Quote Originally Posted by douglas View Post
On the contrary, I consider it absolutely necessary for game balance and therefore a fix, not broken. The situation without combining things like this is what's broken. Game balance, such as it is in 3.5, expects you to have a certain amount of EVERY standard numeric bonus from equipment all at once. Without combining items, this makes using most actual interesting magic items nearly impossible due to slot conflicts and, in some cases, even has slot conflicts between the items you're "supposed" to have. With MIC rules you can actually meet those expectations.
Take a look at a melee cleric, for example. You need Wis for spellcasting, and Con for not dying, but they both use the throat slot using only the base items. With MIC, this becomes more of what it's supposed to (although it's strong even without that, it's the principle that matters).

Have you pointed out to your DM that "One vest, vestment, or shirt on the torso" is quite explicitly a separate and independent slot from "One robe or suit of armor on the body (over a vest, vestment, or shirt)" according to the list of body slots?
Also in the MIC and Magic of Incarnum (and maybe somewhere else too?), both of which list body and torso as unquestionably distinct slots; although the latter uses "heart" and "soul," it still defines one as vest/vestment/shirt and the other as robe/armor.