As others have noted, nothing says you have to give them an easy no-consequences de-throating every single time they act; maybe you tear out the first orc's throat and then the others are a little more cautious and you have to do a DD or H&S roll to pull it off.

This is how I intend on handling it, thanks for your helpful comments.
I do not really understand why the druid has such arbitrary rules which are in total conflict with how every other class is handled but I am willing to give it a shot and see how it goes.

Every roll is a chance, however small, of a miss. Having WIS +3 means having some other stat at +0, maybe the stat you needed your thumbs for. No mistake, shapeshift is *very* powerful, but like every other powerful move in DW, eventually your hero's going to biff the roll.

No mistake, shapeshift is a very powerful move.

I think it's one of the coolest moves in the system. I just wan't to make sure the other 3 people at the table are having fun and that that everyone else doesn't take a backseat to the druid.
I really want to make every character shine.

Not so. "Once you're out of hold, you return to your natural form. At any time, you may spend all your hold and revert to your natural form." Rulebook p.105.

So if you pass the roll and get hold, you're committed to wolf form, and if you get into a situation where you need opposable thumbs, you have a choice to make.

Maybe I misunderstand again. There is no limit to the amount of times a druid may shapeshift so he can easily say "ok i use my holds to become human again" *do thing that needs thumbs "Ok I turn back into a wolf'' roll 2d6 "ok i remove throat". Any roll above a 3 (92% of outcomes) gives at least 2 holds with no consequence so there is little risk in doing this.

I could impose some kind of arbitrary penalty like "it takes a few seconds to shapeshift and you are vulnerable in this time" but then I'm just house-ruling to punish the druid...

One thing I probably wouldn't do is make them roll Hack and Slash. H&S is it's own move and I'd have them roll it when they are hacking and slashing. This is the wolf move "Go for their throat."

Maybe I am misunderstanding (english is not my language...)
Would you not make the druid roll at all? Or are you just differentiating that the druid's roll is not the H&S move but they are still rolling for their move?

This is what I envision.
Go for the throat
roll + str
10+ deal class damage + 1d4
7-9  deal class damage + 1d4 and select 1 from
            * Unwelcome truth
            * increase danger
6-    fail to do damage + whatever GM says


As for 'Think Dangerous": I am more than happy to kill the orc. I want the PCs to succeed but more importantly I want them to feel like they overcame something meaningful. I could "think dangerous" and decide that every PC insta-kills everything they hit but it probably wouldn't be very fun or challenging for them. Its not a question of protecting the bad guys from death, I just want to make sure everyone is having fun and feels like there is a challenge.

Thanks. I appreciate you clearing things up with me. That is how I initially understood it to be, but after reading a few resources online they all made it seem like druid moves always succeed.

So when a wolf shifted druid uses a hold to make the move 'go for the throat' on an orc, he is lunging at the orc's throat.
Is this a situation where the druid rolls hack and slash, or do you just leave it up to how you want the fiction to roll as the DM?
Would 'go for the throat' deal class damage + bonus, or would it be an instant kill?

From the sidebar text on page 107 of the rule book:

"Animal moves just say
what the animal naturally
does, like “call the pack,”
“trample them,” or
“escape to the air.” When
you spend your hold your
natural instinct kicks in
and that move happens.
If you spend hold to
escape to the air, that’s
it—you’re away and on
the wing"

I often read that the way this should be interpreted as animal moves just 'succeed' if they have a hold to spend on the move.
If you transform into an elephant and say 'I want to trample the group of orcs', you spend 1 hold and you just kill them all.
Now, for obvious reasons, this isn't fun for the rest of the party. Nobody wants to struggle to kill one enemy and then have someone else wipe them off the map in one swoop, without so much as a combat roll.

I guess my question are:
Am I understanding the rules incorrectly? Could a dinosaur sized shapeshifted druid just stomp an entire hobgoblin war band?

Why does shapeshifting hold basically no penalty? A druid with +3 wis has a 92% chance of rolling 7+ which means they have a 92% chance of not having even the slightest consequence.
In contrast, a wizard or cleric could face consequence on ~40% of their spell casts (with a +3 modifier).

Why does shapeshifted druid moves just 'work'. Why is there no roll required?
Surely enemies would scatter from the path of a charging elephant; why do they stand there and meet the giant grey feet with open arms?
I understand why a mountain goat doesn't have to roll to scale a rock face, but I imagine if there were giants throwing boulders down there is now a risk that is beyond what a mountain goat 'could normally do' without effort.
The same goes for a bird's flight, I understand that flying across a field is a trivial task for a hawk, but what if there was a constant hail of arrows in the air. Now shouldn't the druid have to defy some danger?