magic items for an army

[plinths]

Suppose you're the commander of an army, and preparing for a battle.

The enemy force is larger, and has some unknown combination of:
- armored pikemen
- Roman-style infantry with javelins, short swords, and shields
- cavalry with lances and swords
- longbowmen
- crossbowmen with shields

You can spend your money on extra soldiers (600 gp each, level 2 fighters), extra cavalry (1200 gp each), or you can buy magic items.

What magic items would you buy?

[The Viscount]

Is the opposing army composed of warriors with less than 4HD? If so, scrolls of Cloudkill.
A scroll of it lasts 9 minutes, spreading 10 feet per round, stretching 20 feet high and 20 feet wide, so covers a great deal of land. A few castings of this will kill a very large mass of warriors. Couple with fog cloud from a wand to conceal its approach or a solid fog from a wand to conceal approach (since it moves in the same dimensions) and slow their movement so they have trouble escaping.

[CharonsHelper]

Easiest way to defeat any (sentient) army in 3 easy steps:

Step 1: Cast Clarion Call

Step 2: Cast Glibness

Step 3: Scream at the army "The soldier on your left is really an evil doppelganger who is planning to kill you in a couple of minutes and the only way to save your own life is to kill him right now!"

Caution: Make sure that your own army isn't affected.

[plinths]

I was kind of looking for cheaper, lower-powered things that would be given to lots of people in the army.

[BaronDoctor]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#screamingBolt for all your crossbowmen? Along with its counterpart: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#sleepArrow for your archers?

[Vizzerdrix]

An effigy propperly templated seige crab. Give it some adamantine armor. Archers hate DR.

Barring that, id get a bunch of tree tokens, a few folding boats, and shapesand. The goal would be to deny the enemy as many situations that give them the advantage by cutting off open space. The boats make decent mini forts, and if you cant find a way to control an area with shapesand yer not trying hard enough. Now you can hide in your ship/forts, randomly turn the ground into caltrops or spiked walls at need, and drop trees on your enemies.

And at 600 gp per troop you better be the one picking the feats and gear.

EDIT- Id also be passing around a few azu-gund. Recycling any dead back into service. At 2 zombies per person, you can keep your numbers up and get better troops as time goes.

[flappeercraft]

Use hit and run tactics, use the fighters mounted in light warhorses, equip them with longbows or composite longbows with the long reach MW property (Dr Mg 358) for extra range and if you have access to A&EG have them equipped with gnome crossbow sights. That gives them effective reach of 390ft with no penalty which will give you a huge advantage over the enemy. That is without magic, if you do want to use magic use the distance property on the longbows which would increase your effective range without penalty to 780ft which would likely obliterate enemy forces before they even have a chance to touch your army.

[danielxcutter]

This (http://www.realmshelps.net/magic/armor/Paired) could be handy if you want to use the tactic of putting the shieldbearers in the front. If I read this correctly, you could easily get an enhancement bonus in the double digits with enough people.

[stanprollyright]

Give them all vials of Alchemist's Fire. If enough guys all throw at the same place it will go BOOM.

Horn of Fog for unit commanders to cover retreats and block archers. Especially good with guerrilla/skirmish tactics.

A wand of Entangle. You can cast it 400ft away and it lasts for a minute. With a 40ft radius that's roughly 5000 sq ft of difficult terrain per cast. The DC will only be 11, but it requires a save every round for enemies trying to move through it.

[A Tad Insane]

You know, soldiers armed with a wand of magic would basically be the arcane equivalent of musketmen.
Super low optimization, and it's the dreaded blasting, but it would be devastating to a non-magic army (although that's most magic, in general)

[danielxcutter]

You know, soldiers armed with a wand of magic would basically be the arcane equivalent of musketmen.
Super low optimization, and it's the dreaded blasting, but it would be devastating to a non-magic army (although that's most magic, in general)

I thought that's what Warmages are for fluff-wise. Unless the wand-wielders are infantry and Warmages are the artillery. Yeah... they're basically one-being portable turret systems.

Btw, while Warmages might be weak as adventurers, as elite soldiers they would be very useful. After all, the needs of an adventurer is often very different from that of an army.

[stanprollyright]

You know, soldiers armed with a wand of magic would basically be the arcane equivalent of musketmen.
Super low optimization, and it's the dreaded blasting, but it would be devastating to a non-magic army (although that's most magic, in general)

Except for the accuracy

[danielxcutter]

Except for the accuracy

Why? Don't get it.

[stanprollyright]

Why? Don't get it.

Muskets are notoriously inaccurate. Magic Missile autohits.

[danielxcutter]

Muskets are notoriously inaccurate. Magic Missile autohits.

Oh, I get it now!

[BaronDoctor]

If you have or can find a bard, an Alphorn (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=htvpmg6r9jvaai6gpijfqpe0t6&topic=8334.msg290052#msg290052) allows them to be heard for 1d10 miles.

Pipes of the Sewers gets you access to a rat swarm, which is rather notoriously difficult for a vanilla army to kill.

The classic Tanglefoot Bag "Goo Grenade" wouldn't be a bad trick (deployable by Fighters too!). Tactically using Thunderstones as a means of cutting off an enemy unit from communications so you can kill them, particularly along with Eggshell Grenades (OA) for the full flash-bang effect.

