Optimal gear for a Trickery and Travel and Knowledge Cloistered Cleric 20?

[MatrixStone93]

What armor, weapon, and inventory items are optimal for a Neutral Good Cloistered Cleric 20 of Trickery, Travel, and Knowledge? Money is no object and anything is on the table including a party member willing to build a "cool stuff maker" character.

[MultitudeMan]

The Necessary Magic Items (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) lists are always a pretty good start. Cleric is Tier 1 anyway, but always good to have your defenses covered.

[RNightstalker]

What is your cleric's role in the party? Alignment and domains are vague in this instance.

[Caylin]

If money truely is no object the answer would be 1 of everything.

[MatrixStone93]

If money truely is no object the answer would be 1 of everything.
Yeah but what is everything? What do I equip?


What is your cleric's role in the party? Alignment and domains are vague in this instance.

I'm caster number 2. Our party has a Star Elf Sorceror blaster, an Elf Druid always in animal form, me the human cleric, a lazily homebrewed human Fighter but with increased BAB and chance to hit plus muh darkness theme, and a Pixie Rogue who lockpicks and rolls persuasion now and then.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

What spells does your character typically prepare/cast? Do you have Divine Metamagic: Persistent? Do you have any prestige classes, or did you just go single-classed Cloistered Cleric?
Say you visited the locations in the back of Complete Scoundrel to get feats and other benefits for a fairly low gold piece cost. This can get you the feats Iron Will, Lucky Start, Skill Focus: Knowledge: Religion (which qualifies you for Divine Oracle), etc. without spending any feats on those. Four levels in Divine Oracle gets you another domain, Evasion, and Uncanny Dodge. Contemplative will get you one or two additional domains, Magic and Spell and Destiny are top choices.

I'll assume you have persistent Stormrage and/or Greater Visage of the Deity, Holy Star x3, Divine Power, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful on the whole party, Healing Lorecall, etc. Get a Reliquary Holy Symbol (preferably slotless for double the price) and a pile of Nightsticks. Preferably you traded Turn Undead for Rebuke Dragons, which can still power divine feats, and dip one level of Sacred Exorcist which gives you Turn Undead, so you have double the normal pool of turn/rebuke uses to power DMM: Persist.

Get a standard Strand of Prayer Beads that's had the Bead of Smiting removed. That still has the beads of Healing and Karma, DMG pricing puts that at 9,000 gp total, but the SRD pricing puts it at 29,000 gp, but if money doesn't matter then it's irrelevant. Use the Bead of Karma to get +4 caster level before casting your daily buffs. Get a Ring of Enduring Arcana, preferably combined with another ring.

Check the sidebar on DMG p282, the Multiple Similar Abilities is for an item that doesn't occupy a body slot (and is actually more expensive than normal), and Multiple Different Abilities is for items that do occupy a slot. So for example, you could get a Ring of Freedom of Movement (40k) and add the effects of a Ring of Sustenance to it (normally 2,500 gp, increased by 50% to 3,725 gp) and both effects are on a single ring. Check Table 7-33 on DMG p285, particularly the No Space Limitation which has "Multiply entire cost by 2" so you can just double the price of an item and wear it without it occupying one of your limited item slots. Some items will still physically impede other items in the same slot, you can't wear two pairs of boots, but footwear converted to a slotless item could be socks worn under your boots.

Check MIC p234, any of those effects can be applied to existing items of the appropriate slot for the same price as a standalone item of the same bonus. So instead of buying an [Item] of [Ability Score] +6, you can instead add a +6 enhancement bonus to that same ability score to another item of the appropriate slot for the same price.

Get a 6th level Pearl of Power and a standard Metamagic Rod of Extend. Every other day prepare Energy Immunity twice, and use the rod and pearl to cast it three times, each lasts 48 hours. On the days in between prepare Energy Immunity and Superior Resistance each once, use the rod to cast those and the pearl and rod to cast Energy Immunity a second time, each lasts 48 hours. You're continuously immune to all five energy types, and get a +6 resistance bonus to all your saving throws, for the cost of two 6th level spells per day and those two items. The druid can also do this.

