Just how gaseous is the "gaseous form" of the Wind Walk spell?

Question

The Wind Walk spell allows creatures to assume a "gaseous form" that enables them to fly very quickly:

You and up to ten willing creatures you can see within range assume a gaseous form for the duration, appearing as wisps of cloud. While in this cloud form, a creature has a flying speed of 300 feet and has resistance to damage from nonmagical weapons. The only actions a creature can take in this form are the Dash action or to revert to its normal form.

Unlike the spell whose actual name is Gaseous Form, the gaseous form of Wind Walk doesn't say anything about various abilities that might be enabled by being non-solid, such as entering another creature's space or squeezing through small cracks. However, many of these abilities are implied by the term "gaseous form", even if you don't read it as a reference to the spell of the same name.

So, does Wind Walk actually make an affected creature non-solid and allow them to do anything a gas could, similar to Gaseous Form? Other than a very fast fly speed, what additional abilities, if any, are granted to a creature by Wind Walk?

Answer 1

Wind walk does not grant the effects of gaseous form

The effects of wind walk do not reference the spell effects. Contrast it to something like a potion of gaseous form (Dungeon Master's Guide, p. 187) which explicitly states it grants the effects of the spell:

When you drink this potion, you gain the effect of the gaseous form spell for 1 hour (no concentration required) [...]

Wind walk only does what it states. It grants damage resistance, fly speed, and defines the actions that the affected character can take.

Answer 2

You probably don't get any extra abilities

In your question, you note that the spell Gaseous Form explicitly spells out what abilities are gained by not being solid, while Wind Walk does not. NautArch also added a link in comments that spells do what they say they do. Since there are other abilities that explicitly give you those properties, and since this one does not, then it is very likely that you only gain exactly the properties described in Wind Walk.

On the other hand...

That said, you are explicitly stated to "assume a gaseous form", and the GM could interpret that to mean "with all the traits that a gaseous form would have." This is technically also RAW, even if the spell doesn't explicitly spell out what a gaseous form is or what it does. This is also (I think) more likely to be the players' interpretation, as well as being a more common sense interpretation of "assume a gaseous form". That said, DnD is certainly not a physics simulator, so common sense doesn't necessarily matter.

By strict RAW, I don't think you get any other abilities

But...

I would give you all the properties of a gas - minus the tendency to diffuse

I think this fits the common sense definition of assuming a gaseous form, and it's still a RAW interpretation. It also allows the players to do some fun stuff and be rewarded for trying something really clever!