D&D 5E Wildshape Interactions with Weird Racial Features

[Paul Farquhar]

Are you suggesting you're now stuck in that altered form because you are no longer a changeling?

You are still a bear, you revert to your natural form when wildshape is cancelled. If your alter self spell was still running you would still look like and elf, but since you where actually a changeling your change self ability would work.

 

[Tonguez]

Why would it cancel wildshape? You did take the form of a beast. You're still the beast, your shape just changed. Much like you're still whatever race you were before, your shape just changed to be the beast - but your mental stats are all still there.

Because changelings can change into another Race not another Beast. It’s the limitation of Changelings that their alternate form is Humanoid not Beast or Elemental or Dragon.

Now an interesting question is can Changelings change into a Plasmoid or Autognome

 

[Mistwell]

Because changelings can change into another Race not another Beast. It’s the limitation of Changelings that their alternate form is Humanoid not Beast or Elemental or Dragon.

Now an interesting question is can Changelings change into a Plasmoid or Autognome

Other direction. They're not using their shapechange to become a beast or elemental. They're using their shapechange to change into a race. They just happen to be wildshaped at the time they use that shapechange ability.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Now an interesting question is can Changelings change into a Plasmoid or Autognome

Changelings can't "change into" anything. They can "take on the appearance" of another species, but they are still changelings. It's just a disguise ability.

As for plasmoids: changelings "must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs that you have." So, a changeling could disguise themselves as a plasmoid, but they would have to maintain a humanoid shape. Note that this rules out centaurs and thri-kreen.

 

[RangerWickett]

It depends on the tone of the game. If an ooze bear or a warforged transformer dinobot won't mess up the mood, I think they're awesome. I love combining powers in interesting ways.

 

[Argyle King]

I asked similar questions a while back.

I would say likely no to the Plasmoid ability to squeeze through things, but possibly yes to sprouting extra limbs.

Regarding the changling: I could be convinced that -while wildshaped- appearing as a different "race" would work as being able to appear as alternate breeds of the same type of animal.

 

[Clint_L]

RAW are pretty straightforward here, and I would just tell the players: no. For example, as much an an amorphous plasmoid bear would be awesome, it is not what Wildshape does. You give up your species anatomical attributes when you wild shape, and since bears aren't anatomically plasmoids or changelings, they don't get to acquire plasmoid or changeling attributes from it.

To answer this question, you just have to ask yourself, "Could that beast normally do that anatomical thing? No? Then that's your answer." E.g. "Can a bear normally sprout tendrils? No? Then no."

 

[Argyle King]

RAW are pretty straightforward here, and I would just tell the players: no. For example, as much an an amorphous placoid bear would be awesome, it is not what Wildshape does. You give up your species anatomical attributes when you wild shape, and since bears aren't anatomically plasmoids or changelings, they don't get to acquire plasmoid or changeling attributes from it.

To answer this question, you just have to ask yourself, "Could that beast normally do that anatomical thing? No? Then that's your answer." E.g. "Can a bear normally sprout tendrils? No? Then no."

I think it's a bit more nuanced than that.

A dragonborn druid can still use their breath weapon while in animal form.

I'm on the fence about sprouting tendrils because it's not entirely clear what the mechanism for that happening is. Squeezing through small spaces seems like a clear "no" though.

 

[Clint_L]

The breath weapon example is a weird ruling by Crawford that seems to be based on the idea that a breath weapon is a magical effect, not one that is produced by any particular anatomy in a Dragonborn (or a dragon, presumably). I think that is a strange idea, so I would veto it in my campaign, but that's just me.

However, it seems pretty clear that the various Plasmoid features discussed above are rooted in their plasmoid physiology, so those cases seem more straightforward. They are things a goo creature can do, not a bear.

 

[Argyle King]

The breath weapon example is a weird ruling by Crawford that seems to be based on the idea that a breath weapon is a magical effect, not one that is produced by any particular anatomy in a Dragonborn (or a dragon, presumably). I think that is a strange idea, so I would veto it in my campaign, but that's just me.

However, it seems pretty clear that the various Plasmoid features discussed above are rooted in their plasmoid physiology, so those cases seem more straightforward. They are things a goo creature can do, not a bear.

I agree on the squeezing not working.

I could possibly see the hands working because the mechanism by which it works could be increased control over body fluids.As a Druid maintains their mental capacity, that control may still be there. I would say no to solid hands, but I would be open to entertaining blob hands or pseudopods.

I'm of the impression that the breath weapon is said to still work because most creatures still breath.

No idea how either of those makes sense while being an elemental, but at that point it's likely by far surpassed by other things that a character can do.