How do YOU protect your items?

[mishka_shaw]

From rust monsters to thieving Tieflings we all have those odd occasions where we need to protect the precious loot we worked so hard to obtain.

Trapped dimensional spellbooks? Invisible animal companions? What special contraptions or sneaky plans have you drafted in order to protect your little piece of adventuring heaven from the prying desires of the chaotic neutrals.

My personal favourite is the relative cheapness [1,00gp and 80xp] of permanent alarm hidden within your coins. I own 4,910 gold pieces…and one very suspicious platinum piece that I mysteriously never use.

[Cranthis]

Bag of holding. As long as it isn't packed full, it looks empty.

[hymer]

I use cynicism for protection. If the DM wants to take my stuff, he'll take it. If he takes something that cripples my character, he cripples his story as well - or he's just railroading me into going after the thief. If he takes something else, what do I care, it obviously wasn't that important.

So I just take simple precautions, like locks and hiding my wallet.

[Hirax]

Hoard gullet.

[LordBlades]

Wildshape is also a good way to hide stuff you don't plan on using in combat (like gold, spellbooks and etc.) everything you have on you melds into your new form, which means it's practically impossible to steal.

[Lentrax]

I generally don't consider it very much. My DM's either have a high mortality rate for PC's or I only lose it if its plot related or detroyed by monsters, combat, etc.

The other players however never heard of the Left-Boot Bandit until they angered a very evil mage by thretening him in a city full of undead...

[ahenobarbi]

I trust DM not to screw my character. If I were a wizard I'd spend a lot of resources to protect my spell book (as the piece of equipment I need). However as player I find it boring. So I don't do that.

[Slipperychicken]

Hoard gullet.

With my Bag of Holding inside


When I'm a Warforged, the Bag of Holding is a Warforged Component. You're literally only getting it over my dead body, and even then only Warforged can use it (unless you remember to Use Magic Device to override it, but come on, nobody remembers that mid-session).

[LordBlades]

With my Bag of Holding inside


When I'm a Warforged, the Bag of Holding is a Warforged Component. You're literally only getting it over my dead body, and even then only Warforged can use it (unless you remember to Use Magic Device to override it, but come on, nobody remembers that mid-session).

Well, once you get into custom gear territory there's a lot you can do. Like make all your gear usable by LG Dwarves with at least 13 ranks in perform: bagpipes. Odds are nobody with those characteristics will ever want to kill you and/or take your stuff.

Bonus points if you are not a LG Dwarf with at least 13 ranks in perform: bagpipes and UMD all the requirements

[HunterOfJello]

Hoard gullet.

One of these days i have to use dominate person and enlarge person to get someone to hoard gullet a portable hole.

[falloutimperial]

Extra-dimensional holding can be supplemented easily by affixing a bell somehow to the top flap/opening, etc. As soon as the bag is opened, the bell enters real space and makes some noise.

Or just lay the magic-backpack on its' side and have the halfling sleep in it.

[Rubik]

I like going naked.

No, really.

Grab a level in monk or a monk's belt, and take a necklace of natural weaponry (from Savage Species) and add the ghost touch property. Then nab yourself Chain Spell or a rod thereof, and cast the Ghostform spell and a Chained Sequester (or the psionic version). Use it to target every item you've got. Now they're invisible, incorporeal, and completely undetectable, even to True Seeing. Then you can run around with a full complement of gear and still run around in the buff.

They'll never see you coming. (Whee! I'm invisible!)

[Umbranar]

Glyph of Warding on my Portable Hole.
Anyone who touches it without saying the command word must pass a will save or be affected by a Hold Person.

As a druid or other poison immune character i guess you can use contact poison.

[Slipperychicken]

Well, once you get into custom gear territory there's a lot you can do. Like make all your gear usable by LG Dwarves with at least 13 ranks in perform: bagpipes. Odds are nobody with those characteristics will ever want to kill you and/or take your stuff.

Bonus points if you are not a LG Dwarf with at least 13 ranks in perform: bagpipes and UMD all the requirements

It's not using the custom item rules at all. Warforged Components are perfectly legit (straight out of ECS, no changes), it explicitly says any item can be one, and you don't even need a special feat; anyone can make Warforged Components.

[Krazzman]

Hmm... I know this.

Sometimes you can't work against this. One time I paid extra to have this and that to better hide my money. And well let's just say I was the only one who were short of it despite being the only one that looked a bit run down... no spot check or anything for me.

One of the DM's we had used this rather often. Taking your gear away and such stuff. At least this occured often in my sense of seeing it. The big point behind this is... I started about thinking and even now still think something like "Hmm swordsage or unarmed swordsage... normally I don't need the Unarmed strike bonus but what would be if I am in a prison cell without my gear?" the same with a warlock... "how can I get to use Flee the Scene while held captive?".

I personally think... a few times it's a real **** move on the side of the DM. It's some sort of unspoken gentlemens agreement: "You don't screw my character over and I won't try to break your campaign." The times of corrupted Guards that threw us in prison for BEING there... and getting a bit angry because them not telling us anything why we should come with them...
But I think it is referred to as "mostly ok'ed" I even saw one guy saying that when you don't know how to get your party moving... steal something they are attached to. Even when it's just a few copper in his "marked" purse. His party even fell for it and pursued them so relentless that they managed to nearly die.

Stuff like: "Breaking the law without knowing" or "being framed" ok, point of the plot to separate the party and do a prison break. In the low levels this isn't that "bad" but later? If you can't get your gear back then... how will you be able to come back to "WBL" again? It's not like the DM will give you a supershort solo mission or something like that to catch up in monetary value.

