Items for a researcher themed character

[Falcii]

So i am introducing a new character in our ongoing game this week and I need to spend my starting gold which is admittedly an obscene amount (250k for lvl 11 because reasons.) I am playing a Kobold (not dragonwrought or venerable) Druid (sidhe scholar with plant companion) Bard (ic sage) multiclass, so clearly I don't super care much about optimization, but I REALLY want to spend the bulk of my money on thematically appropriate stuff. He is meant to be an evolutionary biologist and researcher with a special interest in plants. His plant companion is even one of his experiments.

Originally I was just going to buy a boat (the magic one from stormwrack) to function as his mobile laboratory, stables, greenhouse and library but for out-of-character reasons (the party has a boat they are emotionally attached to) this has been shot down.

Other considerations may include that I have been told I can get barding for my plant companion, but items that specifically affect "animals" that are intended for animal companions probably won't fly. Books arent really being restricted as long as they are mainline wotc, but I do need to be able to prove where it came from, and despite half my build coming from Dragonmag, id prefer to avoid it because I need to get each part approved individually.

Any advice is appreciated, and which books things come from would be double amazing.

[Albanymusicfund]

I'll list out as many come to mind for me:

I hope you can clear whether you want to stick to more of a researcher rather a an alchemist but if you do want to be an alchemist let me and I can offer you more.

- Gnome Calculus (lets you sling alchemical items as if it the range was a sling) Arms and Equipment Guide page 6
- A small cage for keeping your creatures in check Arms and Equipment Guide page 21
-The Insectbane candle is a cool addition that repels bugs check the same page as above
-A small magnet from Arms and Equipment page 24
- A Butterfly net for capturing small creatures to investigate Arms Equipment page 24
- Portable Writing Desk and Reading Lamp and Scroll organizer from page 71 of Tome and Blood works great
- Disappearing Ink or Phantom Ink (self-explanatory) from page 72 of Tome and Blood
- Thief Catcher This insidious item is the bane of thieves everywhere. It appears to be an ordinary book, but, in fact, it is a trap Page 58 of Song and silence (very expensive ask your DM to lower the price). Use it as protection from those that would steal from you.
- Nondescript Box: A nondescript box is perfectly ordinary in appearance, and it always seems to fit in with its surroundings. It'll be great to hide your books in page 57 of Song and Silence

Please let me know if any of this helped you!

[Falcii]

I love it! I could definitely see a path where an alchemist tilt to things could be cool. I was planning on flavoring spells to be using captured specimens to cause spell effects and my buffs to my plant being injecting serums into it to adapt it for combat so the alchemist thing could be dead on the money.

That said, we are a 3.5 camp so I'm not sure if those sources will fly. Sorry for not mentioning earlier, it totally slipped my mind that some people play with 3.0

[Telonius]

For your plant companion, does it have Fire vulnerability? Not all creatures with the Plant type do, but (for example) a Treant does. Giving it a Ring of Fire Resistance could be a good idea.

[ShurikVch]

Some more stuff:

Magnifying Glass (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#magnifyingGlass)

Masterwork Tools for Craft (taxidermy)

Harvester’s Field Kit (Dragon #317):

An initial inspection of one of these thick leather satchels reveals what looks to be the contents of a particularly well-stocked healer’s kit. However, among the various cutting implements (varying from bone saws to scalpels), serrated pins, tongs, pliers, unguents, oils, and culture jars, there is no evidence of any materials to clean or bandage a subject after the implied surgery.
Perfect for the swift and precise extraction of organs and other bodily materials, this grim toolkit provides a +2 circumstance bonus on all Survival checks made to extract power components and to Craft (alchemy) checks to prepare or preserve them.
60 gp, 3 lbs.

Alchemist’s Lab (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#alchemistsLab)

If 3.0 sources are OK, then also:
Animal Call (Arms and Equipment Guide) Crafted out of bone, metal, or wood, these special whistles are designed to mimic a specific animal voice - usually game animals and birds.
Arcane Lab (Tome and Blood) 500 gp
Candle, Focusing (Arms and Equipment Guide) +1 circumstance bonus on the following skill checks: Alchemy, Appraise, Decipher Script, Forgery, and Search; 100 gp
Fowler's Snare (Arms and Equipment Guide) This is a specially designed snare, used for capturing birds and other small flying game.
Heat Mat (Arms and Equipment Guide) This 1'x1' square mat is made of heat-absorbing materials. It can withstand temperatures of up to 1,200oF, even when a hot item is placed directly on it, and will not catch fire.
Pestle and Mortar (Arms and Equipment Guide)

[Vaern]

Headband of the Lorebinder gives a continuous +4 sacred bonus to bardic knowledge and 3/day read magic for 30 minutes. Combine with the Obscure Lore feat for a +4 insight bonus for some strong bardic knowledge rolls.

[Albanymusicfund]

I love it! I could definitely see a path where an alchemist tilt to things could be cool. I was planning on flavoring spells to be using captured specimens to cause spell effects and my buffs to my plant being injecting serums into it to adapt it for combat so the alchemist thing could be dead on the money.

That said, we are a 3.5 camp so I'm not sure if those sources will fly. Sorry for not mentioning earlier, it totally slipped my mind that some people play with 3.0

Hopefully, if you ask your DM those 3.0 magic items are mundane enough that you can use them, if not just say they're homebrew ideas you came up with.

In terms of Alchemical items, you'll either have to depend on pathfinder for that or online resources from forgotten realms which is pretty up in the air whether or not it works as a thing. I will link them below:

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/goods-and-services/herbs-oils-other-substances this is Pathfinder material

https://www.realmshelps.net/magic/items/alchemy.shtml this Forgotten realms 3.5 material (still just an online resource)

let me know if this helps o if I should find more alchemical materials

[Telonius]

Research-themed things..

