Best EXPENSIVE Magic Items?

[Jowgen]

Commonly, one of the primary drivers in item selection is cost effectiveness.

You go to the Bargain Basement, Handy Haversak and List of Nessecary Magic items to find the things that give you the best Bang for your Gold.

What I'm look for in this thread is not that.

I am looking for magic items that fall on the expensive side, but they give you benefits that are either notably more comprehensive than what the budget option gives, or are reasonably unique in the benefit they give.

[AvatarVecna]

Commonly, one of the primary drivers in item selection is cost effectiveness.

You go to the Bargain Basement, Handy Haversak and List of Nessecary Magic items to find the things that give you the best Bang for your Gold.

What I'm look for in this thread is not that.

I am looking for magic items that fall on the expensive side, but they give you benefits that are either notably more comprehensive than what the budget option gives, or are reasonably unique in the benefit they give.

Are expensive custom items that fulfill similar purposes kosher here, or are you looking strictly for existent material that's worth taking in place of cheaper alternatives that usually get recommended?

[ElderDarren]

A staple "expensive but stupid good" items would be the Starmantle Cloak. Mundane damage is no longer a concern, and it isn't hard to make a DC 15 reflex save to make everything else hit like a limp pool noodle.

[Seerow]

When let loose on the budget I am a big fan of Starmantle Cloak, especially with a Ring of Evasion. Effective immunity to physical damage is always a good place to start.

If a caster, a custom runestaff can fit into bargain basement or expensive magic item, but loading a dozen or so high level spells that you are now able to cast spontaneously is great.

In general combining items together, or stacking multiple uses of an existing good limited use item is a great way to spend a lot of gold. Belt of Battle is great. 5 Belts of Battle is better and costs only 7x more. You probably don't get the initiative buffs from all of them, but 15 charges a day for 84,000gp is worth it.

Ring of Spellbattle is around 64k gp and has some nice effects. In fact, Rings, Staves, and Rods in general are going to be the best place to look for unique relatively rare effects, since these are all generally slots that tend to have unique effects tucked away with a high enough price tag to keep them from becoming commonly used for most forum optimization, but could be fun in a group where wealth is less of a concern.

[Jowgen]

Are expensive custom items that fulfill similar purposes kosher here, or are you looking strictly for existent material that's worth taking in place of cheaper alternatives that usually get recommended?

Let's roll with it for completeness. I assume Favour of the Martyr as a continuous items is on your mind?

[AvatarVecna]

Let's roll with it for completeness. I assume Favour of the Martyr as a continuous items is on your mind?

There's a bunch of custom spells that can be grabbed if you cheese the act of building them enough, but the one I immediately thought of is Command Word "Empyreal Ecstasy". EE is a domain spell (Pleasure 7), and Divine Crusader from Complete Divine casts exclusively from a selected domain, and gains access to that domain at a rapid pace (ie 7th lvl spells at class level 7), but because their Caster Level is very low, they make poor use of that casting...except when crafting, at which point a Divine Crusader (or an Artificer aping DC's casting) can build items for a little over half as much as other casters could do for the same spells.

An item of at-will Command Word "Empyreal Ecstasy" costs 88200 gp to purchase on the market, takes 1 standard action to use (and probably a UMD check), and affects 7 individuals for 7 minutes. An item of Continuous "Empyreal Ecstasy" that just affects you/your friends for as long as its worn would cost 196000. The spell has five effects, three positive and two negative:

1) It immediately removes any lingering conditions/penalties that resulted from Pain effects, and protests the user from such things for the duration.

2) The targets take half damage from all melee and ranged weapons.

3) The target cannot be affected by Mind-Affecting effects while the spell is active, although it also does not remove any they were under when it began.

4) The target takes -4 to all skills.

5) The target must succeed on a DC 15 Concentration check to cast any spell.

1 is circumstantial at best, and will never be the reason you want to cast this spell. 2 is mildly useful, but less so than the Starmantle+Ring Of Evasion combo already mentioned here. 4 and 5 can be circumvented, but not trivally. 3 is the focus of my interest: where normally parties have to choose between protection from negative MA effects enemies might use, and the benefits positive MA effects the party might use (primarily, morale/insight-based buff spells, bard's Inspire Courage, etc), toggle-able Empyreal Ecstasy makes it so you don't have to choose anymore.

EDIT: Incidentally, the ability of Divine Crusaders and Artificers to get domain spells for cheap, particularly when some domains get certain spells earlier than standard clerics and wizards and druids do, can be a fantastic way to get absurdly good spell effects for a real steal.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The Displacement weapon enchantment from Oriental Adventures is +100k gp and gives everyone a 50% chance to miss you as the Displacement spell.

On the subject of weapon enchantments, stack up things like Eager, Warning, Parrying, Illithidwrought (since it doesn't specify just that weapon's attacks), Defending, Spellblade, etc. on a (spiked) gauntlet that you're always 'holding'.

Greater Metamagic Rods can get expensive. Particularly a Greater Rod of Chain Spell in CA, which can be used with Destruction and secondary targets don't even get a reduced save DC since it deals damage (on a successful save).


If you're into custom items, those can get pretty silly. Keep in mind that post-errata, "the caster level is determined by the creator. The minimum caster level is that which is needed to meet the prerequisites given. (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#casterLevel)" So if your custom item is a wondrous item, the minimum caster level is 3rd since that's what's required to meet the prerequisites of Craft Wondrous Item, even if the item has a 1st level spell that you want to put at a caster level of 1st. A custom ring always has a minimum caster level of 12th, arms and armor 5th, etc.

A long while back I ran a game in which someone played an Arcane Swordsage who eventually learned Ruby Ray of Reversal. Being able to use that at will was just hilariously absurd because it got them out of literally everything. So make a command-word item that uses that at will if you can make custom items. In fact, make that item a magic ruby, put it in the back of a golden gauntlet, and make five other custom items that are different colored gems and put those in it as well.....

[Biggus]

Vest of the Archmagi (MIC, 200,000GP)
Hathran Masking of True Seeing (UE, 75,000GP)
Tomes and Manuals of +5 ability scores (127,500GP)

Custom item
Continuous item of Haste 120,000GP

A couple of questions:

1) are we including epic items?

