Feats that Grant Scaling Magic Items?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Item Familiar (SRD/UA) and Ancestral Relic (BoED) both grant very valuable magic items that increase in power as you gain levels (the latter of which can be boosted by sacrificing things that can't be given via WBL, such as evil altars built into an evil temple, or even the temple itself), and the feats in Weapons of Legacy grant legacy items that ostensibly gain in power as you level (though the penalties are so awful that they aren't worth bothering with unless you build your own or houserule out the wazoo). Shape Soulmeld and the chakra binding feats grant soulmelds that act as pseudo-items that gain in power if you have essentia, but otherwise are fairly static. Landlord (SBG) can be cheesed into granting a ridiculously valuable magic item if you count a building as your stronghold, enhance it as a magic item that changes shape into a wearable item, and then continue pumping up to 800,000 free gp into further enhancing it, and doubling any wealth beyond that you decide to add.

Are there any other feats that explicitly grant magic items that gain in value as you gain levels? I suppose Mercantile Background (DrMag#315) kind of counts, since you can buy low and sell high, thereby giving you more wealth to spend on magic items, and crafting feats allow you to craft magic items at all, but they require considerably more time, effort, and resources, and thus don't really count for this.

Might Leadership count for this? An intelligent magic item taken as a cohort with X levels in psion, for instance, would grow as you do, thereby vastly increasing in value, even if the actual gp value of the item doesn't change.

Anyone know of other feats that outright give you lvl * X amount of wealth in magic items?

[daremetoidareyo]

Truebond from dmg2?

[Shalist]

Vow of Poverty :P

Not quite what you asked for, but the non-epic feat Enhance Item (EHB pg 114) lets magic items scale with you. It lets you craft(/improve) items using your actual casting stat to determine DCs, rather than the bare minimum; i.e. a 24 intelligence fireball wand's DC would be (10 + 3 + 7) 20 instead of (10 + 3 + 1) 14.

It applies to a single item creation feat, but if you use it on (for instance) an Eberron cost reducer feat, it'd apply to everything you craft.

[heavyfuel]

If you're dipping Fighter for the Bonus Feats on a build, you might as well dip OA Samurai and effectively trade your lv 1 Bonus feat for the Ancestral Daisho, two magic weapons that work very similarly to the "Ancestral Relic" feat.

Doing this also entails good Will saves, 2 extra skill points per level from a better skill list at the cost of losing heavy armor proficiency, somewhat limited feat selection, and having to be Lawful

[Nifft]

Shape Soulmeld (Incarnate Weapon), which scales if you have sufficient Essentia to power it up.

(In other words: batteries not included.)

[MaxiDuRaritry]

A thought occurs:

Since Item Familiar brings a magic item to sapience, does it seem feasible that you could also take Leadership to make it your cohort and thus give it class levels?

[iTreeby]

Landlord gets you a castle budget that can be mobile /sortof an item

[Bronk]

I don't think weapons of legacy count, since the feats don't grant them, just empower one that you already got somehow.


A thought occurs:

Since Item Familiar brings a magic item to sapience, does it seem feasible that you could also take Leadership to make it your cohort and thus give it class levels?

I don't think they count as creatures... but maybe if you turned it into a construct somehow first?

For an additional feat: Construct Familiar? (From Dragon 299, I think...) Constructs usually count as magic items...

[JyP]

the feats in Weapons of Legacy grant legacy items that ostensibly gain in power as you level (though the penalties are so awful that they aren't worth bothering with unless you build your own or houserule out the wazoo).
more exactly, doing the right ritual - which cost some XPs and gold - unlock legacy item powers, such powers which would cost waayyy more as typical magical items. There's also some penalties which put the fear on players, and finally you gain a feat, which just says "I have done this ritual".

(As about penalties, my point of view would be that paying the ritual cost + magic items to overcome penalties would still cost less WBL than paying all powers as a typical magical item).

BTW, there's a problem when having a no cost signature magical item can be done :
- simply through one feat like Ancestral Relic (so one feat tax)
- through Legacy Items with more shenanigans, which ends with taking more magic items slots to overcome penalties (so WBL + slots tax)
- through a Prestige Class with no other class features. (class features tax)
- by spending some WBL through DMG2 advices. (typical WBL tax)

it is as if D&D 3.5 doesn't know how to handle the subject with such various tax being possible :smallbiggrin:

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I don't think they count as creatures... but maybe if you turned it into a construct somehow first?Intelligent items have Wis and Cha scores, which automatically categorize them as creatures. Specifically, constructs.