As a wizard I would pay a good coin for some resettable traps and waterproofing and would keep a copybook. We tend to play in Faerun and... well once you reach level 5 your book is protected anyway.

[nedz]

A High Spot, Quickdraw and a large selection of weapons.

Bag of holding. As long as it isn't packed full, it looks empty.

You've obviously never played with Curmudgen

[Psyren]

Shapeshifting is the best way thanks to the melding.

One of these days i have to use dominate person and enlarge person to get someone to hoard gullet a portable hole.

Why enlarged? When you fold it up it's easy to swallow.

[HunterColt22]

Shapeshifting is the best way thanks to the melding.



Why enlarged? When you fold it up it's easy to swallow.

That has got to be an odd thing to pass.

"What is the matter with you, are you passing a kindey? Oh Oh GOD! What is that?!!"

"Oh, I just passed my hole of hoarding gullet, lot less painful than a kidney stone, if you look inside you can see the warforged charger I built and trained to guard my stuff in. How does it look Sir Sticky fingers, is everything still there?"

"All good boss, none leaves my hands!"

[Karoht]

Fake identity via Disguise Check, Disguise Self, and Alter Self, and I make all of them look like hobo's. Hardly anyone tries to rob hobo's.
An outfit which has the Glamored property is perfect for looking poor when you need to and rich when you want to.
Nondetection makes magical means of finding me or my stuff that little bit harder.

Fake spell book (trapped) to go with my real spel book (also trapped), my scrolls are bound into a book format (also trapped). Wands are put in my glove of storing or Gloves of the Master Strategist. All my wands include a loop of leather, much like the safety strap on a wii-mote, take THAT Expeliarmus!

Armor Spikes and Shield Spikes tend to have my static buff enchants on them. IE-Spellblade enchantment. Of course, disarming my armor spikes could be taken entirely too literally

Finally, Invisible Spell + Still Spell + Silent Spell + a really good Perform check = Hardly anyone knowing that I'm a caster until they've been Disintegrated. Or Greased.

High Initiative and high Perception-based skills also go a long way towards preventing someone succeeding in stealing from me.

[God Imperror]

A haversack + magic aura it is just a normal backpack.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Duct tape.

Its fun when the DM lets the Alchemist invent modern day conveniences.

[Kelb_Panthera]

By not needing gear? VoP warlock ftw

Seriously though, a warlock that takes magical training +precocious apprentice, then dip incarnate and go into soul-caster improving warlock invocations and incarnate meld-shaping, then pick up VoP and you have most of your bases covered and you have nothing worth stealing.

[Karoht]

By not needing gear? VoP warlock ftw

Seriously though, a warlock that takes magical training +precocious apprentice, then dip incarnate and go into soul-caster improving warlock invocations and incarnate meld-shaping, then pick up VoP and you have most of your bases covered and you have nothing worth stealing.

This.
Just went to the top of my list of "must try character concepts" for next year.
Grats. Have an Internet.

[Andezzar]

Glyph of Warding on my Portable Hole.
Anyone who touches it without saying the command word must pass a will save or be affected by a Hold Person.

To bad that does not work against Tieflings ore any other non-humanoid.

Sir Sticky Fingers made me laugh.

The VoP Warlock sound like a good idea.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Glove of the Master Strategist, a Handy Haversack/Bag of Holding and the Magic Aura spell to make it look like a normal glove as part of my hobo-suit. Hoard Gullet is another good method as is putting things under a tall hat (think about it).

[docnessuno]

Key worn magic items can be protected by with the magic aura spell, possibly from an 'at will' custom item (wich is quite cheap overall). Making your 150k ring appear nonmagical and giving a strong magic aura to another nonmagical one can foil dispels and theft attempts.

[Azoth]

I gotta agree with the players who don't need their gear. I ALWAYS try to have some usefulness even if naked and caught unaware. IUS or a natural weapon, and some means of boosting my AC whether it be monk/battle dancer/swordsage dip. That can get me both right there.

Other than that various hiding tricks and just wearing things that looks more valuable than my magical gear. Hmmm...plain copper band or gold ring with a ruby the size of a squirrel brain? That one usually stops mundane theives.

When magic is involved in taking my things...well just make it painful. Oh every item is inside a box/envelope/bag that is energy substituion (acid) fire trapped? Oh there is energy subbed explosive runes tag attached to them disguised as a label? Also Shrieker Heads from Comp Scou...gotta love a shrieking shrunken head that only you can remove from the object.

[Slipperychicken]

anaergy subbed explosive runes

Why? Do Force Dragons usually try to steal your gear?

[Twilightwyrm]

It's not using the custom item rules at all. Warforged Components are perfectly legit (straight out of ECS, no changes), it explicitly says any item can be one, and you don't even need a special feat; anyone can make Warforged Components.

I'm imagining an All warforged society in which even gold pieces have been made as warforged components, so that the warforged walk around paying for other components for themselves with bits of their shirt.

[Slipperychicken]

I'm imagining an All warforged society in which even gold pieces have been made as warforged components, so that the warforged walk around paying for other components for themselves with bits of their shirt.

Well, it would put pickpockets and purse-snatchers out of business right quick.. But it would quickly get absurd, as Warforged gain ever-sillier outfits made of gold.

This is only the Beginning



And it allows Warforged to ignore the dreaded-but-never-used "Equipment damaged on natural 1" rule. Which people use even less than the multiclass xp-penalties, so it's a moot point.