Petrified Character, What about their items?

[El Mahdi]

I like to rule that the items turn also...except for magic items. They remain intact wherever they were on the person, but they're obviously stuck and need to be removed somehow (likely destroying the petrified/stone character).

 

[Ryujin]

Fair enough I had that idea too. But using logic, where does the petrification effect end...why not the floor and the surrounds and so forth? Why just the clothing and items...? What if the victim was on his steed, what happens to the mount?

I would keep it to the person and items of an individual creature. The mount is a separate creature, and so I would say that the tack, saddle, etc. stay unpetrified.

These days I just go with the Flesh part and not all the items - makes more sense.
Then again what happens with Enlarge spells

Depends on your style of game. Alice in Wonderland means that the clothes grow and shrink with the wearer. Comic book style and.... I recall that She Hulk had a few.... wardrobe malfunctions.

 

[Unwise]

I would say that the items turn to stone for a few major reasons:

1) You want to be able to have statues around where the PCs can't be sure if they are Medusa victims or just statues. If the swords and clothing were still ok, you would ruin this trope.

2) If the items don't turn to stone, then you can't have the PCs stumble across a stoned hero and have them fix him up and have him be useful. A naked guy is not much help to anyone.

3) It is just not heroic to be a naked

4) Is it quicker and easier to kill a PC than it is to have them robbed. Robbery completely throws out the power balance of the game and leads to trite reasoning to give the PCs back their items later. You don't want a PC being turned to stone then robbed, your better off killing them.