Need help boosting saves.

[Archmage1]

Well, the title basically says it all.
The situation is essentially, I need to be able to reliably hit save dc's of 29-34, as a level 11 character.
I have Iron will, lightning reflexes, and great fortitude(from Races of war, so +3, plus some other effects(not really relevant here))
I also have a cloak of resistance +5
I have a modified belt of magnificence that gives +4 to str, con, dex, cha.
Modifications to it allow me to purchase the normal stat items, and add them in, instead of needing to buy all of them
The character is a spellthief(mono classed), and multiclassing is not an option.
Just to make things more interesting, Available sources are as follows
PHB, PHBII, DMG, MM I-V, Complete Adventurer, Arcane, Divine, and Warrior
Spell Compendium

A link to his sheet, if you want more information, it is all on the sheet (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=436710)

[Gildedragon]

What's given ya the -7 to Con? Resolving that'd be a good start.
Going for martial study feats for: Moment of Perfect Mind, Action before Thought, and Mind over Body to make saves with Concentration checks rather than Will, Reflex, and Fort saves respectively is another way to go around it*.
Edit: For one of these you could also get a Ring of the Diamond Mind (also ToB)
Also, it'd be cheaper to get the ability boosters in their proper slots, rather than smooshed together in the belt, as the non-affinity raises the price. You might be able to afford a boost to whichever one is lowest that way.
A luckblade (0 wishes) is another option, only one reroll but it betters your odds for any one save.

Out of curiosity, what's happening that you need such saves?

(*I know you said no multiclassing, but 1 level in warblade after level 8 can get you all 3 and a recovery mechanism)

[Kumori]

What is causing your str and con to have temp scores of 7? Removing that from your Con would help your fort saves. Adding +wis to your belt would up your will saves.

The Dampen Spell feat might be of interest to you. You'll need 2 feats to get it as it requires Improved Counterspell, but you can reduce the save DC of an enemy's spell as an immediate action. PHB2, page 78.

Edit: partially ninja'd, also correcting grammar.

[Phelix-Mu]

Well, I think you have the traditional feats tied to improving saves. The are two that change key stats, but I think the one that uses Cha for Will only applies to mind-affecting stuff, which probably isn't worth a whole feat (though you do seem to have spent a lot of feats on this).

29-34 seems huge for encounters with, lemme get this straight, 11th level party. Good saves are (class level/2)+2 and poor is (class level/3), so even with a good save and an 18 relevant stat, you are starting with (7+4)= 11, then +3 for the feats= 14. So without equip you might still fail even on a 20, or possibly only barely succeed. It should be horrifying if they continue to go up apace, since methods of improving saving throws are strictly less than the ease with which the DM can increase them for effects that scale up with HD, and enemy spellcasters which can have much higher casting stats than players without destroying game balance.

This seems very harsh, and no wonder you are looking for help. The place to find it? Allies. Stealing spells from allies can be very useful. Only works with ally spellcasters, though, and maybe there aren't any. In that case, there are some Luck Feats and such from Complete Scoundrel that grant rerolls. This might be a good investment, possibly better than the Iron Will and it's kin. You can also maybe UMD for spells outside the normal range, like a wand of recitation and wand of conviction (both Spell Compendium).

Hope that helps.

[Gildedragon]

Also, do these saves have a particular source or type of effect, as there are a variety of things that increase saves against a particular source (undead, outsiders, evil, etc...)

A rogues' vest (mic) gives a +2 competence bonus to reflex saves
A Runestaff of Power gives a +2 luck bonus to all saves (and AC)
The Axe of the Sea Reavers gives a +2 morale bonus to all saves for 1 round

[Archmage1]

Thank you for the input, but no TOB, and the belt is done by buying the normal items, and then adding them to the belt, so no worries about affinity. I need the saves because my spellthief is trying to compete with a ultimate magus, and a dmm persist cleric, in a world where the weakest major enemy is an ecl 42 bard/assassin, with a cha in the 40's(yes, assassin/bard is a pathetic combination, but being 30 levels above us, who cares)

The con and str damage are caused by a ritual that inflicted damage, and sadly, they only heal naturally. They were at 3 and 3, so this is an improvement.

