Time for a TRUE display of skill

[woodenbandman]

What are all the ways for an optimized wizard to gimp himself with items? I know he could have a legacy weapon with holy and axiomatic (if he were CE) and wear mechanus gear. What else?

[Temotei]

Wear heavy armor. That arcane spell failure will hurt.

EDIT: Also, finding or crafting a robe of powerlessness could help.

[Flickerdart]

Dust of Sneezing and Choking administered 24/7.

[ryzouken]

Staff with Heightened (lv 6+) Feeblemind.

Wiz uses staff targeting himself and fails the save. Int and Cha 1. Cannot be removed except by Heal, Wish, Limited Wish, or Miracle (Break Enchantment won't work as Feeblemind is now too high level)

have him read a book of exalted deeds as an evil character.

Ooh! Give him the Shattering Blades of Coronal Ynloeth! Then he can once per year smash them together and do an AoE reflex save or die, that also kills himself such that it takes a true res to bring him back!

It's actually a pretty big AoE too... 500 feet radius. Reflex fail: dead. Reflex pass: 15d6 slashing. Guy doing the smashing? No save, just super dead. Good DC too... a lot of guys would fail it pre epic...

[Kylarra]

Get an item familiar. Invest spell slots/skill points into them. Lose familiar. Replace next level and invest more. repeat.

[The Glyphstone]

Wear Mountain Plate and carry a Tower Shield. 100%+ spell failure chance right there.

[DementedFellow]

I was under the impression that arcane spell failure factored into spells with somatic components. Was I misreading?

[The Glyphstone]

Oh, right. Well, that knocks out all somatic spells at least.

[Welknair]

Wait, what's the goal here? To reduce a spellcaster to his minimum power? So is this caster an enemy? If not, why do you want to make yourself or your ally powerless?

[The Glyphstone]

I'm pretty sure there is no point. It's just a goofy thought experiment.

[woodenbandman]

Well I had this idea that a badguy was so bad that he naturally thought that heroes would come to try and kill him, so he hid his power with a bunch of magic items that would weaken him. further, he would make it seem as though the items were extremely important to him, as if they held a lot of power, so adventurers who did want to try and kill him would try to destroy the items, thus activating his Trap Card.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Well I had this idea that a badguy was so bad that he naturally thought that heroes would come to try and kill him, so he hid his power with a bunch of magic items that would weaken him. further, he would make it seem as though the items were extremely important to him, as if they held a lot of power, so adventurers who did want to try and kill him would try to destroy the items, thus activating his Trap Card.

Weren't there a pair of shackles that prevented any and all arcane casting by the wearer?

[FMArthur]

Slap on a cursed Headband of Intellect "-6" and call it a day. His spells are weaker, lower in quantity, and he can't prepare the high-level ones that matter most. Better yet, just forget items and make him keep his good spells in reserve for emergencies. That's what every wizard I've ever halfway-optimized has done to fit into a normal game and it's been successful every time. If he doesn't want to show his power, he just doesn't have to. It's not like he visibly radiates magical energy for preparing spells.

[Beelzebub1111]

Weren't there a pair of shackles that prevented any and all arcane casting by the wearer?

I think that they're silence shackles or anti-magic shackles. Works either way. One Gets all spells with verbal, somatic, and material components out the other just blocks all spells from being cast.

[Elric VIII]

Well, between Mechanus Armor, Tower Shield, and Silence Shackles that leaves only non-verbal and -somatic spells. Add some rust to that armor and good luck getting to those material components.

[Jack_Simth]

It's not like he visibly radiates magical energy for preparing spells.

Arcane Sight has a pesky clause: "you concentrate on a specific creature within 120 feet of you as a standard action, you can determine whether it has any spellcasting or spell-like abilities, whether these are arcane or divine (spell-like abilities register as arcane), and the strength of the most powerful spell or spell-like ability the creature currently has available for use. "

So while he won't radiate spellcasting ability to everyone, there are those who can simply tell.... but I suppose Mind Blank takes care of that...

[Starbuck_II]

What are all the ways for an optimized wizard to gimp himself with items? I know he could have a legacy weapon with holy and axiomatic (if he were CE) and wear mechanus gear. What else?

Mechanus armor only has ASF when you fail check (not a hard check either).

[The Glyphstone]

Mechanus armor only has ASF when you fail check (not a hard check either).

Mountain Plate is better anyways, for a flat 60% failure chance. Combine with a Steel Tower Shield for guaranteed failure on any somatic component.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Shackles of AMF. There ya go. It gives him immunity to any spell that allows SR, and also prevents him from casting period.

PC's will believe that he is wearing the shackles because it renders him immune to most magical effects, and will try most dilligently to remove them from him.

Having finally found a way to remove them, they then find out that he's actually a very powerful wizard. Cue Trap Card, and proceed to Fell Drain Cold Snap + Quickened Evard's Black Tentacles.

Fluff and backstory to follow in spoiler:

Spoiler

Show

Once, he was a powerful Wizard. Too powerful. He let the power go to his head, and did great wrong. So powerful was he, that the very dieties became worried.

