[Pathfinder] Making Magic Items For My PCs

[ScubaGoomba]

So I've realized that I haven't thrown much reward at my players beyond XP and, to account for that, I'm going to toss a nice handful of magic items at them. Each player is going to get some items that cater to their specific strengths or weaknesses, so I'm wondering what you think about my choices and if you could offer any suggestions. APL is 4.

We have the Gunslinger Tengu who will get 5 Burrowing Bullets and +1 Shadow Leather Armor. He gets two because he's been particularly gimped due to the setting; he really wanted to play a Gunslinger despite firearms being all but unheard of on this part of the world. He's been a trooper, but his 1d8/turn is just making him become less and less useful as they go through Encounters.

Next is our Cleric who doesn't have much in the way of magic items beyond his Wand of Magic Missile (the player has a bad bad habit of rolling low on anything, so a 100% accuracy spell was a godsend). I'm considering throwing him some kind of Wand of Cure ______ Wounds that's been Metamagic'd, but I'm not sure which combination I should go for. My reasoning for this is to free up his other spell slots for some other utility spells that he hasn't really been able to use due to healing. I'm looking at either Empowered Reach Cure Light, Empowered Cure Moderate, or Maximized Cure Light. Which seems best? I know they're all quite powerful, but I'm definitely okay with throwing enough heals around to let my players feel more able to be ballsy in combat. I'm also assume that you have to touch a player with the wand to use Cure unless it has Reach, correct?

The Fighter is getting a +1 Boomerange Greataxe (Throwing + Returning). The player took the Throw Anything feat and, while I know this technically doesn't require the feat, it fits the flavor well and won't give him too much more power than he's already got (which is considerable... he's a real bruiser) while also giving him a small amount of use against flying opponents.

The Barbarian will get Winged Boots because he absolutely needs nothing to be more combat efficient and will be able to take to the skies if necessary.

Our Druid will get +1 Wild Leather Armor since we're getting to the point in the game that Wild Shaping will be more of a thing than it has been in the past. He's a recent addition to the group so it's hard to see where his play style tends to go. Are there any magic items that can be used to enhance his Animal Companion?

[navar100]

For the gunslinger you might have to make one up. Give him a "magical double barrel gun" that allows him to shoot two bullets as a full round action, standard action if he has Rapid Shot feat. Don't worry too much about how much it should cost. Allowing him to deal 2d8 damage in a round should keep him happy for several levels as his class features improve.

Is the cleric using Use Magic Device skill for the wand of Magic Missile? Otherwise, he can't use it. In any event, don't give him a cure wounds wand. That just relegates him to healbot and he doesn't need it. Spontaneous curing plus Channeling is plenty of healing. A Cure Wounds wand is fine and useful in itself, but it shouldn't be the AOOGAH I gotz treasure for a cleric. Give him an item of Wisdom +2, and he'll be happy.

For the fighter, house rule having both Throw Anything and Power Attack feats allows him to use Power Attack with that particular Great Axe when throwing. He'll like the damage he deals and appreciate his feat choices mean something.

[ScubaGoomba]

Well then. Didn't know that about UMD; I'll mention it to the player. The thing about giving him a Wisdom +2 item is that, while it's great mechanically, the player doesn't really know much about his sheet and might not really get the benefit of it directly. I thought about throwing him a Staff of Fire (they're getting the items from his old temple which he's intending to return to, worshipping Sarenrae), but the combat encounters I'm planning coming up are going to involve some Fire resistance and he wouldn't be able to recharge it due to the spell levels being too high.

The other option I was considering was tossing him some good armor that won't slam AC penalties on his character. He's been kind of the typical cleric in that he's majorly weighed down by armor and has either almost drowned or fallen to his death more times than are worth anything (as in he's started just taking his armor off and shoving it into the Bag of Holding). With everyone else getting fancy sounding things, though, I was hoping to find some kind of armor that can make him no less effective in combat (wearing scale mail) while not weighing him down as much.

And for the Fighter, he's also running on Greater Cleave, so I was thinking about letting him use that or a regular Cleave in his boomerang, too. Maybe an option between Power Attack or Cleave? Too much?

[u-b]

Druid:
Exactly same barding for his animal as his own armor and they will look like twins. Not a bad thing.

