Must-Have Items for High Level Melee Artificer?

[FreakyCheeseMan]

Heading into a 17th level tristalt game; I'm looking at Swordsage/Fighter-ToB Mix/Artificer. The artificer is just there to try to keep me alive and functional - it's just to support the rest of the build.

So, what items do I need? What items are absolute traps?

[atemu1234]

Items you'd need: I'd go with a cloak of charisma, it'd help with the UMD checks.

[Silva Stormrage]

Starmantle cloak would be good. Halving damage from all weapon damage essentially really adds survivability.

Do you have your bases covered? Flight/tactical teleportation/miss chance/mind blank/ etc etc?

[Forrestfire]

Well, the obvious choices are the +stat items, enchanted armor and weapons (Discipline Weapon is a great +1 enchant), cloak of resistance, and the like. This thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) has a great list of what you generally want to have through either abilities or items, and is a good starting point.

Having Artificer lets you do some very fun stuff, as well. For example, the Metamagic Item infusion with wands (or a spell-storing item created through infusions) lets you pretend to be a Clericzilla for useful buff spells like Greater Mirror Image, Vigor, Freedom of Movement, Displacement, Wraithstrike*, and the like. Metamagic Spell Completion lets you also get Minor Schemas of spells up to 6th level and persist those a few times per day, too (for example, Divine Agility for a +10 enhancement bonus to Dex, or Energy Immunity, etc). Greater Magic Weapon lets you have more fun stuff on weapons, as well.

If you go that route, I suggest making sure you have Spellblade weapons keyed to Dispel Magic and Greater Dispel Magic, at the very least.

Other than that, some generally useful stuff to have is stuff like:


+1 Eager Defending Spellblade (Dispel Magic) gauntlet (24,302gp)
+1 Warning Defending Spellblade (Greater Dispel Magic) gauntlet (24,302gp)

These two grant, together, +7 initiative, immunity to targeted forms of Dispel and Greater Dispel, and up to +10 to AC, depending on how high your CL is for Greater Magic Weapon
Handy Haversack (duh)
Metamagic Rods of Extend Spell (3,000gp+) - They work just fine on infusions, iirc, so you can extend your buffs pretty well.
Metamagic Storm Location (5,000gp) - Free metamagic feat for a year if you meditate there for 24 hours. Complete Mage.
Minor Schema of Energy Immunity (26,400gp) - 1/day casting of Energy Immunity. Pick whichever you like when you cast it, etc.
Minor Schema of Concurrent Infusions (CL 8) (12,800gp) - lets you emulate the Spell-Storing Item infusion without spending any exp. Combine with...
Minor Schema of Metamagic Item (6,000gp) - for Persisted buffs all over the place. These two items together get you a single spell up to 4th-level persisted each day.
Rapid Wrath (11,702gp) - it's a shortspear that probably isn't especially useful in combat, but it doubles your speed while you carry it. Ghostwalk.
Wand Chamber with a wand of Celerity in it (21,100gp) - lets you Celerity if you need to. Alternatively, another fun one is...
Wand Chamber with a Wand of Wings of Cover in it (4,600gp) - lets you negate an attack as an immediate action. It's fun. You can even get both, and stick them in your gauntlets.


There's plenty more, but when it comes down to it, once you've got the key items, the sky is probably not even a limit.