What's your Favorite Cloak?

[YellowJohn]

I build & equip high level characters for fun, but with my latest character I'm struggling to find something to fill the cloak slot. I've checked Bunko's, and the 'fill that slot' thread, but so far there's nothing that fits the character and no discussions of the topic that I can find. So...
Here are some cloak slot items I've found interesting; what are yours?

Resistance (DMG/SRD)
Still a classic, but the rules for stacking item abilities in the MIC make it a freebie. What else can your cloak do?

Shadow Cloak (DotU)
3/day 10' teleport away from an attack as an immediate action. Just say 'no' to being hit.

Mantle of Rage (Web)
Rage as a Barbarian 1, or 1 extra rage/day.

Mantle of Second Chances (MIC)
Reroll any dice 1/day.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I'm always quick to grab Magic of Faerun's Travel Cloak. Makes the rigors of the road and staying fed a complete non-issue.

[Gruftzwerg]

while not my favorite, but I would add to the list: Desert Wind Cloak
Gives access to a single Desert Wind maneuver. Even if you don't have any initiator classes and thus no maneuvers, you can still pick either:

Desert Inferno Blade:
Boost—Melee attacks deal +3d6 fire damage + 1/initiator level for 1 round. usable once per encounter.

or

Death Mark:
Strike—Enemy takes extra fire damage and explodes in a fiery spread. 6d6 dmg, range dependent on enemy size, also usable once per encounter


The other options are not so great (for non initiator classes). But if you have initiator classes that give you already access to Desert Wind, you can easily get higher lvl maneuvers faster with this cloak and can refresh em as normal with your initiator class.

[Malphegor]

I will NEVER be able to afford it, but I like the idea of the Starmantle Cloak. about 50% from a style perspective- "I am rich enough to afford a cloak made of starlight, and now because of a ring or a class feature your mortal weapons are beneath my attention"

[Uncle Pine]

Seconding desert wind cloak, but for a different reason: Flame's Blessing (a 1st level stance with no prerequisites, therefore available even to non-initiators for a measly 3,000 gp) can easily provide constant immunity to non-magical fire (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#catchingOnFire), giving anyone who so wishes the perfect excuse to set themselves on fire 24/7. Note that this will require at least 9 ranks in Tumble, but 4 ranks will be enough to only take (on average) one fire damage every six rounds you're on fire - which will presumably restrict the usage of this trick to combat scenarios or other relatively brief encounters.

[Biggus]

Minor Cloak of Displacement is always very useful, and Wings of Flying if you don't have another means of flight.

[Dimers]

Seconding desert wind cloak, but for a different reason: Flame's Blessing (a 1st level stance ...)

IIRC stances only count as maneuvers for purposes of prereqs, so the item shouldn't be able to grant a stance instead. More's the pity.

[Uncle Pine]

IIRC stances only count as maneuvers for purposes of prereqs, so the item shouldn't be able to grant a stance instead. More's the pity.
I'm personally part of the "A stance is a special type of maneuver." crowd, as per ToB. However, the ToB also states that "A stance is not a maneuver, but a specific fighting method that you maintain from round to round." It's a bit of a grey area that's been thoroughly explored over the years, but as RAW in this case can swing either way YMMV.

[Oberron]

I will NEVER be able to afford it, but I like the idea of the Starmantle Cloak. about 50% from a style perspective- "I am rich enough to afford a cloak made of starlight, and now because of a ring or a class feature your mortal weapons are beneath my attention"

2nd. Its pretty bling and makes a majority of creatures with natural attacks almost harmless

[the_tick_rules]

Starmantle cloak from book of exalted deeds is terrifyingly powerful but expensive, some DM's forbid it. Cloak of minor displacement is pretty solid. 20% miss chance is ok but it works forever, major has 15 turns or something right? I think there are ones that give you spell resistance and saving throw to right?