Have copious amounts of metamagic rods, particularly lesser and standard Extend, and at least one Greater Rod of Chain Spell. If you cast Destruction with (Rod of) Chain Spell, since it deals damage on a failed save, your secondary targets don't get a reduced save DC.

Armored:
+1 Soulfire Mithral Full Plate, Restful armor crystal, every day cast (Lesser Rod of Extended) Magic Vestment on that.
+1 Animated Heavy Steel Shield, Lesser Crystal of Arrow Deflection, every day cast (Lesser Rod of Extended) Magic Vestment on that.

Not Armored:
Cast Greater Luminous Armor every day, and every day cast (Lesser Rod of Extended) Magic Vestment on that effect.
Monk's Belt, which adds your Wis bonus with an additional +1 to your AC. Combine this with any other belt item(s) you have.
Clothing or a robe enchanted as +1 armor (Magic Vestment can be cast on normal clothes), with the Soulfire armor enchantment.


This is not a complete list:
+1 Defending Eager Spellblade (Greater Dispel Magic) spiked right gauntlet, every day cast (Rod of) Extended Greater Magic Weapon on it.
+1 Defending Warning Spellblade (some other high level dispel effect) spiked left gauntlet, every day cast (Rod of) Extended Greater Magic Weapon on it.
Gemstone of Heavy Fortification, NPC spellasting of Limited Wish to embed it into your person.
Necklace of Adaptation, +6 Enhancement bonus to Constitution added, +5 Enhancement bonus to natural armor added, +6 Enhancement bonus to Wisdom added.
Circlet of Rapid Casting, +6 Enhancement bonus to Charisma added.
Ring of Freedom of Movement, +5 Deflection bonus to AC added, Ring of Sustenance effect added.
Banner of the Storm's Eye, worn on the shoulders/cloak slot.
Ring of Anticipation combined with a Ring of Enduring Arcana.
Shirt of Wraith Stalking.
Boots of Temporal Acceleration, at x10 the price for ten times the normal number of daily uses.
Belt of Battle, combined with other belt items if needed.
Raiment of the Four set (MIC), combined with other items as needed.
Elvencraft Composite Longbow, three Wand Chambers, +1 Defending/+1 Defending/+1 Defending, every day cast (Rod of) Extended Greater Magic Weapon on all three weapon portions.
Three wands of choice spells (Close Wounds, which works with Healing Lorecall, if you have UMD get Wings of Cover and maybe Command Undead or Benign Transposition or Nerveskitter) for the wand chambers.

Keep in mind that Defending stacks with all other AC bonuses, which would include other Defending bonuses. That means the two gauntlets and the elvencraft bow (which counts as a longbow and a quarterstaff) will give you +25 AC total all day, every day.

Consider using a Greater rod of Maximize to cast your three DMM: Persistent Holy Stars, so the spell turning is max result and the fire ray mode deals maximized damage. Keep one in each mode unless you want to go full death star with three fire rays per turn. If one of them runs out of spell turning just swap that one to a different mode and put another one in spell turning mode.

[MatrixStone93]

What spells does your character typically prepare/cast? Do you have Divine Metamagic: Persistent? Do you have any prestige classes, or did you just go single-classed Cloistered Cleric?
Say you visited the locations in the back of Complete Scoundrel to get feats and other benefits for a fairly low gold piece cost. This can get you the feats Iron Will, Lucky Start, Skill Focus: Knowledge: Religion (which qualifies you for Divine Oracle), etc. without spending any feats on those. Four levels in Divine Oracle gets you another domain, Evasion, and Uncanny Dodge. Contemplative will get you one or two additional domains, Magic and Spell and Destiny are top choices.

