Items to buy meant to aid another?

[CyberThread]

If you are a selfless person, and want to spend your gold to help the party, through.... your using.


what items, should one focus on buying, if the entire intent is to aid another person, when YOU use it, (aka not giving it to another person to use)

[OldTrees1]

Inspire Courage boosters
Pearls of Power for Buff spells (adjust quantity as needed)

[erikun]

A lot of the miscellaneous gear comes to mind, especially at low levels. Caltrops, smokestick, tanglefoot bag, thunderstone, and so on. Rope would be useful for lassoing opponents. The net is a weapon that can entangle opponents. A lot of weapons can be used to make trip or disarm attempts, with the whip being the most noteworthy.

There are plenty of magical items that can be used in the same way, with Dust of Sneezing and Choking coming to mind immediately.

And remember that you can simply stand on the other side of an opponent (giving +2 flanking bonus) and just use the Aid Another action to give your ally another +2 for whatever they want to do on their turn. That's +4 to hit total, enough to help out pretty much everyone as long as you can stand being in melee and can't do much yourself.

[Morphie]

The Amulet of Teamwork (MIC) is a good choice.

[Metahuman1]

If possible, see if you can work it out to get an extra attack while doing the above, and then trip them, it gives your party and effective additional +4 to hit him.

Beyond that, healing wands and potions are generally appreciated. As are potions/wands of helpful buff spells.

[Vortenger]

I'm a big fan of the banners/standards from the MIC and Complete Warrior, slap them on a hafted weapon (the wizard's staff since he'll never swing it anyways, maybe?) and grant your team some nice little benefits. My favorite is the Standard of Heroism. Expensive at 40k, but it grants you and all allies w/in 30' a +2 morale bonus to attacks, skills, and saves. No Bard? No problem.

Banner of the Storm's Eye in MIC is right up there, too.

[Segev]

I'm fond of a rod capable of casting Unseen Servant as a standard action at will. 1800 gp. Unseen Servants are incredibly helpful; en mass, the LEAST of their aids is Aid Another in untrained skills. Since you can't take 10 on Aid Another checks, and they don't have any skill bonuses, on average you have slightly more than +1 to untrained skill rolls per Unseen Servant. Notably, writing doesn't take a skill check, nor does taking dictation. Have some parchment and quills, and the Unseen Servants can take messages down and deliver them within range. Not hugely useful, but not useless, either. They're also somewhat helpful for retrieving thrown weapons, especially if you abuse "commoner rail gun" rules to train them back faster than one servant can move. Now magic javelins aren't (quite) such an awful idea!

The obvious Cure Light Wounds wand comes to mind, as well. If you're out to help, being the healer can be a good way, since it takes an action others aren't interested in spending.

Carry a Spiked Chain. You don't even have to be proficient, just carry it. You now threaten every square within 10 ft. of you, assuming you're Medium or Small sized. This allows you to provide a Flanking bonus to your allies more easily.