Magic Item Compendium (3.5)

[astrobrat]

So I just traded some magic cards at my local hobby store for in-store credit, walked away with a brand new Magic Item Compendium, a book I've been wanting to add to my collection for a long time!

I can't wait to dig into this thing, and I have the perfect opportunity since we are starting the first real session of a new campaign on Thursday.

Its a LOT to take in though, and I have no idea where to start. The random treasure generator at the back is going to be very awesome, but other than that, does anybody have any tips for maneuvering through this bad boy? And also, introducing some of the cool new stuff into existing high level campaigns? Any items in particular that are staples that I should scope out?

[Qc Storm]

So I just traded some magic cards at my local hobby store for in-store credit, walked away with a brand new Magic Item Compendium, a book I've been wanting to add to my collection for a long time!

I can't wait to dig into this thing, and I have the perfect opportunity since we are starting the first real session of a new campaign on Thursday.

Its a LOT to take in though, and I have no idea where to start. The random treasure generator at the back is going to be very awesome, but other than that, does anybody have any tips for maneuvering through this bad boy? And also, introducing some of the cool new stuff into existing high level campaigns? Any items in particular that are staples that I should scope out?

Belt of Battle

Belt of Battle

Belt of Battle.

Otherwise I'd recommend reading the whole thing. Great book. Tons of stuff for everybody.

[SilverLeaf167]

Congratulations, you now hold one of the best 3.5 books.

Anyhow, some of the most popular things include Armor Crystals (p. 24) and Weapon Crystals (p. 64), which allow you to add neat abilities to equipment for a flat price (not that scaling enhancement thing) and you can swap them in and out. The Crystal of Return is one of my personal favorites, just for the cool mental image, but Energy Assault is also very cost-effective compared to standard weapons.

The Healing Belt (p. 110) is considered a staple of adventurers. It gives anyone really cheap and easy healing, and there's nothing to stop you from carrying around multiple copies.

Runestaffs (p. 176) offer arcane casters a relatively cheap way to widen their spell lists by allowing them to spend spell slots to activate the staff's spells (but do note that you can only use one at a time). Especially awesome if you're allowed to design your own. I think Biffoniacus_Furiou has thought of some weird trick involving Runestaffs and the feat Ancestral Relic, and I'd expect him to pop up here to tell you about it.

Not an especially commonly used one, but I personally really like the Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance (p. 183) on any Knowledge Devotion user.

There are definitely more, but these are the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

[Amiria]

Any items in particular that are staples that I should scope out?

This review (http://ninjadebugger.livejournal.com/111021.html) might be helpful for that question. It highlights lots of interesting items (but not all, e.g. it doesn't even mention the aforementioned Belt of Battle), particulary the magic item sets.

[KillianHawkeye]

As far as navigating the book, I tend to jump to page 235 where it has lists of every item (including DMG items) for each body slot sorted by price (from lowest to highest), along with page numbers and a brief description of each item. It's a really nice way to look for items which fit my budget, or find interesting and inexpensive items to fill a character's unused body slots.

[Keld Denar]

BEST! BOOK! EVER!

Seriously, I love this book. I do nearly all of my treasure from it. I'm a huge fan of anything from the book that is activated as a swift action or has 3 charges/day with the option of using multiple charges for a greater effect. If you have one item activated as a swift action, it's kinda a no-brainer to activate it when needed. If you have a several, however, you have to decide which to use, which is the best in the given situation. It adds of level of swift action economy which requires active player thought for characters that aren't spellcasters. You could play a high level PHB/DMG Fighter and never use a swift action ever. MIC gives you that extra involvement.

[WhatBigTeeth]

^What Keld said.

It's a great book to just leaf through with a ream of sticky notes. Lots of useful stuff that's easy to work into a campaign, and definitely written with a better grasp of how magic items can and should be used than earlier listings.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by KillianHawkeye
As far as navigating the book, I tend to jump to page 235 where it has lists of every item (including DMG items) for each body slot sorted by price (from lowest to highest), along with page numbers and a brief description of each item.

I was halfway to writing this, after reading the first post, when I saw Killian already pegged it.

Sorting through by price is exactly how I like to browse. Active price-comparison for the low-level characters I'm usually working with, and pure window-shopping for anything past a few thousand gp.

:smalltongue:


Originally Posted by astrobrat
So I just traded some magic cards at my local hobby store for in-store credit, walked away with a brand new Magic Item Compendium....

Also, congrats on a nice score; wish I could swing that sort of thing. Unfortunately I have no gaming stores nearby that even carry these books, so it's Barnes & Noble or Amazon for me.

: /

[Mnemnosyne]

Runestaffs (p. 176) offer arcane casters a relatively cheap way to widen their spell lists by allowing them to spend spell slots to activate the staff's spells (but do note that you can only use one at a time). Especially awesome if you're allowed to design your own. I think Biffoniacus_Furiou has thought of some weird trick involving Runestaffs and the feat Ancestral Relic, and I'd expect him to pop up here to tell you about it.

Not an especially commonly used one, but I personally really like the Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance (p. 183) on any Knowledge Devotion user.
The trick with runestaves and ancestral relic is that ancestral relic allows you to alter the properties of your magical item by spending one day meditating in a consecrated place for each 1000 gp value you're adding to the relic. If you're adding 0 gp, you meditate for 0 days. Which means if you're a spellcaster with a runestaff, you can swap the spells on the runestaff around on a pretty much daily basis, as long as your runestaff doesn't change in value.

As far as the scrolls go, I really like those for the fact that they have 'temporarily turn you into a ghost' as a possible result. Combine a will save high enough that you can hit DC 20 on a 2 with the granted power of the Pride Domain, and you can auto-succeed on all the threatening checks except the become a ghost one and the negative levels one. So, as long as you have a way to cast restoration or something else that deals with the negative levels, you can keep reading the scrolls until you get the 'turn into a ghost' result, then voluntarily fail your fort save, and poof, you're a ghost for a year and a day, with all the awesome abilities that includes. Another way to do it is to have the Aura of Perfect Order stance and a +9 will save. No natural ones to worry about and you always succeed on DC20 without question.