I'll assume you have persistent Stormrage and/or Greater Visage of the Deity, Holy Star x3, Divine Power, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful on the whole party, Healing Lorecall, etc. Get a Reliquary Holy Symbol (preferably slotless for double the price) and a pile of Nightsticks. Preferably you traded Turn Undead for Rebuke Dragons, which can still power divine feats, and dip one level of Sacred Exorcist which gives you Turn Undead, so you have double the normal pool of turn/rebuke uses to power DMM: Persist.

Get a standard Strand of Prayer Beads that's had the Bead of Smiting removed. That still has the beads of Healing and Karma, DMG pricing puts that at 9,000 gp total, but the SRD pricing puts it at 29,000 gp, but if money doesn't matter then it's irrelevant. Use the Bead of Karma to get +4 caster level before casting your daily buffs. Get a Ring of Enduring Arcana, preferably combined with another ring.

Check the sidebar on DMG p282, the Multiple Similar Abilities is for an item that doesn't occupy a body slot (and is actually more expensive than normal), and Multiple Different Abilities is for items that do occupy a slot. So for example, you could get a Ring of Freedom of Movement (40k) and add the effects of a Ring of Sustenance to it (normally 2,500 gp, increased by 50% to 3,725 gp) and both effects are on a single ring. Check Table 7-33 on DMG p285, particularly the No Space Limitation which has "Multiply entire cost by 2" so you can just double the price of an item and wear it without it occupying one of your limited item slots. Some items will still physically impede other items in the same slot, you can't wear two pairs of boots, but footwear converted to a slotless item could be socks worn under your boots.

Check MIC p234, any of those effects can be applied to existing items of the appropriate slot for the same price as a standalone item of the same bonus. So instead of buying an [Item] of [Ability Score] +6, you can instead add a +6 enhancement bonus to that same ability score to another item of the appropriate slot for the same price.

Get a 6th level Pearl of Power and a standard Metamagic Rod of Extend. Every other day prepare Energy Immunity twice, and use the rod and pearl to cast it three times, each lasts 48 hours. On the days in between prepare Energy Immunity and Superior Resistance each once, use the rod to cast those and the pearl and rod to cast Energy Immunity a second time, each lasts 48 hours. You're continuously immune to all five energy types, and get a +6 resistance bonus to all your saving throws, for the cost of two 6th level spells per day and those two items. The druid can also do this.

Have copious amounts of metamagic rods, particularly lesser and standard Extend, and at least one Greater Rod of Chain Spell. If you cast Destruction with (Rod of) Chain Spell, since it deals damage on a failed save, your secondary targets don't get a reduced save DC.

Armored:
+1 Soulfire Mithral Full Plate, Restful armor crystal, every day cast (Lesser Rod of Extended) Magic Vestment on that.
+1 Animated Heavy Steel Shield, Lesser Crystal of Arrow Deflection, every day cast (Lesser Rod of Extended) Magic Vestment on that.

Not Armored:
Cast Greater Luminous Armor every day, and every day cast (Lesser Rod of Extended) Magic Vestment on that effect.
Monk's Belt, which adds your Wis bonus with an additional +1 to your AC. Combine this with any other belt item(s) you have.
Clothing or a robe enchanted as +1 armor (Magic Vestment can be cast on normal clothes), with the Soulfire armor enchantment.


