My Artificer wants to make some items for it's party, need some ideas.

[vampire2948]

Hey Playground,

Started a new campaign yesterday, planned to run from 1st to 20th [and possibly beyond, if we dare open the ELH]

Party Makeup:
Elf Rogue [Using two-weapon fighting with daggers, likes jumping]
Elf Ranger [Uses longbows, is looking foward to manyshot]
DMPC Dwarf Cleric [DM felt we needed a healbot. Not sure why.]
Human Artificer [This is me. Aiming to make constructs later on, etc. Played this character so I could be the magic item maker, support and healer with wands and such]

Party is mostly goodly aligned. Though my Artificer is NN.

We got to second level yesterday. And what i'd like to ask the playground is:

What items should I create for my party, myself, or similar, throughout the course of the campaign?

I've already got quite a lot of ideas, ranging from magical weapons to intelligent items. But anything you guys put down, that i've not already thought of, would be appreciated.

Thanks for your time,

Vampire2948,


P.S. The DM is especially fond of the following:

Things with DR
Poisons [specifically physical stat draining ones]
Traps, everywhere. [We resorted to taking 20 on every single room of the first dungeon. And even then we didn't find some of them.]

[AslanCross]

You could obviate the need for a healbot by crafting wands or scribing scrolls. As the artificer, you have so many spells at your fingertips that you're essentially the party's problem solver.

If your DM tracks food and water, items like the Survival Pouch, Everlasting Rations and Replenishing Skin will help ease the burden of staying alive. (the Survival pouch has so many other uses besides)

Giving yourself an Infinite Scrollcase will help you use your scrolls more effectively in combat.

[Lucas Pitta]

I`ve got a great idea for the rogue. Accelerated movement (spell compendium). allows him to balance, climb, hide and move silently at full speed with no penalty. The spell is first level, so you can cast it with a caster level of 1, since it`s measured in rounds, you multiply the cost by four, still is very very cheap for such an item. (1x1x2000)x4=8000GP
A bargain if I ever saw one ;]

[vampire2948]

Indeed. I'm planning on making a few scrolls of CMW, and probably also Vigor for next adventure. Hopefully he'll stop using his cleric... I don't see the need for it really. It just sits there and casts CLW every round.. not sure how he has that many spell slots.

As for the Accelerated Movement idea, I like that one. I think the Ranger would appreciate that too. She likes hiding and sniping.

I'm planning on going down the dual wand wielder feat line. Any suggestions for spells to use in my wands? I was thinking Lesser and Normal orbs of force.

[Randel]

Magic Item Compendium has the Healing Belt, it gives you three shots of healing per day each roughly like a cure light wounds. They are also fairly cheap so you can crank out a whole bunch of them and wear them all over your body.

Then the artificers monocle lets you ID magic items for free (I think) so thats useful.

Also, if you are a human from House Cannith you can get a Dragonmark of Making. Dragonmarked has some awesom spells and infusions for dragonmarked characters. Cannith gets Summon Marked Homunculus which... well you can summon a homunculus for one hour per level. I've gotten great use out of it by summoning expeditious messengers and having them scout areas ahead of the group (and occasionally pick up small objects). If the summoned homunculus is destroyed then it explodes and damages thing around it and you don't get any backlash.

Also, its a lvl 1 infusion.


Other than that... find some way to transport large numbers of sheep and/or chickens. Spend a few dozen gp to get a herd of livestock and herd it into the dungeon and have them set off traps.

As for creating constructs... I'm not really sure about that (never got far enough to craft any). But I suppose if you have the Summon Marked Homunculus infusion you can just craft a whole bunch of Pearls of Power (or whatever) to give yourself enough 1st level infusions to summon them as needed.

Feats and spells that could be fun:

Instant Potion - From spell compendium, creates a temporary potion that holds a spell. costs nothing to cast and can be used by anyone. You can give them to the walking chest homunculi to give to people in combat or sell them to people on the streets.

Exeptional Artifice - not sure of the name but its the feat that cuts down on the gold price of items you craft.

greater dragonmarks - the summon marked homunculi spell lets you summon better homunculi if you have a bigger dragonmark. Decent to look into.



and thats about all I can think of for the moment. If you have Magic Item Compendium then browse though it and I'm sure there may be some odd stuff that would be useful to combat traps.

[sonofzeal]

I highly recommend as many of the following wands as you can get....

BUFFS
Enlarge Person
Expeditous Retreat
Guided Shot (swift, no distance/cover/conceal on next shot)
Invisibility
Lesser Vigor
Lesser Restore
Protection from X
Reduce Person
Resist Energy
Spider Climb
True Strike
Wieldskill (+10 to any skill, or use untrained, or gain proficiency)

ATTACKS
Entangle (ref DC 14)
Glitterdust (will DC 15)
Grease (DC 10 Balance check)
Magic Missile (4d4+4)
Ray of Clumsiness (1d6+2 dex)
Ray of Enfeeblement (1d6+2 str)
Ray of Exhaustion (DC 16)
Scorching Ray (4d6)
Seeking Ray (4d6, precise, +4 rays for 5 rounds)
Bands of Steel (CArcane)
- no SR, any creature
- Ref DC 14 vs helpless, fail = entangled, five rounds
- Str DC 18 or Escape Artist DC 18 to remove (full round)
- entangled = half speed, -2 atks, -4 dex
Magnetism (CArcane)
- no SR, ranged touch
- pulls with str 30, disarms at bab+10, five rounds
- lands safely in hand, or beside if too big.

