Equipping Piggy's "Dahlver-Nah, Bro" (at level 1, for the cold, but also generally)

[rrwoods]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...ahlver-Nah-Bro

Giving this a go in a new campaign, starting at level 1. This build looks *extremely* cool, and has all sorts of narrative hooks for a sweet backstory and character arc built right into the class progression. I'm pretty stoked to play this.

BUT.

Piggy's equipment suggestions are fairly light, essentially being "get armor, shield, and waraxe; get dispensable allies for shield self*; get sources of turn attempts; get tank stuff". I'm mostly interested in two things:

1) For mid-to-late, what does "equip yourself like your typical melee tank" actually mean in practice? I have experience with the necessary items list, and will definitely reference it when the time comes to spend a real amount of gold, but how does this change for someone trying to play the defender?

2) How should I best spend my starting gold? We're starting at 1, in the northern part of Faerun. I don't know Faerun at all. But it's going to be "bitter cold". I'm currently spending my 125 gold as follows, based on advice from Shax's Indispensable -- and I might use this session and advice I get here to work on the type 0 I've been trying to get to... :

(I don't have martial weapon or shield proficiency yet, will buy a waraxe and shield next level)
8 - morningstar
8 - mule
5 - pack saddle
4 - saddlebags
10 - tent
0.1 - bedroll
1 - marbles x 2
1 - flint and steel
0.3 - empty flasks
1 - insectbane candles x 10 (it's a five-person party with varying levels of experience, getting 2 per person)
1 - clearwater tablet
20 - collapsible pole (the only 3.0 book allowed for equipment is explicitly AEG, so I believe this is the best option in this category)
10 - silk rope
20 - defoliator
10 - fast torch x 2
0.4 - flour pouch x 4
0.5 - hammer
1 - piton x 10

23.7 remaining

I am thinking about a net, but it's probably redundant enough with the marbles that it's not worth a 20 gold investment at level 1? I need to trawl Frostburn (probably) for cold-related items, but if folks have suggestions that would be great too! We have not run a session yet so nothing above is set in stone, meaning if I should be swapping something out for something else that's better, I can still do that.

EDIT: I will probably tack on cold weather outfit, and possibly fur clothing.

(*I'm actually not entirely sure how I feel about the whole "bag of tricks so you can split your HP with a rat" tactic. Might do, might not. We'll see where the party optimization level shakes out but it might be a bit of a stretch.)

[WhamBamSam]

Anything that increases AC outside of usual armor/shield/ability score stuff is stuff you might consider particular tank gear. You also might want to buy a wand of Scintillating Scales and shove it into the hands of your party wizard if you think enemies might start going after your touch AC to get around your natural armor bonus. The List of Necessary Magic Items is what I always fall back on when figuring out how to equip characters if I've got extra cash.

For level 1, you're going to want some sort of ranged attack for when you can't get into melee, even with your low Dex. You're a little short of being able to afford a light crossbow without losing some stuff. Maybe a dagger or two that you can throw when necessary, and also give you something to get through zombie DR, since half your Str mod from two-handing your morningstar won't make up for it.

Most of the really bad stuff in the cold should be governed by Fort saves, which you're good at. Snuggle up with your party members and/or mule at night and when you kill an animal during the day, make a point in RP of cutting open its belly and sticking your hands in (or offer this as an OOC tip to the party Ranger/Druid/whatever beforehand).

[Troacctid]

Forget necessary items, you want the List of Useful Items. There's a tag for Cheap Essentials.

[rrwoods]

Anything that increases AC outside of usual armor/shield/ability score stuff is stuff you might consider particular tank gear. You also might want to buy a wand of Scintillating Scales and shove it into the hands of your party wizard if you think enemies might start going after your touch AC to get around your natural armor bonus. The List of Necessary Magic Items is what I always fall back on when figuring out how to equip characters if I've got extra cash.

For level 1, you're going to want some sort of ranged attack for when you can't get into melee, even with your low Dex. You're a little short of being able to afford a light crossbow without losing some stuff. Maybe a dagger or two that you can throw when necessary, and also give you something to get through zombie DR, since half your Str mod from two-handing your morningstar won't make up for it.

Most of the really bad stuff in the cold should be governed by Fort saves, which you're good at. Snuggle up with your party members and/or mule at night and when you kill an animal during the day, make a point in RP of cutting open its belly and sticking your hands in (or offer this as an OOC tip to the party Ranger/Druid/whatever beforehand).

I remember an AC handbook being around somewhere, I'll definitely give it a look. Wand of scintillating scales sounds like a great idea; I am not entirely sure we will have someone who can use it yet, but I will definitely keep it in mind. At the least we probably have someone who can UMD it (not me though). I'm familiar with the necessary items list, and will definitely be referencing it! I'm mostly looking for things that might not appear on it because they're not "generally" useful, but are good on this particular build.

A ranged attack is a great idea and I will at least be picking up a dagger or three. Conveniently they can also get through DR/slashing.

We've got a new-to-3.5 player on a druid and I will *definitely* be giving her that tip!

Forget necessary items, you want the List of Useful Items. There's a tag for Cheap Essentials.

... Woah. Do you have a collection of collections? 'Cause every time I see you post a google doc I'm like "yeah that's getting bookmarked right now". :P

[Piggy Knowles]

I'll confess, equipment optimization is my absolute least favorite part of 3.5, and honestly I only include the equipment recommendation section at all in the write-ups because it has been requested, and so that I have a place to put in any specific items that are especially helpful. (Ironically, I also LOVE playing artificers... go figure, I guess! Maybe I just hate shopping.)

Usually when I'm playing (and it has been a while since I've played as a PC, as I've been the DM of my last two groups) I go fairly basic and visit my good friends Bunko and Shax, plus a healthy perusal of the List of Necessary Items, and grab whatever seems good so that I don't have to think about it too much. Troacctid's list looks excellent as always, and like you I'll be bookmarking it for the next time I need to equip a character from scratch.

[Troacctid]

It's secretly just the item spreadsheet from my Warlockopedia, but with more stuff on it. The tags should cover the major bases, similar to the Necessary Items list, but then everything else is also on there, like, y'know, for good measure. The only awkward thing is Google Sheets is not actually very good at filtering tags, since its filters don't even accept Boolean operators, let alone regular expressions.