[RPG] Druid with heavy armor and a shield

druidpathfinder-1e

A friend recently came up with a druid 5/fighter 1. He took the fighter level to allow himself to use heavy armor. He has a full stone plate and a wooden shield, and he uses Wild Shape to change into a dire tiger. Apparently, the armor and shield get absorbed into his new form, and stack with the dire tiger's natural armor to get him around 28 AC at lvl 6, with the ability to cast spells (with the natural spell feat).

Is this legal? I'm having a LOT of trouble imagining a druid in heavy armor and a shield, casting spells with no penalty whatsoever. I know druid can be broken with the natural spell feat, but this seems a bit too ridiculous to be legal.

This is standard Pathfinder with no 3rd party rules.

Best Answer

A quick search on Paizo's source reference document tells me that the Wild Shape class feature of the druid works just like the Transmutation spell Beast Shape.

Transmutation spells are described here and this is the relevant part:

When you cast a polymorph spell that changes you into a creature of the animal, dragon, elemental, magical beast, plant, or vermin type, all of your gear melds into your body. Items that provide constant bonuses and do not need to be activated continue to function while melded in this way (with the exception of armor and shield bonuses, which cease to function).

Unless some special feature like Wild lets him, your druid should not be gaining those bonus.
Wild armor is expensive (16000gp worth of enchanting) and I don't know how a 6th level character could buy it.


As @ZeDemonPyro makes me notice, that druid can't possibly turn into a dire tiger, because of the limitations in size and hit dice of the creatures a druid can wildshape into.