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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arial Black" data-source="post: 6744553" data-attributes="member: 6799649">Actually, the rules mean there can be no other time to check. It cannot mean that you check before the damage has been dealt; that would be meaningless. Therefore, we must check after the damage has been dealt.There is no 'during'! Damage is applied instantly, not drip-fed.'Doing 80 points of damage' is a separate thing to 'reducing the target's hit points by 80'.The damage is done instantly. This is the cause of hp loss.The hp loss is the effect of the 80 points of damage.The wild shape rules do not alter the way damage is done in any way at all. It is done in a single instant.Wild shape alters the way hp are lost. Usually, stuff happens when hp reach zero. BTW, one of those things is to calculate if the remaining damage equals your hp total. If it does, you die. This does not mean that you take that extra damage; 'dying' here is an effect of your hp reaching zero. The damage of the attack didn't trigger that; if it did then you'd die whether or not your hp reached zero. Dying from massive damage is not directly caused by the damage of the attack because the damage the attack delivers does not directly kill you. The damage lowers your hp, and that it what might kill you.So wild shape does not affect the damage that is done to you, it changes the consequence of falling to zero hp. Instead of the usual consequences, which may include 'checking to see if disintegrate turns me to dust', the druid reverts instead of those usual consequences, and the druid's hp are further reduced.Disintegrate does damage, and that damage interacts with the target's hp. Only after the target's hp have been affected is the 'dust check' made. That check cannot be made half-way through the damage being done, because that is instantaneous. That check cannot be made before the damage has interacted with the target's hp. It must be made after the damage done has interacted with the target's hp.An attack may very well deliver 80 points of damage, but this may not reduce the target's current hp by 80, even if the target has more than 80 current hp. Immunity, resistance, saving throws, magic items, spells, class abilities, all sorts of things may modify the way the 80 damage interacts with the target's hp. 'Damage' and 'hit points' are not the same thing.The sequence of events must be:-* disintegrate is cast. 'Dust Check'? No.* damage is calculated. Result is, say, 80. Dust check? No.* saving throw, pass/fail. Dust check? No.* any other defences? Immunity to the spell, perhaps. Dust check? No.* target's hit points are reduced by (maybe, depending) 80. If the wild shape is reduced to zero, the excess damage carries over to the reverted druid. Dust check? Yes.At this point, if the reverted druid has zero hp, he is dust. If he has hp, he is not.</blockquote>

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