Offense Magical Items

[alex1g]

I need a list of offense magical items for my bosses. I can't find items that act as damaging spheres to keep the players back from the boss. So basically a magical item of Resilient Sphere that does damage when someone passes through it. Or anything to keep the guys away from my boss.

[Karl Aegis]

A bunch of chairs.

[Yuki Akuma]

You could do Traps of Resilient Sphere. Or Traps of Wall of Force, or something. Give him an amulet with an Arcane Mark on it and have the traps programmed to not activated if a person bearing that Mark steps on them.

If you do this, remember to add the XP reward for overcoming the traps to the XP reward for the rest of the encounter.

[denthor]

Would be helpful to know what we are up against.

When I saw this thread I thought you wanted a magic item that hurled insults at the character. You know like this


I got in to an accident today

When the other driver got out of his truck he turned out to be a dwarf.

He said he wasn't happy.

I replied well which one are you.

that is when the fight started.

Is that offense enough buddy

[alex1g]

Don't wanna do traps that that's a cheap way to hinder the players.

[Yuki Akuma]

Don't wanna do traps that that's a cheap way to hinder the players.

That appears to be what you're trying to do.

[alex1g]

So basically I want something mainly for my wiz/sors.

[Yuki Akuma]

Could you maybe explain how you envision the encounter working and what you intend to achieve with it?

[alex1g]

Well the tanks come at the wiz/sors and need to keep the bastard away from him and have him take damage when he tries getting close to him.

[ATHATH]

Maybe you should have the Wizard take levels in the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil PrC?

[Gildedragon]

Hammerspheres
Glyphs of Warding / Glyph Seals
Delicate Disk landmines

[alex1g]

Yeah but I would like a list or a variety of magical items that I can use in the future. Sevenfold Veil is useful once in my campaign. I can't use it every time they meet a wiz/sor boss.

[Karl Aegis]

It sounds like a bunch of chairs would work. Why isn't the tank just shooting you with its main battery?

[Gildedragon]

Jumping caltrops
Riverine Marbles

[denthor]

When attempting to get wizards and spell casters in general from wiping the field ring of spell storing does the trick.

Start with them so many people who play wizards think they are capable of casting any spell in their book. not true.

Make them take a sheet of paper and write down the spells they are going to have that day. that is the list they can pick from during battle/random encounters and Oh I am scared I will cast this. duration is key. I can not have a shield spell for longer than my minutes per level. A mage armor is hours per level. keep track of time.

If they do not pick see invisible they can not cast see invisible for that day. until they write it down and delete another spell they thought they wanted.

My 9th level wizard with a 20 intelligence gets:

5 spells+2 for intelligence 1st level

4 spells + 1 for intelligence 2nd level

3 spells + 1 for intelligence 3rd level

2 spells + 1 for intelligence 4th level

1 spell +1 for intelligence 5th level

If we get hit with a confusion spell I make my save and one of my 4 pre picked and written down spells is not dispel magic. I can not do anything about the fighter that missed their save and is out of action for a minimum of 7 rounds only acting normally for 29% of the time due to random dice rolls.

For the Soc it is even worse. they cast a great number per day but a limited selection.

If I know that they have fireball for example I cast a second level spell protection from elements chose fire.

he cast the mighty fireball spell with me point blank in the center. roll his damage 38 points. the second level spell I make my save 38/2 equals 19 spell absorbs 20 points per round. I take no damage.

I miss my save 38-20=18 I take it all.

got a different element cold lighting no your a socorrer you can only cast the same spell over and over again with a limited set of offensive or defensive magics. You just need to have the spell pre picked and make sure they do not cheat if in doubt ask to see there list have them mark off each spell every time keep track of time.


fireball means they have to wait until top of the round to act

going invisible means they have to have that spell prep before battle.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Can they reach him if he's flying? Fly is 3rd level, Overland Flight is 4th level, and there are plenty of items that can accomplish that.

Put him on a raised platform that has stairs at the back (so they have to move three times as far), maybe even with a locked gate blocking the path to reach him.

Give him an item that casts Briar Web (SC).

Make him able to cast Black Tentacles or Freezing Fog (SC) or any number of other area-effect crowd controls.

Give him some low-CR minions to get in the PCs' way and distract them. A Gnome Fighter 1 with Dodge, Titan Fighting, a tower shield, and full plate has an AC 24, or 28 against their Dodge target. Give them a bunch of tanglefoot bags and alchemical fire so they're useful, they can wear a spiked gauntlet or have armor spikes to still threaten adjacent squares.

Put him in a room that's filled with knee-deep, murky water that's impossible to see through. The floor under the water is uneven and strewn with debris, so it's all difficult terrain. At some spots in the room there are deep holes that anyone running over will fall into. The murk floats on the surface so the water in the hole is clear, but dark. Put a Monstrous Crab (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a) in each of the holes, they'll try to grab anyone that falls in and pull them deeper to eat them.

Edit: Give him Fell Frighten Spell (LM) and have him buff himself with Fell Frighten Death Armor (SC), Fell Frighten Fire Shield (cold), and Fell Frighten Fire Shield (hot). Anyone who hits him in melee automatically takes untyped magic damage (death armor), cold damage, and fire damage, and anyone damaged by one of those effects is automatically Shaken > Frightened > Panicked for ten rounds.

