Rapid healing and wildshape

[Rybaer]

A player posed the question of whether the Rapid Healing feat from MotW (I think that's its name...the one that increases natural healing rates) will also cause the number of hitpoints gained during a use of wildshape to double.

Wildshape states that the character gains hitpoints as if he had rested for a full night. That meshes well with the rapid healing. However, the wildshape description also states that the character does not recover temporary ability damage or enjoy any of the other benefits of a full night's rest. This sets it apart from a "normal" night of rest. Would this also imply that perhaps the double recovery of hitpoints from rapid healing is something extra only gained during a "normal" night of rest?

From the wording of the feat and the ability, I could see interpretation either way. I don't think allowing double hitpoint recovery during a wildshape is grossly overbalanced, but I'd like to see if anyone has a strong case for one argument over the other before I make a final ruling on this.

-Rybaer

 

[Dingleberry]

I asked this same question a few weeks back, and IIRC, there was no official answer, but the consensus was that Faster Healing should indeed permit a druid to heal more from wildshaping (without the books in front of me, I believe it's a x1.5 increase, not doubling). It's especially valuable if you also pick up Extra Wildshape.

Of course, that begs the question of whether other wildshape abilities (such as the Shifter's unlimited wildshape at higher levels) allowed for unlimited healing. There have been numerous threads on this topic as well, and even some rumblings that WOTC intended there to be a hard cap on the number of times you could use wildshape to heal per day.