90% off all mundane items what to get?

[Zakerst]

So I've got a situation where I get 90% off all mundane items craft able by the same tech level of WWII, but magic items are double price. Likewise I cannot resale the mundane items aquired with the 90% discount. I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what to get I'm effectively playing sorcerer (there's some goofiness involved).

WBL 5 system is a lightly modified 3.5
Most books are ok, no drag mag though dragon compendium is ok.

Since it has been asked the presence of magic is supposedly rare/secret/forgotten however being dnd I expect there will be plenty to go around when it comes to us we're just starting without a lot of magic gear and any we pick up will likely be ours to keep, though if we can sell it it should be worth a lot.

update on what I'm thinking of getting off hand:

Rope, so much rope always useful
twine/candle wick, also useful
manacles, masterwork, for taking them alive
mirror, hand, for signaling, looking around corners and disguises/camouflage
disguise kits, what it says on the tin
metal detector, ditto
duct tape, so many uses
lighters/sparkers, fire good
flasks of acid, don't drink
caltrops, non-explodey mines
land mines, the explody kind
thermite (grenades), break it/melt it
hydraulic cutter/prier, for when a crowbar isn't enough
portable generator, electricity good
dynamite, dirt cheap wired together for bigger boom
demolitions kit, tools for the job
bolt cutters/wire cutters, as the name says
smoke grenades, signals cover ect
sacks, for looting
tongs, for picking things up
bells, for noise, signaling, alarms
whistles, for the bells
pitons & hammer, jam it, climb it, pry it, bind it, rewind it
jade weapon, for ghosts and such
silver weapon, for vampires and werewolves
adamantine weapon, for doors walls and hard things
cold iron weapon, for demons and such
jars/flasks, for liquids
gas/fuel, power, slightly limited power
compass, who needs a skill check to tell which way is north
magnets, surprisingly useful surprisingly often
paper, for drawing/writing
ink, ditto
ink pens, see above
chalk, so much so cheap, also decent antacid
charcoal, like chalk but induces vomiting
rubber prophylactics, if you can't find a use for them you're not trying very hard...
scroll case(s), for maps and scrolls and stuff...
spare clothes, always wear clean undies and socks
gnome calculus, for lobbing
leather belts, improv rope/emergency eats
antibiotics, when in doubt take two...
Walkie-Talkies, so you too can yell at people you can't see
Handy-Talkies, so you can yell at the voices in your hand
medical kit/field-surgery kit/torture bag, its kinda all in how you use it
Telephone Tap, just in case the phone lines are still standing where you are
marbles, for losing also flat-footed
Winch, Portable, sometimes even the BSF needs help lifting a jeep
Jeep, like a cart without a horse
motorcycle, like a horse without the horse
led foil, learn to love it and sew it into everything you wear and care about
map(s), where are you
food, for eating
water, for drinking
locks, masterwork, lock it or lose it
Jerry cans, more fluids
rubber tubing, also surprisingly useful
gas masks and filters, breath deep
Portable Stove, fire good; being seen bad...
tent/sleeping bag, gotta do it sometime somewhere
winter gear, don't invade Russia without it
floatation devices, who needs swim...
raft & paddles, because water is hard to drive across
formal clothes/uniform, for when the boss stops by
sneaky clothes, for when the boss stops by...
sprayer, for spraying
chloroform, shhh just go to sleep

More stuff???

shapesand (not mundane so double price but I'm still gonna get like 3 jars of the stuff... crowbars, hacksaws, hand drills, hammers, screw drivers, wrenches of all sizes, polls, ladders, planks, axes, chairs, and more, if it lacks moving parts this is your jam, and if it can be replaced with shapesand it will be in the final cut)

[Deeds]

What is your definition of mundane? Is nuclear fission off the table? When you mention WWII tech I think about weapons of WWII.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_during_World_War_II

Notice that you've got access to chemical weapons, aircraft, automatic weaponry, radio, medicine, etc. Good luck and have fun in your campaign. :smallcool:

[Ruethgar]

Lutes are one of the most powerful mundane items before tech. You can get one that is a shortbow and a punching dagger that provides +1 Bardic Music levels to RL definition bards as opposed to D&D definition Bards and allows you to do two bardic musics simultaneously(would need a bard level to actually get a second use but still).