Edit2: A magic item that automatically activates Fell Frighten Death Armor, Fell Frighten Fire Shield (cold), and Fell Frighten Fire Shield (hot) (all caster level 11) the first time you're attacked, 1/day, would cost 70,400 gp.

[daremetoidareyo]

Why doesn't your boss have mooks?

[alex1g]

Jesshhh, guess not many ppl know of any good Offense Magical Items then. Gildedragon and ATHATH were the only ones that were close to answering my question. Tnx guys. I'll research it myself.

[Fizban]

Bead of Force: DMG standard item, deals 5d6 damage and encases the target in a Resilient Sphere on a failed reflex save. It's an expensive consumable that's not actually very good, but it does exactly what you've described.

The problem, is that we don't actually know how your fights are going, or how optimized you need to be. The easiest solution is always to find a spell that does what you want, because giving your boss a new spell is easier than giving them an item, and any spell can be made into an item of some sort anyway. An "offensive item" doesn't protect your boss guys in any way, since they have to use it offensively, on their turn. And it's a bit weird that you need offensive magical items for spellcasters who can cast offensive spells, which by definition should always be better than what they'd get from items, which is why people gave you lists of offensive spells. If you want to keep your bosses alive longer they need to have constant, contingent, or reactive defenses. The Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil suggestion is actually the most relevant, since a boss with that class has a bunch of reactive defenses for keeping enemies away.

Contingency: a Sor/Wiz spell that stores a spell and casts it automatically when something happens. This is literally the standard for keeping boss casters from being surprised or ganged up on.

Antilife Shell: a Cleric/Druid spell that stops living creatures from approaching, the perfect spell for keeping the fighter from getting close. You could design a magic item that produces this effect, or monkey it up into a contingency, or both.

Forbiddence: a Cleric spell that causes damage when people enter it, which can be shaped so that every time the PCs move towards the boss, he steps back and they have to pass through a new stripe and take even more damage. It's permanent, so you can hire someone to cast it for you once.

Forcewave: a Sor/Wiz spell from Spell Compendium that is automatically Quickened and can push people a short distance away from you. Cast it yourself or put it in a magic item.

Bracers of Repulsion: this item from Magic Item Compendium is like a weaker version of Forcewave 3/day.

Shadow Cloak: this item from Drow of the Underdark lets you teleport 10' in response to being attacked for an absurdly low cost, but as a magic item your PCs can loot it once they beat the boss and now they have it.

[Gildedragon]

Refusal prevents spellcasters from getting close.

[denthor]

Well the tanks come at the wiz/sors and need to keep the bastard away from him and have him take damage when he tries getting close to him.

Wall of fire will do this cast it 15 feet away from you fill the corridor. The fighters take damage walking thru take damage 5 feet from it and 10 feet from it. you choose which direction the damage radiates.

[Uncle Pine]

Indestructible bombing flying carpet. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=10294124&postcount=5)
Blinking, blurring, greater blurring or displacement armors (SC).
Potions, tattoos (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20031225a), wands or any other item of fire shield (w/ sanctum spell applied on it if you're using a potion) or similar spells.
Retaliation armor (SC).
Bracers of the blast barrier (SC).
Bracers of repulsion (SC).
Bracers of retaliation (SC).
Cloak of the salamander, normal or greater (SC).
Cloak of thorns (SC).
Fiery tunic (SC).

Basically, crack open your Spell Compendium and just look at any page: there's lot of items like the ones your looking for in there.
And for the record, what you're asking are defensive magic items that happen to deal damage. Offensive magic items are staves of cone of cold, wands of magic missile or bracers with several miniaturized ice assassins of great wyrm red dragons sovereign glued on them that activate their breath weapons on command.

[Inevitability]

Jesshhh, guess not many ppl know of any good Offense Magical Items then. Gildedragon and ATHATH were the only ones that were close to answering my question. Tnx guys. I'll research it myself.

Ah, the good old 'I did not like your answers so have some passive-aggressiveness'. Never gets old.

[alex1g]

Ah, the good old 'I did not like your answers so have some passive-aggressiveness'. Never gets old.

Ah yes and the amateur psychologist remarks also are amazing at showing off how insightful they are. That's sarcasm Mr. Freud. I hope it makes you feel good showing off your amazing talents.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Ah, the good old 'I did not like your answers so have some passive-aggressiveness'. Never gets old.
And it was such a well-defined opening question with such an insightful exposé on encounter building, too!

[Telonius]

I think that part of the disconnect is that the thread title is asking for offensive magical items, but the first post is talking about defensive/battlefield control items. Which are you looking for - items that control where the players are (or can go), items that give you additional ways of avoiding damage, or items that deal damage or debuff?

[ShurikVch]

How about the Cloudkill/Acid Fog/Incendiary Cloud?

[alex1g]

I've gotten some good answers guys. I appreciate the help. And yes, Defensive Magical Items should have been the title.

[Karl Aegis]

I'm telling ya, a bunch of chairs is the perfect thing for this.