AMF and magic items

[Divide by Zero]

Short version: is there any way to make magic items work in an AMF, or to replicate the most important ones?

Long version: I'm making a Cleric/Malconvoker with Initiate of Mystra; basically, the character concept is a guy who fights using an AMF and a bunch of scary monsters. I can't seem to find any information on how IoM builds deal with the magic item issue though, and giving them up entirely is a harsh cost. Is there something I missed, or any way to compensate for the lack of magic items (besides VoP - it's supernatural so it won't work either)? Preferably one that doesn't involve a bunch of spell slots and combat actions spent on short-term buffs. All official 3.5 sources allowed, and my character concept isn't entirely set in stone so other races, etc. are a possibility.

[TuggyNE]

Make relevant magic items intelligent; as constructs, they are not shut off by AMFs.

[Divide by Zero]

Make relevant magic items intelligent; as constructs, they are not shut off by AMFs.

Their intelligence isn't shut off, but as far as I can tell it wouldn't do anything to protect their magical properties.

[TuggyNE]

Their intelligence isn't shut off, but as far as I can tell it wouldn't do anything to protect their magical properties.

*tries to remember the relevant rules*

Hmm, it seems you're right. I seem to be off my game tonight. :smallsigh:

[ericgrau]

Offensively casters don't need items as much. Defensively grab a flying mount, and some ride ranks. Even things like arrows will do less damage once stripped of magic. Make sure your mount can run well too when needed to kite in closed spaces. A hippogriff, for example.

[Xerxus]

Get yourself some artifacts.

[Evard]

Make a secondary character who is your pack mule.

When a caster uses AMF you then play the backup character who happens to be a Crusader with adamantine spiked gauntlets and beat the ever living crap out of the caster that used AMF? (Crusader can be replaced with Warblade which actually may be better). The backup character had a childhood trauma that caused her to hate AMFs.

Rinse and repeat....
:smallbiggrin:

[Divide by Zero]

Make a secondary character who is your pack mule.

When a caster uses AMF you then play the backup character who happens to be a Crusader with adamantine spiked gauntlets and beat the ever living crap out of the caster that used AMF? (Crusader can be replaced with Warblade which actually may be better). The backup character had a childhood trauma that caused her to hate AMFs.

Rinse and repeat....
:smallbiggrin:

I think you misunderstood the character premise; I'm going to be the one casting AMF. Your idea could still work though, since taking Leadership and loading up my cohort with magic items would be a decent way to make use of all my loot even if it's not as good as using it directly myself.

[Karnith]

It doesn't really work with your particular build (because it requires arcane casting and archmage), but an archmage's Mastery of Shaping would let him carve out a little hole in the middle of his AMF for himself and his items to function. This has a number of problems (mainly that you can get affected by magic thrown in from outside), but it's the best I could think of.

Is there anything like Mastery of Shaping available to divine casters anywhere?

[Phelix-Mu]

Hmm...

The divine thing seems like a problem.

I had a plan, but it's crazy, resource intensive, and might not work. And it wasn't clear to me if you can AMF on your familiar, anyway. And you need a familiar....

But, supposing you could get the AMF on your familiar (Imbue Familiar with Spell Ability + sanctum spell hijinks?), then you just need something that blocks line of effect between you and the familiar (like a bag). Getting the line of effect blocker to be able to be manipulated as a free action will be a pain in the neck, though, so in the end I'm not sure this works at all.

I was originally going to combine this trick with the spell familiar pocket, which has some nifty free movement, but you'd need an item with the effect of familiar pocket to work properly, since otherwise the spell is dispelled by AMF? Grrr....An item of familiar pocket would just be suppressed, but the suppression is variable....wait, cancel that. AMF doesn't dispel anything. The plan just got cheaper!

If you had an Improved Familiar of some kind, you could even psychic reformation its feats, maybe, to allow the familiar to move more quickly (Travel Devotion...now I really am stretching it).

Anyway, I need a smarter/more rules savvy person to help me refine the idea-if it's possible at all-and even if it does work, it might not be plausible on this specific character.

[tyckspoon]

I think you misunderstood the character premise; I'm going to be the one casting AMF. Your idea could still work though, since taking Leadership and loading up my cohort with magic items would be a decent way to make use of all my loot even if it's not as good as using it directly myself.

The most common approach would be to combine your AMF with Persistent metamagic/long duration spells, so you just use your self-buffing to cover for key items. If there's an item you can't replace with a spell, you can either allow the AMF to drop for the period where you need the item or just count on you + AMF being better off than whatever you're fighting + AMF.

[mregecko]

It doesn't really work with your particular build (because it requires arcane casting and archmage), but an archmage's Mastery of Shaping would let him carve out a little hole in the middle of his AMF for himself and his items to function. This has a number of problems (mainly that you can get affected by magic thrown in from outside), but it's the best I could think of.

Is there anything like Mastery of Shaping available to divine casters anywhere?

I'm just going to leave this (http://dndtools.eu/feats/complete-adventurer--54/extraordinary-spell-aim--1057/) here.

[Divide by Zero]

It doesn't really work with your particular build (because it requires arcane casting and archmage), but an archmage's Mastery of Shaping would let him carve out a little hole in the middle of his AMF for himself and his items to function. This has a number of problems (mainly that you can get affected by magic thrown in from outside), but it's the best I could think of.

Is there anything like Mastery of Shaping available to divine casters anywhere?
Extraordinary Spell Aim, but since AMF doesn't block line of effect, anything like that makes it basically worthless against enemies attacking from range, so that's not really what I'm looking for.

The most common approach would be to combine your AMF with Persistent metamagic/long duration spells, so you just use your self-buffing to cover for key items. If there's an item you can't replace with a spell, you can either allow the AMF to drop for the period where you need the item or just count on you + AMF being better off than whatever you're fighting + AMF.

As written, Initiate of Mystra doesn't do anything for spells that were initially cast outside of an AMF, so unless my DM rules otherwise Persist isn't going to help too much (it'll be tough to Persist more than one thing inside an AMF with no Nightsticks to help unless I burn all my feats on Extra Turning). Guess I should start putting together a list of long-duration spells then.