Dampen spell is not an option, as I have no ranks in spellcraft, and I am not going to be able to retrain(I need my skills where they are, sadly)

Luck blade seems like a good plan. Hopefully, I can convince the DM to let me add the ability to my current weapons.

Phelix, I was afraid that was going to be the response. The party is level 12, my character just got killed with a transdimensional phantasmal killer, dc 29, while blinking, after the vampire enemy hit me with pierce magical protection(hand waved the con requirement)

[Kumori]

Average party level is 12 and you're fighting enemies well into epic? Oh dear god, your DM is mean. I can't see how your goal would be to defeat such enemies, so perhaps the better plan would be to focus on the ability to retreat quickly rather than try to bolster your saving throws.

[Archmage1]

The cleric casts recitation occasionally, but the wand of conviction sounds like a plan. The source varies. There is a dry lich, a nymph, currently a pair of vampires, there is a dryad, and almost certainly some more we have not yet encountered.

Rogue's Vest seems like a buy, if I can convince the DM to allow it, as it boosts all good stuff.

Runestaff of power also seems like a possibility, again, if I can convince the DM to allow it. Hopefully, I can count as holding it by having it touch skin...

Axe of the sea reavers...
Wand of conviction does the same type, only for 750 gold. Plus not a weapon.

So, rogue's vest, runestaff of power, luckblade, and wand of conviction.

As far as the enemies go, they tend to basically slaughter us in a round or two, and then leave. Unfortunately, we do need to be able to actually fight them somewhat(and the game gets really sad if we don't try)
They were a bit more reasonable(~ecl 26) until we killed one(greater doppleganger assassin, not cheesed(meaning, no brains of epic wizards absorbed)
For some reason, there was about a 20 level jump in power after that...

Retreat is typically not an IC option, and we do have a wizard with celerity+teleport.

[Phelix-Mu]

When fighting epic enemies, be sure to make epic friends! It's good advice, but from the tenor of your comments so far, I'm guessing this would either be impossible or very difficult. Still, might be worth sounding out the DM on the matter. After all, I'm sure the party aren't the only people harassed by the epic "scourge of the song" bard/assassin whatever it was. Enemy of mine enemy is mine friend.

[Archmage1]

We have allies in our present fight. They lasted for about one round, and had no meaningful impact on the battle. We have gotten some level 10 characters as sort of friends, but they would die even faster than I do, seeing as they are basically unoptimized(cleric 10, wiz 10, ranger 10)
In fact, we can id the enemies really easily, since they have at least 2x our level, and start with superhuman stats.

If you really want to know, the current fight is against 250 cr 1 skeleton archers, 25 skeleton capitans(use the focused volley attack from heroes of battle or whatever to deal about 50d8 damage a round, needing to hit ac 20 to deal damage, with an attack bonus of 6)
But that is the simple stuff. Other enemies involve 4 invisible dread wraiths(no info on them)(again, may have been buffed by the DM), an unspecified number of more powerful skeletons(troll, giants, ettin, that sort of thing)
The harder stuff is a pair of vampire sisters, unknown level(one cast the dc 29 transdimensional phantasmal killer, after hitting me with a pierce magical protection attack)
And the really powerful thing is a creature that is the embodiment of the plane of negative energy(raised all of the undead, general bad guy. Also the current campaign goal(is transformed into some equipment on death, with a ego score of insanity)

The DM suggested that I go after the skeletons, ignoring the vampires.
My response was more or less: The cleric kills 40 of them a round. My character can't help(can kill 5, assuming all my attacks hit, and that 1d4-1 actually kills them(hint: it doesn't even breach their DR). So, I went for the more powerful enemies(no knowledge of the wraiths), who promptly killed me, and I will be dead until the cleric gets resurrection at 13, putting me at level 11

[Gildedragon]

I have to ask what the DM's gameplan is, what is expected of ya, because it sounds you guys are getting thrashed something stupid.
I mean, killing you nets them no experience. Heck a Wizard 20 is closer in power level to a Commoner 1 than you are to these things!

