Plague Doctor Mask?

[Extra Anchovies]

Are there any magical or alchemical items in 3.5 or Pathfinder that could replicate the intended purpose of a plague mask? I'm looking to play a Vivisectionist, fluffed as a plague doctor, in an upcoming 3.P game, and want the mask to be more than just for show. Looking for immunity or solid resistance to diseases and inhaled poisons, preferably not single-use.

[deuxhero]

Pathfinder has a mundane Doctor's Mask (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/EquipmentMiscDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Doctor%27s%20ma sk) that gives +1 save bonus against airborne toxins and scent based effects (not diseases though for some reason).

Plaguebringer's Mask (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Plaguebringer% 27s%20Mask) is 3.5 Paizo material makes you appear neutral to detect spells and makes you immune to disease in addition to a +2 save bonus against the above effects.

Goz Mask (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Goz%20Mask) lets you see through " fog, smoke, and other obscuring vapors as if they did not exist" (hi ever smoking bottle!) breath water for up to an hour a day and some minor wind resistance.

There's a Soviet gasmask that's PFS legal for some reason (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Frontovik%27s% 20Gas%20Mask) that lets you see through vapors and not need to breath

[Venger]

MIC's cat's eye brooch (throat) could fasten at the bottom of your mask's strings. it gives a +4 untyped on saves vs. disease. and a +1 luck bonus on all saves

the mask of sweet air (face) offers a +5 vs airborne
stench attacks and inhaled poisons, and lets you breathe in rooms full of "smoke, dust, and fumes" without worry of suffocation.

it's appropriate since you're going to be burning a lot of bodies, and actual plague doctors stuffed their beaks with cloth soaked in perfume and packed with flowers to provide a pleasant scent during the course of their affairs.

the periapt of the sullen sea lets you hold your breath for 12 hours. you can also turn a 4th into FoM 2/day.

all items are passive.

[deuxhero]

Try to get the lens of whatever you pick to act as Physician's Spectacles (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Physician%27s% 20Spectacles). In addition to the poison/disease detection you want, you can also tell if someone is under a wide variety of affilcitions (you'd be suprised what causes sickened)

[RhoTheWanderer]

The only thing I can think of off hand is the bottle of air. Here's a link to it in the srd: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#bottleofAir. It's a wonderous item that provides unlimited air. Presumably, this means that you wouldn't have to worry about any inhaled poisons or diseases; however, there is one problem. It requires a standard action to use it. Now, you can hold your breath for a number of rounds based on your constitution score, so you could just put it in a mask and take a standard action to take a breath every few rounds. But, as you'd be using up your "face" magic item slot instead of just pulling it out of your pocket every now and then, I'd try to convince your DM to let you breath without using a standard action. If necessary, ask him or her if you can pay a little extra in order to get out of the "standard action" clause.

Otherwise, there's the iridescent ioun stone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#iounStones). Continuous air. No item slot. It offers another price point with which to negotiate. Considering the fact that you're probably looking for this thing to take up your "face" item slot, it should be cheaper than the ioun stone which is slotless. But, of course, individual DMs vary.

If all else fails, I'd ask for a custom item granting a continuous remove disease and/or neutralize poison effect. Also, if I didn't have the cash for both spells to start with, I'd maybe get one of them to start with and tack on the other spell's effect when I manage to get the cash to spare. But, it might not be truly worth quite as much as the item creation guidelines would indicate unless you frequently run into diseases and poisons (although you could pass it around so other party members could use it to cleanse themselves too when the need arises). The same could be said about the bottle of air or the ioun stone. If your DM likes underwater adventures or poison gas traps, then such items may genuinely prove useful; otherwise, they might be a tad bit overpriced.