[the_tick_rules]

2nd. Its pretty bling and makes a majority of creatures with natural attacks almost harmless

I love the rule that it turns nonmagical attacks into light. I assume it wouldn't on natural attacks, a bear tries to eat you and it's head goes away.

[schreier]

I'm always quick to grab Magic of Faerun's Travel Cloak. Makes the rigors of the road and staying fed a complete non-issue.

I definitely second this item. Cheap, and almost always useful. Eliminates like 80% of the environmental challenges (temperature, food, water). Like a budget version of the Mantle of Celestian from ad&d. I always remember reading the wilderness survival guide where it said this book would be very short if everyone had this item.

You can add the standard abilities (saves, deflection) to it too per MIC

[Segev]

The Cloak of the Bat always seemed fun, if a bit underpowered, to me.

Similar for the Cloak of the Manta Ray.

[Troacctid]

One of my go-to cloaks lately has been the cloak of elemental protection. It lets you use an immediate action to gain resistance 10 against any type of energy for 1 round. It's only 1/day, but at only 1,000 gp, it's a really cost-effective way to protect yourself against big blasts of energy damage like fireballs and breath weapons, which I've found to be a surprisingly common way for PCs to insta-die.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Mine is Magic of Incarnum's phase cloak, bound to the shoulders chakra. Turn ethereal whenever you move more than 5', which allows you to fly at half land speed (with perfect maneuverability), pass through anything up to 5' thick but abjurations and force effects, makes you invisible to anyone who can't see into the Ethereal Plane, makes you 50% immune to magic attacks, and makes you completely immune to nonmagic attacks, including 99% of all natural weapons?

Sign me up!

[Erik the Green]

How about Cloak of the Diplomat, if PF concepts are on the table? The abilities are not flashy, but proportionate and useful, especially being able to use Diplomacy to shift attitudes three steps instead of just two. By the level it's in budget, a tool for more effective political maneuvering would be worthwhile for a number of types of characters, I think. Depending on the ruleset you were playing under it's cheap-ish enough you could add it to something else, or even add Resistance to it at par (per the MiC). The fluff sounds consistent with a Cloak of Elvenkind, too, so casual observers might not even be able to tell what it really is.

Also, 4th or 5th the Starmantle Cloak, of course.

[Pugwampy]

I always liked cloak of the Nymph and cloak of Arachnida

Baulders Gate 2 had a cloak of the sewers . 2 AC that stacked with everything and once per day morph into a troll , rat or magic immune slime .

[YellowJohn]

Thank you all for your suggestions - time for some analysis...

Travel Cloak (MoF) is great - who doesn't want two gallons of tea per day? I'll be adding this to my list of things you need an excuse not to own.

Desert Wind Cloak (ToB) definitely has its uses, but it looks to me like if an initiator wears it it adds one maneuver known. Since the character who inspired this thread is already a Master of Nine, there's already too much vying for attention & I doubt the new maneuver would ever see play.

The Starmantle Cloak (BoED) is indeed amazing. I never think of it because my old UNI play group banned it over its interactions with Evasion basically making melee obsolete. I would probably rule as a DM that the cloak doesn't stack with Evasion, and it would still be worth the money.

Minor Cloak of Displacement (DMG/SRD) is great if you can't find space about your person for a Smoking Weapon (LoD).

Wings of Flying (DMG/SRD) are the default flight item in core, but at the levels this character is built at it's Ring of Solar Wings (BoED) or bust.

Cloak of the Bat and Manta Ray (DMG/SRD) seem fun but niche items, and not the sort of thing my MoN would wear

Cloak of Elemental Protection (MIC) is great at what it does - an early game panic button - but by high levels it's cheap enough to get always-on energy resistances, and your swift/immediate action has too much competition for other effects.

The Phase Cloak (MoI) is a fantastic shoulder-slot-filler, but it's a soulmeld rather than an item so it's closed off to most builds.

Cloak of the Diplomat (PFSRD) is indeed great for the party face if PF is on the table.

