Best druid wildshape stories

[Aaedimus]

I've been playing a druid, and was wondering...

What are some of your favorite things that have happened from or because of Wildshape?

Great role-playing experiences or even just cool ways it was abused or used to solve puzzles are welcome. I thought it would be a fun subject to reminice or to get ideas

[Assenzio]

Boss encounter with a Cambion having place on a small walkway on the internal wall of an extint volcano, containing a lake magically enhanced to be used as a cold forge.

First turn, my druid won the initiative. He turned into a giant eagle, grappled the Cambion and dropped him down to his freezing death.
End of the encounter. *_*

[nickl_2000]

My level 9 Moon Druid made liberal use of the Quetzalcoatlus form to move the party around the world. We were racing back to the home base town to beat some rampaging giants there and beat them by a full 3 days due to being able to fly. Then we did the same thing to get to the giants home quarters, so I happened to be in the form.

We found some stone steps (about 200 ft of difficult terrain) with about 8 giants wielding boulders to throw at us at the top of it. I got super lucky and rolled a natural 20 on init, letting me go first. So, I simply did a dash action to fly closer for my turn and flew my melee based party within 20 feet of the giants on the first turn. Between the huge movement of the Quetzalcoatlus and my mobility feat, it changed that entire encounter into something much easier than it would have been otherwise.

[Mortis_Elrod]

Boss encounter with a Cambion having place on a small walkway on the internal wall of an extint volcano, containing a lake magically enhanced to be used as a cold forge.

First turn, my druid won the initiative. He turned into a giant eagle, grappled the Cambion and dropped him down to his freezing death.
End of the encounter. *_*

Giant Eagles should be the first thing people use. always.

[Mortis_Elrod]

My level 9 Moon Druid made liberal use of the Quetzalcoatlus form to move the party around the world. We were racing back to the home base town to beat some rampaging giants there and beat them by a full 3 days due to being able to fly. Then we did the same thing to get to the giants home quarters, so I happened to be in the form.

We found some stone steps (about 200 ft of difficult terrain) with about 8 giants wielding boulders to throw at us at the top of it. I got super lucky and rolled a natural 20 on init, letting me go first. So, I simply did a dash action to fly closer for my turn and flew my melee based party within 20 feet of the giants on the first turn. Between the huge movement of the Quetzalcoatlus and my mobility feat, it changed that entire encounter into something much easier than it would have been otherwise.

....where is that monster book wise. I gotta try this

[nickl_2000]

....where is that monster book wise. I gotta try this

Volo's Guide Page 140, in the dinosaurs section.

[Aaedimus]

Tomb of Anniahlation. It's a dinosaur

[tieren]

Had a team of 4 druids who found a hat of disguise.

They decided to start a ruse that they were a barbarian beast master (like Dar from the movie) and his animal companions. So when they went into town one of them would stay humanoid and wear the hat, the other three would go tiger, eagle, and ferret.

When they felt like it they would swap out who got to be the humanoid (but using the hat to keep the appearance exactly the same).

Led to some hilarious hijinks. (especially since if they ducked out of sight they could remove the hat to revert to normal and effectively hide as pursuers looked for the barbarian).

[Mandarblade]

We were in some caves and came upon an underground lake that was about 10ft down from the ledge we were on. A young black dragon ambushes us with his breath weapon from the water. On my turn I dive off the ledge transforming into a giant octopus. Swim up to be within 15ft and hit him with my Tentacles making him grappled and restrained. Since he only had a 10ft reach on normal attacks he couldn't do anything versus me until his breath attack recharged, and he kept failing his strength checks to escape grapple. Meanwhile the rest of my party just pelted him with ranged attacks at advantage. Probably the easiest dragon kill we have ever had.

Side note: My daughter loves the descendants movies and every time Mal turns into a dragon to fight Uma (daughter of ursula, essentially a giant octopus/squid) I can't help but think of this fight and smile.