This is not a complete list:
+1 Defending Eager Spellblade (Greater Dispel Magic) spiked right gauntlet, every day cast (Rod of) Extended Greater Magic Weapon on it.
+1 Defending Warning Spellblade (some other high level dispel effect) spiked left gauntlet, every day cast (Rod of) Extended Greater Magic Weapon on it.
Gemstone of Heavy Fortification, NPC spellasting of Limited Wish to embed it into your person.
Necklace of Adaptation, +6 Enhancement bonus to Constitution added, +5 Enhancement bonus to natural armor added, +6 Enhancement bonus to Wisdom added.
Circlet of Rapid Casting, +6 Enhancement bonus to Charisma added.
Ring of Freedom of Movement, +5 Deflection bonus to AC added, Ring of Sustenance effect added.
Banner of the Storm's Eye, worn on the shoulders/cloak slot.
Ring of Anticipation combined with a Ring of Enduring Arcana.
Shirt of Wraith Stalking.
Boots of Temporal Acceleration, at x10 the price for ten times the normal number of daily uses.
Belt of Battle, combined with other belt items if needed.
Raiment of the Four set (MIC), combined with other items as needed.
Elvencraft Composite Longbow, three Wand Chambers, +1 Defending/+1 Defending/+1 Defending, every day cast (Rod of) Extended Greater Magic Weapon on all three weapon portions.
Three wands of choice spells (Close Wounds, which works with Healing Lorecall, if you have UMD get Wings of Cover and maybe Command Undead or Benign Transposition or Nerveskitter) for the wand chambers.

Keep in mind that Defending stacks with all other AC bonuses, which would include other Defending bonuses. That means the two gauntlets and the elvencraft bow (which counts as a longbow and a quarterstaff) will give you +25 AC total all day, every day.

Consider using a Greater rod of Maximize to cast your three DMM: Persistent Holy Stars, so the spell turning is max result and the fire ray mode deals maximized damage. Keep one in each mode unless you want to go full death star with three fire rays per turn. If one of them runs out of spell turning just swap that one to a different mode and put another one in spell turning mode.

Mother of pearl..

The wands and feats are cool, but were these extra domains always an option? Is there a Cleric Handbook: Maximum Domains/spells available at 20 edition?

[MatrixStone93]

Hold on, having the Fate domain turns my Uncanny Dodge into Improved Uncanny Dodge. Is that good for a cleric? Spell Magic and Destiny sound good but are they good for my character or just good in general?

My party is Lawful Good overall, and we're just taking "go kill monsters over there" quests as background elements and intrigue stuff prepares to start the real plot as soon as our DM figures out what that will be and what this weird world's grand conspiracy is.

Oh and on an unrelated note our Pixie Rogue is considering taking that "extra playable character" feat and filling this slot with either a party buffbot (guy who exists to cast stat boosting spells on us) of some kind or another Pixie Rogue. Is that optimal?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Hold on, having the Fate domain turns my Uncanny Dodge into Improved Uncanny Dodge. Is that good for a cleric? Spell Magic and Destiny sound good but are they good for my character or just good in general?

My party is Lawful Good overall, and we're just taking "go kill monsters over there" quests as background elements and intrigue stuff prepares to start the real plot as soon as our DM figures out what that will be and what this weird world's grand conspiracy is.

Oh and on an unrelated note our Pixie Rogue is considering taking that "extra playable character" feat and filling this slot with either a party buffbot (guy who exists to cast stat boosting spells on us) of some kind or another Pixie Rogue. Is that optimal?

You can get up to two extra domains from Contemplative, and the Oracle domain from Divine Oracle. The Destiny domain is amazing because Divine Metamagic: Persistent with its 9th level spell means you roll every d20 twice and take the best result. The Spell domain allows you to cast some choice buffs, like adding (Persistent) Shield to the unarmored Monk's Belt loadout, and putting Magic Vestment on the effect. The Magic domain is one of those that's just good in general.

For a cohort, at level 20 any stat boosting spells are going to be redundant with armor. The best thing to get would probably be a Bard with Inspire Courage maxed out, and/or someone who can crowd control well and provide utility such as a Wizard or Psion.

[Feantar]

Yeah but what is everything? What do I equip?

Craft everything as a slotless version and equip all of it.

[MatrixStone93]

Alright, Pixie rogue is getting a Psionic buddy. We don't have a Psionic on our team. Also the DM loved the "Pixie Rogue with a smaller Pixie Rogue" idea so much, the Pixie just got a free little sister Pixie Rogue rogue hireling on top of the Psionic.

