good Equipment

[Os1ris09]

Hey guys I am back but with a new question. After reading the Magic Item compendium, DMG, and all other source books available to me I have found few very good/broken Items that work well with a Ranger/Scout/Dervish build.

Human Ranger6/Scout4/Dervish10
Feats up to lvl 18 (not in order taken):
2 weapon fighting
improved 2 weapon fighting
able learner
dodge
mobility
weapon focus scimitar
track
endurance
swift hunter
combat expertise
deadly defense
spring attack
improved skirmish
acrobatic strike
combat reflex's

Here is what i have so far planned for my lvl 30 guy (please no epic lvl item suggestions because we are only in the mid. levels thanks)

Skirmish/ Agile Leaping/ Trackless boots with +6 Dex added:
Total gp: 58,200gp

Gloves of Agile Striking with +6 STR:
Total gp: 38,200gp

Belt of Battle/monks belt with +6 CON:
Total gp: 73,500gp

2 +1 wounding/shadowstrike/enervating Scimitars
Back up weapon: +1 disruption/hunting morningstar (undead as a favored enemy)
Ranged weapon: +2 Precise Composite Longbow (+7STR)

Ring of invisibility with +5 deflection: 70,000gp

Any suggestions on equipment or recommendations for a shoulder/ring(s)/face/etc would be appreciated.

[Tsotha-lanti]

While you can mash together item powers, all the costs except the highest one must be increased by 50% - as per the "Multiple different abilities" line on the magic item pricing table.

That invisibility ring of deflection +5 costs 80,000 gp (50,000 + 20,000*1.5).

The boots also violate the body slot affinity rule, and the +6 Dex price is increased by 50%. that's 36,000*1.5 + 22,200*1.5 = 87,300 gp (I'm arriving at the cost of the other abilities by deducting the 36,000 from your number).

The gloves/gauntlets (technically using gloves for Str violates the body slot affinity rule, but that's just silly; it's the same slot, different item) would cost 39,300 gp.

The belt would be 36,000 + 13,000*1.5 + 24,500*1.5 = 92,250 gp.

[Eldariel]

While you can mash together item powers, all the costs except the highest one must be increased by 50% - as per the "Multiple different abilities" line on the magic item pricing table.

That invisibility ring of deflection +5 costs 80,000 gp (50,000 + 20,000*1.5).

The boots also violate the body slot affinity rule, and the +6 Dex price is increased by 50%. that's 36,000*1.5 + 22,200*1.5 = 87,300 gp (I'm arriving at the cost of the other abilities by deducting the 36,000 from your number).

The gloves/gauntlets (technically using gloves for Str violates the body slot affinity rule, but that's just silly; it's the same slot, different item) would cost 39,300 gp.

The belt would be 36,000 + 13,000*1.5 + 24,500*1.5 = 92,250 gp.

No, not in accordance to Magic Item Compendium. Common abilities (stat, AC & save buffs) can be added for standard price at the right body slots.


To OP: Anyways, why the Monk's Belt? Do you have high Wisdom or something? It's pretty much useless if you wear armor and I'd say you definitely want a Celestial Armor of Nimbleness & Ghost Ward on you (if possible, also making the Fly permanent). Another armor ability of interest is "Soulfire" from Book of Exalted Deeds; effectively a permanent Death Ward.

Some source of Haste would definitely be called for. Also, something that grants you standard short range Teleportation (to get by Force-effects, natural obstacles, the like); Bolt Shirt seems decent although getting it further enchanted for 3-4 uses per day would be exceedingly helpful.

Greatreach Bracers seem exceedingly useful to you. They cost next to nothing and the ability to increase your reach tremendously makes your AoO abilities relevant. Adding "Bracers of Opportunity" would allow you to make AoOs even without Combat Reflexes. The composite item would cost mere 4300gp.

As far as your scimitars go, with your Crit Range, I suggest adding "Prismatic Burst"-property to them. It's fixed price so it doesn't cost too much and does nasty things on criticals (even to critical immune creatures). To that end, I'd also get two Scabbards of Keen Edges (you could also add the "Sacred Scabbard" [MiC] properties to it).

Other than that, Resistance-bonuses to saves and some solid Rings would be things to look for. And of course, rerolls (get one Luckblade without Wishes left; daily reroll and global Luck-bonus to saves is awesome - also, adding "Warning" and "Eager"-abilities to buff your saves can't hurt), stat buffs and such are still things to think about.


I'd also rework your feats a bit:
-Switch Dodge for Expeditious Dodge [Races of the Wild]; thanks to your speed you can keep Expeditious Dodge always active and it specifically states it acts as "Dodge" for prerequisites.

-Just...cram Greater Two-Weapon Fighting in there somewhere.