[sithlordnergal]

Where to start...so, it should be noted my Druid went through Tomb of Ahnniliation. He has a ton of dino forms as a result. Over the course of his adventure he:

- He got teleported into a room with about 30 statues. These statues animated if someone made noise in the room, and I was being followed by a talking, unkillable skull that shouted everything. The skull woke all 30 statues up, and I killed them all by casting spike growth, turning into a fly, and flying out of their reach. They were mindless and had no ranged attacks, so I forced then to walk in a circle till they all died

- Was hit by a Charisma Saving throw curse that gave him 50 temp hp and forced him to attack the nearest creatures. Up until the final level of the Tomb, I ended up being the deadliest thing the party had fought

- When I gained my Fire Elemental form at level 10, I still had a ghost that let me turn invisible as an action. Now, for those who haven't done Tomb, right before you face the final boss, you have to face a Hag Coven. I turned invisible and stood on their squares, setting them on fire and then moving away

- My absolute best moment came during the final boss fight with that baby death god. I was still a fire elemental, and since they can speak the wizard and I came up with an idea. The wizard cast Fly on me right before we opened the door. On my turn I flew up, grappled the baby death god, and dragged it down into the pit of lava, killing the boss in rounds while I was immune

[Quoxis]

We had to sneak into some small town mayor‘s home. I cast pass without trace on the party, we climb through a window into the house, everything is great, aaaaand the barbarian (who we only brought because we had to... kidnap someone and the rest of the party dumped strength... it’s complicated, ok?) rolls a 1 on his stealth roll - not even the +10 from my spell helped apparently, because we soon heard someone approach from inside the house. The wizard cast invisibility on the barbarian, then flew out of the still opened window on his broom, and i, being the druid... wildshaped into a cat.
The mayor (who else would look for intruders?) assumed this random street cat climbed into his house and knocked something over, causing the sound the barbarian had made. He gave cat-me some milk and took me to his bedchamber to sleep at the end of his bed... which i played out, but vanished after an hour through another window.
I sure felt guilty about kidnapping the daughter of such a nice man, which the barbarian did meanwhile - this time more successfully.

On other occasions i used my few levels of goolock (yes, weird, i know, it was mainly for a weird character concept) to turn into more or less imposing animals and telepathically tell tribesmen, random orcs and other semi-sentient beings that i was a spirit of the forest/god/cursed dragon and doing my bidding would be beneficial to them. My GM grew tired of it after a while, but it was fun while it lasted.

I will miss that character. Got stomped by one of three hill giants.

[kamap]

Our party hitched a ride on a cart from a farmer and our dwarven druid and me wanted to take a nap, so I suggested why don't you turn into a sheep, I'll have a warm pillow and you can lay down comfortable aswell.
His response: What do I get out of it?
My response: I'll pay for your food and drinks in the next tavern we visit.
he promptly became a sheep.

[ImproperJustice]

It’s not overly creative but our current Druid is a small unassuming Forest Gnome. We actually didn’t know what type he was until later in a Dungeon we were fighting a gigantic legendary crab and the fight could go either way.

Suddenly a Giant Elk bounded over our front line and crashed into the beast head on, knocking it over.
It has since become one of his signature forms.

[hymer]

wildshaped into a cat.
Definitely a favourite of mine for urban infiltration. Ubiquitous, stealthy, charming, and with a climb speed. If the DM is a cat lover, you can really do some stuff with this form.

I had a druid in a Thedas-inspired campaign, whose magical powers were showing up in part as a terrible skin condition and drying of the throat and lungs. Once she got control of that force by using it to wild shape, she recovered her voice very quickly. It was fun to see how one of my favourite players (as usual with him) assumed I was screwing up in RPing, while another immediately realized that wild shaping was alleviating her problems.

[ChangeSumFlux]

Our group(I think we were level 4) was climbing a mountain for a reason I forget. We came across the stereotypical rickety bridge scenario. The first person to cross the bridge broke the bridge, but managed to survive. As a Druid I turned into a giant spider and started to make a web bridge. The DM made me make a web attack against the other side of the gorge. I rolled a 1, missing it and hitting about 60 ft down. My DM ruled that I wouldn’t be able to produced enough web for more than one try at this and we were on a timed mission so I set about making a bridge. Then I ferried the party across the bridge then up the wall. I dropped a few while climbing up, but luckily there was a handy web net below!

