Our group is all relatively new to D&D.
Let's say that an aarakocra picks up a dragonborn druid, and carries her up to an altitude of 125 feet. It would take her ~2.5 seconds to hit the ground when she's dropped. Would she have enough time to use Wild Shape during the fall to turn into something that would survive the fall?
She wanted to be a mouse, which can theoretically survive a fall from any height due to its low terminal velocity. She also could've changed into something with a huge number of hit points and tanked the fall damage.
Our main question is about transforming into Wild Shape in mid-air. We could not find any solid info on the time it takes for the change in the rules (5e).
Can a druid use Wild Shape in mid-air to survive being dropped?
Best Answer
Let's break this down in to Rules As Written, then I'll give a nod to Rules As Fun. But the important thing to start with is this: D&D is not a Physics Simulator (alternately, it is a hilariously bad physics simulator).
Rules As Written
Falling
The rules for falling are as follows:
That's it. No modification based off size exists. Yes, realistically, a small enough animal would have a low enough terminal velocity to avoid harm--but D&D has no consideration for that.
As for the time it takes to fall, the rules are somewhat expanded upon in Xanathar's Guide to Everything (p. 77):
Here, these optional rules state that the moment you begin falling, you immediately descend 500 feet. No consideration is given to acceleration, you just immediately drop 500 feet, then do it again at the end of your next turn.
Thus, per the Rules as they are written, it does not take time to fall, so (unless you have something like Feather Fall that explicitly interrupts a fall) there is not time to do anything at all before you hit the ground, unless you are falling more than 500 feet and your DM is using the optional falling rule.
And even if there was time...
Wild Shape can only be used on your turn
The rules for Wild Shape are as follows:
And actions are taken on your turn:
Thus, unless it is the druid's turn when the aarakocra drops them, they can't Wild Shape... because Wild Shape requires an action, and you can only do those on your turn.
How to Wild Shape when dropped anyway.
An aarakocra that has grappled you cannot cross 125 feet in a single round:
So, assuming the aarakocra (which has a fly speed of 50 feet) uses its Action to Grapple you, in a single turn it can only lift you 25 feet off the ground. It may then Dash on subsequent turns to cover 50 feet per turn. Thus, it would take 3 full turns for the aarakocra to lift you to your intended lethal-drop height.
During this time, the druid may opt to use the Ready action:
So, on their turn, the druid declares that they wish to Ready an action to Wild Shape into a mouse if the aarakocra lets go of them. So, the aarakocra lets go, and the druid activates their reaction to Wild Shape (which happens immediately after they are dropped (the trigger), thus interrupting the fall).
But, RAW, it won't help...
The falling rules have no allowance for variable terminal velocity. A falling dragon and a falling mouse take the same exact fall damage.
Rules As Fun
Situations like this, especially as you've described it, are one of the reasons why DMs are fully permitted to ignore, alter, or make up rules on the fly. Per the description of the role of the Dungeon Master in the DMG (p. 4):
In a case like this, I would want to reward the player's creativity and roll with it. Ignore all the nitty-gritty rules that are (for the moment) interfering with fun, and let the player have a creative solution to this problem.