2) what's the floor for "expensive"? I've only included answers over 50,000GP, if it's lower than that I can think of a few others.

[Pinkie Pyro]

In general combining items together, or stacking multiple uses of an existing good limited use item is a great way to spend a lot of gold. Belt of Battle is great. 5 Belts of Battle is better and costs only 7x more. You probably don't get the initiative buffs from all of them, but 15 charges a day for 84,000gp is worth it.



er, 4k per charge, 15 charges would be 60k, yeah?




If you're into custom items, those can get pretty silly. Keep in mind that post-errata, "the caster level is determined by the creator. The minimum caster level is that which is needed to meet the prerequisites given. (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#casterLevel)" So if your custom item is a wondrous item, the minimum caster level is 3rd since that's what's required to meet the prerequisites of Craft Wondrous Item, even if the item has a 1st level spell that you want to put at a caster level of 1st. A custom ring always has a minimum caster level of 12th, arms and armor 5th, etc.


pretty sure that only means the prerequisites of the item itself, not of the craft feat. IE: "CL 5th; Forge Ring, shield of faith" for ring of protection, which requires CL 5, yet a feat you can't get with less than CL 12.

[Particle_Man]

While it is over-priced (and nerfed in 3.5) I have a soft spot for the Vorpal Sword.

[Seerow]

er, 4k per charge, 15 charges would be 60k, yeah?

I went from 12k for your first belt of battle, each one you layer on top is 50% increased because of combining item rules. So adding 4 more costs 18k each. 12+18*4 = 84k.

If you can get away with just paying per charge rather than using the combining magic item rules then yes just increasing the charges is cheaper (and should arguably be even cheaper than 4k per charge because you would want to assign some value to the +2 initiative. It'd probably end up as closer to 3k per charge).

[AvatarVecna]

Some stuff from the MIC that I like.

Bodyfeeder weapon: +3 weapon property. On a crit, gain Temp HP equal to half the damage dealt. Expensive, but if you're a mid-high level crit-fisher, this kind of constantly-recharging bonus health is a decent replacement for the Crusader's delayed damage pool on other weapon-users. They don't stack with other crits from the weapon, though.

Force weapon: +2 ranged weapon property. An optimization staple but included for completion's sake: this turns any projectile fired into a force effect, explicitly bypassing all damage reduction (a common bane of ranged builds) and the miss chance of incorporeal creatures. There's a potential downside that creatures immune to force damage are immune to your shots, but creatures like that are extremely rare and usually extremely high level (like, the most common example is Force Dragons, which are deep into epic play).

Shattermantle weapon: +1 weapon property. Not very expensive, but a very uncommon effect: when you hit an enemy, their SR is lowered by 2 points for 1 round, and multiple hits stack their penalties together. The duration isn't great, but this is a good way to turn a flurry of weak hits into a significant-but-temporary debuff that your spellcasting allies can take advantage of. Any way to make a foe more vulnerable to magic is pretty solid.

(Weird edge case: this gets even better in a 3.P game where you can pair it with a Nullifying Weapon: a +3 weapon property where a hit/crit lowers the target's SR by 1/[your crit mult] for 1 minute, also self-stacking. Both of these abilities together is a great way to support any bad touch or blaster mages in your party, although at a total of +4 enchantment, it's definitely getting expensive at that point.)

Amulet Of Retributive Healing: On its own, this isn't expensive by any measure. 2000 gp for 3 charges per day. A charge is spent as part of casting a healing spell that heals somebody else, and the effect is that it heals you for what the spell healed them, even if you were also healed by the spell already (such as via it being some kinda mass healing spell). Replicating something like this is possible, via Rods Of Quicken and Pearls Of Power, but the Amulet doesn't care about spell level and so will be the economic option relative to those things (although Rods and Pearls could be used for something besides healing). The advantage of this item is that it makes in-combat healing more of a viable way to spend your spells. And let's be real, healing isn't a bad way to use your spell slots, it's just worse than the myriad things a cleric could be doing with their slots instead. But even a healbot cleric optimized to WotC levels will still be putting out an absurd amount of healing each day. And this is a way to significantly increase that, albeit primarily in keeping yourself alive while you're on the front lines keeping everybody healed up.

So where does it get expensive? Well, while the existing item rules might give the impression that a 5/day item costs the same as an infinite-use item, your DM might not agree that 3333.33 gp is sufficient for the amount of healing you'll be getting out of it. So in the vein of the post up there about stacking good items until you get enough uses, let's see how many of these we'd need: a Cleric 20 with 30 Wisdom (that feels reasonably high, although not as high as it could be) who wants to be able to heal with every slot and get this benefit would have 69 (nice) spell slots including domain slots, and would thus need 23 of these things. Depending on how the DM rules stacking items like this to work, that could cost 24500 gp (under the "Multiple Similar Abilities" clause), 46000 gp (if they just add together), 68000 gp (under the "Multiple Different Abilities" clause), or even as much as 90000 (if all but one must be purchased as "slotless", effectively).

Regardless of the method used, it's the kind of thing that's simultaneously well worth the cost for a cleric to as much as double the healing any particular healing spell provides, and also the kind of thing that's just not going to be purchased until you're past 10th lvl because your gold is limited and other items take precedent.


Custom item
Continuous item of Haste 120,000GP

Common trick with that one is to make it via the Trapsmith list where it's a lvl 1 spell, so if you're cheesing it you can get it for 8000 gp (or 24000 gp, if BF is right). Even 120k is pretty cheap compared to stacking enough boots of haste to get the effect all day, though.

[Maat Mons]

For my answer, I'm going to assume pure "off the shelf." By that I mean only items printed in books.

No custom items. No combining items. No adding common bonuses as per the Magic Item Compendium. Not even weapons or armor aside from the specific, named stuff.

