useful magic gear, items and feats for my party?

[Ryunosuke]

So I'm DMing for a 3.5 game at home with my friends, girlfriend, and little brother (whom we are teaching to play the game now) and the party currently is all level 3 with a Paladin (gf), Duskblade (bro), Druid (friend 1) and what he is leaning towards a barbarian or warrior type class for friend 2. The game starts this weekend and will become semi regular.

Now because a certain someone adores paladins and plays them literally every game she plays, I decided to find a bunch of supplementary stuff to help since base paladins are kinda meh. Found a bunch of paladin exclusive spells that are fairly decent (Find the Gap, Smite of Sacred Fire, Rhino Rush, Draconic Might) and magic items or enchantments (Silver Bracer of Smiting, weapon of Great Smiting) and these feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?229655-Smite-Feats&highlight=smiting) that would help her be more potent in battle since she's going for 2handed offense rather than the sword and shield defense style. I found some decent stuff for paladins and then paused realizing that I wasn't too sure on other decent magic items, feats, or beneficial things to give out to the others over the course of the campaign.

I can easily hand out a ring of wizardry or two for the Duskblade (they get more out of them than any other arcane caster that isn't a sorc/wiz/magus) and maybe a spell storing weapon to let off more than one stored spell at a time. I am not really sure what there is that specifically benefits Druids (who are already the strongest core class in 3.5 without supplements) or Duskblades and warrior types in general that aren't just....free cash or a +X weapon really.

If it helps much, the setting is rather draconic since the players are getting wrapped up in the game of Xorvantaal at the behest of a good dragon (the Duskblade wants to become a Dragonborn of Bahamut and the party gets dragged in) so they will be all over the place on quests for the dragon, only occasionally fighting actual dragons (hence why I don't want to give a dragonbane weapon that's used once or thrice ever) but I do want everyone to have some cool stuff like the paladin is getting without getting into heavy powergame/optimization stuff.

[Brova]

One thing I'd change for the Duskblade is to just let them use channel on however many attacks they happen to have at level 1. It's a buff, and it turns the Duskblade into more of a TWF class unless you limited to one weapon per spell, but it's incredibly dumb that the Duskblade spends a substantial amount of time not getting to use their signature ability. In terms of actual items, a Duskblade appreciates knowstones (or similar items) of ray of idiocy or shivering touch a great deal. Those spells are basically "I win" buttons against a lot of random monsters (seriously, shivering touch kills every single core dragon expect white and silver dragons).

The Druid doesn't particularly need buffs. If you wanted to, you could write up an item/feat/PrC that gives dragon wild shape. Honestly, Druids are totally nuts and their biggest flaw is that their class is so good, most PrCs aren't worth it. Here's an outline of a dragon Druid PrC:

Dragon Shaman
"Dragons are the ultimate expression of the power of nature. The fury of the storm forged in living flesh."

Druids serve nature. While most of them choose to serve relatively normal parts of nature like trees or bears, some of them serve more exciting things. For the Dragon Shaman, those "more exciting things" are massive, scaled, fire breathing monsters.

Prerequisites:
Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (arcana) 11 ranks
Wild Shape (Large)
Must have made peaceful contact with a dragon

Vitals (HD/Skills/Saves) as Druid

Abilities by Level
1: Secrets of the Dragon, Druid Abilities, +1 Spellcaster level
2: Draconic Companion, +1 Spellcaster level
3: Breath of the Dragon, +1 Spellcaster level
4: Wild Shape (Half Dragon), +1 Spellcaster level
5: Body of the Dragon, +1 Spellcaster level
6: Half Dragon Companion, +1 Spellcaster level
7: Call of the Dragon, +1 Spellcaster level
8: Wild Shape (Dragon), +1 Spellcaster level
9: Fright of the Dragon, +1 Spellcaster level
10: Dragon Companion, +1 Spellcaster level
11: Scales of the Dragon, +1 Spellcaster level
12: Improved Dragon Wild Shape, +1 Spellcaster level

Spellcasting: Dragon Shaman levels advance spellcasting as if they were levels of any spellcasting class the Dragon Shaman has.

Secrets of the Dragon: At each level, the Druid chooses a Sorcerer/Wizard spell of a level he can cast and adds that spell to his spell list.

