The way myself and my party does it is we play every other week on Saturday from 6pm to 10pm. This way everyone knows the schedule and can plan around it. If people can't clear their schedule to play then we replace them. It's harsh but it's the only way I found to play D&D consistently.

And I myself have excused myself from a game because my life schedule changed and couldn't keep the commitment I had previously and it would be too much work for the rest of the party to change their schedules.

What kind of man buys another man juice?!

I have been doing this but because I want to keep the party on guard. Also I think villains who think they are the good guys or doesn't think what they are doing is wrong is better than I'm evil because the plot needs it.

I believe there is a rule for falling onto another creature. The falling creature takes normal fall damage while the creature that was fell onto takes half of that. So the druid wildshaping into something with a lot of health is smart and I would allow it since they are essentially spending a whole wildshape for that damage.