Where to look for magic items?

[noce]

Every time I browse the MIC, I have the feeling that there are better items somewhere else, but I just don't know where.

I know Drow of the Underdark, Secrets of Xen'drik and Complete Champion have items not in the MIC. Could you tell me a complete list of books containing magic items (or item properties), other than MIC?

EDIT: I also know of DMG II and its weapon surges, but they're just unbalanced and were mostly reprinted in the MIC.

[Bullet06320]

most source books, most dragon magazines, some dungeon magazines have magic items in them
Im not sure if there is a complete list of every magic item out there
mmm....maybe its time to compile one????

edit and web articles too

[noce]

most source books, most dragon magazines, some dungeon magazines have magic items in them
Im not sure if there is a complete list of every magic item out there
mmm....maybe its time to compile one????

edit and web articles too

My fault, I forgot to specify we do not use Dragon Magazine nor Dragon Compendium.
Everything else is ok.

[Kelb_Panthera]

No, seriously. Far more books have magic items in them than don't. They're freakin' everywhere. Most of what's out there got compiled in MIC but there're a few gems floating around elswhere, usually in setting specific books; the splitting enhancement being in champions of ruin, for example.

Unfortunately, there's no compilation to reference AFAIK. You'll either have to wait for someone to make it, reference one I'm unaware of, or get to book diving.

You might check a handbook for whatever class or strategem you're looking at for specific suggestions. I found out about splitting from the archery handbook.

[Fizban]

The surges were significantly changed, given the limited uses I'd rate the original DMG2 versions strong but not gamebreakingly strong. The secret is that the most powerful builds rely on multiple attacks and already have uses for their swift actions so even cheap surges don't do so much, while they're great for boosting underpowered builds.

What you've run into is basically the downside of the MiC's cheap item philosophy: they made a lot of cheap items for variety at lower levels, but that means there's squat for medium levels. There's no one book to look to for midrange stuff though, basically just gotta trawl through everything. If you look up lists of the best items they're mostly from the MiC, with the occasional crazy bit from a book here or there.

Complete Mage, Dragon Magic, and Complete Champion are probably the most item-rich that I look to if I don't have something particular in mind. I think those three were printed after MiC, which would explain why they're full of comparable items.

The DMG1 itself has a number of oft-overlooked or simply unmentioned items that are actually quite useable if you're not looking for 3 charges/day, Cloak of the Manta Ray, Boots of Speed, Rings of Blinking, Evasion, X-Ray Vision, and Telekinesis, Scarab of Protection, Rod of Absorption, Cube of Force, X of Controlling Y Elementals, Cubic Gate, most of the long duration flight items, and don't forget that a good fraction of your cash should probably be in your flat bonus ability boosters and such.

A lot of the Forgotten Realms books have magic items in them-some items have been updated and many are in desperate need of an update, but some are optimizing staples. Magic of Faerun, Shining South, Unapproachable East, Lost Empires of Faerun, Underdark, and Player's Guide to Faerun all have a good load of items but there's a few in most of them. Eberron books are similar but often have pricier items that are further locked behind dragonmark requirements. The main ECS has some weapon and armor effects you just can't find elsewhere, Magic of Eberron naturally has a bunch including some interesting Grafts, and Explorer's Handbook has the elusive Drake Helm for sorcerer spells known (and some other stuff that's not bad). Actually now that I think about it, the dragonmark focused books probably have the worst items while there's better stuff in the edges of the others.

Generally a good 2/3 to 3/4 (if not more) of printed books will have a handfull of items, a couple will be good and the rest will be trash and the you're off to the next book. Tome of Magic has the Dark Lantern and Ring of Nullification, Libris Mortis has the Ghostly arm and the Nightcaller, Sandstorm has the Gold Beetle and the Waterskin of Deluge, and so on.

There is, I suppose the Arms and Equipment Guide, but that depends on what you mean by "better." It's a 3.0 book and has plenty of stuff that's "better" as-in "broken as all heck," (hello unlimited duration Polymorph), and also plenty that is just 100% terrible. Not many of it's items were updated but it's still a source of printed stuff, just don't be surprised if you don't actually want to use any of it.

