You retain the features of your class while in Shape, after all, unless they are physically unusable.

And in any case, the intention of the rule would be pretty backwards if it handicapped the player in such a way.

Edit: Whoops, double ninja'd.

[etrpgb]

Good point, in this case it does not make much sense. But think a case like this:

. Our druid is a Bear and as Bonus Actions becomes Human
. He moves 30ft
. As Action he becomes a Scorpion to use Blindsight

Would be this possible?

Edit: ninja'd :D

[Arkhios]

Good point, in this case it does not make much sense. But think a case like this:

. Our druid is a Bear and as Bonus Actions becomes Human
. He moves 30ft
. As Action he becomes a Scorpion to use Blindsight

Would be this possible?

Edit: ninja'd :D

That is entirely possible. However, it begs for a question why change back to human if you're going to change form to a scorpion anyway? A druid, regardless of Circle, can change forms between animals just as easily as they can change form between their natural form and an animal form. Changing into human is both a waste of an Action and redundant. That Action could be used to attack or cast a spell (obviously in this case before becoming a Scorpion).

I mean, your druid could do like this:

As a Bear he moves 40ft
As a Bonus Action he changes form from Bear to Scorpion to use Blindsight
As Action he does something useful, either after or before changing forms.

[etrpgb]

It is a bit contrived, but I was thinking a case where: the Bear is a too large to go somewhere and the Scorpion is too slow to reach where you need the Blindsight.

[Arkhios]

It is a bit contrived, but I was thinking a case where: the Bear is a too large to go somewhere and the Scorpion is too slow to reach where you need the Blindsight.

I suppose in that case it would make sense. Although, if a medium creature would fit fine where a large would have to squeeze, the large bear would still move at half speed when squeezing, so it's just 20 ft. instead of 40 ft., losing only 10 ft. to a human.

But, as I said, it could be done that way, too. Just throwing around options, mostly. :smallsmile:

[Lombra]

I'll just echo the fact that you don't have to revert back to human(oid) form to wildshape again, you can wildshape from a wildshape.

And yes the player chooses wether it takes an action or a bonus action.

[KorvinStarmast]

Here is a quote from the manual, what does it mean? The Moon Druid can use Wild Shape either as Bonus Action or as Action or it means that the Moon Druid has to use Wild Shape as Bonus Action?
Please consider we are not English native speakers, we are confused because the "you gain the ability" implies that the Moon Druid can do both, but the "rather than" bit implies otherwise. Don't worry, native English speakers were likewise puzzled (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/98841/22566). When the game was first released (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/49651/22566)questions like this arose with some frequency.

As noted above, your efforts as described in your original post were within the rules as written. The action economy of any given turn has the following elements

Action
Move
Bonus Action (Where an ability/spell/skill grants one)
Reaction (Where a situation/ability/skill grants one)
Interact with an object