[xroads]

One time I had a player who used wildshape to evade a lich. The team was on a floating rock and had no means of escaping to the ground without becoming pancakes. That was until the druid turned into a giant spider and spun a web line to the ground. A line the remaining players quickly took advantage of.

Another time, one of my druid players wanted to evade some tree climbing girallions. So he wildshaped into a squirrel and rode his owl familiar like a mount.

[Rebonack]

The party was staying at a pretty fancy inn. The Ranger has a bear animal companion and the clerk at the front desk firmly declared "No pets!"

A bit later, the Barbarian/Druid tried sneaking in as a house cat and flubbed his stealth roll, getting spotted by the clerk. With a cry of "NO PETS!" I kicked on the Secret of Mana boss battle music as the guy started chasing the druid around trying to catch and expel him from the inn.

[Dalebert]

Just last week my moon druid lvl 20 tanked an inevitable. Automatically hits twice per round for 60 dmg each. It's terrifying. But I was fine. Nervous at first until I asked the DM if it does magical dmg. It doesn't.

We did the math and realize I could basically tank it indefinitely. It can only deal 60 dmg (30 x 2) a round to me and I can shift into a different elemental form each round, all of which have more than 60 hp.

------

Earlier in his career in SKT, we had entered a giant's lair. Enemies started to surround me, seeing me as the squishiest looking spellcaster just when I was about to summon some dire wolves to even the numbers a bit, but they had to dash so didn't get an attack before my turn. DM was probably counting on me to waste an action to get away and not summon the dire wolves. Screw that! I summoned the wolves where I wanted them--on the guy we were there to assassinate--then bonus action wildshaped into a Quetzlecoatlus which has a great fly speed and flyby. No AoOs! I could feel the DM seething with disappointment at all those wasted actions to dash toward me but also clearly impressed.

[Derpaligtr]

I've been playing a druid, and was wondering...

What are some of your favorite things that have happened from or because of Wildshape?

Great role-playing experiences or even just cool ways it was abused or used to solve puzzles are welcome. I thought it would be a fun subject to reminice or to get ideas

A while ago I was a level 2 or 4 druid or whatever. I had to leave the group and told the DM that my character got sick and would always try to stay with the party in some way as much as possible (in the bard's hat, the rogue's pack, the sorcerer's spell component pouch) as a rat. He would run away whenever he had to go back to human form.

Well, 6 months later I could come back to the group. The DM told me to come in a bit late.

Well, I come in a bit late and the party is in part 2 of the BBEG fight at level 14 (or whatever)... My level 2 druid pops out of the rogue's pack (the rogue named his "pet" Reggie... Didn't realize it was the druid) and everyone was excited but realized I was a level 3ish druid... Except the DM told me that I was part of all the encounters before hand so I was able to use my advanced wildshape options to help win the fight...

My character died because of the sickness at the end of the session though. Used too much energy or whatever.

[Dalebert]

At 18th level, just after gaining spellcasting in wildshape, I got a mission to go deep, deep underwater, so much so that the cold (temps; not dmg) and pressure were causing regular con saves for exhaustion. But we had plenty of time to prep for this mission so I went ahead and WSed into a water elemental, not actually immune to cold or pressure but they are immune to exhaustion regardless of source. Then I used my Alter Self at will to look like a human, albeit a large-sized one, and I hung out in the local tavern and rested to get my wilshapes back. Then I ritually cast water breathing on the party and Freedom of Movement on some people to deal with the pressure. We had multiple backup plans for water breathing--the spell, items, potions, I prepared the spell so I could cast it quickly in a pinch, etc. In a tier 4, expect all sorts of shenanigans for interfering with whatever method you have for water breathing--tentacled beasts snatching your water breathing magic item, Dispel Magic on your spells, etc. Fortunately I had my WS if needed to turn back and then could cast if needed but I never used them. I stayed a water elemental for the entire adventure.

---

One of my favorite low level shapes is a tarsier. They're tiny and adorable so you have an excuse to be short-resting in a pocket or the hood of someone's cloak or whatever while the party is traveling. Then you get your WS back. My monk of the long death with a 2 level dip in druid loves this form for regaining both WS and ki. The shenanigans of monk of the long death with a dip for WS are countless. Check it out!

