Monstrous Druid AC...

[Ruvion]

The Ironwood spell by itself does grant you cheap wood armor, if you are willing to cast it every couple of weeks. Just not cheap magical (wild) and permanent wooden armor.

Maybe a 4th-level spell that allows any armor to meld for 1 hr/level? Compare that wild property is +3 equivalent, and GMW (a 3rd-level spell)gives a +1-+5 bonus for 1 hr/level.

guess what? the player is willing to cast it every few weeks. and by the way, since i am not DMing this particular campaign i do not know the specifics of his enhancement bonus distribution...i am just going by what the druid's player claimed when he stated to me +4 shield bonus +5 enhancement bonus equals +9 bonus to AC (maybe he mistated or flatout lied...don't know and don't care...hehe).

 

[Nail]

The Ironwood spell by itself does grant you cheap wood armor, if you are willing to cast it every couple of weeks.

Huh.

So, you make masterwork wooden armor, enhance it magically, then cast Ironwood on the armor every once in a while so it doesn't get destroyed in combat?

You've got to be kidding me.

You better hope no one casts Dispel Magic on the druid. Otherwise that nice nifty (and expensive!) piece of armor is going to get ruined at the next hit. Wood has a hardness of 5 and 10 hp per inch of thinckness -> I'd give armor 7 hp. The magic enhancement hardens it further......

Still, this is silly.

 

[Diirk]

Hows it silly? Thats the entire point of the spell... believe it or not, it can be a viable spell without spending godly sums of money as a houserule (as all custom magic items are) to make it a continuous magical effect.

If he's wildshaped anyway, it should be fairly safe from dispels, no? Anyway for reference to what the armour might be like after ironwood is dispelled, refer to the Transmute Metal to Wood spell:

Weapons converted from metal to wood take a –2 penalty on attack and damage rolls. The armor bonus of any armor converted from metal to wood is reduced by 2. Weapons changed by this spell splinter and break on any natural attack roll of 1 or 2, and armor changed by this spell loses an additional point of armor bonus every time it is struck with a natural attack roll of 19 or 20.

So yes, you wouldn't want to stick around with your ironwood dispelled, but it doesn't instantly disintegrate either.

 

[Nail]

I'd go even farther. Armor made from wood that is meant to be "ironwooded" is liable to be awefully thin. Low hp and low hardness = smashed armor after the first hit.

BTW: Wild armor doesn't dissapear. It's still there and can be hit.

 

[Spatula]

Not sure where you're getting that from, Nail (nor the earlier shield comment):

"While the wearer is in a wild shape, the armor cannot be seen."

Seems very clear to me.

 

[Nail]

"Cannot be seen" means what it says. I agree.

It does NOT mean "the armor cannot be felt, hit, cannot be the target of a dispel, does not make noise, does not prevent arcane somatic components from working correctly, etc".

In fact, the armor would do exactly zero good to the wildshaped druid if it were the case that the armor wasn't there. If it's not there, it can't protect the druid, nicht wahr?.

 

[Nail]

(nor the earlier shield comment.

Two things:

• A shield is not usually absorbed into wildshape, as many forms have arms to which a shield may be attached. The Dire Bear is an excellent example.
  
  
• The Wild ability doesn't make the shield dissappear, only the armor. Says so right in the SRD and RAW description.

 

[Scion]

It sounds like you are saying that the wild enhancement doesnt actually do anything, especially for shields. So, what is the point? Magical items already resize and such to fit different sized people, so if they can wear armor it would resize anyway. No real benefit other than turning 'invisible', glamored would be a better option.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I don't buy that a Wild shield wouldn't work. You're paying for the property, it's applicable to shields. Anything else is house rules.

Also, what do you suppose would happen if Mr. Dire Bear were targetted with a dispel while wearing medium-size wild armour? Can you target wild armour with a dispel, since you can't see it? Normally you can't cast a spell like that unless you can see the object being targetted. But if you manage to Disjoin it or something, that might make for a hurty bear unless he ends up in humanoid form again.

 

[Nail]

It sounds like you are saying that the wild enhancement doesnt actually do anything, especially for shields.

Not at all!

The wild enhancement allows the animal form to use the shield. It's as simple as that! How else would a crocodile use a shield? Or a snake? or a shark?

(Now that would be funny => a shark with a shield strapped to a fin! I hope it has a "teeth" motiff on the front! )

My point is simple: the wild enhancement doesn't make the shield dissappear. It does make a shield useful.