Shax's IndispensAble Update: Flux Slime Edition

[Darrin]

I've been doing a little tidying up with Shax's Indispensable Haversack (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8235865#post8235865) guide.

Fixed a 4-year-old typo (No one could have mentioned this sooner?)
Fixed some price/weight issues.
Edited some entries for more brevity (keep running into the char limit)

Type I:
Added Angel Radiance.
Added Ghostwall Shellac
Added "Flux Slime" to Chaos Flask entry.
Removed the Untouchable Hammer (Shapesand = all your tools belong to us).
Moved Lasso to Lesser Alternatives (recent playtest: too easy to cut).

Type III:
Added Bead of Beckoning.

Type IV:
Added Rod of Ropes.
Added Stamp of the Messenger.

Other:
Added Heartstone to Honorable Mentions.
Added Liquid Sunlight to Honorable Mentions.
Added Box of Brown Mold to Lesser Alternatives.


You might want to take a closer look at the Chaos Flask/Flux Slime combo. For only 100 GP, you get:

* Antimagic field with a 10' radius. If the flask is in a potion belt, that's something you can draw as a free action, the Wis check DC 13 is also a free action, and it lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom score. (Watch out for sunlight, though...)

* Permanently disjuncts any magic item it comes into contact with. No save.

* Deals 2d6 Con damage per round to any creature with (Su) or SLA abilities. No save.

* Extreme cold, heat, or sunlight destroys flux slime (so make sure the flask/container is opaque), at which point it explodes and all creatures within 50' must make a Fort save DC 29 or acquire a permanent random transmutation effect.

I'd also love to hear any anecdotes about some item in the guide that saved a PC's life or shattered a DM's ego. Seriously... has anyone managed to get a Type IV into an actual game? (My current DM is one of those "Yeah, I think we're gonna stick with Core" types... gee, I wonder why?)

[Miss Disaster]

Darrin, thanks for keeping the Shax thread up-to-date and vibrant. It's one of my Top 5 favorite and most-referenced threads over the last few years. :smallsmile:

[Phelix-Mu]

Ditto. This resource is a brilliant thing, and for it to fall away or cease to be touted for what it is would be sad. Good work, and here's to Shax and his awesome bags!

(That sounded better in my head.)

[ShriekingDrake]

Agreed wholeheartedly. We appreciate your stewardship of this superb resource.

[Darrin]

Thanks for the kind words.

Ok, different question: how much of Shax gets banned at your table? Aboleth mucus? Eggshell grenades? Shapesand Gatling guns?

And... seriously? No comments about flux slime? 100 GP for an AMF 10' radius? Or are chaos flasks just not something any sane DM allows in any serious game?

[Thiyr]

I am tempted to try the flux slime shenanigans, but I garuntee that would be banned faster than you could say Pazuzu. Chaos flasks in general are ok (we have...selectively permissive DMs overall, and I tend to be the backseat DM for balance reasons), but getting an epic...trap? Hazard? Doomgoo, for that cheap, just wont fly.

Also, something I've been pondering for a while. Gloves of object reading. Looking at the item description, it doesn't seem to actually do what you say it does (as it gives very specific info. Age, race, gender, alignment, and how they gained/lost the item. Doesn't even explicitly give visuals) . Am I missing something? As written it seems a lot more...useless.

[Doc_Maynot]

The three things I've had banned from a table I've played at are, the Sprayer, Shapesand, and after using the collar of perpetual attendance I'm no longer allowed to use, or talk about the guide at that table. :smallconfused:

Also, the flux slime shenanigans look fun and I can't wait to attempt it in a few other tables.

[Darrin]

Also, something I've been pondering for a while. Gloves of object reading. Looking at the item description, it doesn't seem to actually do what you say it does (as it gives very specific info. Age, race, gender, alignment, and how they gained/lost the item. Doesn't even explicitly give visuals) . Am I missing something? As written it seems a lot more...useless.

Hmmm. I may be over-reaching there. Whatever a "psychic impression" is, it's not clearly defined by the rules. I am assuming it conveys visual information, mostly because that's how it's often portrayed in popular media (well, ok, that's how it works on "Greatest American Hero"), but I can see that a strict RAW interpretation might not be so generous.

Either way, it's still useful to fish the DM for Plot Hooks or just harrass him for NPC names (most DMs loathe having to come up with new names). The DM has at least two safe ways to get out of this: every new object is owned by the same person, so he can say "I already told you that", or he can just say "No previous owner/no result, and no, I'm not going to explain why."


The three things I've had banned from a table I've played at are, the Sprayer, Shapesand, and after using the collar of perpetual attendance I'm no longer allowed to use, or talk about the guide at that table. :smallconfused:


This made my day. Thanks!

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Darrin
Ok, different question: how much of Shax gets banned at your table? Aboleth mucus? Eggshell grenades? Shapesand Gatling guns?

Aboleth mucus and eggshell grenades are marginally okay, but no shapesand and no chaos flask. That's just my thing.

