[RPG] Being the best animal I can: How to successfully convince NPCs as a wild-shaped druid

dnd-5edruidwild-shape

I'm a relatively new player with D&D 5th Ed. and chose to play a druid. I'm still learning quite a bit about how the game mechanics and spells work. In one encounter so far, where I was wild-shaped into a goat (as bait to lure an enemy out (I'm a team player, what can I say?)) I was asked to roll a charisma check to determine if I was convincing.

Charisma is my lowest stat, favoring wisdom, intellect and dexterity to bolster nature, survival, animal, and archery related skills. I would expect that to be a convincing animal, one's knowledge of how those animals behave, rather than charisma, is more important.

I read through the post "How easy is it to make the distinction between a druid in beast form and a normal animal?" and it seems that charisma is typically used for deception, bluffing, and acting. I think Aviose put it well in their answer, that the check depends on the type of animal and type of deception.

While I understand it is ultimately up to my DM, is there any "official" guidance on passing scrutiny when Wild Shaped?

Context clarification:

Our party was tasked with dispatching some unknown attacker that had been killing farmers' livestock. Maybe wolves but possibly something more sinister. We surveyed the area and decided a farm animal that appeared to be lost and alone might have the best chance of drawing out the target. We positioned party members in various hidden locations in brush and trees while our putting-on-a-brave-front-but-actually-pretty-scared "goat" wandered out into the fields like a lost child.

The DM wanted charisma checks to determine whether this goat was convincing to the unknown nemesis or if it would suspect something strange. The first attempt failed (which became a point of humor), but a later attempt worked, and we managed to eradicate a few skellies.

Best Answer

No checks are necessary unless you try to do something decisively non-goat-like.

There is some guidance in the Dungeon Master's Guide section Using Ability Scores:

When a player wants to do something, it’s often appropriate to let the attempt succeed without a roll or a reference to the character’s ability scores. For example, a character doesn’t normally need to make a Dexterity check to walk across an empty room or a Charisma check to order a mug of ale. Only call for a roll if there is a meaningful consequence for failure.

When deciding whether to use a roll, ask yourself two questions:

  • Is a task so easy and so free of conflict and stress that there should be no chance of failure?
  • Is a task so inappropriate or impossible — such as hitting the moon with an arrow — that it can’t work?

If the answer to both of these questions is no, some kind of roll is appropriate.

You have to ask yourself, "does my enemy have any reason to believe that this goat that is physically indistinguishable from a goat is not really a goat? Remember, your physical characteristics are exactly that of a goat, therefore unless you say you are doing something non-goat-like, there is a reasonable expectation that you are moving and acting as a goat would. Think about it this way: there's obviously no check required to see if you know how to use this totally unique musculo-skeletal system you now possess to walk around. The ability to move and use your body as a goat naturally would is part-and-parcel to Wildshape.

Therefore, the answer to the first question in the DMG guidance would be "yes, a goat acting like a goat is so easy and so free of stress there should be no chance of failure." It is when a goat starts acting like not-a-goat that checks need to be made: How well can I make this non-goat-like action appear to be goat-like?

To quote enkryptor from the comments:

It's a huge difference between seeing a sleeping goat and catching a goat reading a book.