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I have a player that has a druid character. She is trying to travel as far as possible using the form of a giant eagle.

If she travels at the fastest pace possible for the longest time period possible and earns levels of exhaustion, does the exhaustion carry over to her regular form? Or, is the druid able to shift back to her normal form and then shift into a "fresh" eagle and resume travel?

My player argues that physical things like HP and physical attributes don't transfer between her animal form and her normal form, so physical exhaustion shouldn't carry over either.

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Yes. Definitely.

Exhaustion is a condition, wild shape says nothing about conditions, and thus, conditions remain when you change back and forth (if it was meant to allow you to shed conditions, it would say so, and also be even more powerful of an ability).

While HP and physical attributes do not transfer, conditions do (they are not explicitly excepted).

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    \$\begingroup\$ Awesome, that answered my question. I was a little wary of having wildshape remove physical conditions, but after some thought, I've realized that wildshaping to remove conditions would be way too powerful. \$\endgroup\$
    – Tophandour
    Commented Mar 10, 2015 at 3:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ How would this apply to a condition like drowning then? If the druid had a contingency ring or something, wouldn't transforming into a fish change the condition? This also applies to conditions like poison. If the creature you shift into is immune to poison, wouldn't that remove the effect? \$\endgroup\$
    – Lino Frank Ciaralli
    Commented Jun 10, 2015 at 14:45
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    \$\begingroup\$ @LinoFrankCiaralli "drowning" is not a 5e condition. Drowning is a state that inflicts specific conditions (and other effects). If your state changes then conditions that are a result of that state are no longer in effect. \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Commented Jun 10, 2015 at 19:28
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    \$\begingroup\$ I think the only exception to this might be if you are affected by a certain condition but the creature you wild-shape into has an immunity to that condition. In that case, the condition couldn't carry over into your wild-shaped form... though I'm not sure what would happen when you changed back into your regular form. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Commented Feb 6, 2018 at 23:21
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PHB p66 states:

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast you have seen before.

Although you gain the hit points of this new animal shape, it is not an alternate creature. You as a creature, whether in your normal shape or your animal shape, suffer any effects such as poisoning, disability, exhaustion, etc.

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