[Fire Tarrasque]

Our Druid is... Unique.
As of right now, he's plotting to take over the small nation state ruled by the Paladin. Said Druid was given command of the army for... Some reason that I still don't understand... The Druid in charge of our armed forces? Instead of the other Paladin? Or Cleric? Or Barbarian? Or... Literally anyone else.
The King Paladin is... Entirely aware of the Druid's plots. The Druid constantly makes clumsy power grabs and/or assassination attempts.
Last time, he used Wildshapes! First things first: His genius plan.
Call every PC who opposed him too a boat.
Lock them in a room.
Set the boat on fire.
Run away in eagle form.

It... failed. Real bad. Of course.
He wildshapes, first into the eagle, then get's shot down by the king's personal guard. So he wildshapes into a bear and runs away. And is caught.
So, he of course, wildshapes into a slug.
And slugs away.
And is caught.
And given a slap on the wrist.

So, yeah. That Druid is a Saturday morning cartoon villain too the Paly-king. He keeps him around purely to watch his antics.

[Fire Tarrasque]

At 18th level, just after gaining spellcasting in wildshape, I got a mission to go deep, deep underwater, so much so that the cold (temps; not dmg) and pressure were causing regular con saves for exhaustion. But we had plenty of time to prep for this mission so I went ahead and WSed into a water elemental, not actually immune to cold or pressure but they are immune to exhaustion regardless of source.

---


Okay, it's double posting but I can't add a quote too an existing post (I think,) and I have to ask, why wasn't the water elemental immune to pressure damage?
It's made of water.

[Wryte]

My players were finishing off the last few members of a thieves' guild in their hide out when one of the thieves fled at critical health. The party's druid and an NPC guard sergeant pursued her, but she locked herself in a room. The druid turned into a spider so he could crawl under the door and scout, but the hiding thief saw him. He retreated to directly under the door, where he assumed she couldn't hit him, but she drew a crossbow bolt and ran it back and forth under the door, squishing him, and causing him to revert to his normal form.

Directly under the door.

I called for a Con save, and when he passed it, the door gave way before his body did. It broke off its hinges, and fell toward the thief, who failed her Dex save to dodge it. The door fell on her, crushing her last 2 or 3 hit points to death.

[Ganymede]

There was that time we were tussling with the green dragon on the bridge in the Red Hand of Doom campaign...

The dragon had swooped down next to the bridge in order to gas several of the players. In response, the druid transformed into a giant constrictor snake and successfully attacked the dragon. Since the dragon was large or smaller, it was automatically grappled and, since its speed is now 0 due to being grappled, it began to fall 1000 feet straight down. The druid was 100% on board with sacrificing himself in order to splat a dragon on the ravine floor.

[cullynthedwarf]

My play build was going to be a 5th level barbar/15th druid. The concept was going to be Maui from Moana, a shape changing rage machine. Since the first 5 levels were all to be barbarian I kept claiming my magical axe of shape changing was broken and it was going to be a whole thing of trying to get my power back. Sadly the campaign folded before I could move my personal plot forward.😤

[Beelzebubba]

Casting Pass Without Trace, turning into a mouse, and jumping into the pocket of a Rogue on a rescue infiltration mission.

When the guards started to try to kill the prisoner, I jumped out of his pocket, scurried between them, and - whoosh - instant bear! I tanked the damage until the Rogue backstabbed him to death.

[Dalebert]

Okay, it's double posting but I can't add a quote too an existing post (I think,) and I have to ask, why wasn't the water elemental immune to pressure damage?
It's made of water.

They are, if in a round-about way. The penalty for failing each pressure con save was a level of exhaustion. Elementals are immune to exhaustion. At least that was the effect of pressure in this AL module. Not sure whether that's a general consistent rule in 5e.