Head: Cowl of Warding (continuous Freedom of Movement and Mind Blank)
Face: Hathran Mask of True Seeing (continuous True Seeing)
Shoulders: Starmantle Cloak (get Ref save to halve weapon damage)
Throat: Hand of Glory (extra ring slot)
Body: Vestments of Power (Dimension Door at-will)
Vest: ?
Arms: ?
Gloves: ?
Finger 1: Ring of Death Ward (continuous Death Ward)
Finger 2: Major Ring of Universal Energy Resistance (resistance 30 to acid/cold/elec/fire/sonic)
Throat Finger: Ring of Evasion (gain evasion ability)
Waist: Belt of Magnificence (+6 all ability scores)
Feet: Boots of Teleportation (Teleport 3/day)
Slotless: Gemstone of Heavy Fortification (immune to crits)
Slotless: various Ioun Stones (various effects)

... and something or another giving flight? Man, I haven't though this through very well.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

pretty sure that only means the prerequisites of the item itself, not of the craft feat. IE: "CL 5th; Forge Ring, shield of faith" for ring of protection, which requires CL 5, yet a feat you can't get with less than CL 12.

Nope, the semicolon separates the item's default caster level 5th from the item's prerequisites, which are just Forge Ring and Shield of Faith. It's all in the link I provided. Since the DMG errata in 2004, an item's printed caster level has never been one of the prerequisites to craft it. Instead the minimum caster level at which you create an item is whatever's required to meet all of its prerequisites, which means a caster level of 12th minimum for anything that requires Forge Ring. Yes, published items break this rule all the time, they weren't going to errata every published item to match the updated rules.

Just look at the Amulet of Natural Armor: Faint transmutation; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, barkskin, creator’s caster level must be at least three times the amulet’s bonus; Price 2,000 gp (+1), 8,000 gp (+2), 18,000 gp (+3), 32,000 gp (+4), or 50,000 gp (+5).
Between each semicolon is a completely different section (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#magicItemDescriptions): The aura for detect magic and similar; the default caster level if it's discovered as loot; all the prerequisites, which only includes a minimum caster level if it's included in this section; the market price.

However, despite that, nearly every published item has a non-variable market price. So even if the published item has a caster level of 5th, it costs exactly the same amount to craft if it's being made by a 5th level caster, a 10th level caster, or a 20th level caster. That even includes creating a Hat of Anonymity whose default caster level is 7th at a caster level of 20th for a Nondetection DC of 35. Granted if you're getting this made by a 20th level NPC they're going to charge you more for it, despite it not having cost them any more to craft it than what's printed. Published market prices are set in stone, being able to craft one yourself at a higher caster level than what's printed is one of the benefits of taking item creation feats and being a high level character.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The psychoactive skin of proteus (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/universalItems.htm#skinofProteus) costs 84,000 gp. It allows you to use metamorphosis (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/metamorphosis.htm) at will, which is like polymorph, but better.

Unlike polymorph (which is limited by the restrictions on alter self), you aren't restricted on the size of what you can become. You can become objects. You can gain any immunities based on creature type, subtype, or specific race whenever you want (as well as those shared by objects [as well as an object's hardness]). You heal as though you rested for a night every time you use it (so at-will healing). You gain whatever Ex/Na offensive and Na defensive modes of any creature you become. You can resize at will, based on whatever form you take at the moment. Your physical ability scores no longer matter. You gain access to TONS of mobility and utility options, whenever you want them. If you're an outsider, undead, or construct, you have access to a whole other class of creature to become. And so on and so forth, etc, etc, etc.

It's one of the most versatile items in the whole game. The only item better than a psychoactive skin of proteus for versatility is a psychoactive skin of proteus with a higher manifester level.

Also, this. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?177889-Brainstorm-for-Psionic-Tricks-Tactics-and-Combos-Handbook&p=23285432&viewfull=1#post23285432)

[Anthrowhale]

Exalted Deeds has some nice ones:
Soulfire: +4 armor enhancement for immunity to death spells/effects, energy drain, and negative energy

Ring of Solar Wings: Fly 150'(good) 118K gp That's some incredible maneuverability.

Antimagic Shackles: 132K gp. Always-on AMF. Aside from the obvious use against prisoners, exceptionally useful for an Initiate of Mystra and situationally overwhelmng against magic reliant monsters like the beholder.

And the mentioned Starmantle Cloak @ 132K gp

Complete arcane has Proof Against Transmutation: +5 armor which makes you immune to enemy transmutation spells, but not your own.

The Players Guide to Faerun has the Weirdstone @250K gp. In a 6 miles radius(!) that explicitly has no line-of-effect constraint, it blocks Astral & Ethereal travel, Divination(Scrying) spells, Conjuration(Teleportation) spells, and any other method of achieving those effects.

[the_tick_rules]

I'll try and only list the ones i didn't see already.

Retributive amulet: 56k from the book of exalted deeds. Splits damage from close combat between you and the attacker, awesome.

Third Eye of Conceal: 120k from Magic item compendium. Makes your brain basically invisible to magic. Immunity to mind affecting spells, can't be scryed, whole list of awesome.

[sreservoir]

The Players Guide to Faerun has the Weirdstone @250K gp. In a 6 miles radius(!) that explicitly has no line-of-effect constraint, it blocks Astral & Ethereal travel, Divination(Scrying) spells, Conjuration(Teleportation) spells, and any other method of achieving those effects.

Note that if you really want to do this you're going to quickly discover that 3.5e has all sorts of weird effects printed that achieve the same results without having a blocked descriptor or expressly mimicking the effect. (Druids have a bunch of them, as it happens.)

[AvatarVecna]

I won't be discussing things that can't be purchased pre-epic (that is, things I can't cheat below 200k gp), because if you can afford those, you're either cheesing your money and magic item access, or you're epic. Either way, balance is a suggestion at best and a joke at worst, and "useful and worth the big price tag" is always going to be relative.

In addition to the previously-mentioned Divine Crusader trick, there's some other fun tricks for casting spells early. Firstly, an Ur-Priest can cast any spell on the cleric list with a similar "class level equals caster level" trick that DC was doing, although they also add half their CL from other spellcasting classes. Divine Crusader still has the advantage that they have domain access where UP doesn't, and some domains will have spells early, or maybe even spells cleric never gets because they're primarily sor/wiz in origin.

Another trick to be frequently used is pulling from weird caster lists, such as Trapsmith or Runescarred Berserker, who can get spells particularly early sometimes.

A final trick is using Sublime Chord and Nar Shadowbinder. These classes add their class level to a single previous caster class to determine CL, which can mean casting certain 4th/5th lvl spells at CL 2 (well, CL 3 because of BF's point above), 6th lvl spells at CL 4, 7th lvl spells at CL 6, 8th lvl spells at CL 8, and 9th lvl spells at CL 10.