[Runestar]

What kind of foes do you expect to face? It may be easier to just get blanket immunity. For example, at your lv, heroes' feast would grant immunity to fear and poison. Death ward vs death effects (getting it into play fast enough may be an issue though). Prot from alignment vs domination spells. And so on.

[nedz]

Well, the title basically says it all.
The situation is essentially, I need to be able to reliably hit save dc's of 29-34, as a level 11 character.
I have Iron will, lightning reflexes, and great fortitude(from Races of war, so +3, plus some other effects(not really relevant here))
I also have a cloak of resistance +5
I have a modified belt of magnificence that gives +4 to str, con, dex, cha.

It seems that you are in a save DC arms race ?
Iron will, lightning reflexes, great fortitude and a cloak of resistance +5 ?
Are you paranoid about failing saves or are high save DCs a campaign feature?
You would probably be better off spending feats on more offensive options, or feats which give you more options.

[Archmage1]

Sadly, a spellthief that is not uber charging, and I already have the twf tree and staggering strike. There is nothing more I can do to boost damage.
pro alignment only protects from spells of that alignment(which I think is a reasonable house rule)

[Darrin]

I have to ask what the DM's gameplan is, what is expected of ya, because it sounds you guys are getting thrashed something stupid.


The DM has posted his own thread over here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263832).

I'm not sure I can tell if the DM was being unfair, although I'm concerned that he may have some preconceived notions about what the PCs *should* do. That never ends well. The PCs will never, ever do what you expect. It's the DM's job to anticipate as best he can, improvise when the fit hits the shan, and then desperately try to pull things together so they at least make some fleeting shred of sense. But that's like trying to herd cats on antigravity rollerskates across a ceiling made of jello. Homicidal sociopathic hobo cats.

Ok, for the saving throw stuff... do we need to focus on items here? Because leveling up/feats doesn't appear to be an option for the immediate future.

Will:

Mindarmor property (+3000 GP, MIC). +5 untyped bonus on Will saves to resist mind-affecting spells and abilities 3/day.

Lesser Crystal of Mind Cloaking (4000 GP, MIC). +3 competence bonus against mind-affecting spells and abilities.

Crystal Mask of Mindarmor (10000 GP, MIC). +4 insight bonus to Will saves.

Fortitude:

Ring of Mystic Defiance (7500 GP, MIC). In addition to the "reduce damage from spell or SLA by 10" ability 3/day, if you're wearing any item that enhances your Int or Charisma, you can add half of that bonus as an insight bonus to your Fort saves, up to +3.

All Saves:

Phaant's Luckstone (1000 GP, Ghostwalk). One-shot item, reroll any roll as per Luck domain.

Robe of the Vagabond (6000 GP, Complete Champion). +1 luck bonus to AC and all saves.

Fortunate weapon (+1 enhancement, A&EG). +1 luck bonus on all saves. Put it on some armor spikes and it's a bit cheaper (8350 GP) than the Cat's Eye Brooch or Luck Blade.

Cat's Eye Brooch (9000 GP, MIC). +1 luck bonus on all saves, and +4 untyped bonus on saves against disease. Cheaper than the Stone of Good Luck.

Resilient armor (+1 enhancement, Forge of War). As an immediate action, transfer enhancement bonus to one save for 1 round.

Empyreal armor (+2 enhancement, BoED). On your turn, transfer enhancement bonus to a sacred bonus on all saves for 1 round.

[Archmage1]

So, items to get for now
wand of conviction
runestaff(maybe) MIC
rogues vest: awesome MIC
Luckblade: Maybe
Ring of mystic defiance: If I can get it
Crystal of Mind cloaking: :)
Crystal mask of mind armor: :), assuming I can get it
vagabond and luckstone: not in the books, and I am probably pushing it as is
Cat's eye brooch: Also looks awesome.
the armor enchants: If I can get them.

Hopefully, that should be enough, as that is my next 100k or so gold gone.

[Spuddles]

Came here from other thread.

Can you use savage species? There are a few feats in there that greatly raise your saves for a round, but then you are shaken, etc. afterwards.

[Archmage1]

Afraid not. I think the posts above are about it.