-Mage Slayer is better standalone feat than Combat Reflexes; Combat Reflexes wants a bunch of other feats to truly be worthwhile.

[Tsotha-lanti]

No, not in accordance to Magic Item Compendium. Common abilities (stat, AC & save buffs) can be added for standard price at the right body slots.

Seriously?

That sounds abusive, and it's contrary to the magic item creation/pricing rules in the DMG and SRD.

[Eldariel]

Seriously?

That sounds abusive, and it's contrary to the magic item creation/pricing rules in the DMG and SRD.

Sure, it's contrary to the guidelines, but the said guidelines are just that, guidelines. Guidelines are to be broken for a good reason (such as the dreaded Gloves of Continuous True Strike, which are like 20000gp by the guidelines). In this case he reasoning is simple: high-level adventurers are expected to have stat boosts, resistance bonuses and AC boosts (heck, that's the very reason why AC doesn't normally have a standard growth; you get it from multiple types of magic items instead) to match up to level-appropriate encounters numberwise.

The problem is, having all of them (especially for the "intended" melee type spending 3-4 body slots for just AC, 1 for resistance & 3-4 for stats) means you don't actually have room for any other magic items. Since Magic Item Compendium is a book that introduces a bunch of exotic, interesting magic items that take the same slots, they realized that they need to introduce this rule or none of those items will ever be usable simply because they compete for slots with basic items you need for basic competence in what you do, and nobody is going to give up basic competence for fancy, superfluous stuff. The rule exists to allow character to use interesting, special magic items without losing their basic competency due to simply having too low saves/to hit/AC/whatever.

[Keld Denar]

Yea, like Eld said. DMG item rules screw melee even more than they already are, due to how many items are "required" just to contribute and not be a smear on the wall. MIC makes things a lot more flexible.

That said, you can only add basic abilities this way. A Belt of Battle of Giant's Str +6 would cost 12,000 + 36,000 = 48,000, but a Monk's Belt of Battle would still require you to pay 1.5x the cost of the cheaper. They also increased the body slot afinity. Str, for example, is now tied to Belt, Gloves, or Torso, instead of just Belt or Gloves. This helps out a lot of classes with wisdom dependancies like Monks and Clerics, since those classes had to make a choice between wisdom or con, and anyone in melee had to choose between natural armor and con, and anyone needing an Amulet of Mighty Fists on top of those 3 is tripley screwed (monks got screwed so hard before MIC). Its all laid out nicely at the end of the MIC. If you get a chance, saunter down to a local bookstore and give it a glance over, if you can get past the drooling that acompanies the 90 pages preceeding those rules...

[Tsotha-lanti]

That sounds more reasonable. Being able to stack all your necessary item powers into a single slot just doesn't seem remotely balanced. It's not like the DMG / SRD rules stop you from compressing, it just makes it an investment where you pay for versatility with gold.

[Os1ris09]

No, not in accordance to Magic Item Compendium. Common abilities (stat, AC & save buffs) can be added for standard price at the right body slots.


To OP: Anyways, why the Monk's Belt? Do you have high Wisdom or something? It's pretty much useless if you wear armor and I'd say you definitely want a Celestial Armor of Nimbleness & Ghost Ward on you (if possible, also making the Fly permanent). Another armor ability of interest is "Soulfire" from Book of Exalted Deeds; effectively a permanent Death Ward.

Some source of Haste would definitely be called for. Also, something that grants you standard short range Teleportation (to get by Force-effects, natural obstacles, the like); Bolt Shirt seems decent although getting it further enchanted for 3-4 uses per day would be exceedingly helpful.

Greatreach Bracers seem exceedingly useful to you. They cost next to nothing and the ability to increase your reach tremendously makes your AoO abilities relevant. Adding "Bracers of Opportunity" would allow you to make AoOs even without Combat Reflexes. The composite item would cost mere 4300gp.

As far as your scimitars go, with your Crit Range, I suggest adding "Prismatic Burst"-property to them. It's fixed price so it doesn't cost too much and does nasty things on criticals (even to critical immune creatures). To that end, I'd also get two Scabbards of Keen Edges (you could also add the "Sacred Scabbard" [MiC] properties to it).

Other than that, Resistance-bonuses to saves and some solid Rings would be things to look for. And of course, rerolls (get one Luckblade without Wishes left; daily reroll and global Luck-bonus to saves is awesome - also, adding "Warning" and "Eager"-abilities to buff your saves can't hurt), stat buffs and such are still things to think about.


I'd also rework your feats a bit:
-Switch Dodge for Expeditious Dodge [Races of the Wild]; thanks to your speed you can keep Expeditious Dodge always active and it specifically states it acts as "Dodge" for prerequisites.

-Just...cram Greater Two-Weapon Fighting in there somewhere.

-Mage Slayer is better standalone feat than Combat Reflexes; Combat Reflexes wants a bunch of other feats to truly be worthwhile.