Cleric:
Those wands would be VERY expensive if fully charged. Really, the first thing I, as a cleric, would do with any of those is running to nearest merchant and selling it for half of 21,000 gold it's worth. Then buying two full wands of Lesser Vigor or plain CLW for 750 each. As for in-combat healing... give him two scrolls with four Cure Serious Wounds each - that would total 3000 and would be enough for quite some time.

What this cleric tends to do in combat? Maybe allow some improvement to that?

[ScubaGoomba]

He usually tries to blast things either with a Magic Missile or with one of his Domain Spells (he basically wants to be able to shoot fire and heal) when not healing. He's got a scimitar, but it doesn't see much use. None of the players know the game well enough to work the system by selling back items they get, so the risk of him running back to town to resell the equipment is pretty small. Unless they find places like this and YOU PEOPLE corrupt them. I'm watching you.

The Druid is very stoked to be able to ride his companion once seventh level hits and it goes up to Large size, so the barding might not be a bad idea. Maybe just some +1 hide for the two of them? Or a +1 Wild Leather and some standard barding for the dino (and just pretend it matches)?

[Crasical]

Tell me about the gunslinger. In one more level he'll be getting his first gun training rank that lets him add dex to damage with a specific type of firearm, so depending on how high his dex is he might be getting a decent boost in damage soon. Is he using a musket or a pistol? Is he using cartridges or just doing normal powder horn reloads?

[u-b]

Hmm... blasting plus healing? Give him a full wand of Light of Venya and he'll be all-happy with it.

One +1 Wild Leather and one +1 normal Leather seem fine.

[Bhaakon]

Give him a "magical double barrel gun" that allows him to shoot two bullets as a full round action, standard action if he has Rapid Shot feat. Don't worry too much about how much it should cost. Allowing him to deal 2d8 damage in a round should keep him happy for several levels as his class features improve.

Normal double-barrel guns can already do that, and it only counts as one attack (ie: you can double-blast iteratively as long as you can reload as a free action).

[ScubaGoomba]

Tell me about the gunslinger. In one more level he'll be getting his first gun training rank that lets him add dex to damage with a specific type of firearm, so depending on how high his dex is he might be getting a decent boost in damage soon. Is he using a musket or a pistol? Is he using cartridges or just doing normal powder horn reloads?

He's using normal reloads due to the aforementioned scarcity of firearms. It's hard to find alchemical shots and the like if nobody's ever seen a pistol before! He's starting to buy up Craft (Alchemy), however, to make his own. And he's multiclass Gunslinger 3/Rogue 1, so there's still a little bit longer until he can get that bonus to damage. He's a fan of sneaking around and getting his bonus damage, though, so that's part of the reason I tossed him the armor.

[navar100]

Since the cleric likes to blast and heal a staff might work.

Searing Light for blasting.
Prayer for party buff and enemy debuff.
Cure Moderate Wounds for healing.

This gives him a little bit of everything for a spellcaster-type cleric. It is high for his wealth per level recommendation, but it's not game breaking and is a nice treat you want to give.

Adding Cleave to the Great Axe is not game breaking but also goes a bit above the recommended wealth per level. Keep in mind that this would increase the power level of the fighter. That's not a bad thing, just something to keep in mind compared to how they were before. The party will have a much easier time dealing with the power level of bad guys they are used to. That's fine. Let them enjoy the fun while you learn the ramification of how their new items help them. Then you can increase the power level of the bad guys to the right amount.

[ScubaGoomba]

Since the cleric likes to blast and heal a staff might work.

Searing Light for blasting.
Prayer for party buff and enemy debuff.
Cure Moderate Wounds for healing.

This gives him a little bit of everything for a spellcaster-type cleric. It is high for his wealth per level recommendation, but it's not game breaking and is a nice treat you want to give.

Adding Cleave to the Great Axe is not game breaking but also goes a bit above the recommended wealth per level. Keep in mind that this would increase the power level of the fighter. That's not a bad thing, just something to keep in mind compared to how they were before. The party will have a much easier time dealing with the power level of bad guys they are used to. That's fine. Let them enjoy the fun while you learn the ramification of how their new items help them. Then you can increase the power level of the bad guys to the right amount.

I like the staff! How many charges would you say each spell should get? The Cleric is a touch under level compared to the Gunslinger, Fighter, and Barbarian, so he's not quite at the point to be able to recharge the staff, but that doesn't mean the first 10 charges won't be good to have and, once he hits level 5, all will be well again!