The Create Device feat creates mundane items that can mimic any magic item, it would be up to DM adjudication as to what would be possible with WWII tech in that realm.

In one of the dragon magazines there is a future setting in a magical world article that adds more advanced weaponry, a bio-tech bow that deals 1d20 dmg was one that caught my eye. Need to find it again.

[yellowrocket]

I'd say a 120mm cannon capable of firing both he and chem/bio shells would be a good start. A means of transportation. And a machine gun capable of sustained high rates of fire.

[Vizzerdrix]

Shapesand. All of the shapesand ever forever.

[Coidzor]

Shax's haversack will have some suggestions, but mustard gas for your own nonmagical cloud kill and a cannon for delivering it sounds good to me.

Heck, you might even be able to solve the problem of that one super-sized tank/fortress that Hitler wanted which would just sink into the ground. Alternatively, you can supplement The Cube with mundane technology so it doesn't just rely on spell turrets and emerald legionnaires teleporting out of it as a strike force.

You can also make an armored Zeppelin with magically aided levitation/weightlessness/lightening. And then put cannons and bomb bays and flak/machine guns on it. Be able to annihilate things near you in the overworld without needing spells in most cases. Have a use for all those followers/mindslaves/Steves.

[Zakerst]

Looks like for most weapons we'll be lifting that from d20 modern or something, we don't all have access to dragon mag so for fairness I'll try and avoid that. Also I get WBL for I think level 5.
Making bio shells would be cool but bio weps in dnd tend lack luster though chem weps might be interesting.
I asked about shapesand and unfortunately that counts and magical on account of being psionicly reactive. I'll look over shax's haversack again.
Of course explosives are always tactically useful and dynamite turns out is super cheap so I'll likely get some of that and maybe a gnome calculus.
I enjoy the idea of making an armored Zepplin but I'm not sure the rest of the group will be on board, it seems like if we use ship/vehicle rules for it they may have little to do.
Nukes are probably off the table for our level at least.
Where is craft device at? I'm not sure we have that book which is odd.

[ericgrau]

A tank? Or if that's too impractical at least a Jeep or two. With a winch and chain.

With so many cheap mundane items, put your magic items into a handy haversack and/or bag of holding. Besides simply loading up the jeep.

Machine guns, flame throwers, grenades, smoke grenades. Flame throwers and grenades are for busting tough entrenchments. Likewise a pair of wire clippers for each party member for barbed wire.

Hammer and pitons for spiking doors shut and climbing cliffs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/climb.htm).

Oil Diesel, lots of diesel. Not just as fuel but for all kinds of pyro applications. Or you may want to run on gasoline instead because it ignites much more easily. Opening up Molotov cocktails and so on. Then if so see if you can get a gasoline Jeep for simplicity. If you use diesel you'll want something to help get the fire started, though that's no different from lantern oil.

Thermite for busting doors and hatches.

Disguise kit, enemy uniforms. Fluency in languages. Bluff and disguise ranks.

For the magic items you do get there are still lots of dirt cheap ones to use. A bag full of anchor feather tokens can lock down fleets if you can manage to sneak on board each one then leave quickly to the next one. Marvelous pigments could be amazing if it's ok to use them to paint WWII tech items at the standard 90% off price discount, since they're limited to 2,000 gp in gear. You pay double for the pigments themselves, but that's still effectively 20,000 gp in mundane items (2,000 gp after the discount) for 8,000 gp. Plus it opens up items that maybe you didn't have room to carry. Paint a pile of grenades, a trench, a barb wire fence, a door or window into a bunker, an artillery cannon, etc. Whatever the moment requires.