And I'll also offer my thanks for your extremely handy, finely curated haversack thread. For the harried DM looking to equip NPCs with useful gear, it's an outstanding resource.

[Skysaber]

I'd also love to hear any anecdotes about some item in the guide that saved a PC's life or shattered a DM's ego. Seriously... has anyone managed to get a Type IV into an actual game? (My current DM is one of those "Yeah, I think we're gonna stick with Core" types... gee, I wonder why?)

I've got one in my current game. Have had it since 7th level or so when we got a particularly lucky treasure haul.

Left me wearing nonmagical armor well into 12th level, and using cast off weapons. But it has been well worth it. And since I'm a primary caster who spends virtually all of combat in wildshape, the lack of armor/weapons hasn't hurt too much.

We were doing a lot of running away from things in the early game, and the marbles, noxious smokestick, et al, were very useful to help with that. Stonebreaker acid also got us through some very important doors after all else had failed.

Bag of tricks is used, along with Chain of Eyes, whenever we need to check for traps or otherwise deploy a disposable scout (bears, lions and tigers are no longer suitable threats at our level - we are just short of 17). Prior to that, our DM switched to using lots of oozes and other monsters you do not want to grapple after some particularly successful lion escapades.

Decanters of Endless Water are too useful to list all of the many ways they get employed.

Tend not to use the skill boosting items (either they get forgotten about even when they could be used, or I'm just being a miserly skinflint bastard who doesn't need that +1 or +2 enough to use an expendable resource for it) or the damaging stuff (by the time you can afford the haversack, you've got better options).

Travel cloak, talisman of the disk and survival pouch see near-constant use, as do the feather tokens (Except boat. The one time we were on an island in an underground lake there was a boat on the shore already - and I really, truly wish I'd used the Swan Boat anyway, because the boat 'just left there' turned out to be a group of mimics just emulating a boat, and by the time we were out over deep water they'd gotten us well and truly stuck, turned into anchors with pseudopods, dragged us down and let us drown while grappling and some will-o-wisps joined in the attack).

Bought a Spool of Endless Rope separately. Tend to use that over the troll gut rope just because it's faster and more accessible. Also, the DM allowed me to combine it with the cablespool.

Also got a grapple. Using Hand of the Mage you never miss getting your grapple to dig in! (Which means the pitons sort of get neglected over short climb distances).

We tend to use so many Tenser's Floating Disks to carry things we cast our own for the greater weight limit, which means the party gnome spends all day sitting on a cushion in the one from my Talisman of the Disk - can't count how many traps he's avoided that way. And since he's just hauled along behind me he gets to save his move actions for directing spells (he tends to cast a lot of spells that need a move action to direct, so he can get double duty, controlling one of those while using standards to cast normally).

Frankly, the DM stopped giving out so many story/navigation challenges (ie, how do you get past this hazard/locked door/cliff) once I'd bought the haversack.

[Darrin]

Bag of tricks is used, along with Chain of Eyes, whenever we need to check for traps or otherwise deploy a disposable scout (bears, lions and tigers are no longer suitable threats at our level - we are just short of 17). Prior to that, our DM switched to using lots of oozes and other monsters you do not want to grapple after some particularly successful lion escapades.


Now I feel bad for leaving out slimebane.



Tend not to use the skill boosting items (either they get forgotten about even when they could be used, or I'm just being a miserly skinflint bastard who doesn't need that +1 or +2 enough to use an expendable resource for it) or the damaging stuff (by the time you can afford the haversack, you've got better options).


Most of the skill-boost stuff I included because they are usually dirt-cheap and don't take up any space.

And yeah, it's been noted that alchemical weapons are barely functional at 1st level, and don't get any more effective as you level up. I still like stuffing a few dozen into a net bag and giving them to an unseen servant to drop in a square, but not every DM lets me get away with such things.



Travel cloak, talisman of the disk and survival pouch see near-constant use, as do the feather tokens (Except boat. The one time we were on an island in an underground lake there was a boat on the shore already - and I really, truly wish I'd used the Swan Boat anyway, because the boat 'just left there' turned out to be a group of mimics just emulating a boat, and by the time we were out over deep water they'd gotten us well and truly stuck, turned into anchors with pseudopods, dragged us down and let us drown while grappling and some will-o-wisps joined in the attack).


The Swan Boat is mostly there to drop on things for 20d6 falling object damage. Because I still find that immensely funny, even after everyone is bored to death trying to explain to me that it shouldn't work like that.



Also got a grapple. Using Hand of the Mage you never miss getting your grapple to dig in! (Which means the pitons sort of get neglected over short climb distances).


The pitons are there mostly for nostalgia reasons. They're cheap, so every player who has ever played 1st edition AD&D always buys 10 of them and then forgets they even have them. Mostly, they were bought as "Gygax repellent", to spike open doors because apparently Gygax loved to **** over his players with doors. Otherwise the doors would suddenly slam shut and trap you inside a room...? Doors were so mind-bogglingly dangerous that just "listening" through it could result in your insescapable death (no saving throw for Ear Seakers in 1st ed, you just died after a few hours). So yeah, better spike those effing doors so they don't get any of those uppity ideas...

