Worn Equipment on a Bear Warrior

[NerdHut]

One of my players has just taken her first level in Bear Warrior. We have pretty much everything worked out, except what happens to the armor.
The bear form class ability doesn't directly address what happens to the character's armor, but says it's similar to polymorph.
Polymorph also doesn't directly say, but says it's like alter self.
Alter self says that the character's equipment either melds into the character's new form or doesn't. I take that to mean you can choose whether it does or doesn't.

With all that in mind, I'm struggling to come up with my official ruling before the first time my player takes her bear form.
At the moment, I'm thinking I'll rule that her armor melds into her, like with a Druid's Wild Shape, but will homebrew that the enchantment that lets a druid keep their armor works identically for a Bear Warrior.

Is there something more official that addresses this? Failing that, does my current ruling seem appropriate?

P.S.: For anyone curious about the build, her character is an anthropomorphic black bear, with 7 levels of bear totem barbarian, now 1 level of bear warrior, named Barry. He's also a "bear" in the sense of gay slang. Just tons of bear jokes.

[Nifft]

When the change occurs, your equipment, if any, either remains worn or held by the new form (if it is capable of wearing or holding the item), or melds into the new form and becomes nonfunctional.


Can a bear wear your human-shaped armor? Nope. Armor melds into nonfunctionality.

Can a bear wield a weapon? IMHO nope. Weapon melds into nonfunctionality.

Can a bear wear a magic amulet? Sure, keep it.

Can a bear wear a magic ring? Sure, keep it.

Can a bear wear boots? Nope. Boots meld into nonfunctionality.

Go down the list of item slots and decide if a bear can wear them. IMHO a big serious metal helmet would meld into nonfunctionality, but an obnoxiously cute little hat would remain on the bear.

[KillianHawkeye]

Yeah, I've played a Bear Warrior before, and I recommend allowing them to use Wilding Clasps in the same way a Druid does. I mean, if The Golden Compass can beat Transformers in the Oscars for best special effects because they have armor-wearing CGI bears, then we should be able to have them in D&D, too. Popular culture has spoken.

[NerdHut]

(if it is capable of wearing or holding the item)

Thanks, Nifft, for the snippet. Reading it with the huge block of text, I guess I missed that. That parenthetical does help to clear things up.

On that note, I think I'll keep my current ruling. Armor won't work, unless she gets armor with the Beastskin enchantment (at the cost of Rage instead of Wild Shape). Things like weapons are obviously unusable. And wondrous items are generally usable in any form. That's somewhere in the DMG and/or MIC, I believe.

[Hiro Quester]

This was posted in a "rules of the Game" post (probably Skip Williams, a long time back. I made a copy because I'm playing a druid with an animal companion that I wanted kitted out well enough to keep him alive. It also applied to Bear Warrior:


Animal Item Slots

Although it's easy to imagine an animal benefiting from magic equipment beyond a simple saddle and a suit of barding, fitting a mount's physiology to the list of item slots available to characters is not an easy task. Try the following variant list of item slots for quadruped animals (and other monsters when appropriate).

One skull cap or helm
One pair of lenses or goggles
One collar
One saddle blanket or vest
One saddle or jacket
One belt or strap worn in front of or over the haunches
One pectoral or harness worn over the chest or shoulders
One pair foreleg bracers
One pair of foreleg shoes or mitts -- hoofed creatures wear shoes and creatures with paws wear mitts
Two rings -- creatures with toes wear rings on the toes and creatures with hooves wear "rings" just above fore hooves
One pair of hind leg shoes or mitts -- hoofed creatures wear shoes and creatures with paws wear mitts

So as long as your boots are loose enough to become "mitts" then the bear form might even wear them. And your gloves might have holes in them for bear claws to poke through. etc.

Edit: It was originally from "Wild Life (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031125a)" by Jesse Decker.