[Extra Anchovies]

Ooooh, these are all nice. Maybe a Mask of Sweet Air along with a Goz Mask respecc'd to the eyes slot? At higher levels I could switch to a Frontovik's Gas Mask to open up the eyes slot for something else. Between the two I can ignore smoke entirely. Combined with an Eversmoking Bottle and/or smoke bombs of some sort, plus a good enough Stealth check, would I have a reliable method of getting sneak attack without a flank? After all, I have concealment from my foes (and thus can hide from them), while they do not have concealment from me (and thus are subject to sneak attack).

[Venger]

Ooooh, these are all nice. Maybe a Mask of Sweet Air along with a Goz Mask respecc'd to the eyes slot? At higher levels I could switch to a Frontovik's Gas Mask to open up the eyes slot for something else. Between the two I can ignore smoke entirely. Combined with an Eversmoking Bottle and/or smoke bombs of some sort, plus a good enough Stealth check, would I have a reliable method of getting sneak attack without a flank? After all, I have concealment from my foes (and thus can hide from them), while they do not have concealment from me (and thus are subject to sneak attack).

if you're looking for smoked gouda, go for the smoking weapon enhancement. it's just +1, much cheaper than a bottle of smoke.

I'm not 100% familiar how archetypes work. do you have to take all the substitution levels, or can you pick and choose? because it doesn't seem like sneak attack synergizes terribly well with this class, as opposed to your bomb ability.

beware monsters with special senses. they're very common starting from level 1. scent, blindsense/sight, etc still will pinpoint you even with concealment.

since you're shooting for high levels, have you thought about discoveries?

[Extra Anchovies]

if you're looking for smoked gouda, go for the smoking weapon enhancement. it's just +1, much cheaper than a bottle of smoke.

I'm not 100% familiar how archetypes work. do you have to take all the substitution levels, or can you pick and choose? because it doesn't seem like sneak attack synergizes terribly well with this class, as opposed to your bomb ability.

beware monsters with special senses. they're very common starting from level 1. scent, blindsense/sight, etc still will pinpoint you even with concealment.

since you're shooting for high levels, have you thought about discoveries?

Archetypes are more along the lines of variant classes than they are substitution levels - think Cloistered Cleric, not Divine Magician. My general goal as a Vivisectionist is Mutagen-based melee support (specifically, TWFing with Weapon Finesse and the +Dex mutagen), plus some out-of-combat skillmonkeying by virtue of being an Int-based class.

I do have the full build planned out, even down to FC bonuses and Formulae. Race is human, starting abilities are Str 10, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 8. Feats and Discoveries are as follows:

1st: TWF, Weapon Finesse (Human), Brew Potion (Alchemist), Throw Anything (Alchemist)
2nd: Infusion Discovery
3rd: Toughness
4th: Spontaneous Healing Discovery
5th: Piranha Slice
6th: Tenacious Invisibility Discovery (3rd party discovery from the SRD; lets invisibility effects linger for a few rounds if they would be ended early)
7th: Improved Initiative
8th: Combine Extracts Discovery
9th: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
10th: Transparency Mutagen Discovery (3rd party discovery from the SRD; my mutagen turns me invisible, and I can concentrate for 1 round to resume the invisibility after I end it via attacking/etc)
11th: Iron Will
12th: Greater Mutagen Discovery
13th: Extra Discovery (Crippling Strike Talent)
14th: Infuse Mutagen Discovery
15th: Additional Traits (Carefully Hidden, Reactionary)
16th: Grand Mutagen Discovery
17th: [not sure what feat to take]
18th: Elixir of Life Discovery
19th: [not sure what feat to take]
20th: Extend Potion Discovery, Eternal Potion Discovery, True Mutagen Grand Discovery

I ran out of ideas for feats to take after the TWF chain, so I added a few basic passive bonuses (Toughness, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, and the Additional Traits); if you have any suggestions for what the last two feats should be, along with anything that would be more worth taking than Additional Traits, that would be appreciated. Maybe Deadly Agility for Dex to Damage? Most of my damage will be from SA, but every little bit helps.