[Skysaber]

Now I feel bad for leaving out slimebane.

Could've used it by the bucketful.


Most of the skill-boost stuff I included because they are usually dirt-cheap and don't take up any space.

And yeah, it's been noted that alchemical weapons are barely functional at 1st level, and don't get any more effective as you level up. I still like stuffing a few dozen into a net bag and giving them to an unseen servant to drop in a square, but not every DM lets me get away with such things.

Don't get me wrong. Even at very high level mundane gear is useful to have around. Like a spare tire - when you need it, you really need it. And we are adventuring in Faerun, so dead magic zones and traps or zones of permanent anti-magic are simply a fact of life everyone adventuring has got to deal with.

But having my mundane hammer inside of an extra-dimensional space has been... less than helpful a time or two.

If I could suggest, perhaps something like Shax's Mule could make an appearance? A mundane animal bearing mundane saddlebags filled with all of that mundane gear you're going to need once the DM finds all of the giggling fun to be had by shutting off the party's magic?

I mean, I can really get behind having plain old ordinary rope for scaling cliffs that a beholder is going to be glancing at occasionally with his anti-magic eye (seeing if anything falls off when he looks at his front porch beats any hide check I could name - and most party members have negative climb checks once their lack of ranks, poor strength for casters, or loads of armor and weighty gear for everyone else, are all accounted for), and I'd rather drop alchemical nastiness on a wight than wrestle him any day, so I am really in love with having options around.

There is a place for sticking on a perfectly mundane fake mustache when you are about to walk past guards enchanted with permanent Detect Magic.

But when a random teleport drops the party into a dead magic zone in the frozen north, having my blanket and bedroll on a mule where I can get at it has appeal too.

On the plus side, mundane gear is also incredibly cheap, so by typing stuff together (mundane on mule, magic on haversack) you not only disaster proof yourself but most people could afford to equip the mule much earlier in level when the mundane stuff is also much more relevant.

Also, on the flip side, mundane gear while inexpensive also tends toward higher weight, so moving that to another container makes more use out of the ready-access Haversack.

And if the mule gets blasted by AoE, carry those packs via Floating Disk for a while until you can get the four-legged U-Haul replaced. Or at very high levels just stick it all in a box you cast Shrink Item on periodically.


The Swan Boat is mostly there to drop on things for 20d6 falling object damage. Because I still find that immensely funny, even after everyone is bored to death trying to explain to me that it shouldn't work like that.

I keep forgetting that use. It's a pity, because I know my DM would let me get away with it, too.


The pitons are there mostly for nostalgia reasons. They're cheap, so every player who has ever played 1st edition AD&D always buys 10 of them and then forgets they even have them. Mostly, they were bought as "Gygax repellent", to spike open doors because apparently Gygax loved to **** over his players with doors. Otherwise the doors would suddenly slam shut and trap you inside a room...? Doors were so mind-bogglingly dangerous that just "listening" through it could result in your inescapable death (no saving throw for Ear Seekers in 1st ed, you just died after a few hours). So yeah, better spike those effing doors so they don't get any of those uppity ideas...

Kill it with fire (the doors, I mean). Funny, I think I have something for that here in my haversack.:smalltongue:

[Thiyr]

Either way, it's still useful to fish the DM for Plot Hooks or just harrass him for NPC names (most DMs loathe having to come up with new names). The DM has at least two safe ways to get out of this: every new object is owned by the same person, so he can say "I already told you that", or he can just say "No previous owner/no result, and no, I'm not going to explain why."

Sadly, you can't even get names off the item. That list of five things? All it gives. AFAICT, it works just like the gloves as present in the srd (that is, just like object reading (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/objectReading.htm)), but without the chance of skipping an owner.

Granted, I can still see SOME use for it (It would be astoundingly useful for, say, doing a hot reading (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_reading) scam, and I can see use in "how someone lost the item" as a plot hook or means of checking for traps from oddly-placed non-cursed items), but it just doesn't seem nearly as useful as the other three of the Big Four.

But to stop being a downer, tales of good use! I've had tremendous fun with the Belt of Novice Can Opening, bare-fist punching walls down. I try to never leave home without a handful of tree tokens, especially after blocking reinforcements during a final boss fight with one or two of them. Marbles played a useful role when playing a warlock who needed to confuse sonar-using enemies. Baleful utterance and easily replaced, thrown objects? Sign me up! And when I've got random bits of gold left sitting at chargen, I pretty much default to browsing the haversack for what I can afford to pick up. Rarely do I buy the full thing outright, but it usually gives some good ideas. Pretty sure I'm gonna finally get around to using that liquid ice/razor ice bit for this character, too. Don't know why I never remember to do that, all things considered.

Also, collar of perpetual attendance? So useful when you're a wildshape ranger who hasn't put their pearl of speech in yet.