[Irk]

The Iowa-class Battleships cost about $100mn-$125mn to produce. This (http://www.nma.org/pdf/gold/his_gold_prices.pdf)PDF, says that gold was around $33.85 per troy ounce, or $30.85 in ounces. One gold coin is about 1/3 of an ounce, according to the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm#coins). One Gold Coin in D&D 3.5 is $10.28 in 1943. 90% off of a $100mn battleship makes it 'only' $10mn. That's 972,762 GP, 6 SP, and 4 CP.

In summation, this would not be worth it, and I don't know why I tried to peg the cost of one of the most overpriced ships to the gold piece, that was largely pointless.

In 1941, 2.5 Reichsmarks were one dollar. No data after that. This means a sweet little Type XXI Submarine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_XXI_submarine) would have cost you just $2.3mn. Cut that down to $230,000.00, and then from there that's just 22,373 gold pieces.

Dude. You could totally pull a Captain Nemo. Snag a fancy sub, deck it out like in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:

http://www.writeups.org/img/inset/Nemo_h.jpg

Just go around, get a crew, have wacky adventures, commit unrestricted submarine warfare. Fun for everyone!

Still pretty expensive though, I mean god damn.

EDIT

Wait I'm going about this in the wrong way. You could totally play around with V1 fling bombs, there's a lot to do in that department. it's only 5,090 Reichsmarks a pop, which is, no joke, 19.8 GP.

NINETEEN GOLD PIECES PER V1 FLYING BOMB.

You could release a wave of unprecedented destruction. I mean, stopping V1s can be done with magic, but it's decently tricky, and it becomes much harder when you have like 1000 of them.

[MisterKaws]

I mean, stopping V1s can be done with magic, but it's decently tricky, and it becomes much harder when you have like 1000 of them.

Contingent Resilient Sphere, done. just do it X1000, it's far easier than making 1000 military-grade missiles.

[Flickerdart]

You could release a wave of unprecedented destruction. I mean, stopping V1s can be done with magic, but it's decently tricky, and it becomes much harder when you have like 1000 of them.
And firing 1000 V1s, you might actually be able to hit the thing you're aiming at!

[Irk]

Contingent Resilient Sphere, done. just do it X1000, it's far easier than making 1000 military-grade missiles.

I mean there's two things you're forgetting here. I'm not saying it's hard to come up with a way to beat 1,000 V1s. I'm saying ta not every party has the resources to cast 1000 contingent resilient spheres. And also you could just wreck a city, that's a bit trickier to defend. We don't even really know how present magic is in this campaign world.


And firing 1000 V1s, you might actually be able to hit the thing you're aiming at!

I read on wikipedia they seemed to hit stuff like 25% of the time. However, what we could do is make them seeking. That's like hopping over several decades of precision guidance, GPS stuff, and computational tech with just a simple spell.

But yes, 1,000 V1 Flying Bombs is reall not a good way to get things done in D&D.

[Coidzor]

But yes, 1,000 V1 Flying Bombs is reall not a good way to get things done in D&D.

Now I'm just imagining Kerbals in D&D.

[Alex12]

For what it's worth.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/weapons/firearms/modern-firearms

[Berenger]

Antibiotics.

[Irk]

now i'm just imagining kerbals in d&d.

Nazi kerbals.

[Coidzor]

Nazi kerbals.

Well, they are green like Nazi zombies or Nazi lizardmen...

[Flickerdart]

I read on wikipedia they seemed to hit stuff like 25% of the time.
When "stuff" is "the city of London" then yes. But hitting the Picadilly Circus tube station is going to take a couple of practice shots.

[Irk]

When "stuff" is "the city of London" then yes. But hitting the Picadilly Circus tube station is going to take a couple of practice shots.

The main reason they didn't hit anything was the defensive network employed against them, mechanical issues, and guidance issues. Again, wikipedia, but I doubt that's inaccurate, I can't think of any other reason they wouldn't hit what they were meant to.

