D&D 5E Does "Unarmoured Defense" work with Druids who are shapechanged?

[Minsc]

Just wondering. I thought a one level dip for a Moon Druid into Monk might be a pretty decent way to increase the effectiveness of the animal forms.

 

[Paraxis]

Use the beast form's AC or Unarmored Defense AC whichever is higher, remember the Dexterity score changes so your Unarmored Defense AC changes too.

Example: Brown Bear has an AC of 11, Dex/Wis 16 monk/druid in human form has an AC of 16, in bear form because his Dex lowers to 10(+0) his Unarmored Defense AC would be a 13. 13 > 11 so the bear druid/monk has an AC of 13.

 

[PnPgamer]

By raw i think wildshape entry says that you dont lose any class abilities. However, this might turn druid too good in his forms, as the original intent seemingly was that they have loads of hp but very low ac. Using unarmored defense may unbalance things. I think final say is on your gaming groups dm.

Also for record, my dm disallowed monks unarmored defense, but allowed barbarian unarmored defense. (It scales within forms, and gives out 0-2 ac, while monks would give 3-5)

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Paraxis is correct. It works and you use the greater of the ACs among your two ways of calculating it. Either Mearls or Crawford answered this question in a tweet already.

 

[Kikuras]

Also for record, my dm disallowed monks unarmored defense, but allowed barbarian unarmored defense.

Why disallow one but not the other? Barbarian allows shield use (applicable when not in animal form), and while a cursory glance at the various beasts shows that con+dex is as common as wis+dex in giving a 13ish AC, I suspect that con+dex might give a slight advantage.

 

[PnPgamer]

Why disallow one but not the other? Barbarian allows shield use (applicable when not in animal form), and while a cursory glance at the various beasts shows that con+dex is as common as wis+dex in giving a 13ish AC, I suspect that con+dex might give a slight advantage.

I did not ask.

 

[Eejit]

It depends on how your DM rules, and it may vary for different forms - see bolded section below.

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.

 

[Eejit]

Why disallow one but not the other? Barbarian allows shield use (applicable when not in animal form), and while a cursory glance at the various beasts shows that con+dex is as common as wis+dex in giving a 13ish AC, I suspect that con+dex might give a slight advantage.

Assuming you increase your WIS as you level the Monk version is as good as the best possible Barbarian wild shape AC and usually better.

 

[Kikuras]

Assuming you increase your WIS as you level the Monk version is as good as the best possible Barbarian wild shape AC and usually better.

Ah, indeed, Wisdom (and other non-physical stats) carry over into wild shape, the others don't.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Probably supposed to work in animal form but for ease, IMC, we'll just stick with using the stats from the animal. No need to change anything in game.