Continuous "Devil's Ego" (via Diabolic domain). 36k for Cha +4 (profane) and counting as non-humanoid for purposes of type-restricted spells. Fair warning, the Cha boost doesn't grant bonus spells to Cha casting classes, although it does boost Save DCs. Might be worth it on the right build.

At-Will Command Word "Disinegrate" (via Sublime Chord). 43200 gp. Only 8d6 damage, but it still autodusts 1000 cubic feet per blast and gets rid of force effects. A decent enough way of clearing out weaker enemies without costing spell slots, but really whether it's worth the price going to depend on how often the object/force effect destruction use comes up for you.

Continuous "Displacement" (via Telflammar Shadowlord). 48000 for permanent 50% miss chance.

Continuous "Divine Power" (via Runescarred Berserker PrC). This will run you 120k for Str +6 enhancement (36k value) and full BAB as an outsider with HD equal to yours. A controversial inclusion - you want this to be a melee monster, but if you need the BAB boost, you probably need a lot more stuff to be a proper melee monster anyway.

Continuous "Empyreal Ecstasy" (via Sublime Chord). Using the new trick we can get it down to 96000 for the permanent version, or just 49000 if you decide to go with the at-will version for four minutes of MA immunity at a time.

Continuous "Freedom Of Movement" (via Nentyar Hunter PrC). This costs 27000 gp. Expensive, but less so than a Ring Of Freedom Of Movement.

Continuous "Greater Heroism" (via Sublime Chord). 96000 gp for +4 (morale) to attacks, saves, and skills forever. Would cancel out the skill penalty from Empyreal Ecstasy.

Continuous "Greater Magic Weapon" CL 15. Costs you 90k. Going from a +6 weapon (+1 w/ +5 worth) to a +10 weapon (+5 with +5 worth) would cost you 128000 gp. But more importantly than saving money is saving enchantment space - you could get a +1 weapon with +9 worth of enchantment, then slap a 90k ring on and now any weapon you wield counts as +5, upgrading that weapon to effectively +14 worth.

At-Will Command Word "Greater Scrying" (via Sublime Chord). 43200 gp for standard action scrying for hours.

At-Will Command Word "Greater Teleport" (via Sublime Chord). 75600 gp for perfectly accurate teleportation that has no maximum range.

At-Will Command Word "Mordenkainen's Disjunction" (via Magic domain). 145800 gp. Arguably not worth it, given that Disjunction tends to either be "I accidentally nuked all our loot even though I probably didn't need to" or "I've fired the first missile in what I now realize is a mutually-assured destruction scenario", with very little in-between.

Continuous "Resist Energy" CL 11 (via Ranger). 33000 gp for ER 30, less than a core ring, and far less than if added onto armor. Upgrade to 36000/CL 12 to put it in a ring, which is probably for the best considering how you wanna get CL super-low on the rest of your stuff and that just requires tons of CL to be legal.

Continuous "Righteous Might" (via many domains). 200000 gp exactly, just barely able to be purchased pre-epic. You don't get the DR upgrade, but you still get DR 5/good or evil, size +1 step, Str +8 (size), and Con +4 (size) as long as you have the item on. It's a powerful effect, but because of the price, it's always going to have a lot of stuff competing for attention. Consider carefully.

Continuous "Sadism" (via Pain domain). 48000 gp for a varying luck bonus to attacks, saves, and skills. By the time you can afford this, you should be regularly getting some decent bonuses from this, even without cheesing it like fireballing a bunch of chickens.

Continuous "Sakkratar's Triple Strike" (via Sublime Chord). 120000 gp. Because of the caster level, this will basically only affect you even if normally spells like this built into continuous items would affect others too. This gives you two bonus attacks (haste-style, but not stacking with any haste effect), but only with melee weapons. It also gives your weapon the Keen and Flaming Burst enchantments for the duration.

At-Will Command Word "Shapechange" (via Animal Domain). Costs 145800 gp, and gives you 90 minutes of Shapechange. it's worth noting that the forms are limited to HD equal to your CL, so this does end up being a good deal weaker and less versatile than Shapechange normally is, so this would be less for a good combat buff and more for a "I'm sure there's a 9 HD creature somewhere in 3.5 with the kinda utility I need here" kinda thing. That kind of flexible utility is maybe worth the price tag, but you'd want to do some splatdiving to be sure.

Continuous "Starmantle" (via Sublime Chord). 96000, but it's sooooo good. Immunity to nonmagic weapons, easy Ref save for half damage from magic weapons (which can be cheesed with Evasion from class features or an item).

Continuous "That Art Thou". This is a domain spell, but not a cleric domain, so we can't use the usual trick, and it costs 120000 gp, but it's still honestly a steal. It gives +20 to Listen, Search, and Spot (untyped bonus) - heck, competence bonuses that big to three skills would cost 120k on its own. But also, the spell makes you immune to being flat-footed, and immune to being flanked unless everybody else within 30 ft is also flanked (friend or foe). Successfully flanking you while you've got this spell going requires a line of friends and foes arranged something like this in line:

Foe - Friend - Foe - Friend - Foe - Friend - Foe - You - Foe - Friend - Foe - Friend - Foe - Friend - Foe

And if anybody has Improved Uncanny Dodge that isn't being bypassed, or if literally anybody steps out of line, then you are no longer flanked.

Continuous "Tongues" (via Vigilante). 18000 isn't exactly expensive, but it'll cover your linguistic needs completely.

Continuous "True Seeing" (via Sublime Chord). 121000 gp, straightforward. Cheaper than existing options, but still quite expensive. Still totally worth it.

At-will Command Word "Time Stop" (via many domains). 145800 gp for all the time in the world.

Continuous "Voice Of The Dragon" (via Sublime Chord). 36000 gp for +10 (enhancement) to Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate. Enhancement bonus to skills is kinda rare, so this should stack with everything. And while it's super-cheap for what it provides, it's still expensive enough that it won't be considered until late in your career.

It's getting late, and I just glanced over all the domains and this is the stuff I found that looked like really good candidates for expensive stuff that's pretty worth it. There's probably a bunch of 4th-7th lvl Bard/Sorcerer/Wizard spells that Sublime Chord can cheat into being affordably expensive too.