Druid Abilities: The Dragon Shaman gains additional uses of wild shape and improves his animal companion as if he was gaining levels in Druid. This does not advance any other Druid abilities. For example, he does not receive the ability to wild shape into a plant.

Draconic Companion: At 2nd level the Dragon Shaman's animal companion gains the Draconic template.

Breath of the Dragon: At 3rd level the Dragon Shaman gains a breath weapon. Either a line 10ft long per class level or a cone 5ft long per class level it deals 2d6 damage per class level. Damage is the Dragon Shaman's choice of acid, cold, fire and electricity. This breath weapon is usable once every 1d4 rounds.

Wild Shape (Half Dragon): At 4th level any animal form the Dragon Shaman assumes with wild shape is half dragon.

Body of the Dragon: At 5th level the Dragon Shaman becomes immune to sleep, paralysis, and aging.

Half Dragon Companion: As Draconic Companion, but with the Half Dragon template.

Call of the Dragon: At 7th level the Dragon Shaman may summon creatures of the Dragon type with his summon nature's ally spells. He may swap any creature that appears on the summon nature's ally list for a creature of the Dragon type of the same CR. Additional, any non-Dragon creature he summons is Draconic.

Wild Shape (Dragon): At 8th level the Dragon Shaman may assume the form of any creature of the Dragon type with his wild shape ability.

Fright of the Dragon: At 9th level the Dragon Shaman gains frightful presence as a dragon with an age category equal to his class level (for example, a 12th level Dragon Shaman would have frightful presence as a great wyrm).

Dragon Companion: At 10th level the Dragon Shaman may select a dragon as an animal companion. Treat the dragon as an animal of equal CR for the purposes of determining extra abilities.

Scales of the Dragon: At 11th level the Dragon Shaman gains DR 20/magic and SR 5 + character level.

Improved Dragon Wild Shape: At 12th level the Dragon Shaman may wild shape into any dragon of adult age or younger.

You could plausibly rewrite that as a couple of shorter classes covering "get dragon spellcasting", "have dragon minions", and "turn into a dragon", but I don't particularly care to.

Warrior types will need to pick a tactic to specialize in (tripping, grappling, charging) and will appreciate gear that makes that tactic better. For example, a high level tripper would benefit from an item that had the stats of a spiked chain, but gave significantly larger reach (20ft to 100ft) and some storm powers of various sorts.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

There are some Druid-specific items in Complete Champion (Armor/Ring/Mantle of the Beast) and in Magic Item Compendium (Raiment of the Stormwalker item set, Wilding Clasps, etc.). Pieces from the Raiment of the Four set in MIC are good for any spellcaster.

Players always love Healing Belts (MIC) and Anklets of Translocation (MIC).

Check out the Necessary Magic Items (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) list, there's always something there that someone can use, and giving those items to opponents can make a fight a bit more challenging.

[Ryunosuke]

Um, Shivering Touch is neither known by anyone in the group but myself that it exists and given the BBEG at the end is an evil dragon that spell is strictly banned should anyone ask for it. The Duskblade is also being used by an 11 year old and is level 3 already so he has Channel right off the bat so saying he can use it at lv 1 isn't really needed. Honestly the things he needs right now is extra defense and damage since he wants to be an in your face fighter guy with magical power (hence Duskblade). The Druis by no means wants to become draconic at all. Like I said, only the Duskblade (bro) wants to go dragonborn. The rest are being dragged along to working for the patron dragon, with rewards as appropriate of course.

I'm not sure how the warrior is building just yet. We're homebrewing him an anthro wolf race to use but I think we'll end up making him a barbarian or ranger. gotta sort that out this week actually and from there I can prolly sort out what he needs (might let him get natural claws and give some of those magic claw enhancers from draconomicon for him)

[gorfnab]

When in doubt of what items are a decent fit for a specific class, check the handbooks.

Druid Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=940)
Duskblade Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8696)
Paladin Handbook (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.ca/2011/08/paladins-handbook.html)

For other items I like to look into these miscellaneous item based handbooks.

Shax's Indispensable Haversack (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?148101-3-x-Shax-s-Indispensible-Haversack-%28Equipment-Handbook%29)
Fill That Slot (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?149464-Fill-That-Slot!-3-5)
Lists of Necessary Items (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items)