Your main issue with using V1s is going to be launching them. You'll have to get launch sites or use something like Telekinesis, neither of which will be perfectly easy to set up optimally. If you can guarantee that the bombs you're buying are guided by magic, and are mechanically sound, all you have to worry about it are the defensive measures employed against them, and in this case, that's probably not going to be barrage balloons and certain aircraft so much as various war spells.

But yeah, a base V1 is not really going to hit what you want it to hit that easily.

I've no idea what the level of magic is in this campaign setting though, so I don't know if they can be made useful.

[Zakerst]

A tank would probably be a bit impractical but jeep(s) and/or motercycle(s) might be good. I'm not too up on my history of availability but it looks like most of the things from d20 modern might be doable with some restrictions/adjustments though computers of any useful size and cell phones would be a no go though short range radio might be cool. The hydraulic cutters might be useful, as always rope chains and the normal grab bag of useful stuff from Shax.

A fun thought of mine was if we wanted to thrown down something to slow a large number of people down is to plant a few land mines and "hide" a land mine warning sign so they waste time bringing up sappers or going around and we save on explosives.

V1s might be a bit much if only for their weight and lack of mobility/ease of transportation V2s however... Probably have similar concerns. But with rockets in mind panzerfausts might be useful on occasion. Thermite is a good grab too, and colored smoke germades could be good too. I may add a spoiler in the OP to keep track of things I want to add, thanks for the input so far looking foreword to seeing what else we come up with.

That reminds me with a 90% off special materials become rather affordable jade and adamantium weps leap to mind.

[Coidzor]

What sort of setting or game are you all setting out to play anyway?

[Zakerst]

The setting sounds like some kind of mash up of historical WWII, marval WWII, Wolfenstein WWII, Hellboy and maybe some Indiana Jones for good measure. It seems like the dm just sorta wants a "kitchen sink WWII" and we're supposed to sort out the supernatural stuff and super weapons that go down.
Purely conjecture but I suspect some stuff from command and conquer red alert 2 will slip in.

[Janthkin]

Has he seen the d20 Call of Cthulhu book? Seems like it'd be right up his alley.

[ATHATH]

Gnomish Artificers (the prestige class, not the race+class combo) can produce mundane contraptions that can duplicate a spell from a set list of available choices. If they're used by anyone other than their original creator, they have a chance to malfunction. They're normally priced twice as much as normal, making them impractical, but now...

[Zakerst]

Has he seen the d20 Call of Cthulhu book? Seems like it'd be right up his alley.

We don't have that on yet though it's on the back burner so to speak, also his system mastery tends to be more or less solely in the realm of 3.5 and similar so I'm not sure how much conversion work it would take, though when we get it I'll have to take a long look at it.

update on what I'm thinking of getting off hand:

Rope, so much rope always useful
twine/candle wick, also useful
manacles, masterwork, for taking them alive
mirror, hand, for signaling, looking around corners and disguises/camouflage
disguise kits, what it says on the tin
metal detector, ditto
duct tape, so many uses
lighters/sparkers, fire good
flasks of acid, don't drink
caltrops, non-explodey mines
land mines, the explody kind
thermite (grenades), break it/melt it
hydraulic cutter/prier, for when a crowbar isn't enough
portable generator, electricity good
dynamite, dirt cheap wired together for bigger boom
demolitions kit, tools for the job
bolt cutters/wire cutters, as the name says
smoke grenades, signals cover ect
sacks, for looting
tongs, for picking things up
bells, for noise, signaling, alarms
whistles, for the bells
pitons & hammer, jam it, climb it, pry it, bind it, rewind it
jade weapon, for ghosts and such
silver weapon, for vampires and werewolves
adamantine weapon, for doors walls and hard things
cold iron weapon, for demons and such
jars/flasks, for liquids
gas/fuel, power, slightly limited power
compass, who needs a skill check to tell which way is north
magnets, surprisingly useful surprisingly often
paper, for drawing/writing
ink, ditto
ink pens, see above
chalk, so much so cheap, also decent antacid
charcoal, like chalk but induces vomiting
rubber prophylactics, if you can't find a use for them you're not trying very hard...
scroll case(s), for maps and scrolls and stuff...
spare clothes, always wear clean undies and socks
gnome calculus, for lobbing
leather belts, improv rope/emergency eats
antibiotics, when in doubt take two...
Walkie-Talkies, so you too can yell at people you can't see
Handy-Talkies, so you can yell at the voices in your hand
medical kit/field-surgery kit/torture bag, its kinda all in how you use it
Telephone Tap, just in case the phone lines are still standing where you are
marbles, for losing also flat-footed
Winch, Portable, sometimes even the BSF needs help lifting a jeep
Jeep, like a cart without a horse
motorcycle, like a horse without the horse
led foil, learn to love it and sew it into everything you wear and care about
map(s), where are you
food, for eating
water, for drinking
locks, masterwork, lock it or lose it
Jerry cans, more fluids
rubber tubing, also surprisingly useful
gas masks and filters, breath deep
Portable Stove, fire good; being seen bad...
tent/sleeping bag, gotta do it sometime somewhere
winter gear, don't invade Russia without it
floatation devices, who needs swim...
raft & paddles, because water is hard to drive across
formal clothes/uniform, for when the boss stops by
sneaky clothes, for when the boss stops by...
sprayer, for spraying
chloroform, shhh just go to sleep

