A druid in my game recently obtained the Wild Shape skill, and chose the Circle of the Moon to follow. This effectively turned him into a Dire Wolf tank, since the CR of the animal he can turn into is now 1 instead of 1/4.
The trait that really sets him apart from the rest of the group is his new found hit points. He's got 37 HP as a Dire Wolf, and once those are depleted he's got roughly 28 as a Druid. A total of 65 hp is huge compared to some of the other players. Then I remembered that he can shape shift twice between rests. Does this mean he can be a Dire Wolf, lose 37 hp and turn back into a man with 28 hp, then immediately (on his next turn) shape shift back into a Dire Wolf and get another 37 hp besides his normal ones? 102 hp is going to be basically game breaking at this point. How do I deal with this?
As a side note, I didn't know that one had to have seen the creature to take their form. When the druid said "I turn into a Dire Wolf," I said "cool!" Upon going over the rules I realized my error, but thought that since he's a druid I might give him the benefit of the doubt and let him say he's seen one in his travels. Maybe this was my mistake and I have to go back on this. Advice on this would be bonus helpful in an answer to this question.
Can a druid wild shape into an animal, lose all those animal hp, and then wild shape back into the animal on his next turn to regain full animal hp?
Was allowing my level 2 druid to turn into a Dire Wolf a big mistake? Should I go back on this ruling?
Best Answer
Like most other answers, I would say yes, two shapeshifts in a combat is legit; no, you did not make a mistake by allowing your player to wolf out and; no, you shouldn't try to claw back the ability.
One thing I would add to the previous answers is that this issue will almost certainly balance itself out fairly soon. Yes, a CR 1 creature in a level 2 party is huge. But level 2 ends quickly.
At level 3, most classes get their archetype paths with cool powers and primary casters get level 2 spells. The wolf will be the same wolf it was before.
At level 4, a CR 1 creature is considered a medium encounter for a single party member. Everyone will be pumping their primary stat or taking a feat. Wolves don't get much out of Wisdom, nor is there much overlap between the feats that help them and those that work for druids.
At level 5, all classes see a major power spike. Cool abilities, level 3 spells, proficiency bonus goes up to +3. The party might also be finding minor, but interesting, magical items. While your Druid is kicking it lupine style, they won't get to enjoy any of that.
By level 6, the Druid can finally upgrade to a CR 2 creature! Of course, at 450 XP, a CR 2 is less than a medium difficulty solo encounter for a character that level.
The dire wolf will remain a CR 1 creature while the world around it scales up. On top of that, if your player wants to jump straight into wolf form every encounter, then every encounter is going to play exactly the same for them, because a wolf only gets the one basic attack.
I'd say, let your player have their fun. Everyone should get a chance to feel like they've beaten the system once in a while. It doesn't seem to be worth the trouble of taking that away from them if the whole situation will simply resolve itself in time.
I'd honestly be more worried that a character with a d8 hit die has 28 hitpoints at level 2.