Oh, that's also not counting Web Enhancements and aritcles: a lot of those have extra magic items in them. Ghostwalk WE has an item that lets you buy Commune one question at a time (also a spell that literally teleports Paladins to where the evil is), Cityscape WE has the best version of sneak attack+poison weapon boosting and a great item for detecting hidden foes, the Clockwork Wonders article series is well-liked, and so on again.

And homebrew of course. Homebrew for years.

[Kelb_Panthera]

There is, I suppose the Arms and Equipment Guide, but that depends on what you mean by "better." It's a 3.0 book and has plenty of stuff that's "better" as-in "broken as all heck," (hello unlimited duration Polymorph), and also plenty that is just 100% terrible. Not many of it's items were updated but it's still a source of printed stuff, just don't be surprised if you don't actually want to use any of it.

Do you have a better example of the broken in A&EG? Skin of proteus in XPH also gives you constant polymorph (call it metamorphosis if you want, that's polymorph.)

I do like A&EG for non-magical gear. Lots of interesting stuff there.

[Zanos]

Do you have a better example of the broken in A&EG? Skin of proteus in XPH also gives you constant polymorph (call it metamorphosis if you want, that's polymorph.)
The Phylactery of Change is around 10k if I recall, whereas the skin of the proteus is around 80k.

The PoC is limited to once per day, but still.

[Bronk]

A year or so ago, a poster named Oryan77 compiled a giant magic item list... then deleted it all. Maybe someone has a copy somewhere?

[Fizban]

Zanos mentioned the pricing. Let's look for a few more:

Rod of Construct Control: reasonably niche, but absolute no-fail control of anything is pretty bonkers. It doesn't work on Colossi, but dragon golems and Hellfire Engines are perfectly susceptible.

Rod of Paralysis: DC 25 paralysis at will (touch range) for 22,000gp. Also some other garbage with limited charges but the infinite poison of winning stays when those are used up.

There's the original version of the Steadfast Boots, still broken at 6,000gp (MiC dropped them to 1,400 and added bonuses in exchange for. . . requiring two-handed weapons, the most powerful weapons).

There's the Sparring Dummy of the Master, I won't argue over it's power level since it depends on too many factors but I will argue that it's not the way items should work.

How about the Bow of the Solars: for a mere 100,000gp you can have DC 20 save or die on every shot. That's about the price of 50 slaying arrows, half of the usual 100 charges expected to compare with at-will, and you can likely fire five or six per round. Also printed in Book of Exalted Deeds.

Halberd of Vaulting: for only an extra 12,000 on top of the base +2 weapon you get +30 untyped on jump checks, and more importantly double damage on any charge with 10' of headroom (more if you shrink yourself). Cheaper non-exponential cost than Valorous which I already keep an eye on.

The Sword of Readiness is not a weapon most characters would use, but I'm sure someone could find plenty of ways to abuse readying a full attack action.

The Ring of Lockpicking gives Knock 3/day for only 7.7k, at a fantastic cl of 12th and with a free +5 open lock on the side if for some reason you want to bother rolling the skill.

Those are the biggest offenders, nothing else looks too crazy. As before, the rest range from useable to overpriced to garbage or niches that don't exist. The main reason I don't go there for magic items is simply because most of what I'd want is done better elsewhere. There are some interesting gimmicks but nothing I want too badly, more than a few items you have to find a way to use instead of having a purpose. I also prefer the book more for it's mundane items, though my mundane item lists are sourced from a bunch of books (even some 3rd party) because AaEG still misses plenty of stuff. I find the armors and materials inspiring if not all that useful, and the detailed table of individual clothing items is great. And of course the non-Eberron airships and some interesting notes on caravans and mercenaries.

[Clistenes]

Every time I browse the MIC, I have the feeling that there are better items somewhere else, but I just don't know where.

I know Drow of the Underdark, Secrets of Xen'drik and Complete Champion have items not in the MIC. Could you tell me a complete list of books containing magic items (or item properties), other than MIC?

EDIT: I also know of DMG II and its weapon surges, but they're just unbalanced and were mostly reprinted in the MIC.

There is a huge list of magic items here (http://chet.kindredcircle.org/). Many people hate it because of its inaccuracies, but they give you the sourcebooks where you can find all those items.

[noce]

There is a huge list of magic items here (http://chet.kindredcircle.org/). Many people hate it because of its inaccuracies, but they give you the sourcebooks where you can find all those items.
Pretty much what I was looking for, many thanks to you and to everyone else that tried to help me :)