[Troacctid]

Inspired by this thread, I have added a new filter view to my item spreadsheet for high-roller items. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sJRCphWkrtLm8Q6iD6_YPp00MggiAT556j9231uu5Lg/edit#gid=0&fvid=1078966784

Some items that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Crown of sorcerous terror (200k)
Third eye graft (165k)
Holy avenger (120k)
Cloak of the sorcerer-king (102k)
Mirror of opposition (92k)
Ring of telekinesis (75k)
Ring of the white wyrm (64k)
Horn of the planes (55k)
Mierest's starlit sphere (53k)
Admiral's bicorne (51k)
Chromatic flute (46k)
Crown of Cyre (40k)
Standard of heroism (40k)
Dragonmark rod (varies)
Dedicated powers for intelligent items with a special purpose (varies)

[newguydude1]

Unlike polymorph (which is limited by the restrictions on alter self), you aren't restricted on the size of what you can become.

no this is wrong. polymorph size restrictions replace alter self.

[Biggus]

Finger 1: Ring of Death Ward (continuous Death Ward)




Horn of the planes (55k)


What books are these from?


Ring of the white wyrm (64k)

This is a new one on me. +8 racial bonus to Strength? I know what my next high-level warrior is getting...

[Anthrowhale]

Note that if you really want to do this you're going to quickly discover that 3.5e has all sorts of weird effects printed that achieve the same results without having a blocked descriptor or expressly mimicking the effect. (Druids have a bunch of them, as it happens.)
There's some DM interpretation here around what "or the like that mimic these effects" means. Maybe Master Earth is included? It probably depends on the DM.

[unseenmage]

The Spell Clock (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070312a) because man are they expensive.

Also,using the Stronghold Builder's Guide can get real pricey real fast.

There's a Dragon magazine with an item in it that has regenerating Marvelous Pigments. I KNOW it exist and is expensive but cannot for the life of me find it.
EDIT: Nolzur’s Orb, Dragon 359, page 74.

Oh yeah. Also portals. Building proper portals is stupid expensive.

[Crake]

where normally parties have to choose between protection from negative MA effects enemies might use, and the benefits positive MA effects the party might use (primarily, morale/insight-based buff spells, bard's Inspire Courage, etc), toggle-able Empyreal Ecstasy makes it so you don't have to choose anymore.

An elf's ability to willfully lower their immunity to sleep spells suggests that someone with mind blank could do the same to gain the positive effects of moral bonuses. There are circumstances where it's arguable (can an undead lower their immunity to mind affecting? Can a devil lower their immunity to fire?), but lowering immunities is written right into the players handbook, you don't have to go through such workarounds to achieve this.

[Biggus]

An elf's ability to willfully lower their immunity to sleep spells

Where does it say that elves can do this?

[Quertus]

One I've always wanted to use was Belt of the Dread Emperor. For 120k, you can steal HP from connected creatures (possibly killing them) to power spells. Costs something like (spell level) ² HP.

Maybe not *best*, but still can be good.

-----

Regarding combining multiple Belt of Battle… one could attempt to ascertain the portion of the cost that is "charges" vs "init bonus". Or, instead, one could simply buy both, and assume that init bonus increases via a standard "cost is proportional to bonus squared". So, if one belt gives +2, 4 belts give +4, 9 belts give +6, etc.

EDIT: if 3 charges gives +2, bonus²*¾ gives the necessary number of charges. So 1 charge gives +1, 3 charges gives +2, 7 charges gives +3, 12 charges give +4, 19 charges give +5, 27 charges give +6, 37 charges give +7, 48 charges give +8 initiative, etc. Assuming "per charge" pricing, for just 300k GP, you'd get 75 charges and a +10 initiative.

[gogogome]

no this is wrong. polymorph size restrictions replace alter self.

This is correct. The author of the spell himself has explicitly said this is what he meant when he wrote the spell. So this interpretation is the one true RAW.
In addition, the book the spell originates from has direct examples of creatures changing more than two size categories with each polymorph.
Lastly if you dissect alter self and polymorph in a legalistic way, it still results in alter self's restrictions being fully replaced by polymorph's restrictions.

There is no room for alternate interpretations here.

[Jack_Simth]

Where does it say that elves can do this?

Player's handbook, page 177. Paragraph with the bolded line "Voluntarily Giving up a Saving Throw".

[MaxiDuRaritry]

no this is wrong. polymorph size restrictions replace alter self.


This is correct. The author of the spell himself has explicitly said this is what he meant when he wrote the spell. So this interpretation is the one true RAW.
In addition, the book the spell originates from has direct examples of creatures changing more than two size categories with each polymorph.
Lastly if you dissect alter self and polymorph in a legalistic way, it still results in alter self's restrictions being fully replaced by polymorph's restrictions.

There is no room for alternate interpretations here.The spell text disagrees entirely with both of you.

Nothing in the polymorph text overrides alter self's restrictions on one size category away from yours; the only reference to size is that you cannot go smaller than Fine, which is a further restriction and not an override.

If the author changed his mind after the fact, or intended otherwise (and wrote it badly), that still doesn't change RAW. Houserule it if you want, but it's still a houserule.

[AvatarVecna]

More spells now that I'm awake, primarily via Sublime Chord and Ur-Priest.

Continuous "Aerial Alacrity". 48000 gp for fly speed +30 ft, +1 maneuverability, and AC/Reflex +1 (dodge) while airborne.

Continuous "Cloud Wings". 12000 gp for +30 ft on your fly speed.

Continuous "Flight Of The Dragon". 36000 gp for fly speed 100 ft (average). You also have decent overland speed - 15mph or 24mph on a hustle. It's a little cheap for an "expensive" item, but it's the fastest fly speed you can afford, and it can be enhanced with other spells.

Continuous "Wings Of Air". 24000 gp for +1 maneuverability.

Continuous "Wings Of Swift Flying". 6000 gp for +40 ft on your fly speed (provided that the creator was dragonblooded in some fashion).

All put together, you've spent 126000 gp for fly speed 200 (perfect) with AC/Reflex +1 (dodge) while airborne.

At-Will Command Word "Greater Scrying" . 43200 gp for standard action scrying for hours.

At-Will Command Word "Greater Teleport". 75600 gp for perfectly accurate teleportation that has no maximum range.