Cloak of Arachnida (DMG/SRD) has a flavorful package of effects but I'm not sure how useful they are. Spider Climb is superceeded by flight, immunity to webs gets superceeded by Freedom of Movement, the luck bonus on saves vs spider venom is likely too situational and web 1/day is a strong effect but not worth the price tag on its own.

Can I have a source for Cloak of the Nymph/Sewers? Do they appear in any official 3.5 publications?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The Phase Cloak (MoI) is a fantastic shoulder-slot-filler, but it's a soulmeld rather than an item so it's closed off to most builds.It's good enough that I oftentimes dip into totemist for a level or two on my psions (typically in gestalt) and boost the heck out of my ML (and the number of free pp I can pour into a power) 1/day so I can shape and bind the phase cloak with psionic open chakra really, really early. Like, 6 levels early. Or I'll just take Shape Soulmeld then psychic reformation it out for a day (or two, when I can Extend psionic open chakra).
Totally worth it.

[schreier]

If you're looking for the shoulder slot but not an actual cloak, a really unknown item is the graverobber's skull, Dungeon Magazine #138, pg 127.

Sounds like you're melee so ...+2 luck bonus to ac, 1/day makes weapons held by that arm into ghost touch weapons for 5 minutes ... Only works for chaotic characters (but should be able to change that as needed) for 16,100gp

Plus it looks really cool

[YellowJohn]

If you're looking for the shoulder slot but not an actual cloak, a really unknown item is the graverobber's skull, Dungeon Magazine #138, pg 127.

Sounds like you're melee so ...+2 luck bonus to ac, 1/day makes weapons held by that arm into ghost touch weapons for 5 minutes ... Only works for chaotic characters (but should be able to change that as needed) for 16,100gp

Plus it looks really cool

I am indeed interested in shoulder slot items beyond just cloaks, and his is a cool item for Chaotic Characters - first Luck bonus to AC I've seen on an item.


Also, while I was looking for that I stumbled on this:

Piwafwi of Shadows (Dragon Magazine #318 pg 96)
Hide in Plain Sight as long as you are within 10' of shadows and don't move >5'/round while hidden, +10 Competence on Hide Checks.


The Magazines need more love :smallsmile:

[Aegis013]

Banner of Storm's Eye (Eberron's Explorer's Handbook is the source I believe) sees a lot of use in my games. The backpack mount takes the shoulder slot (competes for a cloak), and it provides continuous 20ft area protection from fear, as well as stunning and confusion from supernatural or spell effects.

Three almost immunities for your whole party for only 15k gp is quite the bargain.

[Pugwampy]

Cloak of charisma is in dungeon masters guide 3.5 . Sorry I always call it cloak of the nymph .

Cloak of the sewers is from the game only .

[schreier]

I am indeed interested in shoulder slot items beyond just cloaks, and his is a cool item for Chaotic Characters - first Luck bonus to AC I've seen on an item.


Also, while I was looking for that I stumbled on this:

Piwafwi of Shadows (Dragon Magazine #318 pg 96)
Hide in Plain Sight as long as you are within 10' of shadows and don't move >5'/round while hidden, +10 Competence on Hide Checks.


The Magazines need more love :smallsmile:

Agreed ... Only other luck bonus I've seen is staff of power / runestaff of power.

[Troacctid]

If you're looking for the shoulder slot but not an actual cloak, a really unknown item is the graverobber's skull, Dungeon Magazine #138, pg 127.

Sounds like you're melee so ...+2 luck bonus to ac, 1/day makes weapons held by that arm into ghost touch weapons for 5 minutes ... Only works for chaotic characters (but should be able to change that as needed) for 16,100gp

Plus it looks really cool
Gauntlets of ghost fighting will give you the ghost touch effect continuously at a quarter of the price and give you +1d6 damage against incorporeal undead to boot, so that takes away some of the luster, IMO.


Agreed ... Only other luck bonus I've seen is staff of power / runestaff of power.
Robe of the vagabond gives a +1 luck bonus to AC and saving throws.