It depends. Do you have access to a sneaky elite unit that could go attack the enemy's commander or sabotage the enemy's resources? Hat of Disguise would let a skilled face-type acquire the enemy's battle plans (which would be infinitely useful I'd imagine). Giving said saboteur a Hand of the Mage would let them do some opportunistic pilfering without having to be seen taking the things. Aboleth Mucus could get you an assassination tool.

Banner of Law (Heroes of Battle) or similarly aligned item (wide area protection from Opposed Alignment effect).

Anything from here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?148101-3-x-Shax-s-Indispensible-Haversack-(Equipment-Handbook)) would probably do you some good.

[Crake]

If you have or can find a bard, an Alphorn (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=htvpmg6r9jvaai6gpijfqpe0t6&topic=8334.msg290052#msg290052) allows them to be heard for 1d10 miles.

Pipes of the Sewers gets you access to a rat swarm, which is rather notoriously difficult for a vanilla army to kill.

The classic Tanglefoot Bag "Goo Grenade" wouldn't be a bad trick (deployable by Fighters too!). Tactically using Thunderstones as a means of cutting off an enemy unit from communications so you can kill them, particularly along with Eggshell Grenades (OA) for the full flash-bang effect.

It depends. Do you have access to a sneaky elite unit that could go attack the enemy's commander or sabotage the enemy's resources? Hat of Disguise would let a skilled face-type acquire the enemy's battle plans (which would be infinitely useful I'd imagine). Giving said saboteur a Hand of the Mage would let them do some opportunistic pilfering without having to be seen taking the things. Aboleth Mucus could get you an assassination tool.

Banner of Law (Heroes of Battle) or similarly aligned item (wide area protection from Opposed Alignment effect).

Anything from here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?148101-3-x-Shax-s-Indispensible-Haversack-(Equipment-Handbook)) would probably do you some good.

I'd second the use of a bard. Get him a medallion of courage, make sure he has inspirational boost as one of his spells, and give him song the the heart as his 3rd level feat. That way he will be giving all allies +4 to hit and damage, which will put your army miles ahead of the enemy's in terms of efficiency, that's 20% more accuracy and the equivilent of +8 to strength in terms of damage. For extra awesome, get yourself a dragonfire inspiration bard to play alongside him, for an additional 4d6 damage ontop, suddenly your regular troops are swinging their longswords and dealing damage like they were giants.

[danielxcutter]

I'd second the use of a bard. Get him a medallion of courage, make sure he has inspirational boost as one of his spells, and give him song the the heart as his 3rd level feat. That way he will be giving all allies +4 to hit and damage, which will put your army miles ahead of the enemy's in terms of efficiency, that's 20% more accuracy and the equivilent of +8 to strength in terms of damage. For extra awesome, get yourself a dragonfire inspiration bard to play alongside him, for an additional 4d6 damage ontop, suddenly your regular troops are swinging their longswords and dealing damage like they were giants.

Bards utterly trump any and all classes when it comes to buffing entire armies. Sure, Wizards might be able to give the entire party Persisted Greater Mage Armors given enough time and resources, but Bards can buff literally every single ally who can hear you and can get a morale bonus. Which can extend to entire armies with only core material.

[stanprollyright]

Yeah, how much would it cost to hire a Bard?

[Sliver]

I'd second the use of a bard. Get him a medallion of courage, make sure he has inspirational boost as one of his spells, and give him song the the heart as his 3rd level feat. That way he will be giving all allies +4 to hit and damage, which will put your army miles ahead of the enemy's in terms of efficiency, that's 20% more accuracy and the equivilent of +8 to strength in terms of damage. For extra awesome, get yourself a dragonfire inspiration bard to play alongside him, for an additional 4d6 damage ontop, suddenly your regular troops are swinging their longswords and dealing damage like they were giants.

And if you score a 6th level bard, add words of creation... :smallsmile:

The price is free, because the bard will become legendary!

[Crake]

And if you score a 6th level bard, add words of creation... :smallsmile:

The price is free, because the bard will become legendary!

Words of creation, being an exalted feat, you better have a damn convincing reason or incredibly righteous cause for them to participate in the mass slaughter that is a battlefield. If this is just a war between nations for selfish reasons, then I can't imagine a words of creation bard would want to help either side, which is why I personally left it out of the equation.

[J-H]

Necklaces of Fireballs. Every 2700gp (5 soldiers you forgo hiring) gets you a 6d6 fireball, a pair of 4d6s, and a couple of 2d6s. Assuming average HP and 3-4hd soldiers, the 6d6 will kill most enemies in its yuuuuge blast radius, and the 4d6s will leave them badly wounded.

[Bucky]

If you expect longbowmen, you should spring for some wands of wind wall to screen your cavalry, especially if some of your riders are rangers rather than fighters.

[Blackhawk748]

Animated Use Activated Ballista of Fireball? Say hello to a magical cannon.

[stanprollyright]

Animated Use Activated Ballista of Fireball? Say hello to a magical cannon.

At that point just hire a wizard.