Skill-wise, I'm putting max ranks into Craft (Alchemy), Stealth (gained as a class skill via the Slippery trait), Perception, Acrobatics (gained as a class skill via the Reckless trait), K(Nature), K(Arcana), Spellcraft, Disable Device, and UMD. Favored class bonus for the first six levels goes into HP, then after that into moar extracts.

[Venger]

your discovery selection looks pretty solid. so you'll basically be hyding out and cracking some skulls.

the alchemist's handbook seems to push the dirty tricks line pretty hard, especially for vivisectionists, but it sort of sucks, even for PF melee, , so you're probably better off without if you have a reliably source of turning invisible.

what sources are available since you seem to be playing a hybrid of 3.5 and pf

[Extra Anchovies]

your discovery selection looks pretty solid. so you'll basically be hyding out and cracking some skulls.

the alchemist's handbook seems to push the dirty tricks line pretty hard, especially for vivisectionists, but it sort of sucks, even for PF melee, , so you're probably better off without if you have a reliably source of turning invisible.

what sources are available since you seem to be playing a hybrid of 3.5 and pf

"Hiding out and cracking skulls" is a very solid description for the build strategy.

The game will be, and I quote, "using Pathfinder (as well as anything from 3.5 that isn't horribly broken)". That's all I've got for now; I asked the DM for a list of important houserules/bans, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

[Venger]

"Hiding out and cracking skulls" is a very solid description for the build strategy.

The game will be, and I quote, "using Pathfinder (as well as anything from 3.5 that isn't horribly broken)". That's all I've got for now; I asked the DM for a list of important houserules/bans, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

I meant "Hyding" as in Mr. Hyde since you're focusing on mutagens to get natural atks to layer your precision damage onto, but you also hide, so it works on both levels.

If you're allowed 3.5 feats, you want to take darkstalker and craven as soon as you can, so jam those in early on and either move everything down two slots or replace stuff if you still want to use your late lvl feats to get more discoveries and stuff.

craven adds your character lvl onto all precision damage rolls in exchange for a -2 to saves vs fear effects. you don't care, your will save sucks anyway.

darkstalker lets you roll stealth even against creatures with special senses (scent, tremorsense, blindsense/sight, etc) so it will make your invis effect actually useful beyond about 5th or 6th lvl. it's an absolute must-have feat tax on any build that cares about skulking, as craven is for precision damage users. it'll really help your damage output, since death of a thousand cuts type characters often have trouble with stuff like DR.

[Extra Anchovies]

I meant "Hyding" as in Mr. Hyde since you're focusing on mutagens to get natural atks to layer your precision damage onto, but you also hide, so it works on both levels.

If you're allowed 3.5 feats, you want to take darkstalker and craven as soon as you can, so jam those in early on and either move everything down two slots or replace stuff if you still want to use your late lvl feats to get more discoveries and stuff.

craven adds your character lvl onto all precision damage rolls in exchange for a -2 to saves vs fear effects. you don't care, your will save sucks anyway.

darkstalker lets you roll stealth even against creatures with special senses (scent, tremorsense, blindsense/sight, etc) so it will make your invis effect actually useful beyond about 5th or 6th lvl. it's an absolute must-have feat tax on any build that cares about skulking, as craven is for precision damage users. it'll really help your damage output, since death of a thousand cuts type characters often have trouble with stuff like DR.

Ah yes, I forgot the Mr. Hyde connection. That is also very accurate. The general fluff is that the character has, through his study of disease, developed methods to "perfect" the body's function (i.e. the mutagens).

And thanks for bringing up Craven and Darkstalker, I had forgotten to look in 3.5 for stuff. How about this for the feat progression:

1st: TWF, Weapon Finesse, Brew Potion, Throw Anything
3rd: Craven
5th: Deadly Agility
7th: Darkstalker
9th: Improved TWF
11th: Toughness
13th: Extra Discovery (Crippling Strike)
15th: Improved Initiative
17th: Iron Will
19th: Additional Traits (Carefully Hidden, Reactionary)

I decided to swap out Piranha Slice for Deadly Agility. The to-hit penalty would really hurt with medium BAB, and Deadly Agility will make up for at least a good chunk of the damage I miss out on.