More stuff???

shapesand (not mundane so double price but I'm still gonna get like 3 jars of the stuff... crowbars, hacksaws, hand drills, hammers, screw drivers, wrenches of all sizes, polls, ladders, planks, axes, chairs, and more, if it lacks moving parts this is your jam, and if it can be replaced with shapesand it will be in the final cut)

[Urpriest]

Has the DM given you pricing information for modern items, or are you just assuming it?

[Zakerst]

Has the DM given you pricing information for modern items, or are you just assuming it?

Well I know for the stuff from the d20msrd we use this formula: 1.9963e^(0.2757(DC))
For other stuff we may have to convert or eye ball the prices as needed right now I'm mostly looking for stuff to get and can work on cutting it down as needed. That said if you've got a reference or better option that would be helpful and as always general advice is welcome.

[Hiro Quester]

Masterwork items for +2 circumstance bonus to skills.

E.g. Make your rope silk rope for +2 to use rope.

This thread has some examples: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?111820-Masterwork-Tools-(3-5)

Alchemical items. Alchemists fire, tanglefoot bags, etc.

[Âmesang]

Mess kit from the Arms and Equipment Guide.

…unless you like eating with your hands. :smalltongue:

[IcarusWulfe]

While a tank might me impractical, what about a half-track, there were a variety of excellent half tracks made during World War II many of which were capable of mounting a variety of weapons, from 76mm AT guns to rocket artillery and AA guns. They are not going to be nearly as fuel thirsty or expensive but still provide you with excellent off road mobility and firepower.

[Ruethgar]

Dragon Magazine #277: You can pretty much only use the dwarven because the others are magitech.

Heavy Machine Gun is 6k GP, 4d8 damage, 19-20 x2 crit, 1k ft range increment, 35lb piercing. Good luck getting the spot to use the range, but you have magic so divine their locations.
If you have 4 people who can be trained for it, Artillery Pieces would be nice. 300k GP, must be towed by vehicle(such as a cart, gotta love Dragon Mag lack of specifics), 10d6 damage 15ft radius, 19-20 x2 crit, 5 MILE range increment, 2k lb, bludgeoning.

[Zakerst]

Unfortunately dragon mag is a no go due to not being avalable to everyone in the group.

I've pointed the dm to look at some of the PF stuff looks like a good find to me though that tank is really big lol.

I've got him looking for a half track for pricing so, also a great idea a bit bigger than a jeep a bit smaller than a tank, not to mention I've always wanted one IRL

Some other stuff I'll add to my list of stuff when I get home and get the chance: flower because invisible nazis are bad, tangle foot bags because neat and alchemists fire because once more fire good, master work items and sets/kits, upgrade rope to silk

Liking the ideas so far, but as they say the more the merrier, also any critiques of my list so far are welcome too