Buying skills with my moneys

[Pechvarry]

In my 10-odd years of 3rd (and 3.5), I never actually got good at optimizing magic item selection.

I'll get straight to the heart of it: I'd like some help finding cheap, decent skill boosting items; as well as trying to balance my WBL correctly to maintain room for the normal goodies.

I'm looking at kitting 2 characters: a swordsage and a BSF (crusader+prcs, to be exact, but you get the idea).

So one will be 6 skills/level and the other 4 some and mostly 2s.

Neither have good INT. The swordsage is something of a skill monkey, so I have good hide/move silently/listen and stuff, but I still want good physical skills. To boot, he has no STR but I want him to use a lot of Tiger Claw strikes, which means I want a lot of +jump.

The BSF, on the other hand, needs good intimidate, good martial lore and some throw-away points into knowledge (warfare) for stupid RP reasons. This doesn't leave much, but once again, I will want him to have a decent jump/climb/swim because... it's embarrassing for a tough guy to be incapable of these things.

So I'm hoping there are some cheap items to give a +5 or something here and there. maybe some items that buff such checks a few times/day, if it means they're cheap enough.

What should a swordsage aim to have by level 5 or so? Level 10? I currently intend to have him use the MiC boots that let you add Dex to jump instead of STR, but that's only a +2 or 3 net gain. Though they're REALLY cheap boots. I feel like if there's a similarly-priced pair of boots that give a flat +5, it'll be a better investment.

Ditto a melee with decent str/con: I imagine he needs a lot less invested in such skills (as it's not his role), but I still feel like skill points and natural STR alone will leave him lacking.

[ffone]

The following is more high-level/magic/wealth advice, but I often pick my skill point allocation around what I can complement with magic and items: not skill-boosters per se, but items which supersede skills entirely. In the following examples, obviously the skills may still be of use (Fly will remove some need for Swim but not all), but they may cover enough of the usage that your skill points are better spent elsewhere.

Balance, Climb, Jump, Swim, Tumble

If you are rich enough to afford Wings of Flying (at-will Fly for 54K) or maybe a Broom or Carpet or Boots of Flying, you can ignore Balance, Climb, Jump, maybe Swim (if going over the surface rather than deep underwater). Fly confers 'good' maneuverability, which is sufficient to hover, and thus you can pretty much be airborne all the time, even when 'standing' around idly, full attacking, etc.

Even in mostly-2D combat, Flight is useful for:

- probably doubling your speed from 30' to 60'
- ignoring rough terrain (great for a charger)
- trip immunity (I think?)
- going undetected by Tremorsense
- helps with Move Silently?
- avoidance of Entangle, caltrops, lava, pressure-plate traps, etc.
- also may act like Tumble for avoiding AoOs or going 'through' enemies in some situations (go over the melee enemy to reach the caster, etc.)

Spot, Listen

Within 30', a blindfold of true darkness or a blindsighted weapon. The former is cheaper but leaves you blind (with good teamwork you could have one PC for calling out invisible things w/i 30', and others for telling them about things outside 30', or about writing, color, etc.)

Someone with permanencied See Invis.

Search

Permanencied Detect Magic (if you are willing to concetrate constantly) or Arcane Sight. This will indirectly alert you to any magical traps.

Open Locks

A wand or two of Knock. It's stupid and unfair, but Knock is like an infinite Open Lock check *and* isn't hosed by Arcane Lock.

Ring of blink or similar magics through passing through walls.

[Pechvarry]

Yeah, I expected skill-replacement magic items to pop up, but I don't think I need them this early on (nor have money for most of them). The fighter just needs enough skills to last him until he can start affording stuff like that. The swordsage, I need to optimize Jump. But I also feel like I should make sure I slide in a +something to hide/move silently and stuff.

[Demons_eye]

If your move speed is 30 already grab Boots of Striding and Springing (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#bootsofStridingandSpringing) gives +10 moves speed and +5 to jump. Every +10 move speed after 30 gives you +4 to jump so that's +9 for those boots, 5.5k. Leaping dragon stance, which I would assume you have will get, gives you +10 to jump and means no need to run to jump.