[Venger]

Ah yes, I forgot the Mr. Hyde connection. That is also very accurate. The general fluff is that the character has, through his study of disease, developed methods to "perfect" the body's function (i.e. the mutagens).

And thanks for bringing up Craven and Darkstalker, I had forgotten to look in 3.5 for stuff. How about this for the feat progression:

1st: TWF, Weapon Finesse, Brew Potion, Throw Anything
3rd: Craven
5th: Deadly Agility
7th: Darkstalker
9th: Improved TWF
11th: Toughness
13th: Extra Discovery (Crippling Strike)
15th: Improved Initiative
17th: Iron Will
19th: Additional Traits (Carefully Hidden, Reactionary)

I decided to swap out Piranha Slice for Deadly Agility. The to-hit penalty would really hurt with medium BAB, and Deadly Agility will make up for at least a good chunk of the damage I miss out on.

yeah, it's the commonly used term when talkign about mutagen-focused alchemists.

you're welcome.

did you by any chance mean "piranha strike?" I didn't recognize piranha slice. yeah, that's a good choice, it isn't a good fit for a precision damage user, your to-hit just isn't good enough. it's a good idea to cut it.

that spread looks fine. it should let you do all the stuff you want to do.

[Extra Anchovies]

did you by any chance mean "piranha strike?" I didn't recognize piranha slice. yeah, that's a good choice, it isn't a good fit for a precision damage user, your to-hit just isn't good enough. it's a good idea to cut it.

that spread looks fine. it should let you do all the stuff you want to do.

Yeah, I meant Piranha Strike. I keep calling it Piranha Slice, maybe because both it and Double Slice are TWF feats new to Pathfinder :smallredface:

Excellent. Thanks for your help with fine-tuning the build.

[Venger]

Yeah, I meant Piranha Strike. I keep calling it Piranha Slice, maybe because both it and Double Slice are TWF feats new to Pathfinder :smallredface:

Excellent. Thanks for your help with fine-tuning the build.

my pleasure. let me know how your guy works out.

[Ernir]

Late to the thread, but 3.5 has the Breathing Hood. Mundane item, +8 circumstance bonus vs. poison (no disease protection, unfortunately). 70 gp. Drow of the Underdark page 91.

[LOTRfan]

There's a Soviet gasmask that's PFS legal for some reason (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Frontovik%27s% 20Gas%20Mask) that lets you see through vapors and not need to breath

It's from Rasputin Must Die. Never played the module myself, and it's been a while since I've read it, but the gist of it is that the players end up on 1917 Earth, they have to fight hordes of undead creatures and Russians experimenting with magi-tech, and Baba Yaga is involved somehow.

Sounds like a lot of fun to me.

[Rubik]

A necklace of adaptation (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/m-p/necklace-of-adaptation) should make you immune to anything inhalable, though not to other types of diseases, such as contact, injury, or consumed ones.

Just fluff it as a mask or a biohazard hood and mask combo that goes over your head and fits around your neck.

[deuxhero]

@LOTRfan

I knew that, I was commenting on how it was for some reason PFS legal despite its unique nature (and the name indicating its a unique item).

[atemu1234]

There's a Soviet gasmask that's PFS legal for some reason (http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrousDisplay.aspx?FinalName=Frontovik%27s% 20Gas%20Mask) that lets you see through vapors and not need to breath

Are you my mummy?

[Raven777]

That thing looks scary as hell (http://i56.tinypic.com/k1p553.jpg), too. And not even "cool" scary. It is downright "gotta have nightmares tonight" disturbing.

[Venger]

That thing looks scary as hell (http://i56.tinypic.com/k1p553.jpg), too. And not even "cool" scary. It is downright "gotta have nightmares tonight" disturbing.
Imagine being in a scenario where you had to wear one.