Wild armor

[kerbarian]

The "Wild" armor property says that the wearer "preserves his armor bonus (and any enhancement bonus) while in a wild shape." If a Druid is wearing wild dragonhide full plate +1, he gets to keep the +9 armor bonus in wild shape. But does he also keep the -6 armor check penalty, +1 max dex limitation, and reduced movement and run multiplier? What about the 50lbs of encumbrance (pretty awkward for, say, a mouse)?

I can't find anything in the rules or FAQ about it, so my initial interpretation would be that all properties of the armor go away when you wild shape ("Any gear worn or carried by the druid melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional.") except for the armor bonus. But that seems too powerful...

It gets even stranger if you can do it with a shield. Use a Wild tower shield +1, then wild shape, and you have a +5 shield bonus that takes up no hands and has no armor check or other penalties.

Another way to use the benefit -- as an Arcane Heirophant or Mystic Theurge, you could wear full plate and a tower shield with no arcane spell failure chance.

So is there anything in the rules or FAQ that I'm missing that would address this?

 

[MarkB]

The simple rule here is: It does exactly what it says on the tin.

It says it lets you keep the armour bonus, so you do.

It doesn't say it makes you keep the weight, armour check penalty, arcane spell failure chance, or anything else you wouldn't normally retain whilst wildshaped, so you don't.

 

[Prism]

I agree. In wild shape you keep only the AC benefits and lose any additional non enhancement enchantments like silent move or fortification. You also gain an advantage by losing any armour check penalties.

As for the wild shield - well as wild only retains armour bonus and a shield provides..well..a shield bonus, a wild shield has zero benefit at all. Clearly a typo in my mind