"Wild" armour special ability question

I have a question regarding the "Wild" magic armour special ability. The description of the ability says that "the wearer of a suit of armor or a shield with this ability preserves his armor bonus (and any enhancement bonus) while in a wild shape" [quoted from the SRD].

I was wondering would the armour retain its functionality when used with a shape-changing ability other than wild shape (such as shapechange, alternate form, druid's A Thousand Faces ability, etc.)?

The ability description is pretty specific (it talks explicitly about wild shape), but since it is a +3 enhancement-equivalent ability (meaning it costs at least 16,150 gp, plus the cost of a suit of armour), I don't think it'd be a stretch to allow it to work with polymorph and similar effects.

Just for comparison, bracers of armour cost 16,000 gp, and they provide a +4 armour bonus (effective against incorporeal touch attacks), and they're usable by creatures of virtually any shape (with the notable exceptions of oozes and a couple other creatures), since in 3.5 objects don't neccessarily to meld into the new form (provided the new from has physical capability to wear them).

Regards.

As written, it only works with wildshape. I think it's too powerful an ability to allow it to be used with other forms of shapechanging, but YMMV.

The armor is very powerful as written.

Just for comparison, bracers of armour cost 16,000 gp, and they provide a +4 armour bonus (effective against incorporeal touch attacks), and they're usable by creatures of virtually any shape (with the notable exceptions of oozes and a couple other creatures), since in 3.5 objects don't neccessarily to meld into the new form (provided the new from has physical capability to wear them).

Click to expand...

could you back up that claim? You likley need medium biped forearms to wear bracers

frankthedm said:

could you back up that claim? You likley need medium biped forearms to wear bracers

Click to expand...

So you would agree that dragons cannot wear bracers? What else can dragons not wear?

Brother MacLaren said:

So you would agree that dragons cannot wear bracers? What else can dragons not wear?

Click to expand...

Magic items re-size to fit their new owner... aside from weapons and armour. So a dragon can wear bracers

Here is an example from WoTC on animal's magic item slots... which can translate to Dragon's etc.

Wild Life part 2 said:

Animal Item Slots

Although it's easy to imagine an animal benefiting from magic equipment beyond a simple saddle and a suit of barding, fitting a mount's physiology to the list of item slots available to characters is not an easy task. Try the following variant list of item slots for quadruped animals (and other monsters when appropriate).

One skull cap or helm
One pair of lenses or goggles
One collar
One saddle blanket or vest
One saddle or jacket
One belt or strap worn in front of or over the haunches
One pectoral or harness worn over the chest or shoulders
One pair foreleg bracers
One pair of foreleg shoes or mitts -- hoofed creatures wear shoes and creatures with paws wear mitts
Two rings -- creatures with toes wear rings on the toes and creatures with hooves wear "rings" just above fore hooves
One pair of hind leg shoes or mitts -- hoofed creatures wear shoes and creatures with paws wear mitts

Click to expand...

Here is the full article...
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031125a


And I would think that a Druid with magic items in their humanoid slot... would be available in their corresponding animal slot.


Mike

mikebr99 said:

Magic items re-size to fit their new owner... aside from weapons and armour. So a dragon can wear bracers

Click to expand...

Actually, I agree with you. I just wanted to see if Frank would be consistent - I'd say that a majority of DMs think that dragons can use items despite their nonhumanoid shape. I'd also say that some of those DMs get annoyed when druids try the same trick. Was just curious if Frank fell into that category or not.

My druid will probably just eat the extra cost and make a collar that has multiple abilities, because I think it looks kind of silly to have an animal walking around with all those bangles - not against the rules, just silly.

Brother MacLaren said:

My druid will probably just eat the extra cost and make a collar that has multiple abilities, because I think it looks kind of silly to have an animal walking around with all those bangles - not against the rules, just silly.

Click to expand...

Well, it's just a dead giveaway that the Badger in the corner... with all the stuff... is the one summoning all those elementals!


Mike

mikebr99 said:

Well, it's just a dead giveaway that the Badger in the corner... with all the stuff... is the one summoning all those elementals!


Mike

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll just have a druid equip another badger with a pair of bracers now

You'll note that magic items resize. They do not reshape. I rule that you can have a pair of bracers crafted for a dragon. But bracers crafted for human forearms do not reshape themselves into dragon leg bracers when the wizard shapechanges, nor when the druid wildshapes. YMMV.