At-Will Command Word "Plane Shift (via Nar Demonbinder). 27000 for at-will Plane Shift, very nice.

These three together cost 145800 gp (the same as, for example, at-will command word item of Gate that can only be used for the transportation function), and enables endless scry-n-die across the entire multiverse without costing slots.



Continuous "Death Ward" (via Runescarred Berserker). 60k for a Death Ward effect.

Continuous "Delay Death". 128000 gp. You can be made Dying, but not Dead - at least not from HP damage. It takes something like excessive Con damage, or excessive negative levels, or some disintegrate-ish "autodusts you if it reduces you below -9 HP" effect, or an SoD to take you down. Pair with some method of acting normally below 0 HP and you're golden - I prefer Autohypnosis DC 30 check, because it allows full actions and doesn't specify "-1 to -9 HP", which most other methods trip over one or the other. Autohypnosis is trained-only though, so you'll need a way around that in addition to a +29 cheesed from somewhere. This also pairs well with Masochism.

Continuous "Energy Immunity" (via Ur-Priest). 36000 for immunity to an element. Cheaper than the usual fare by far, and only a tiny bit more than ER 30.

Continuous "Greater Anticipate Teleporation". 24000 gp to delay the arrival of anybody teleporting close to you by 3 rounds, giving you time to set up a trap for them. This no-save no-SR steals 3 rounds from that person, that's fantastic for the cost.

Continuous "Greater Blindsight". 64000 gp for 60 ft Blindsight. That's pretty nice.

Continuous "Greater Invisibility". 96000 gp. This is twice as much as continuous Displacement costs, but invisibility has many benefits beyond miss chance.

Continuous "Inner Beauty". 36000 gp in exchange for Dex +4/Cha +4 (sacred), although you have to be good.

Continuous "Masochism" (via Ur-Priest). 48000 gp. By the time you can afford this, you're probably taking serious damage on occasion, and getting a buff to attack/saves/skills when that happens is pretty useful. Unless you have something like Delay Death, though, you can only take so much damage and go so much buff at any given time.

Continuous "Nixie's Grace". 72000 gp for Dex +6/Cha +8 (enhancement), swim speed 30 ft, breathing underwater, low-light vision, and DR 5/cold iron. The primary benefits here are the swimming stuff and the enhancement bonuses (particularly the +8 that's bigger than you can usually get pre-epic).

Continuous "Ruin Delver's Fortune". 96000 gp is expensive for a probably-mild bonus to a single save and a slight side-effect defense buff, so this can only really be recommended if you've got a pretty high Charisma bonus. Immunity to poison or fear aren't as valuable as Evasion, but Fort/Will are more valuable than Ref, so it balances out well enough. The Reflex version is extra valuable if paired with Starmantle effect.

Continuous "Sheltered Vitality". 36000 for immunity to fatigue, exhaustion, ability drain, and ability damage. A little cheap for "expensive", but still.

Continuous "Sirine's Grace". 96000 gp. Dex and Cha are lower than Nixie's Grace, but the swim speed is faster, you can explicitly move and attack normally underwater, you get a slight Perform bonus, and you add your Cha to AC as a deflection bonus. Almost certainly worse than Nixie's Grace unless you've got absurd Cha and low AC maybe.

Continuous "Superior Resistance". 24000 gp for Saves +6 (resistance). Cheaper than the usual +5 saves item and a bigger bonus. A bit cheap for an "expensive" item, but...eh.

Continuous "Unfettered Heroism". 120000 gp for a free action point every round that disappears at the end of the round. This is of no value in a game without action points, is a powerful upgrade for generic characters in a game with action points, and is absurdly valuable if you've already optimized for making your action points more powerful/versatile.

[Jowgen]

There's a Dragon magazine with an item in it that has regenerating Marvelous Pigments. I KNOW it exist and is expensive but cannot for the life of me find it.

NOLZUR’S ORB, 60,400 gp, Dragon 359.

[newguydude1]

The spell text disagrees entirely with both of you.

Nothing in the polymorph text overrides alter self's restrictions on one size category away from yours; the only reference to size is that you cannot go smaller than Fine, which is a further restriction and not an override.

lets see

you assume the form of a creature of the same type as your normal form. The new form must be within one size category of your normal size. The maximum HD of an assumed form is equal to your caster level, to a maximum of 5 HD at 5th level. You can change into a member of your own kind or even into yourself.

This spell functions like alter self, except that you change the willing subject into another form of living creature. The new form may be of the same type as the subject or any of the following types: aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant, or vermin. The assumed form can’t have more Hit Dice than your caster level (or the subject’s HD, whichever is lower), to a maximum of 15 HD at 15th level. You can’t cause a subject to assume a form smaller than Fine, nor can you cause a subject to assume an incorporeal or gaseous form. The subject’s creature type and subtype (if any) change to match the new form.

so if we take the raw approach, we have two terms.
form of a creature of the same type as your normal form.
form of living creature.

i have bolded the term and underlined its definition.

form of a creature of the same type as your normal form is defined as within one size category.
form of living creature is defined as bigger than fine.

so when you replace one with the other like the spell says (i bolded and underlined the part where the spell says to replace alter self's form with polymorph's form), polymorph has only the bigger than fine size restriction.

so your wrong. spell text doesnt say that. the spell says completely replace the underlined portion of alter self with polymorph's underlined portion. not merge. why are you merging form of a creature of the same type as your normal form with form of living creature? spell says replace not merge.


If the author changed his mind after the fact, or intended otherwise (and wrote it badly), that still doesn't change RAW. Houserule it if you want, but it's still a houserule.

no, you r the one house ruling. and if you read the word of god, he is not changing his mind or writing poorly. he is saying this is what it says. {Scrubbed}dont pass your house rule off as raw.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

lets see



so if we take the raw approach, we have two terms.
form of a creature of the same type as your normal form.
form of living creature.

i have bolded the term and underlined its definition.

form of a creature of the same type as your normal form is defined as within one size category.
form of living creature is defined as bigger than fine.

so when you replace one with the other like the spell says (i bolded and underlined the part where the spell says to replace alter self's form with polymorph's form), polymorph has only the bigger than fine size restriction.

so your wrong. spell text doesnt say that. the spell says completely replace the underlined portion of alter self with polymorph's underlined portion. not merge. why are you merging form of a creature of the same type as your normal form with form of living creature? spell says replace not merge.



no, you r the one house ruling. and if you read the word of god, he is not changing his mind or writing poorly. he is saying this is what it says. {Scrub the post, scrub the quote}. dont pass your house rule off as raw.Nothing about what you quoted overrides the fact that you can only take forms of up to one size category away from your normal one. It just expands the creature types you can assume. If they'd wanted you to take larger or smaller forms, they would've said so, instead of leaving alter self's restrictions in place.