The feat dodge I cannot switch and Greater two weapon fighting I may change to take at 18th lvl instead of 21.

How would you make the flying ability on the celestial armor permanent. On that note as well I was under the impression you cannot change specific armor(s)/Weapon(s) from what they are like adding enchantments and the like. The source of haste I may add with the boots instead of agile leaping because I dont have ranks in balance . The luck blade thing I thought you had to wield the weapon to get the re-roll (which my DM may rule as such but when the time comes I will ask him). I will do the prismatic burst thing though but unfortunately it does not work on undead. also the bracers I will do but the price would be 5,300gp (2300 + 1.5x2000). The sacred scabards I forgot to list because I already plan to get 2. Unfortunately I am CN and cant use the sacred scabbards.

[Eldariel]

The feat dodge I cannot switch and Greater two weapon fighting I may change to take at 18th lvl instead of 21.

Ask for retraining the Dodge. After all, they're very similar feats and you didn't know you'd be going for classes that better use Expeditious Dodge than the standard version. PHBII has the rules for that if necessary.

How would you make the flying ability on the celestial armor permanent. On that note as well I was under the impression you cannot change specific armor(s)/Weapon(s) from what they are like adding enchantments and the like.

Well, let's just say that it's possible to rule as thus but it makes all the specific items completely worthless. DMG has the rules for pricing effects; just deduct the price of 1/day Fly from the price of continuous fly and you'll have the price of the change. Abilities such as Fly aren't special abilities and thus can only be permanently priced alterations and thus the rest of the item's enhancement should be trivial in that regard.

The luck blade thing I thought you had to wield the weapon to get the re-roll (which my DM may rule as such but when the time comes I will ask him).

It just has to be in your possession by the rules. Your DM's mileage may vary, but the rules as written allow it to function as long as it's in your possession - note the use of the word "possessor" for the abilities, not "wielder".

I will do the prismatic burst thing though but unfortunately it does not work on undead.

It specifically states that it triggers even for creatures immune to critical hits. It works just fine on anything as long as you roll the crits; that's the very reason to include it, it makes your criticals useful against normally immune creatures and being a steady increase, it's cheaper than e.g. the elemental bursts (and more interesting!)

also the bracers I will do but the price would be 5,300gp (2300 + 1.5x2000).

Yup; that was just a typo on my part.

The sacred scabards I forgot to list because I already plan to get 2. Unfortunately I am CN and cant use the sacred scabbards.

I see. I take you mean you already intend on getting Scabbard of Keen Edges?

[Os1ris09]

Ask for retraining the Dodge. After all, they're very similar feats and you didn't know you'd be going for classes that better use Expeditious Dodge than the standard version. PHBII has the rules for that if necessary.

Well, let's just say that it's possible to rule as thus but it makes all the specific items completely worthless. DMG has the rules for pricing effects; just deduct the price of 1/day Fly from the price of continuous fly and you'll have the price of the change. Abilities such as Fly aren't special abilities and thus can only be permanently priced alterations and thus the rest of the item's enhancement should be trivial in that regard.

It just has to be in your possession by the rules. Your DM's mileage may vary, but the rules as written allow it to function as long as it's in your possession - note the use of the word "possessor" for the abilities, not "wielder".

It specifically states that it triggers even for creatures immune to critical hits. It works just fine on anything as long as you roll the crits; that's the very reason to include it, it makes your criticals useful against normally immune creatures and being a steady increase, it's cheaper than e.g. the elemental bursts (and more interesting!)

I see. I take you mean you already intend on getting Scabbard of Keen Edges?

Yeah I plan on getting the scabbard of Keen Edges, but in RAW can you modify specific armor/weapon(s)? As far as retraining goes I will ask but right now in the campaign we are pushed for time to help stop an army that is coming to destroy the island we're on. (yeah for big battle with no equipment that is useful ). But as far as prismatic burst, its a mind-affecting spell does the enchantment negate that "draw back" against undead?

[Eldariel]

Prismatic Spray isn't mind-affecting (which is the spell triggered by Prismatic Burst weapon ability). Rolling a 7 on the effect is mind-affecting (Insanity), but other than that it works just fine on Undead (and well, 4 which is a Fort-save, and arguably 5; you'll want to clear up the mechanics with your DM before using it of course). That said, rolling 1, 2, 3 or 7 works just fine on UD and possibly 5 too (since it isn't based on a spell such as Flesh to Stone) and 8 has a very decent chance of getting 1 useful one out of it even vs. UD.

[Os1ris09]

Hey I just got a house ruling saying that I cannot modify specific armor so there goes the celestial armor idea . But any other suggestions on items like throat slot items/rings/shoulder items/armor? I have my boots/gloves/weapons/belt.