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My 6th-level druid casts speak with plants, and then wild-shapes into a panther, or whatever.

Can she speak with plants while wild-shaped?

Wild Shape says:

You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so.

Clearly being wild-shaped into an animal incapable of speech prevents normal vocal speech, but does it prevent magical communication?

The spell does not discuss how this communication takes place. It uses language like:

You imbue plants within 30 feet of you with limited sentience and animation, giving them the ability to communicate with you and follow your simple commands.

and

If a plant creature is in the area, you can communicate with it as if you shared a common language...

It seems reasonable to me, and, yes, it's up to the GM, but are there other rules that determine whether she can talk to the plants while wild-shaped?

This is related to but different from this question, which discusses issuing commands to summoned animals while wild-shaped. It's different because with speak to plants the plants are already not communicating with the druid by a normal vocal language. Or maybe they are . . . maybe it gives them little mouths, or the ability to rub branches together to make speech sounds, it doesn't say how the plants are communicating, but such an interpretation isn't present in the rules, and would be up to the GM.

V2Blast
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Jack
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2 Answers2

15

According to RAW, yes.

Other posts have established that magical abilities and spells (and conditions) that occur before wildshaping do in fact carry over to the wildshape.

Beyond that, the key wording is

If a plant creature is in the area, you can communicate with it as if (emphasis mine) you shared a common language...

"As if" implies pretty much any mechanism could be used, and it could be argued it takes whatever form the spellcaster wants.

So while nobody else in your party might understand whatever sounds you're making as a jaguar (or potentially no sounds at all), the plants certainly will.

Σ of eDπ
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    Good answer! I like the emphasis on "as if". I had glossed over that part. Thank you! – Jack Jan 27 '22 at 23:20
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    According to the description of Wild Shape in the PHB, "You can’t cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your beast form." (p. 67) If your choice of beast form precludes speech, your ability to communicate "as if you shared a common language" is restricted with plants just as it would be with an Elf sharing a common language. – Theo Brinkman Jan 28 '22 at 16:11
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    "as if you shared a common language" is still speech. It would say if nonverbal language was being used or granted. – Chemus Jan 28 '22 at 23:06
  • Honestly, I'm finding all the comments about "language is speech" a bit able-ist. – Σ of eDπ Jan 30 '22 at 07:24
-1

According to RAW? No.

The wording of the spell is:

If a plant creature is in the area, you can communicate with it as if you shared a common language...

According to the description of Wild Shape in the PHB (p. 67):

"You can’t cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your beast form."

If your choice of beast form precludes speech, your ability to communicate "as if you shared a common language" is restricted with plants just as it would be with an Elf sharing a common language.

Theo Brinkman
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    It seem like you are saying that communication and speech are the same thing, but even for regular non-fantasy humans, speech is only one way we communicate. So losing the "ability to speak" verbally, doesn't really sway the argument one way or the other in terms preventing communication as a whole. – DBS Jan 28 '22 at 16:19
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    Are you actually arguing that losing the ability to speak doesn't interfere with the ability to "speak with plants"? If you can't speak, you can't speak with either an elf or a fern, even if you share a common language. – Theo Brinkman Jan 28 '22 at 16:22
  • Haha, true, it does sound silly when only reading the name of the spell. But yes, I think the descriptions use of "communicate" rather than "speak" makes a difference (E.g. If someone uses sign language, does the spell not work?) – DBS Jan 28 '22 at 16:27
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    The spell says "you can communicate" but contains no written precondition that you must be able to speak or communicate without the spell. – Thomas Markov Jan 28 '22 at 17:30
  • One of the points I tried to make in the question is that the spell does not say how the communication is happening. If SwP causes the plants to actually speak, then clearly wild-shaping to a form that can't speak limits communication (although even then, the plants would still be able to talk to the druid, just not the other way around). On the other hand, if it's some magical communication then being wild-shaped shouldn't change it. – Jack Jan 28 '22 at 17:33
  • Language, unless otherwise specified (sign language, body language), means speech, literally it means *tongue. You can't speak as an animal, unless the animal form can. The spell permits communication via shared speech, but most animals can't speak. Would the answer still be 'bad' if the druid were subject to the [tongues](https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/tongues) spell? Additionally, most of the abilities granted by the speak with plants* spell are granted to the plants – Chemus Jan 28 '22 at 22:53
  • I gave this a +1. I don't agree with the conclusion, but I think the reasoning is useful, even if only to delve into the intricacies of the issue, or to argue the negative. – Jack Jan 29 '22 at 12:34
  • This answer isn't strictly RAW, IMO. But I do get that there's a collision between the "Wildshape as written" (clearly designed to limit your ability to cast spells and speak in certain forms) and the "Spell as written" (the broad statement of "As if you could shared a common language") But frankly, I'd rather rule on the side of "Speech isn't a requirement for communication" rather than offend the entire sign language community. – Σ of eDπ Jan 30 '22 at 07:14
  • The question asked was (title) "Can my wild-shaped druid talk to plants?", or (body) "Can she speak with plants while wild-shaped?" If speak with plants allows for reading/writing, as alternate forms of communication, then you're still limited by your current form, and you still can't speak unless your form allows it. – Theo Brinkman Jan 31 '22 at 14:46
  • "No Kill I" (Oldskool Star Trek reference) - If nothing else... Charades! – Σ of eDπ Feb 02 '22 at 06:58