Useful magic item catalogue for Good-aligned churchs at war with Evil

[Jowgen]

You have established an industrial magic item crafting sweatshop (www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?486733-A-bit-of-industrial-revolution-type-crafting-optimization) and decide that the best thing to do with it is to charitably equip the Good-aligned churches of the world with useful magic items to help them in their war against all Evil.

You want to put together a short catalogue of magic items you can supply to said Good churches. Things you know will be "hot sellers". What do you put in the catalogue, and for giggles, which magic item do you think deserves to be on the cover?

My personal off-the bat entries:

Ring of Protection from Evil (Custom, printed variants exists). Never be possessed or mentally enslaved by Demons, plus extra. A total steal and absolute staple for any up-coming Paladin

Dawnstar relic(MIC). A Good weapon for anyone, a great and affordable Brilliant Energy weapon por true believers and high-level melee clerics of Pelor; not to mention a potent last-ditch resort to take down something truly massive. Evil shall truly fear you.

Soulfire Armor(BoED). Comprehensive protection against some of the most nasty effects Evil foes may throw at you. THE high end choice for anyone going against the vile forces of death/undeath.

Pendant of Redemption(CM). For those Paladins who'd rather talk and/or redeem their foes, this is a total must have. Lead them into salvation and deliver them from the Evil.

[BowStreetRunner]

Nightsticks, Monk's Belts, Bracers of Armor

[Telonius]

Phylactery of Faithfulness. A must-have for the discerning Paladin. Sovereign Glue mounting option available.

Psychoactive Skin of the Troll. Take care of all your downtime healing needs!

Wand of Lesser Vigor. A quick pick-me-up to save some spell slots.

Circlet of Persuasion. Sweet-talk those undead into leaving you alone!

Karma Prayer Bead. (Other beads discontinued due to lack of demand).

[Gildedragon]

True Holy Symbols
Greater Holy Symbols
Reliquary Holy Symbols

Purple mournlode holy symbols

Holy Weapons
Merciful Weapons
Riverine weapons (never bother with ghost touch again)
Serrenwood elvencraft bows and xbows
Frystaline weapons

Phylacteries of Faithfulness

[Elder_Basilisk]

You probably want to define what kind of people you expect these temples to be able to field and what roles you want them to fill. It's one thing if you think that the temples are fielding adventuring parties of 10th level paladins and clerics. It's entirely another if you think that most of the good aligned churches are probably in small towns and villages like Drellin's Ferry from Red Hand of Doom where the town's best fighter is probably Sorana Anitah (Hum Ftr 5), and Brother Derny (Clr 5) is the highest level divine caster and the most likely battle scenario is a raid by a warband of 50 goblins or hobgoblins backed up by a cleric or something in response to which the town will call out a militia of 20 or so warriors of level 1-4, plus 50-100 commoners with whatever they have on hand.

A holy weapon is great but if you're equipping Drellin's Ferry, you'd probably be better off spending that 18,000+gp on scrolls of recitation etc.

My list would probably focus on consumables and would include:
Scroll of banishment. Usable by level 6+ clerics with reasonable reliability and the SR roll and save DC boosting abilities inherent in the spell will let them use it to have a chance to get rid of evil outsiders who would otherwise be a long way above their pay grade--especially if you pack a list of standard anathema with the scroll. (A vial of holy water will work on most things you want to banish, as is an ornate holy symbol of your good deity, a sunrod might be good for shadow demons. Cold iron dagger for demons and silver for devils. An elixir of truth for demons and devils who trade in deception like succubi and Glabrezu, a feather from an angel and a fingerbone from a saint, etc). Pretty soon the odds are actually good.

Scroll of recitation. A low level game-changer--doubly so if the allies are all the caster's faith.

Scroll of mass aid. For a posse of low level characters, the temp hp are a big deal.

Scroll of mass align weapon. If your militia needs to deal with a demon, this is what you need.

Scroll of mass resist energy, clvl 7. This will give them a fighting chance against a dragon or creature with energy area attacks. It will probably have to take down the militia one by one with physical attacks which gives them a chance to get enough 17s, 18s, and 20s to take it down.

Scroll of invisibilty purge (or see invisibility+glitterdust if you have a bard or wizard in the temple)

Wand of cure light wounds (less efficient than lesser vigor but more flexible. For the village with a 3rd level cleric and a couple 2nd level warriors, it's actually useful in-combat healing and it is also an emergency weapon against incorporeal undead).

Scroll of dispel evil. If you need to get rid of an evil caster's domination or something similar, you don't want to be counting on rolling well on the dispel magic scroll.

Scroll of haste and mass curse of impending blades. Excellent buff and debuff if the temple has a bard or a wizard nearby.

Scroll of ice storm. The "I win" button for when a band of 20 goblins decides to rush the town gate.

For permanent items

Masterwork cold iron weapons, silver arrows/crossbow bolts.
regular leather armor (no ACP=no proficiency required), chain shirts, scale armor (especially in pathfinder), and banded mail.

Scout's boots. Boots of speed are better but more expensive. Most battles will be small skirmishes and probably only one per day so the extra rounds would be wasted. Also, especially with low level characters, the ability to move and attack twice will often be better than the ability to make an extra attack on a full attack action.

Cloak of elemental resistance. What's better, 5% extra chance to make a save or the ability to resist 10 points of elemental damage. The resistance probably lets your low level warriors come through the first fireball largely unscathed. Hopefully, they can make that round count.