UTILITY/DUAL THREAT
Benign Transposition
Knock
Lay of the Land (detailed mental map, 50 miles)
Silence
Silent Image




....and note that, since you can make low-CL versions of items, you can get 2nd level spell wands for 1500 instead of 4500 like most people, and that's before self-crafting discount.

[AslanCross]

I think you'd get more damage out of Scorching Ray than the Lesser Orbs. The Lv 4 Orbs will be very expensive to wand, though, but they're solid options.

I also recommend Ray of Dizziness (Lv 3). Target can only make one move or one standard action, but not both (and no full-round actions either). No save.

@SonofZeal: Where's Wieldskill from? That sounds tasty.

[Volkov]

Your a goddamned artificer, you don't need a frakkin' party.

[deuxhero]

Eternal wand of extended rope trick.

[sonofzeal]

I think you'd get more damage out of Scorching Ray than the Lesser Orbs. The Lv 4 Orbs will be very expensive to wand, though, but they're solid options.

Wand of Scorching Ray is a poor idea; it's worse in just about every way from a Wand of Seeking Ray (PHB2), unless electricity resistance is somehow more common than fire resistance in your game, or you're paying for the high-CL versions. Note that, as a 2nd level spell, Artificers (and only Artificers) can make CL 1 versions of it for 1500 gp base price, and that doesn't reduce the damage for either.

@SonofZeal: Where's Wieldskill from? That sounds tasty.

Magic of Faerun. It also has some other options, such as granting a proficiency temporarily, but the skill boost is king.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Note that, as a 2nd level spell, Artificers (and only Artificers) can make CL 1 versions of it for 1500 gp base price...

Actually, they can't. The rules specifically disallow it. You can theoretically craft a wand that uses a caster level below its normal minimum, but you don't get a discount for doing so.

The book uses the example example of a scroll of fireball with CL3, the maximum for a level 3 artificer. He could make it, but still had to pay for materials as though it had a CL of 5.

Anyway, one particularly hilarious core spell would be mount, especially if you can convince your DM to let you summon some of those riding lizards from the talenta plains. At first level, you can have a combination battering ram, meat shield, and smokescreen that lasts longer than a normal summon spell. When you start making wands, it's just 375gp and a small bit of craft reserve for your own pocket yoshi stampede. Make an eternal wand at CL 4 or so and never worry about transportation again.

At level 5, you can make a scroll of reincarnate. Expensive? Sure. An affront to the local druid sect? Probably. But it's also a surefire way to put that stupid cleric in his place if you find occasion to use it. "Why can't you help her, Reverend Swordbeard? Oh, that's right, she's DEAD. But don't worry! *I* have just the thing."

[Thrawn183]

You are taking the time to disable the magic traps and then come back later and drain them for their tasty tasty crafting xp right?

[absolmorph]

I`ve got a great idea for the rogue. Accelerated movement (spell compendium). allows him to balance, climb, hide and move silently at full speed with no penalty. The spell is first level, so you can cast it with a caster level of 1, since it`s measured in rounds, you multiply the cost by four, still is very very cheap for such an item. (1x1x2000)x4=8000GP
A bargain if I ever saw one ;]

Heck, just make it continuous. Cost: 1*1*2000=2000 gp for boots that allow him to move full speed when he's not tumbling or affected by magic? Yes, please. Or, if you want, it can have no space limitations just for doubling the price. I'd call that a bargain.

[Xan_Kriegor]

Heck, just make it continuous. Cost: 1*1*2000=2000 gp for boots that allow him to move full speed when he's not tumbling or affected by magic? Yes, please. Or, if you want, it can have no space limitations just for doubling the price. I'd call that a bargain.

Creating Magic items, via SRD.

That's the formula that Lucas used, but he also saw the footnote attached to 'Use-activated or continuous.' That's why he multiplied times 4, because Accelerated Movement is a spell that's measured in rounds so the guidelines say multiply by 4.

EDIT: Given Dr.Gunsforhands' suggestion of making scrolls of Reincarnate, check out Last Breath and Revivify from the SpC. Both require being cast within a round of the target's death, but they also don't have a negative level attached, which is quite nice. *looks at Reincarnate* Okay, so the breakdown for Last Breath vs. Reincarnate is Last Breath has to be used within one round, it's the same spell level (), but it also has 500gp less of material components. And no level loss. As for Revivify, it's a level 5 spell that has Reincarnate's 1000gp material component, but then you don't have to worry about your Rogue in the party turning into a Half-Orc.

[PinkysBrain]

Use activated item pricing guideline is insane (and continuous item pricing lacks a multiplier for personal range spells and the complete lack of slot limitations with the guidelines removes an important balancing factor from magic items). Something like a use activated vampiric touch sword which activates on a sword swing turns the game into win by fiat (well unless the DM says turnabout is fair play and use activates you into a smoldering pile of ashes in the surprise round with the same sort of shenanigans).

IMO use activation only makes sense for spells with duration like haste (boots of speed) and true seeing (gem of seeing) for instant/discharged spells it's terribly unbalancing ... and really activation should be swift, they just didn't have swift actions when they wrote up the DMG.

[sonofzeal]

Actually, they can't. The rules specifically disallow it. You can theoretically craft a wand that uses a caster level below its normal minimum, but you don't get a discount for doing so.

The book uses the example example of a scroll of fireball with CL3, the maximum for a level 3 artificer. He could make it, but still had to pay for materials as though it had a CL of 5.

Ah, you're correct. Seeking Ray is still thoroughly better than Scorching Ray for a wide portion of the game, anyway. High-CL wands aren't very cost-effective, for a class that depends on managing cash inflow-outflow.