Archivist Equipment Help

[CheshireCatAW]

Got a level 6 Archivist who's getting tricked out for his Dark Knowledge checks and buffing a party. I have a couple of items that I know I would like to get, but at this point most of them are out of the question if I want to have anything to defend myself with.

A couple of the items are

Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance [MIC-]: +5 to all knowledge checks (8,000gp) (Hmm, maybe this is a wrong name. Doesn't seem to be in MIC)
Tome of Worldly Memory [MIC-]: +5 to 3/day knowledge checks (1,500gp)

My stats are

STR: 10
DEX: 18
CON: 18
INT:19
WIS: 15
CHA 10

And I'm a Whispergnome.

Thanks for your help!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Got a level 6 Artificer who's getting tricked out for his Dark Knowledge checks and buffing a party.

Do you mean this Artificer? (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20051007a&page=3)

Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend + Luminous Armor is pretty good I hear.

[Kosjsjach]

I'm going to assume you mean Archivist, since that's what you have in your title.

The scrolls and tome both provide a competence bonus, so they don't stack. (This is the same bonus provided by the Collector of Stories skill trick from Complete Scoundrel, unfortunately.) Scrolls are obviously better, if you can afford them.

Two good items I'd load my (as-yet-unplayed) Archivist with are the Artificer's Monocle (MIC) and the Quill of Scribing (CM). The monocle lets you cast detect magic and get an identify result, and the quill lets you scribe scrolls while sleeping, meaning you don't have to devote precious adventuring time to crafting them.

EDIT: Oh! I should mention! Races of Stone has a fantastic feat for Archivist gnomes: Trivial Knowledge. For every Knowledge check, roll twice, use the best roll!

[Thurbane]

I must admit, I often get the names Archivist and Artificer muddled. Same with Binder and Beguiler, oddly...

[CheshireCatAW]

Ah! Pardon, I did mean Archivist. I always mess them up to my shame. I shall remedy that error.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

If you don't expect to be making many attack rolls (or hide checks), get a tower shield. An alternative would be a mithral heavy shield, which you could use without penalty despite nonproficiency.

For 50 gp each you can get a masterwork tool (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#toolMasterwork) for individual knowledge checks. It could be anything from a laminated cheat-sheet to a quick reference guide. Circumstance bonuses are good, especially when they're cheap! Only drawback is you may have to spend a move action to get the right pamphlet out and flip to the relevant page. A way around that would be to say that the masterwork tool is a guide on what to write on your hand each day, or you could just wallpaper the underside of your shield with them to see what you need at a glance.

[CheshireCatAW]

Indeed, I've picked up Trivial Knowledge. It seemed too good to pass up.

Do you have recommendations as to equipment? I have a nice DEX bonus so I was thinking that I wouldn't do too shabbily with a crossbow, but I don't know what to take for armor.

[Edit] OOH! Forgot about competence items.