Revisiting Divine Minion + Master of Many Forms

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

I was looking through this thread
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?313888-Master-of-Many-Forms-Divine-Minion-earliest-entry-and-Wildshape
And I realized that I never got definitive proof as of whether druid levels stack with the Divine Minion template purely for determining the maximum Hit Dice of the wild shape form

Can anyone give me a definitive answer?

[Troacctid]

They do not.

[Thurbane]

On a tangent, Divine Minion (arguably) gives an unlimited Wild Shape use pool to fuel Wild feats like Boar's Ferocity etc.

[el minster]

max out Master of many forms and Warshaper for some cool results or just Master of Many Forms and turn yourself into a shambling mound and attack yourself with lightning to gain infinite Con

[Vizzerdrix]

Slap it on a warforged. Be a transformer.

[Doctor Despair]

If we take for granted that the Divine Minion's Fast Wild Shape qualifies you for the Master of Many Form's Wild Shape class feature requirement, I suppose there'd be no strict downside to taking the prestige that way until level 11, right? Using that assumption, you should be able to go Human for the two feat prerequisites and take MMF at level 2, ECL 3 (Edit: It seems like the rebuilding rules do not explicitly bar someone from trading out their level 1 class for one they now qualify for with an acquired template, so you can do a rebuild quest to effectively be MMF1 at ECL2), and cap out the prestige at level 11 after buying off the adjustment at level 3.

With that said, and if levels in druid don't progress the wildshape ability, presumably there would be a starting level at which it becomes more efficient to just go Ranger Variant 5 / MMF X. You'd need ECL 12 to retain the Extraordinary Wild Shape ability, although there's a conversation to be had about ECL 5 (as you'd have the same number of levels to wait for Extraordinary Wild Shape as the level 1 campaign with the Divine Minion early-access cheese).