If a druid is wild shaped into an animal when they are hit by an effect that imposes the petrified condition, are they:
A. A petrified version of the animal they turned into.
B. A petrified version of the druid, the petrified condition ending the wild shape.
If A, can they then be reduced to 0 HP through attacks to return the petrified druid back into druid form, and would that end the petrified condition?
Best Answer
They are a statue of the beast form.
Petrification would not change their form, except to turn them into a stone statue of whatever beast form they were in. There is simply nothing in the definition of Petrified or the description of Wild Shape to indicate otherwise.
When reduced to 0 hit points, their statue appearance does not change, but you substitute back in the druid's usual stats.
The Petrified condition states:
So the material of the now petrified beast form is solid and inanimate. However, conditions propogate through WIld Shape transformations. So when reduced to 0 hit points and Wild Shape ends, they are still petrified.
Now, when reduced to 0 hit points, Wild Shape states:
So you revert back to being your usual self, as in, you are back to using your normal druid stats. But because your physical form has been petrified and is now solid and inanimate, the form of the stone would not change into your usual druid form until the petrification ends.
To give a needed caveat, this is, I think, the best reading of the rules for this interaction, but there is room to rule that the appearance of the statue is now that of the druid. And to be clear, the only difference between these two rulings appearance. Regardless of how you rule the appearance of the statue, the statue goes back to using the druid's usual stats when Wild Shape ends.