Monstrous Druid AC...

[Majere]

To throw this in the mix.
What happens when a wildshaped druid with wild armor meets a cleric with true sight up? The armor clearly is there and will be targettable

The text is clear, normally when you shapechange your magical equipment is absorbed into your normal form and its properties supressed. The exception to this is if the new form can still wear that item. In that case the item is NOT absorbed, but worn by the new form.
Wild is an ability which allows magical armor and shields to give their ARMOR and ENHANCEMENT bonuses even while absorbed; note that shield bonuses ARE NOT MENTIONED.

Nowhere is anything said in any RAW, about the above Armor check, max dex. All that the text states is that the armor becomes "nonfunctional", an undefined term that can be quite liberally interpreted.

Majere
4th-Dan Crane style Rules-Foo

From SRD:
"Wild Shape (Su): At 5th level, a druid gains the ability to turn herself into any Small or Medium animal and back again once per day. Her options for new forms include all creatures with the animal type. This ability functions like the polymorph spell"


"Polymorph: This spell functions like alter self, except that you change the willing subject into another form of living creature. The new form may be of the same type as the subject or any of the following types: aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant, or vermin. "

"Alter Self:When the change occurs, your equipment, if any, either remains worn or held by the new form (if it is capable of wearing or holding the item), or melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional. When you revert to your true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on your body they previously occupied and are once again functional."

"Wild: 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. Armor and shields with this ability usually appear to be made covered in leaf patterns. While the wearer is in a wild shape, the armor cannot be seen."

 

[Majere]

In an ammendum to my above post this actually implies two things:
1) You need to decide as a DM which slots animals have, write this down, and stick to it.
2) If you dont let bears wield shields, they would be able to attack with both paws.

Im pretty sure I would not let bears wield tower shields, as such they would be able to use both paws, but not recieve cover or any shield bonus from the shield.
An animated shield would work, but behave as if wielded by someone not proficient with it.

Majere

 

[Nail]

No one's come up with any RAW that says the melded wild armor retains it's ACP?

....sigh. Me neither. My last hope, gone by the wayside....

It's ugly, but I can't see any (RAW) reason why wild armor or shields are targetable by anything while on a wildshaped druid. As I said above, the ACP goes away while "melded", and therefore there is no penalty for being non-proficient with either Heavy Armor or Tower Shields. Since the wild property allows you to retain the armor bonus, there is no reason for any wild armor to be anything less than Full (wooden) Plate.

For a mere +3 enhancement price, you can add to your druid's AC an armor bonus of at least +9.

And then there's the "melded, but still protects you" tower shield. At least (whew!) you can't take cover behind the psuedo-non-existent shield.......the wild property doesn't explicitly allow that......

 

[Majere]

As a further note:
Given that melded shield frees up a limb so that it may be used for attacking, I would stick to the "armor and enhancement bonus only ruling", denying the shield user the shield bonus, otherwise the wild shape becomes rather gross when on a shield.

But that is a prsonal thing

Majere

 

[Diirk]

I've got a good idea, lets make a +3 enhancement worse than a +2 one (animated). For +3, it damn well better be good, heh.

 

[Ruvion]

As a further note:
Given that melded shield frees up a limb so that it may be used for attacking, I would stick to the "armor and enhancement bonus only ruling", denying the shield user the shield bonus, otherwise the wild shape becomes rather gross when on a shield.

But that is a prsonal thing

Majere

I agree with you, but it would be like you said, a personal preference and ruling.

 

[Nail]

Neither glammered nor animated come close to the power of wild armor. The difference between "+2" and "+3" is tiny compared to the bonuses received. Let's just be glad there's a typo, and shields aren't included.

 

[Spatula]

I'm not sure what amazing advantage a wild shield possesses over an animated one. The animated shield is present & visible and could theoretically be targetted by spells & sunder attacks. However I've never seen such a thing take place. Attacking the shield instead of the druid would generally be a waste of time.

And the druid can presumably take cover behind an animated tower shield, though not a wild one.

Personally I would just ban shields from having the wild enchantment and avoid all the murky rules/balance disputes entirely.

 

[Majere]

From the SRD:
Animated: Upon command, an animated shield floats within 2 feet of the wielder, protecting her as if she were using it herself but freeing up both her hands. Only one shield can protect a character at a time. A character with an animated shield still takes any penalties associated with shield use, such as armor check penalty, arcane spell failure chance, and nonproficiency.

The important line here is:
"protecting her as if she were using it herself "

Bears cannot use shield, and therefore they cannot gain any benefit from animated shields.
This is why wild shape is better than animate.

Even if you disagree with the above (which is a perfectly valid interpretation), an animated shield requires the druid to spend a feat on the proficiency, and the ACP still applies; neither of which is the case with a wild shield.

Majere

 

[Diirk]

I would disagree with your interpretation of both animated and wild actually. As long as you activate the 'animated' property before you wildshape, I would suggest the shield continues to function. It seems somewhat silly that in human form a shield will hover around protecting you with no effort on your part (both your arms being free and all), but when you turn into a bear, the shield somehow senses this and suddenly falls to the ground inert...

Of course if you didn't activate the animated property before you shifted, it would merge with your form

Its also my opinion that you don't ignore the ACP of wild armour/shields when you wildshape. I'd also apply the movement speed decrease from medium and higher armours to the animal form. And if you use a tower shield without the feat, thats like -10 to attack rolls or something isn't it ? ouch !

Now opinions are just opinions, but if you were playing in a game where both of those were true, there'd really be no need to further devalue wild, would there ?