How does a druid in Wild Shape interact with the Dominate Beast spell?

Question

I believe it is clear that a druid in Wild Shape is a beast and therefore¹ a valid target for the dominate beast spell:

You attempt to beguile a beast that you can see within range.

I am having trouble determining what happens if Wild Shape ends while the spell is still affecting the druid, namely based on this part of the spell:

It must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for the duration.

According to this line, one would assume that after being affected, the spell no longer cares whether the target is still a beast, so the druid would continue to be charmed.

The spell description continues (emphasis mine):

While the beast is charmed, you have a telepathic link with it as long as the two of you are on the same plane of existence. [...]

Now the part about the telepathic link specifies "the beast", so the link should perhaps be broken.

The worst part comes from the next paragraph that simply states (emphasis mine):

You can use your action to take total and precise control of the target. [...]

I assumed that this action uses the telepathic link but that is not specified and is actually in a separate paragraph, so I have no idea how this would work.

Is there a rule I am missing or is this ultimately just up to the DM to decide how this interaction should work?

---

¹ Per this tweet by Mike Mearls

*Druid uses wild shape, are they a valid target for dominate beast or dominate person? What about w/ polymorph?

their type becomes beast, so they can be affected by spells according to that type

Answer 1

The Dominate Beast spell will end

There was a (somewhat confusing) developer tweet about this topic. Jeremy Crawford stated (emphasis mine):

In #DnD, the exceptional trumps the general. (No longer being a valid target trumps condition carryover.)

When a wildshaped Druid reverts to their normal form, we have those two conditions: the target changing type, and condition (charmed) carrying over. The target changing type makes it an invalid target which, as confirmed in the sage advice tweet, trumps the charmed condition carrying over.

Since the spell would no longer has a valid target once the druid changes back, the spell will end.

What about the other two Dominate X spells?

For completeness, let's run through the two other dominate spells.

Dominate Person requires a humanoid target. All official PC races are humanoid, so while the druid is in its normal form it can be targeted and charmed by a Dominate Person spell. If the druid wildshapes into a beast, its type changes to match that beast. So, the druid is no longer a humanoid, the target of Dominate Person is invalid, and the spell ends. In this way, it works in reverse of the Dominate Beast spell.

Dominate Monster works on any creature. Whether in beast form, humanoid form, or even in a Circle of the Moon druid's elemental form, the druid is still a creature. Thus, even going in and out of wild shape won't make the druid an invalid target. Since the target is still valid, the Dominate Monster spell will still have full effect, even if the druid wild shapes.