[Finback]

Going into a tavern to meet/apprehend a gang boss. Wildshape into spider, crawl around room to underside of a table and wait for the cue.
Eventually, the party's rogue/face squares off, and asks him to come peacefully.
<Villain> Who's going to make me, you?
<Rogue> Oh no no no. My friend is.
<me, druid> *wildshapes into Allosaurus* REEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOONK!
<tavern goers exit, stage left>

[Veldrenor]

We were in this isolated desert city where magic was forbidden for citizens, in the middle of a big celebration they had once every ten years. One of our party had vanished during a job for the local thieves' guild in which we'd killed the Dragonspeaker (the chosen individual whose job it was to, at the end of the festival, go talk to the city's patron dragon for direction and guidance over the next ten years). The head of the guild told us that everything would be fine but he needed us as muscle on the last day of the festival.

When we arrived for the job, he told us what was going to happen: the statue at the center of the city square was going to disappear, and in its place was supposed to appear the Dragonspeaker. However, since our friend had taken the Dragonspeaker's talisman, our friend would appear instead. The head of the guild was then going to start shouting that our friend was not the Dragonspeaker, stir up trouble, and use it as an opportunity to seize power in the city. We didn't want our friend hurt, but we didn't want to turn on the thieves' guild either. We were all left undecided on our course of action; all, that is, except for our Druid.

Noon struck. The statue vanished. While everyone was distracted by this display, our Druid turned into a bear and mauled the head of the thieves' guild. Between the surprise round and a high initiative roll, the druid killed him before he could even act. The thieves started attacking the bear and the city guard, seeing the fight, moved in to intervene. I yelled to the guards "The thieves' guild is trying to assassinate the Dragonspeaker!" The guards engaged the thieves as well as the bear (because it was a giant vicious bear in the middle of a crowd). Running low on health and knowing that he'd be arrested and executed if anyone saw him revert to human shape, our Druid turned and charged into the closest shop. As soon as he was out of sight he dropped the form and then ran straight back out of the shop, screaming "THERE'S A BEAR IN THERE!" The guards did not succeed at their Insight checks.

[Dalebert]

For a moment I got super excited that my lvl 20 moon druid could wild shape into a t-rex and then alter self to be purple. Then I looked up t-rex CR and realized it's higher than 6.

*heartbroken*

[rmnimoc]

I was in a campaign (curse of strahd) where all four of us were moon druids. Practically everything we did deserves a place in this thread, but the crown jewel was probably when we infiltrated a mansion Strahd was visiting as a bunch of ninja-cats. We all had stealthy, were cats, were under the effects of pass without trace, and we all rolled less than 4. Despite that we had such high modifiers that we were pretty confident we were all but invisible. So there we were, meowing the mission inpossible theme, sneaking through the mansion, and recovering the item we infiltrated the mansion for. We were convinced we were completely undetected, the masters of stealth. We were on our way out, silently debating on the best way out of the mansion through kitty-charades, when Strahd helpfully chimes in that he's always been a fan of leaving through the front door while looking straight at us. He saw through us the instant we entered the mansion and just didn't say anything because he thought it was hilarious. He then opened the door, turned into a wolf, and started chasing us through the town. We eventually decided we might as well die fighting, so we all turned into combat forms after a bit of that and turned the tables, chasing him through the streets. Then he got bored of that and left us all beaten and unconscious on the streets. Good times.

[Miz_Liz]

My current druid's character introduction came about using wildshape. It was a simple and small encounter, but very fun.

The other members of the party had already gathered together, and were walking through the forest. They come upon a sleeping black bear (Me, but they didn't actually know. No one knew I had chosen to go druid) immediately they freak out and wonder if they should attack it, which wakes bear me up. Not realizing the danger (I play a very socially inept druid) I walked over, in bear form still, and started sniffing them. The fighter got totally spooked and trip-attacked me, forcing me back into my human shape lying on the ground screaming "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" They all got a real hoot out of it.

[Maelynn]

You have an excuse to be short-resting in a pocket or the hood of someone's cloak or whatever while the party is traveling. Then you get your WS back. My monk of the long death with a 2 level dip in druid loves this form for regaining both WS and ki. The shenanigans of monk of the long death with a dip for WS are countless.

Whether it's a tarsier or something similar like a squirrel or a kitten, it really is a good idea to nab a short rest while the others are marching. I'm going to keep this in mind. :D