If you have an object that is defined as green, then you have another object that is defined as the same as the first but it's polka dot, nothing about the second object says it's not green, just that it also has polka dots. Same thing here.

{Scrubbed}

[newguydude1]

Nothing about what you quoted overrides the fact that you can only take forms of up to one size category away from your normal one. It just expands the creature types you can assume. If they'd wanted you to take larger or smaller forms, they would've said so, instead of leaving alter self's restrictions in place.

If you have an object that is defined as green, then you have another object that is defined as the same as the first but it's polka dot, nothing about the second object says it's not green, just that it also has polka dots. Same thing here.

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

{Scrubbed}

take the underlined portion in the alter self quote
remove it
put in polymorph's underlined portion.

[gogogome]

If they'd wanted you to take larger or smaller forms, they would've said so, instead of leaving alter self's restrictions in place.

1. No, they did not leave alter self's restriction in place. They replaced it with Polymorph's. newguydude1 has clearly underlined what part of Alter Self's spell description gets replaced with Polymorph's spell description.
2. They wanted you to take larger or smaller forms. Word of god directly says they wanted it. So you are incorrect on all fronts. Both the RAW front and the "what they wanted you" front.

[Maat Mons]

Retributive Amulet was nerfed in Magic Item Compendium.

Ring of Death Ward is from Dragon 342, page 68.

Vestment of Judgement (Dragon 325, p75) is pretty cool. It lets the wearer cast True Resurrection 1/month. But you wouldn't want to wear it yourself. Just hire a commoner to wear it. You have better uses for your item slots.

Cupric Broach (Dragon 308, p39) is another neat item. It lets you swim through stone and breath in stone.

It's not purely "off the Shelf," but Bracers of Armor can be made with up to any two of the following: Heavy Fortification, Proof Against Transmutation, Soulfire. Not all three, unfortunately. But Heavy Fortification can be replaced with a Gemstone of Heavy Fortification... "at the DM's option." And Soulfire can be replaced by a Ring of Death Ward... if you can use Dragon Magazine material. ... I guess nothing stops you from wearing Bracers of armor an actual armor at the same time though.
Also not purely "off the shelf," but adding the Gleaming ability to your armor (or Bracers of Armor) can replace the Cloak of Displacement you're not wearing because you want a Starmantle Cloak instead.

[Laughing Dog]

I would recommend having a 'Weapon of Transmutation' if you could grab one: 50,315 gp and It may only be +1 Longsword, but it's ability is that If you hit something that has damage reduction, it changes itself by the next round to overcome that damage reduction. It keeps those properties for 10 rounds or it hits something with a different type of damage reduction. Useful as a (expensive) backup weapon. [Miniatures Handbook; page 42]

[Troacctid]

What books are these from?
They're both from Dragon. (I don't think the ring is worth it compared to soulfire armor, though.) There's more info in the spreadsheet.

[Quertus]

NOLZUR’S ORB, 60,400 gp, Dragon 359.

I'm having trouble with this one.

One pot allows you to create 1,000 cubic feet of matter. There's a cap of 2k GP, and a prohibition against certain explicitly valuable goods (such as gold & gems) and magical items.

This thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?301472-Uses-for-Nolzur-s-Marvelous-Pigments) talks about it like it's 100 square feet, and dividable among multiple applications.

If "multiple uses" (totaling 100 square feet or 1,000 cubic feet) is possible, how does the value work? Is it divided evenly per unit area/volume (so max 2gp per cubic foot, so no swords / metal), per pot (so, you can make a sword, but you can get to a point where you have a huge volume but little to no GP value left), or per application (so as many 2k GP items as you can fit in a 10' square/cube, so long as you make them one at a time)?

Also, if it's dividable, will the orb refill at a commensurate rate (1 square foot per 144 rounds, or 1 cubic foot per 14.4 rounds)?

[Jack_Simth]

I'm having trouble with this one.

One pot allows you to create 1,000 cubic feet of matter. There's a cap of 2k GP, and a prohibition against certain explicitly valuable goods (such as gold & gems) and magical items.

This thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?301472-Uses-for-Nolzur-s-Marvelous-Pigments) talks about it like it's 100 square feet, and dividable amount multiple applications.

If "multiple uses" (totaling 100 square feet or 1,000 cubic feet) is possible, how does the value work? Is it divided evenly per unit area/volume (so max 2gp per cubic foot, so no swords / metal), per pot (so, you can make a sword, but you can get to a point where you have a huge volume but little to no GP value left), or per application (so as many 2k GP items as you can fit in a 10' square/cube, so long as you make them one at a time)?

Also, if it's dividable, will the orb refill at a commensurate rate (1 square foot per 144 rounds, or 1 cubic foot per 14.4 rounds)?
Digging out a copy...
Fun item.
Marvelous Pigments 1/day.
Create disguise with a +10 bonus for 30 minutes.
1/day Prismatic Spray.

As to the rate? The way it's written the Marvelous Pigments bit is a 1/day effect. More specifically, it's producing paints that act as marvelous pigments. And has a note about storing them. So 1/day you can pour a pot of marvelous pigments, assuming you've got containers (and if you don't, well... just make all the containers you need with your first use of marvelous pigments). Which means it's a magic item that makes magic items for free. Huh. If you sell the pigments at 1/2 market the orb pays for itself in about a month. Nice toy for an artificer to have....

[Thurbane]

Wrathful Healing weapon ability (+3 bonus; E&A p.20): much better than any other vampiric healing type weapon ability. Heal half damage you inflict with the weapon. No daily usage limit, no restriction on the enemy type.

[Anthrowhale]

Wrathful Healing weapon ability (+3 bonus; E&E p.20): much better than any other vampiric healing type weapon ability. Heal half damage you inflict with the weapon. No daily usage limit, no restriction on the enemy type.

