Rage: Oh, that's a nice workaround! That looks good to me. Yeah, I just kinda' left it implied that it was tracked from end of last turn to end of this turn because that's how the game works, but it's nice to have it spelled out for the people who don't yet fully conceptualize the mechanic of "rounds" in TRPGs like this.
Wild Shape: That's an interesting clarification! I wish that they had gone into greater detail and put it into the Sage's Advice compendium. It does . . . attempt to solve what is probably the biggest complication in polymorphing.
I had previously read the proficiency (+ Expertise?) matter as a binary check system with a value that is associated with your character level, regardless of the creature's bonus. I will explain this far below for those interested, but get back to the conversation first.
According to what I believe that clarification is going for, you just look at your druid's bonuses, look at the bonuses in the Monster Manual, and use whichever is higher in any given check/save, period, end of discussion. I want that to be the case, 'cause the previous interpretation is a real hassle.
"You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so."
Jack of All Trades: check
Remarkable Athlete: check
Aura of Protection (Lv6 paladin): check
Gnome Cunning, Fey Ancestry, similar racial modifiers: check
In fact, I can't think of any modifiers to skills or saves that would not work. While your rogue is polymorphed into a lion, his paws can't make use of his thieves' tools, but he does, in fact, retain his usual proficiency and Expertise.
I'd even say that, other than having easy access via auto-filling to MM contents because your DM is using the book and sharing is hard, pretty much the only reason to build the wild shape sheet into this would be to factor these things in.
That last part is definitely wrong if my initial interpretation is wrong, which is what I'm banking on. [Druid] is not proficient in "Bite," "Claw," and so forth. [Animal] is. You get the animal's proficiency, so the attack should be exactly what the MM says, barring extra help from magic items or whatever.
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I'm looking through all the Wild Shape clarifications and groaning. Some of this is obvious, but here is the current list of FAQs on the matter:
If you turn into an animal that is not proficient in armor (so, you know, most of them) and are then outfitted in barding, A) the barding is not going to humanize when you turn back, and B) you do, in fact, suffer lack of proficiency penalties. If you want to be an animal in barding, you pretty much have to stick strictly to being a war horse and getting armor outfitted onto you before you charge into combat, then getting out of it when back to normal.
Fleet of Foot is not a modifier; it is a new base. It gets overwritten by Wild Shape.
This time, your creature type actually does change. That makes you an invalid target for "Person" spells, but won't stop ongoing effects of those that are already on you.
Disintegrate won't Disintegrate you by zapping your beast health down to 0; it does so only if it brings your actual HP down.
By contrast, Power Word Kill will just outright kill you if your current HP is low enough. That will cause you to revert, but still be dead.
Those HD that you get by Wild Shaping can be spent to heal during short rests.
Your new HP is the average, not maximum, of the new form.
See that line about retaining class features? If you have unarmored defense, you use that or your beast form's HP, whichever is higher, because natural armor is armor.
The things that give extra HP/level, like the Tough feat, work on the druid's base HP, though, not the beast's.
What happens when you revert from a smaller form and don't have space? Mike Mearls said that he'd have you shunted to the nearest space that is big enough and give you damage = feet traveled, but there's no set-in-stone answer beyond that.
Natural attacks are not unarmed strikes, for those that need that to be restated. Monk-druids don't get super claws and stuff.
Are draconic ancestry breath weapons and elemental resistances anatomy-based (thus lost) or magically inherent (thus retained)? I'd go with Mike Mearls' inclination by default and say the former, but the DM can say that it's a more metaphysical ancestry and thus have them be retained.
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This is the previous interpretation of Wild Shape proficiencies. I'm not the only one who read it this way, but I think that it's safe enough for me to tell others to rule it more simply, with that clarification that you posted.
You are proficient or you're not. If [Druid] or [Animal] has proficiency, [Result] has proficiency.
You have Expertise or you do not. See previous. Some animals have odd Expertise, though, resulting in 1.5* proficiency, not 2* proficiency, for example. These are never marked; you have to do the calculations for a creature's skills to see whether or not it has extra, and by how much.
[Druid]'s proficiency bonus is determined by character level, as is the case of all PCs. [Animal]'s proficiency bonus is determined by challenge rating, as shown in the table in the monster manual. Use whichever is higher.
Your ability scores apply their own bonuses. [Result]'s ability scores are the same as [Animal]'s physically and [Druid]'s mentally.
By this reasoning, an archdruid as a giant owl with 20 WIS would have a proficiency bonus of 17 (6 prof * 2 Exp + 5 WIS), which may sound normal in 3.5, but is ridiculous in 5E.
(it will take some time before the new version is online, because I'm redesigning page 5 and adding a page 7).
