I need help spending my money wisely (3.P game)

[DarkSonic1337]

Hello everyone. I'm currently playing a Pathfinder/3.5 campaign and my DM has given everyone some money to prepare for...something in about a week.

I've currently got 10,025 gold and I don't really know what to spend it on. My DM has houseruled that all arcane prep casters can copy wizard and sorc spells into their spellbook. He said they're effectively on my class list, I just can't add them directly to my book as part of leveling up, so I do want to keep around 1500-2250 for scrolls to copy into my spellbook.

Here's my build so far.

Half Elf Magus 5
55HP
STR 10
DEX 18
CON 16
INT 24
WIS 9
CHA 8
The stats are from a combination of custom race and point buy.
My custom race is giving me +2 DEX, -2 WIS, and +6 INT, along with flexible bonus feat, dual minded, arcane focus, and elven magic.

traits:secret knowledge (nature), Focused Mind

Feats:
lvl 1. Weapon Finesse, Rime spell, Combat Casting
lvl 3. Dervish Dance
lvl 5. Knowledge Devotion Energy Substitution (Cold)

grabbed the arcane accuracy arcana at 3rd, and will probably grab close range at 6th

my party consists of a Rogue, and Alchemist, an Aegis, a Factotum (in a custom made golem :)) and myself

I'd like some insight on what to buy and build advice is welcome. I'm experimenting with a more int heavy Magus for fun.

[Slipperychicken]

2k (plus some change for the base MWK cost) => +1 weapon

300gp => Heavy warhorse. It's a free +1 to hit whenever you're mounted and your target is smaller than the mount. Also has a good speed and can carry your loot for you. Remember you can bring it inside, although it suffers penalties on AC, movement, and tohit rolls.

5gp => Spring-loaded wrist sheathe. For when you absolutely need that wand or dagger as a Swift action.

[Hyde]

It's never wrong to pick up your headband of +stat.

As a magus, your stat priorities are a little strange, though.

Keep in mind that unless your DM has houseruled otherwise, the purchase of scrolls for copying spells is not required. There is a separate table for copying out of a wizard's spellbook.

[Slipperychicken]

As a magus, your stat priorities are a little strange, though.


Agreed... personally, I'd have just put points into Strength by basically swapping Str and Dex, and saved myself two feats. Probably would have used them on Extra Traits[Magical Lineage + Metamagic Master] and Empower Spell so I could Empower my favorite spell for free, then combine it with spellstriking. Also would have used something like a Longsword so I could two-hand it whenever not using Spell Combat.

[DarkSonic1337]

Yeah I realize my stats are strange. I've played STR Magus and DEX Magus before and kind of wanted to just try something out. Given the much larger spell selection I thought I might try out more spells that actually have saves.

Oh I guess I forgot to mention another relevant houserule. We're using the spell points (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/spellPoints.htm) variant system, which makes shocking grasp...much less useful than it used to be (and intensify spell becomes really bad because I'd still have to spend so many spell points to reach that cap). Frostbite on the otherhand has remained valuable and I'm having a blast with grease, color spray, and glitterdust.


@Hyde, my DM hasn't exactly banned me from copying spells from wizards but...well they overcharge for said services, so unfortunately it is cheaper for me to buy scrolls. He has mentioned that there would be some wizards willing to simply trade spells if I had something that they didn't, but...well the couple that I asked before did have all of my spells because I picked some fairly common ones (which is what I plan to change by buying some scrolls)

[Skysaber]

@Hyde, my DM hasn't exactly banned me from copying spells from wizards but...well they overcharge for said services, so unfortunately it is cheaper for me to buy scrolls. He has mentioned that there would be some wizards willing to simply trade spells if I had something that they didn't, but...well the couple that I asked before did have all of my spells because I picked some fairly common ones (which is what I plan to change by buying some scrolls)

In that case you can effectively double your new spell budget just by approaching certain wizards and arranging ahead of time, "Ok, what DON'T you have in these levels that I might like, and what would you be willing to trade for it?" then buy that scroll, have that spell, and trade. Wizard copies spell you bought out of your book, and you copy spell you want out of his.

Two spells for the price of one. Could even be three if Wizard A had a spell that Wizard B wanted. So you buy a spell that Wizard A wants, write that in your book and trade for the spell Wizard B wants, then let Wizard B copy that out of your book in return for a spell of your choice out of his books.

Everybody gains, but I still would not abuse that, as theoretically if you set it all up in the right order you could get any number of spells, until you knew all that any wizard in town did. But no DM would allow things to get that far.

Or, rather than the 'eternal trade ring' above, if you should find out that two wizards A and X, both want the same spell, there is nothing to stop you from selling the same one to both of them, getting two spells in return.

And to kick that off, you only have to ask "Are there any spells my level that you'd like to know?" when you are inquiring about trades. Most wizards in a town will have very similar books, since they lose nothing by trading with each other. So find a spell that none of them know, then arrange to trade it with as many as are interested.

Could net you four or five trades per scroll, if you buy the right ones.

[DarkSonic1337]

That's absolutely brilliant and I really want to do that. After all there are A LOT of Wizards in the city I'm currently in (we're in the capital of an empire, with the largest magic academy on the continent)

[only1doug]

do bear in mind that the GM has a perfect defense against this plan if he thinks about it: those wizards would also be able to purchase the scrolls and copy spells around between themselves, so if the majority of wizards in a town don't have a spell then it becomes unlikely that there will be any scrolls of it for sale. (No-one to make the scroll + plenty of potential purchasers)

[DarkSonic1337]

Well I'm certainly aware of that, but I'm hoping that maybe not a lot of students were willing to go buy said scrolls and that a couple of them were in a similar situation to me (they don't have any "unique" spells so nobody will trade with them).

Gotta try to find some weird scrolls like ghoul touch or frost breath and hopefully trade for more common spells like Ray of stupidity or benign transposition. Maybe I'll find someone willing to trade my web or glitterdust

[Skysaber]

Well I'm certainly aware of that, but I'm hoping that maybe not a lot of students were willing to go buy said scrolls and that a couple of them were in a similar situation to me (they don't have any "unique" spells so nobody will trade with them).

Gotta try to find some weird scrolls like ghoul touch or frost breath and hopefully trade for more common spells like blur or invisibility. Maybe I'll find someone willing to trade my web or glitterdust

You'd know your DM better than I do, naturally. But very often things like these spell book trades are best done not all at once. A batch of say a dozen scrolls traded at four or five (or even three) to one nets you a huge haul of spells, and you are right in that young apprentice types in your same situation would eagerly trade what they know for what they don't, so logically you could get that many easily.

But it's all subject to the DM's patience, so don't go for too huge a haul all at once. A few dozen spells now, a few dozen next trip, same the trip after, etc, most often will net you far more spells long term than trying to force hundreds of spells all at once and getting your DM to invent an excuse to prevent it.

However, a little roleplaying can often grease even the most stubborn wheel. For example, in a similar situation once I actually invented my own unique spell (for keeping clothes and body clean despite adventuring style dirt and exertions. 2nd level, hour per level, castings sold like hotcakes among nobles out on fox hunts and the like - soon it was almost required among the social elite), just for the purpose of trading around, and acquired literally every spell available of a level I could cast.