The entire multi-pantheon called a temporary truce, and collaborated to ensure that this great and powerful wizard was taken down a peg or two. Simple death was easy to circumvent, no that was far too easy. Plus it did not really render any punishment. So rather than exterminating him, they crafted a pair of shackles which would lock down his arcane abilities, rendering him practically helpless, then force him to wander the world in this state, unable to cast so much as a cantrip.

A band of paladins and clerics went forth with these shackles, the battle was mighty. Clerics of Mystara wove their magic to bind him long enough for the shackles to be applied. And though the cost of life was terrible, the deed was finally done.

Now he wanders the world, posing as a low to mid-level warrior. He picked up a heavily enchanted blade, needed for one of his lack of physical prowess to be able to hit the broad side of a barn, and a suit of heavy armor to protect him, now that his spells were unable to.

The only way to remove the shackles was for one pure of heart to open them. They would not bend to any skill of the wicked, nor to any spell nor force. But should one pure of heart try to open them, it would do so.

now for the crunch block:

Spoiler

Show

Wiz5/Mage of the Arcane Order5/Incantatrix10/Archmage5

Equipment:

Shackles - prevents any arcane casting, but also renders him immune to any spell which allows SR

Sword: +5 Keen Brilliant Energy Longsword.
Shield: +1 Heavy Fortification Heavy Adamantine Shield
Armor: Mountain Plate

Yes, that's 25 levels. He's an epic level caster, and he's an Incantatrix to boot

[Starscream]

No one has mentioned intelligent magic items yet, and there are so many possibilities there.

Intelligent Cursed -2 sword. He can't get rid of it because it is cursed.

Make it his opposite alignment, and that's a negative level right there that he also can't get rid of.

Give it a high Ego score, so it can influence his actions. Because it has the opposite alignment (and a high enough Ego to think it's better than him), it will naturally work against him.

Finally, give it some nasty spell like abilities that it can use against him when he ticks it off. Lots of stuff that it could use to make its "owner's" life a living hell, even if you just limit yourself to SRD stuff:
* Hold Person
* Zone of Truth
* Daze Monster
* Cause Fear
* Dimensional Anchor
* Magic Circle Against (Owner's Alignment)
* Invisibility Purge

But my favorite is to give the item Detect Thoughts (usable at will), enough intelligence to speak, and simply have it read its owner's mind and broadcast what he's thinking to everyone. "He's about to cast Fireball, watch out!"

Would make a good punishment for an evil spellcaster. Simply hand such an item to him, and it will ruin his life.

[Urpriest]

Shackles of AMF. There ya go. It gives him immunity to any spell that allows SR, and also prevents him from casting period.

PC's will believe that he is wearing the shackles because it renders him immune to most magical effects, and will try most dilligently to remove them from him.

Having finally found a way to remove them, they then find out that he's actually a very powerful wizard. Cue Trap Card, and proceed to Fell Drain Cold Snap + Quickened Evard's Black Tentacles.

To make this more plausible, make him a grappling martial-artist type. It will seem like he's using the shackles to defend himself, but really he's a powerful grapplemancer with a handicap. Just don't let them notice the octopus on his shoulder.

[Tyndmyr]

What are all the ways for an optimized wizard to gimp himself with items?

Well, he could make a hobby out of disjunctioning artifacts. I think that'd be sufficient.

[Jeristo]

Well, I don't know what books you're interested in/allowed to use, but in the Arms and Armor book (not WoTC), there is a material called slade, which is very rare, blah, blah... The important detail is that it entirely disables casting of spells by the wearer (divine and arcane) and will nullify any magical equipment worn if you have armor or a weapon made from the material.

The upside is that weapons have a dispelling capability on hit, and the armor grants spell resistance of varying grades. The downside is that it's rare, as stated before, and therefore quite expensive depending on what you want to make with it.

[Kurald Galain]

What are all the ways for an optimized wizard to gimp himself with items?

Using Sovereign Glue to close his spell component pouch?

[Amiel]

Wear cursed items; armour of arrow attraction, bag of devouring, bracers of defenselessness, gauntlets of fumbling et al.

You could claim inspiration from Looney Tunes. Intentionally fumbled spells, "cursed" spells and heavy objects that seem to appear out of nowhere to land only upon your person.

[supermonkeyjoe]

He could store all of his spellbooks, grimoires, scrolls and wands in a bag of devouring.

[big teej]

Ooh! Give him the Shattering Blades of Coronal Ynloeth! Then he can once per year smash them together and do an AoE reflex save or die, that also kills himself such that it takes a true res to bring him back!

It's actually a pretty big AoE too... 500 feet radius. Reflex fail: dead. Reflex pass: 15d6 slashing. Guy doing the smashing? No save, just super dead. Good DC too... a lot of guys would fail it pre epic...

what book is this from?

I see this fitting right in with my ever ongoing desire to have a "go, I'll hold them" moments

[Cespenar]

Guy comes to battle strapped tightly to a wheelchair with a gag. He has prepared every spell he has as Stilled and Silent, which means he basically acts like a wizard 4 levels lower (kinda). He controls the wheelchair with some kind of flight/telekinesis spell as well.

Both gimping and badass.

[Ernir]

Both gimping and badass.

In more than one way.

[mangosta71]

Have him fight Westley to the pain.