What is E&E? And what is DF from Troacctid's list?

[Thurbane]

What is E&E? And what is DF from Troacctid's list?

Enemies and Allies (3.0); and Dragons of Faerun, maybe?

[magicalmagicman]

Nothing about what you quoted overrides the fact that you can only take forms of up to one size category away from your normal one. It just expands the creature types you can assume. If they'd wanted you to take larger or smaller forms, they would've said so, instead of leaving alter self's restrictions in place.

If you have an object that is defined as green, then you have another object that is defined as the same as the first but it's polka dot, nothing about the second object says it's not green, just that it also has polka dots. Same thing here.

{Scrub the post, scrub the quote}

Why don't I rephrase newguydude1's explanation.

Polymorph says this spell is identical to Alter Self EXCEPT instead of turning into a "form of a creature of the same type as your normal form", you turn into a "form of living creature".

Since EXCEPT means you remove and replace, what you need to do is, by RAW, delete everything in the Alter Self spell description pertaining to this "form of a creature of the same type as your normal form", and replace it with the "form of living creature" described in polymorph.

Alter Self's size restriction is part of the description of "form of a creature of the same type as your normal form" so it is deleted.

He is right and you are wrong. The spell directly states to delete the Alter Self's size restriction and replace it with Polymorph. Nowhere in the spell does it say to merge the two.




If they'd wanted you to take larger or smaller forms, they would've said so, instead of leaving alter self's restrictions in place.?

Now this is one of the most confusing things I've ever seen on these forums. {Scrubbed} But here, the author of the spell


Alter self (PH 197), the base spell in the polymorph chain, says that the new form must be within one size category of your normal size. Is the same true of other
spells in the chain?

Not necessarily, although the rules aren’t as clear as they could be. Polymorph, and any spell that refers back to it (such as polymorph any object), allows the new form to be of any size of Fine or greater. Shapechange specifically delineates its size limitations (Fine to Colossal), which is a much clearer way of saying the same thing.

He directly tells you what the spell text is saying. "It's not clear but this is what it's saying". It's not a house rule. It's not an update. It's not a fix. It's a clarification of what the spell text is saying.

{Scrubbed}

[Anthrowhale]

Enemies and Allies (3.0); and Dragons of Faerun, maybe?

Ah, thanks. DF is actually Defenders of the Faith, a 3.0 book.

[Kalkra]

I think I saw a non-artifact in Dragon mag that makes a temporary Sphere of Annihilation, but I have since looked for it and not found it.

Also, the Hat of Many Spells from the Animated Series Handbook. For a mere 25k you get a hat that functions as a rod of wonder. It also lets you Empower spells and cast spells from your spellbook in the place of one's you've prepared, although doing so has a 35% chance to replace the spell with a rod of wonder effect, and an additional 30% chance to activate the effect in addition to the spell. However, far and away the most broken thing about it is that it provides up to 1,000 gp worth of spell components for any spell you cast. Also, despite being a hat, it's a held item.

[Troacctid]

Enemies and Allies (3.0); and Dragons of Faerun, maybe?
TIL Enemies and Allies has actual relevant rules content. I'm adding that weapon to the sheet.

(I don't know how you got E&E out of that title, BTW.)

[Stoic]

Retributive Amulet was nerfed in Magic Item Compendium.

What did they change?

[Jowgen]

What did they change?

Looses the AC bonus, and becomes a 3/day charges immediate action activation item. Although also, it's cost drops to 9k compared to the previous 56 k.

Though really, if one wanted to use the custom item rules to raise it from 3/day to continuous, while adding the sacred AC bonus, pretty sure the formula would have it end up being cheaper than that. So pratcially speaking, no reason the BoED version shouldn't be fair game in most contexts...

[the_tick_rules]

Looses the AC bonus, and becomes a 3/day charges immediate action activation item. Although also, it's cost drops to 9k compared to the previous 56 k.

Though really, if one wanted to use the custom item rules to raise it from 3/day to continuous, while adding the sacred AC bonus, pretty sure the formula would have it end up being cheaper than that. So pratcially speaking, no reason the BoED version shouldn't be fair game in most contexts...

another option is to just use the Exalted deeds version. I forget if the Magic item compendium specifically has it but a lot of the books that rework items have a paragraph that says we think you will like the changes we made but if you want to use the old ones whatever.

[Biggus]

An elf's ability to willfully lower their immunity to sleep spells suggests that someone with mind blank could do the same to gain the positive effects of moral bonuses. There are circumstances where it's arguable (can an undead lower their immunity to mind affecting? Can a devil lower their immunity to fire?), but lowering immunities is written right into the players handbook, you don't have to go through such workarounds to achieve this.

Been thinking more about this. The text of Empyreal Ecstasy says that it


renders its targets immune to mind-affecting spells and effects for the spell's duration, but does not negate mind-influencing effects already in place

The fact that this specifies that it doesn't negate existing effects suggests that immunity to mind-affecting does normally do that. If that's true, you could lower Mind Blank, but you'd have to keep it lowered if you wanted to continue getting the benefit of morale effects.

[Vaern]

There's a thread somewhere which has probably already been mentioned with lists of magical effects and ways to obtain them ranging from bargain bin options to deluxe high-budget options. If it hasn't already been linked to here, I'll try to remember to do so myself when I have a bit more free time to dig it up.

[sreservoir]

Sounds like you're thinking of the Lists of Necessary Magic Items (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) which the OP already notes.

[Vaern]

Sounds like you're thinking of the Lists of Necessary Magic Items (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) which the OP already notes.
Ah, must've missed it. I just skimmed the first few posts... Can only do so much with a 10-minute break :(

[Quentinas]

I would recommend having a 'Weapon of Transmutation' if you could grab one: 50,315 gp and It may only be +1 Longsword, but it's ability is that If you hit something that has damage reduction, it changes itself by the next round to overcome that damage reduction. It keeps those properties for 10 rounds or it hits something with a different type of damage reduction. Useful as a (expensive) backup weapon. [Miniatures Handbook; page 42]

There is the ability in the magic item compendium pag 45 and is only a +2 of bonus. I use it quite frequently when i need to fight various enemies and if i use that on the main weapon welll , it can be the main weapon against everything