[RNightstalker]

The Cloak of the Bat always seemed fun, if a bit underpowered, to me.

Similar for the Cloak of the Manta Ray.

I'm a great fan of the Cloak of the Bat, but in 3.x it's waaaaay overpriced.

[Eladrinblade]

Cloaks of elvenkind. It's basic stuff but I love it.

[Thunder999]

The Phoenix cloak is a nice way to get perfect flight.

[Calthropstu]

I'm a great fan of the Cloak of the Bat, but in 3.x it's waaaaay overpriced.

Thirding the bat cloak. I also like Resistance cloaks but also re-enchanting them to add custom item stuff on it. "Yay cloak of resistance with spell resistance and elemental resistance on it." I got a gm to agree that a "cloak of resistance" adding magic resist and elemental resist was in line with the save resistances, making the enchant cheap as dirt.

[Thurbane]

Mooncloak from MoF acts as a Cloak of Resistance, but also gives Levitate and Water Walk 1/day each.

[skunk3]

I really like the (greater) Cloak of the Salamander. Any enemy attacking you in melee with a natural or non-reach manufactured weapon takes 1d6 + 7 points of fire damage. There's a lesser version of this but it's not continuously active.

I also like the Cape of the Mountebank purely for flavor reasons.

Overall I think the most powerful cloak is the Starmantle Cloak. Personally I think it should be an epic item and a lot more expensive than what it is because anyone attacking you with a non-magical weapon gets to watch in horror as their weapon straight-up dissolves upon making contact, and even if the weapon is magical all you gotta do is succeed on a DC15 reflex save to take half damage... which pretty much any character should be able to do by the time they'd be able to afford the cloak. Most people I know agree that the damage halved from the attack(s) is only the physical portion of it, not any extra that comes from flaming, frost, etc. That's still full damage.

Combine the Starmantle Cloak with the Retributive Amulet and you only take 50% damage from magical weapons which is then split into two again with half of that going to you and half of it going back to the attacker, so you're only taking 25% damage and reflecting 25% damage. Any melee specialist with these two items would be highly annoying to deal with.

edit: FWIW I think that although per RAW I think that Evasion SHOULD work with the Starmantle Cloak, I wouldn't be at all surprised if DM fiat ruled against it.

[Efrate]

The banners from either heroes of battle or mini handbook provide a magic circle (ish) against X to everyone within a certain radius and only cost like 6k. That almost mind blank for dirt cheap, plus it helps the party assuming you all are similarly aligned.

[Kelb_Panthera]

The banners from either heroes of battle or mini handbook provide a magic circle (ish) against X to everyone within a certain radius and only cost like 6k. That almost mind blank for dirt cheap, plus it helps the party assuming you all are similarly aligned.

Great item. Almost a must-have. Not a cloak though.

[Efrate]

I thought they were shoulder slot. Fluff it into a a big cloak.

[Thurbane]

I thought they were shoulder slot. Fluff it into a a big cloak.

It's actually better the way it is, since it can be attached to a weapon, which makes it a slotless item, leaving your shoulder slot free.

You may have been thinking of the Banner of the Storm's Eye from MIC, which can either be held aloft, or mounted on a backpack frame - in which case it occupies the shoulders slot.

[darkdragoon]

I think I like all the ones in Sandstorm, albeit the Cape of the Wastes tends to be a really expensive Endure Elements.


War Wizard's Cloak- a grab bag of 1/day spells

Cloak of Thorns "stand and bang!"

[Calthropstu]

The cloaker.
Yes, the thing that looks like a cloak and tries to eat you.
Hilarious when it works.
/evil_gm_cackling

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The cloaker.
Yes, the thing that looks like a cloak and tries to eat you.
Hilarious when it works.Become a thrallherd and get a cloaker psion as your thrall that you can wear.

Extra awesome if it's an erudite with a huge number of powers known so you can manifest from them.