Amulet of Proof Against Detection: ensures anonymous review.
Map of Unseen Lands (MiC): Trace it and submit it as a figure when you're describing your fieldwork.
Wand of Gentle Repose: Preserves your specimens.
Wand of Amanuensis (Spell Compendium): Make multiple copies of your papers, to submit to various journals.
Homebrew idea: Everfull Coffee Cup; same as an Everfull Mug (MiC) but with coffee instead of beer.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

So i am introducing a new character in our ongoing game this week and I need to spend my starting gold which is admittedly an obscene amount (250k for lvl 11 because reasons.) I am playing a Kobold (not dragonwrought or venerable) Druid (sidhe scholar with plant companion) Bard (ic sage) multiclass, so clearly I don't super care much about optimization, but I REALLY want to spend the bulk of my money on thematically appropriate stuff. He is meant to be an evolutionary biologist and researcher with a special interest in plants. His plant companion is even one of his experiments.

Originally I was just going to buy a boat (the magic one from stormwrack) to function as his mobile laboratory, stables, greenhouse and library but for out-of-character reasons (the party has a boat they are emotionally attached to) this has been shot down.

Maybe you can upgrade the boat to an elemental vessel (Eberron Campaign Setting)? Stormships and Windships are both powered by a bound elemental (which personally I'd try to refluff because it feels a little evil); of the two, I think Stormship would be your best bet, for several reasons. 1) It already uses essentially a traditional sailing vessel as a base, while the Windship is more of a pontoon/hydroplane thing. 2) It's cooler; a perpetual storm (which can be turned off) around your vessel, it's winds granting it incredible speed and threatening enemy ships, is awesome. 3) It has a couple of nice synergies, like the Lightning Turbine (Arms & Equipment Guide) which doubles your speed in a storm and the Lightning Ballista (Heroes of Battle) which can fire lightning bolt either every round or every other round (can't recall off the top of my head) while in a storm.

Other cool or thematic upgrades off the top of my head:

Switching to soarwood or living wood as the material (both from one of the Eberron books; can't remember whether it was Campaign Setting or Player's Guide). Soarwood makes it lighter and faster, and living wood is highly appropriate for your character and can IIRC be healed like a living creature.
Earth Keel or Sky Keel (Arms & Equipment Guide). Your ship is no longer confined to the sea! Expensive.
Really, most of the ship-based magic items in Stormwrack are cool, but here are two that fit well with the plant experiments theme. Secure Lines: the ropes of your ship are alive and helpful; fluff them as vines that you've grown. Living Figurehead: figurehead animates to attack your foes; most appropriate if the ship is living wood, but the Purpleheart Kraken could also be easily fluffed as more snatching vines.
Landlord feat (Stronghold Builder's Guide). Gives you free money to spend on your base of operations, i.e. your ship, and also matches your own investment up to a certain amount each level. The book also provides prices for things like alchemy labs and libraries, but trying to fit a ship into its rules for base sizes to figure out the costs for more global upgrades may be more trouble than it's worth. The feat can be taken by multiple members of the party for the same base.
Ancestral Relic feat (Book of Exalted Deeds). Depending on how the party got the ship, one or more of you may qualify for taking this feat. You know how normally you have to sell treasure at half-price? This feat lets you convert it into an upgrade for the chosen relic, at full value. Unfortunately, there's a maximum value for the relic based on your level, so this feat doesn't play nicely with a lot of the other options I've suggested.
Alchemical siege weapons (Stormwrack). There are optional rules for using alchemical smoke-powder as a gunpowder substitute for powering great big cannons! Ask your DM first on that one, since as the book notes even gunpowder-lite doesn't fit in some settings. There's still the Firespout, for dousing enemy ships, monsters, and possibly ports with alchemical fire, though! The firespout doesn't even take up one of the weapon slots on the ship, which is nice.



Other considerations may include that I have been told I can get barding for my plant companion, but items that specifically affect "animals" that are intended for animal companions probably won't fly. Books arent really being restricted as long as they are mainline wotc, but I do need to be able to prove where it came from, and despite half my build coming from Dragonmag, id prefer to avoid it because I need to get each part approved individually.

The Arms & Equipment Guide is one of my favorite sourcebooks. Just scanning through the Companions, Pets, and Mounts section:

[Creature Type] Trainer feat. Use Animal Handling to rear plants (or some other type), training them just like you would an animal. Here (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=1300.0)'s a guide I've used before for the best tricks to teach and items to get for animal plant companions.
Turns out Phantom Fungi are trainable. Spores cost 1,000gp, training another 1,000 or a DC 27 check.
A couple of mundane mount items; of note are the howdah and sidecar saddles for fitting more people onto large monsters.
Lots of magic items to make training, feeding, and riding monsters easier. Many of these specify horses, but the Bridle of Ease (500gp) is a fantastic deal for the price if you want to train your experiments, though you may have to get a separate one for each species, and the Shrink Collar (10,000gp) makes them far more portable by reducing them to Small size without changing their stats.
Tendriculos mount. 3,000gp for a seed, 2,000 or DC 27 to train it. Also requires a special alchemical mixture for growing the seed, presumably included in the cost but nicely flavorful.
Equine Golem; wooden horse. 20,000 gp and 750 XP to create (which requires both level 12 and a shipload of spells), so over 40,000 to buy (don't know the exact calculation).



EDIT:
Oh, and here's a lovely resource for the best mundane and alchemical items. Shax's Indispensable Haversack, AKA: How To Obliterate A Dungeon On Less Than 100 GP Per Day (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?148101-3-x-Shax-s-Indispensible-Haversack-(Equipment-Handbook)&p=8235865).