I have recently ran into a situation where my druid was kidnapped from the rest of the group. Most likely the DM will have my character's armor, weapons, and items taken away. One of said items is a totem that my character uses as a druidic focus. So very likely I will not have access to my spells. However, it made me wonder if my druid could still use Wild Shape without the need of the druidic focus.
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1\$\begingroup\$ Correction: about half of the druid spell list doesn't need Material components, and few nature/survival checks in the woods could get you all sorts of leaves, seeds, bark, stones, etc for the others. \$\endgroup\$– Foo BarCommented Jul 31, 2018 at 17:00
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A druid doesn't need a spellcasting focus to use Wild Shape.
A druidic focus is described as this:
Druidic Focus. A druidic focus might be a sprig of mistletoe or holly, a wand or scepter made of yew or another special wood, a staff drawn whole out of a living tree, or a totem object incorporating feathers, fur, bones, and teeth from sacred animals. A druid can use such an object as a spellcasting focus.
The only thing a spellcasting focus does for any spellcaster is this:
A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus ... in place of the [material] components specified for a spell.
You don't need a spellcasting focus to use any class features unless they say so, nor do you need a spellcasting focus to cast spells that don't have material components.
This means that a druid without any equipment can still cast many of their spells, and can use Wild Shape and any other class features.
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3\$\begingroup\$ ... and if they can lay their hands on the material components for a specific spell, then they can cast that spell too. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 31, 2018 at 14:12
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3\$\begingroup\$ @MartinBonner Yeah, but I didn't want to go too far when talking about material components, since the question was really about class features. \$\endgroup\$– MarqCommented Jul 31, 2018 at 15:20
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\$\begingroup\$ Thank you Marq for your answer. though it brought up a question in mind about prepared spells. DnD classes like Wizards usually use stuff like spell books to keep their spells to prepare for the day. Would Druid need something similar like scrolls to prepare their spells or are the prepared spells come from themselves? \$\endgroup\$– ErikCommented Jul 31, 2018 at 23:19
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\$\begingroup\$ @erik You should ask that in a new question, so that it can be easily found by other people. \$\endgroup\$– MarqCommented Aug 1, 2018 at 7:39