Also, thinking about the greataxe, I may cut out the Cleaving and (maybe) Power Attack options but allow the axe to make multiple attacks when his BAB allows multiple attack rolls.

[navar100]

One charge each for the spells is fine. Searing Light is a basic damage dealer that only gets better against undead. Prayer and Cure Moderate Wounds in my opinion aren't even spells clerics would cast normally a lot anyway. The cleric has plenty of healing and a lot better use for a 3rd level spell slot than Prayer. My hunch the player will use it for Searing Light a lot and will give Prayer a go now and then. Pathfinder staffs have only 10 charges but can be recharged. The player will be wanting to do that a lot but not too often.

Let the fighter keep Power Attack. It's his security blanket. Cleave was a luxury.

[Cieyrin]

Tell me about the gunslinger. In one more level he'll be getting his first gun training rank that lets him add dex to damage with a specific type of firearm, so depending on how high his dex is he might be getting a decent boost in damage soon. Is he using a musket or a pistol? Is he using cartridges or just doing normal powder horn reloads?


He's using normal reloads due to the aforementioned scarcity of firearms. It's hard to find alchemical shots and the like if nobody's ever seen a pistol before! He's starting to buy up Craft (Alchemy), however, to make his own. And he's multiclass Gunslinger 3/Rogue 1, so there's still a little bit longer until he can get that bonus to damage. He's a fan of sneaking around and getting his bonus damage, though, so that's part of the reason I tossed him the armor.

He only needs 1 rank of Craft(Alchemy) to make his own alchemical cartridges with Gunsmithing, which he got at level 1 of Gunslinger. Provided he can get the alchemical supplies (which shouldn't be any less common than any other alchemical supplies, the know-how to put it together into something useful to him is something he'll do himself), he can that stuff together quite nicely and cheaply, considering it's half cost to make it yourself, you just have to invest the time. The same for bullets and black powder, which cost 1/10 if you make 'em yourself, which it sounds like is happening and Gunslingers normally do anyways.

If he wants to channel the creating your own stuff thing, I'd suggest Master Craftsman and Craft Wondrous Item so he can make Oil of Silence to dovetail with using guns while stealthed, as well as Craft Magical Arms and Armor so he can make Tracer and Burrowing Bullets, as well as magicking up his favorite pistol, as it doesn't sound like he'll be able to find a craftsman to magic stuff for him.

I'd also recommend to the Gunslinger Point Blank Shot and Deadly Aim, which should amp up his damage considerably.


Normal double-barrel guns can already do that, and it only counts as one attack (ie: you can double-blast iteratively as long as you can reload as a free action).

Though double-barreled pistols and muskets suffer a -4 to hit when you shoot both barrels in the same attack, so there's that to consider. Still useful if you need to move and only have a standard action to attack. There's also that double-barreled muskets for some abysmal reason have only a 10' range increment, while double-barreled pistols maintain their range.

[Bruj]

Hey, I am new here, just browsing around for stuff for my cleric in a PF campaign, came across this. Thought I could throw my 2 cents in on the cleric in terms of armor. My cleric, is a dwarf (best clerics imo lol), and I started out with scale mail armor. I took a higher dex than strength, so I am not sure about your campaigns clerics stats, but i have a +3 mod to dex, so going anymore than scale seemed like a bit of a waste to me. Recently we looted a +2 Mithril Breastplate. This is great, as it being Mithril, lowers the check penalty by 3, and raises the Max Dex by 2. It also, being +2, means its AC is remarkably higher. The other added benefit of Mithril, is that a breastplate, which is medium armor normally, if made of Mithril, becomes light armor, so encumbrance is FAR far lower, and even allows you to sleep in it, without becoming fatigued. OR if he prefers heavier armor to allow for a lower Dex than I personally prefer in a cleric, Mithril Full Plate +1 or +2, would make it medium armor, and the check penalty reduction, and the Max Dex allowance both still apply.

Also, just out of curiosity, what race is your campaign's Gunslinger? (I ask because we are starting another campaign soon, and I think I have decided on Gunslinger myself, and just trying to nail down race. Part of me wants to go half-orc, due to the whole "The Good, The Bad, and The UGLY"...get it? *rimshot*, or the monkey race Vanara, because +dex and +wis, AND a prehensile tail....acrobatic gunslinger sounds fun to me)

(edit:: Looks like I am about a year late on this thread. lol)