According to the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/intelligentItems.htm):


Intelligent items can actually be considered creatures because they have Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. Treat them as constructs.

[Crake]

I think people often mistake how weapons of legacy work. The feats are gained for free if you perform the legacy rituals. You can pick them up yourself to avoid the cost of the legacy ritual if you wish, but you don't HAVE to.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I think people often mistake how weapons of legacy work. The feats are gained for free if you perform the legacy rituals. You can pick them up yourself to avoid the cost of the legacy ritual if you wish, but you don't HAVE to.So free fodder for the Dark Chaos Feat Shuffle, then?

[Crake]

So free fodder for the Dark Chaos Feat Shuffle, then?

Considering the rituals usually cost many thousands of gold, I would hardly call it "free".

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Considering the rituals usually cost many thousands of gold, I would hardly call it "free".Nah, you're paying all that for the legacy item. The feats come with it like a bunch of Happy Meal toys.

[zergling.exe]

I think people often mistake how weapons of legacy work. The feats are gained for free if you perform the legacy rituals. You can pick them up yourself to avoid the cost of the legacy ritual if you wish, but you don't HAVE to.

Actually, you CAN'T take the feat separately, since you have to perform the ritual to qualify for it, and performing the ritual grants you the feat:

Prerequisites: Character level 5th, learn and perform the associated least legacy ritual of the chosen item.
I suppose technically that might allow you to take it after you retrain the feat away?


Nah, you're paying all that for the legacy item. The feats come with it like a bunch of Happy Meal toys.

Not true, if you get rid of the feat, you lose access to the powers it granted. You pay for the feat to use the abilities.

[Bronk]

Intelligent items have Wis and Cha scores, which automatically categorize them as creatures. Specifically, constructs.

According to the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/intelligentItems.htm):

Treated as constructs, but not actually constructs, because it's not like they have hit dice, level, CR, or anything. Since level is a nonability for them, and levels are important for qualifying as a cohort for the leadership feat, it's an issue. But, since they're treated as constructs, there must be some shenanigan somewhere to give them a level.

Maybe, since they can force ego checks, we can state that they aren't immune to mind-effecting like a normal construct is, give them a couple of levels by hiring a bard to use inspire greatness on it, take it as a cohort that way, and have the bard keep singing until it gains a level of its own?

Maybe awakening it with the Awaken Construct spell? You'd probably have to make the hilt humanoid shaped though, which could be pretty weird. At least it doesn't have to be any particular size.

[haplot]

Would the feat 'True Believer' also count?

If you are a religious character you can craft improved magic items without paying extra as long as its for a believer of that religion and its of that god's remit

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The soulbound weapon ACF (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) isn't actually a feat, but it requires you to give up a feat to take...

[Falontani]

An intelligent magical item is treated as a construct. Which means it's a creature. Every creature living, undead, and construct have at least one hit dice, so our item gains a hit dice due to intelligence. This means that they gain a feat since they have intelligence and a hit dice!
You can calculate the cr of a creature with all that it has, so it has a theoretical cr.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

It's in the same vein as other ideas here, but I guess there's always Undead Leadership. You could turn your undead lieutenant into a haunt using haunt shift and have it possess a weapon, then watch as it gains in power as you (and therefore it) gain levels. Bonus points if it's an intelligent undead that retains its class levels, such as a necropolitan fiend of possession with either Otherworldly or Human Heritage to qualify for both template and PrC. Then haunt shift wouldn't even be needed.

[Thurbane]

if you get a familiar (or similar) that qualifies, and can swap out its feats (Dark Chaos Shuffle, Psychic Reformation etc.) for Vow of Poverty, that's almost like having a scaling magic item...

[Nifft]

if you get a familiar (or similar) that qualifies, and can swap out its feats (Dark Chaos Shuffle, Psychic Reformation etc.) for Vow of Poverty, that's almost like having a scaling magic item...

The XP damage you'll suffer certainly scales with your level.

[Saintheart]

It's not a feat as such, but there is the ACF Imbued Staff out of Dragon #338: basically you replace your familiar with a staff that, as the levels go by, adds various little doodads like clairvoyance, some cantrips, delivering touch spells through the staff, enhancement bonuses to attack and damage, a free bane/thundering/flaming/defending weapon quality and so on. There's a few feats that allow you to do other stuff with it. Nice and flavourful if not hugely powerful, and for bonus points its benefits appear to stack with Item Familiar if you wanted to apply that feat to it after you imbue the staff.