Elemental Form IV and equipment

[Optimistic Cynic]

Greetings,
I have a question from my current GM. Another player playing a cleric was able to cast Elemental Body IV, thus turning into a 32 foot tall extremely heavy giant made out of stone. The GM spot-ruled that all equipment was absorbed into his body the same as Druids, and thus was not able to cast spells requiring a Divine Focus. However, he was still able to kick off several spells I think, earth glide, and at the same time pound on people the same as a Huge Earth Elemental.
The questions are :
Do the spellcaster's eq get absorbed into the caster's body like Druids? The spells themselves do not mention this.
Are spellcasters still able to cast spells when in elemental form?
Is there anything we should keep in mind when casting this spell and its ramifications that people often do not realize?

Thanks! It is a 7th level spell, and thus is supposed to be very powerful. Our group is just usually leery about spells that totally change a spell caster into a front line behemoth. :)

[hogarth]

Some of this is covered under the Polymorph subschool:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magic.html#polymorph

"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."

"While in such a form, you cannot cast any spells that require material components (unless you have the Eschew Materials or Natural Spell feat), and can only cast spells with somatic or verbal components if the form you choose has the capability to make such movements or speak, such as a dragon."

[StreamOfTheSky]

RAW, it's probably absorbed and can't be used, but you could always drop it at your feet (free action), transform (standard), then pick it up (move). The item melding rules are stupid, archaic, and unnecessarily restrictive for the sake of spelling everything out. *sigh*

Elementals don't need to be humanoid shaped, but they frequently take that form and several pics show them as such, so they can use somatic and material components/focuses. They can also speak, so verbal components work just fine.

You have to read the polymorph rules for how a lot of this stuff works, it's not in the spell descriptions.

[Phasics]

Try using Undead Anatomy, Monstrous Physique or Giant Form spell instead your gear won't merge as long as you keep your approximate shape and will re-size like a much better enlarge person spell.

[Optimistic Cynic]

Thanks everybody, it sounds like we played it right for the most part (we missed that he loses tremorsence, but it didn't matter, the creatures were all flying anyways)!