And I'm getting Magic, definitely. And that one you just mentioned. But what else... Was told Trickery and Travel are the best core DND ones, but what wonders lie in the other books?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Alright, Pixie rogue is getting a Psionic buddy. We don't have a Psionic on our team. Also the DM loved the "Pixie Rogue with a smaller Pixie Rogue" idea so much, the Pixie just got a free little sister Pixie Rogue rogue hireling on top of the Psionic.

And I'm getting Magic, definitely. And that one you just mentioned. But what else... Was told Trickery and Travel are the best core DND ones, but what wonders lie in the other books?

Be sure that Psion gets Time Hop and Energy Missile. Time Regression is unbelievably good if they'll be high enough level to have it, it locks them into Nomad but that's not a bad discipline to use.

For your domains, Time has some of the best spells of any domain, Spell is amazing because it gives you access to Wizard spells of up to 5th level and Limited Wish, and Destiny is worth getting to persist its 9th level spell. A few others deserve honorable mentions, like Cold and Slime which both get some pretty good crowd controls, and Celerity which is almost as good as Time, and then there are a bunch of domains with unique domain powers.

The Travel domain is a go-to because its domain power covers one of the mid to high level necessary effects (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) from 1st level, and gives you access to teleportation and flight, two things Clerics generally can't do on their own. At 20th level you can have a Ring of Freedom of Movement or a Cowl of Warding or similar, a Belt of the Wide Earth, and any number of items that grant flight, making the entire domain completely redundant. However, if you're an Elf or Half-Elf, you can take one level of Seeker of the Misty Isle to get this domain for free if you didn't start with it.

[Kaiwen]

I've been thinking on this for a bit, but here's as many different tracks of special abilities as you can have
1 Necklace of Natural Attacks (SS)

necklace slot, can be combined with another necklace
enchanted as a weapon
doesn't need +1 enh to add special abilities
doesn't take a hand to wield
2 Dwarven Buckler-Axes (CW)

exotic light weapon
each is enchanted separately as shield and weapon
doesn't need a hand to wield
2 Spiked/Bladed/Etc. Gauntlets (PHB/AEG/other)

enchanted as a weapon
doesn't take a hand to wield
1 Horned Helmet (RoF)

martial light weapon
doesn't take a hand to wield
2 Goblin Sticks/Crescent Scythes/Kawanagas (RoF/Sand/OA)

exotic 1-handed double weapons
probably want to use an actual weapon if you plan on attacking with them
1 Padded Armor/Leather Armor/Chain Shirt (DMG)

light armor
can hold armor spikes for weapon SAs
1 Chahar-Aina (OA)

can be worn with padded/leather/chain shirt
armor bonus explicitly stacks, enhancement bonus does not
can hold armor spikes for weapon SAs
1 Dastana (AEG)

slotless shield
can be worn with padded/leather/chain shirt
they're not buckler, so you can put armor spikes on them, one each
1 Leather/Steel Gorget (SaS)

can be worn with padded/leather/chain shirt
provides nonstacking armor bonus only vs. garrotes
you can put armor spikes on it for a stylish spiked choker
1 Bracers of Armor +1 (DMG)

bracer slot, can be combined with another set of bracers without increasing price (MIC)
nonstacking armor bonus
enchanted like armor
1 Harness of Armor +1 (LEoF)

torso slot, can be combined with another vest
nonstacking armor bonus
enchanted like armor
1 [Body slot item] of Armor +1 (MIC)

+armor to AC can be added to any bracer or body slot item
enchanted like armor

If money is truly no object and anything really is on the table, you can really stack a lot of weapon and armor special abilities. You'll probably want weapon SAs that give passive bonuses; you won't be attacking with a lot of these (or proficient in them).

This is 6 armors, 3 shields, and 15 weapons. I'm really not sure there's that many useful special abilities in 3.5.

Edit: If you can somehow get the assistance of an Artificer, not only does everything become a whole lot cheaper, but you can also wear a Spare Hand (MoE) to equip an extra Dwarven Buckler-Axe.

Edit 2: Added armor spikes.