Druid gear and wildshaping

[Archmage]

A friend of mine who is into playing druids lately has this question:

From Skip’s Polymorphing Revisited (part 4), in the examples you can tell that the druid’s melded hide armor does not still give armor penalties or speed reductions. What you can’t tell is if the gear that is melded still counts toward encumbrance or if the weight is ignored. How do you rule this in your games? Are there any other rules/faqs/errata that discuss the mechanics of melded equipment?

We are both pretty sure that we prefer that the weight for melded gear doesn't count. He is just interested in the RAW answer.

 

[carrot]

There don't seem to be any rules for that, but I would say that the weight of melded equipment is effectively gone. After all if you wild shape into a small bird, you don't remain the same weight as you would as a human, otherwise you'd never be able to fly.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I'd assume the armour becomes part of your body weight and therefore no longer counts as encumbrance.

 

[Dimwhit]

And a third for that ruling.

Makes the Druid very handy for carrying a large amount of party treasure...