Lesser fiendslayer weapon crystal. Defeat DR/good on the cheap.

Lesser truedeath weapon crystal. Ghost touch on the cheap and extra damage vs undead.

Lesser ironward diamond. Did you want that 5th level fighter to be able to take on 30 goblins and come out on top. This will help a lot.

Least clasps of energy protection.

[Honest Tiefling]

I feel as if there should be an item to stop buildings from catching on fire. Lighting orphanages on fire is like a rite of passage for evil, something to do as kids that you grow out of. Still a bit of a problem for those orphans.

Circlets of Persuasion are a given. How can the good churches complain about you using them to increase prices when they are using them to unite the CG and LG churches of good? Or trying to stop the more crusading types from running in? Or convincing neutral parties to help out? Just have a policy of not asking questions when the church of Holy Skillmonkeys drops by and buys a bunch.

[Jowgen]

Alright, some good stuff here :smallsmile:


Nightsticks, Monk's Belts, Bracers of Armor

Nightsticks: for that little extra turning power in your fight against the Undead. The power of Pelor compells you!

Monk's Belt: For Monks who want to monk harder, and general wise-guys who want to Monk a little but don't feel like actually being a Monk is a good idea. Stay safe and punch hard.

Bracers of armor might get a little side-bar, they're way too standard and not remotely holy enough.


Phylactery of Faithfulness. A must-have for the discerning Paladin. Sovereign Glue mounting option available.

Psychoactive Skin of the Troll. Take care of all your downtime healing needs!

Wand of Lesser Vigor. A quick pick-me-up to save some spell slots.

Circlet of Persuasion. Sweet-talk those undead into leaving you alone!

Karma Prayer Bead. (Other beads discontinued due to lack of demand).

Yes to the Phylactery, Circlet and Prayer bead. The Skin doesn't provide enough healing in my book for its price. The Wand, as a consumable item, doesn't really appeal to me;

But it did make me remember the classic Healing Belt (MIC): respectable burst of healing, every day, forever.


True Holy Symbols
Greater Holy Symbols
Reliquary Holy Symbols
Purple mournlode holy symbols

Holy Weapons
Merciful Weapons
Riverine weapons (never bother with ghost touch again)
Serrenwood elvencraft bows and xbows
Frystaline weapons

True Holy Symbols aren't actually magic items, but that actually gives me an idea. Why not make "Special" (CD, Masterwork), True (deity home plane) Reliquiary (piece of high priest) Greater Holy Symbols out of Flametouched iron (ECS)?

This grants +1 or +2 CL for certain spells depending on deity, +2 on Turning Checks, up to +3 extra Turning Checks, the Empower Turning feat and +1 Cleric Level for turning. Only Greater and Reliquary are actually enchantments, and stacking them per MIC only costs 500 gp. I wish Mournlode could be added as well, but considering that Flametouched adds an actual cleric level (which some in twice), I think it wins out. With this baby, a 1st level cleric with a +3 Cha bonus as a 50/50 chance of succesfully turning a 6 HD undead. It just needs a snappy name.

I don't think Holy and Frystaline aren't worth it, considering that making a weapon "Sanctified" (BoED) overcomes DR Good without problem. If anything, "Blessed" (BoED) might be a better option, with its crit auto-confirm. Merciful doesn't wow me either, but it might get a side-bar. Serrenwood is hard to come by and there are more straight-forward options for getting ghosttouch (e.g. Truedeath crystals, Gauntlets of Ghostfighting).

Riverine is something I'd love to include, the the fluff on how its crafted might be trouble.


You probably want to define what kind of people you expect these temples to be able to field and what roles you want them to fill.

The catalogue aims to cater to the righteous of all levels, so it aims to include both low-end (e.g. Healing belt) and High-end (e.g. Soulfire) options.


My list would probably focus on consumables

We have a difference of philosphy there. I know its often more practical to go for consumables, but they just don't agree with me. Items of the catalogue are for life, or something like that.


Masterwork cold iron weapons, silver arrows/crossbow bolts.
regular leather armor (no ACP=no proficiency required), chain shirts, scale armor (especially in pathfinder), and banded mail.

Scout's boots. Boots of speed are better but more expensive. Most battles will be small skirmishes and probably only one per day so the extra rounds would be wasted. Also, especially with low level characters, the ability to move and attack twice will often be better than the ability to make an extra attack on a full attack action.

Cloak of elemental resistance. What's better, 5% extra chance to make a save or the ability to resist 10 points of elemental damage. The resistance probably lets your low level warriors come through the first fireball largely unscathed. Hopefully, they can make that round count.

Lesser fiendslayer weapon crystal. Defeat DR/good on the cheap.

Lesser truedeath weapon crystal. Ghost touch on the cheap and extra damage vs undead.

Lesser ironward diamond. Did you want that 5th level fighter to be able to take on 30 goblins and come out on top. This will help a lot.

Considering that Cold Iron is impossible to replicate magically, it certainly deserves a spot in the "backup weapons" section. Silver on the other hand might be better served with Gauntlets of Weaponry Arcane, or Quicksilver capsules. Scout boots and Boots of Speed are certainly handy, but they don't quite fit the Good-aligned theme of the catalogue.

I see your point about the cloak, and it certainly makes sense to include as a backup for Clasps of Energy Protection. Yes to all the other crytals as well. Nothing like some modularity on one's gear. :smallsmile: