Equip that (N)PC!

[RNightstalker]

Due to overwhelming popular demand...ok one guy thought it was cool and that's enough for me. Seeing as how most NPC's are vastly underequipped, what would they look like after the playground did their thing?

I guess we can start with one of the most well-known: Elminster. Equip him as your own PC with 7,900,000 gp, or as an epic NPC with we'll call it 920,000 gp.

[Maat Mons]

Okay, let's start with my usual high-level picks:

• Bracers of Armor Heavy Fortification, Proof Against Transmutation (121,000 gp)
• Hathran Mask of True Seeing (75,000 gp)
• Cowl of Warding (200,800 gp)
• Ring of Death Ward, Deflection +5, Resistance +5, Universal Energy Resistance 30 (345,000 gp)
• Belt of Magnificence +6 (200,000 gp)
• Ring of Solar Wings (118,000 gp)
• Starmantle Cloak (132,000 gp)

Heavy Fortification and Proof Against Transmutation are added to the Bracers of Armor using the rule from Arms and Equipment Guide. Ring of Death Ward is from Dragon, and the other stuff is added via that table in the back of Magic Item Compendium.

[RNightstalker]

Okay, let's start with my usual high-level picks:

• Bracers of Armor Heavy Fortification, Proof Against Transmutation (121,000 gp)
• Hathran Mask of True Seeing (75,000 gp)
• Cowl of Warding (200,800 gp)
• Ring of Death Ward, Deflection +5, Resistance +5, Universal Energy Resistance 30 (345,000 gp)
• Belt of Magnificence +6 (200,000 gp)
• Ring of Solar Wings (118,000 gp)
• Starmantle Cloak (132,000 gp)

Heavy Fortification and Proof Against Transmutation are added to the Bracers of Armor using the rule from Arms and Equipment Guide. Ring of Death Ward is from Dragon, and the other stuff is added via that table in the back of Magic Item Compendium.

Don't forget that Elminster has immunities from being a Chosen of Mystra.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

First of all, redo his feats and possibly class levels. He was printed in 3.0 before the ELH even existed. Keep the three cleric levels so he can take Initiate of Mystra, and it also enables Divine Defiance.


For gear, cover the necessary magic items and add effects to other items when possible per MIC p234.

• Flight: Covered by spellcasting.
• Mind Blank: Covered by spellcasting.
• Stun Negation: Banner of the Storm's Eye (shoulders), 15,000 gp.
• Daze Negation: Quick Recovery feat (LoM).
• Fear Immunity: Covered (mind blank, stun negation).
• True Seeing: Hathran Mask of True Seeing (face), 75,000 gp.
• Miss Chance: +1 Defending Spiked Gauntlet with the Displacement weapon property (OA), 108,305 gp.
• Tactical Teleportation: Covered by spellcasting, and/or Anklet of Translocation (feet), 1,400 gp.
• Immunity to Death Effects: Robe enchanted as +1 Soulfire armor (body), 25,000 gp.
• Freedom of Movement: Ring of Freedom of Movement (finger), 40,000 gp.
• Extradimensional Storage: Covered by spellcasting, and/or Bag of Holding/Handy Haversack.
• Dispel Magic and counters: Covered by spellcasting (active), and/or add Spellblade to the above spiked gauntlet as often as needed, 6,000 gp per.
• Initiative: Covered by spellcasting (Nerveskitter, Moment of Prescience, Sign), and Belt of Battle (waist), 12,000 gp.
• Special Senses: Covered by spellcasting.

That's only 282,705 gp, plus however many Spellblade instances you get (Dispel Magic, Greater Dispel Magic, Arcane Turmoil, Chain Dispel, etc.).

Shoulders, face, feet, body, waist, and one ring slot have been used, plus the spiked gauntlet that counts as a held item that doesn't prevent him from holding another item in that hand.

Of his signature items, the +5 Thundering Longsword (72, 315 gp), Ring of Regeneration (90,000 gp), and his pipe (unique) are really all that matter. The Mantle of Spell Resistance is laughable, and the slot it takes is already occupied.

Give him a Vest of the Archmagi (200,000 gp), MIC suggests it doesn't actually exist, but if anyone has one, it's the Big E.

Make that robe that's enchanted as though it were armor a Robe of the Vagabond in CC for 6,000 gp.

Add a Necklace of Adaptation with +5 natural armor and +6 constitution and maybe +6 wisdom added per MIC p234.

Add a Hat of Anonymity (created at his own caster level for a higher nondetection DC) or Circlet of Rapid Casting with +6 intelligence and maybe +6 charisma added per MIC p234.

Add a +5 deflection bonus to AC to one of his rings per MIC p234. Add a +6 bonus to strength to his belt per MIC p234.

Give him the Seven Veils item set in MIC, but double their price so they don't occupy an item slot, then combine them into a single item so the second-most-expensive one is at 75% cost and the rest are at 50% (which cancels out the doubling). That item would be 93,000 gp total for all seven items' effects and the set bonuses.

Give him four 7th level Pearls of Power (196,000 gp) and every day he prepares Energy Immunity once and uses those to cast it five times. This way he's always immune to all five energy types.

Craft Contingent Spell allows for some shenanigans. Give him one that triggers an Indomitable spell whenever any damage would reduce him below 1 hp, and another that triggers a Heal spell afterward. Give him one that Teleports him to safety if someone casts Disjunction on him, or if he would be hit with an incapacitating effect. Give him one that casts Break Enchantment on him if he's ever affected by a condition that he would want that to remove.

Give him plenty of metamagic rods, Greater Chain Spell in CA is fantastic.

I don't think that's even half of the allowed budget, but he would likely also have tons of tools (Blessed Book, Book of All Knowledge from CC, Instant Fortress, etc.) in his Bag of Holding. Throw in a Shax's Indispensable Haversack type IV for under 70k as well. I'd also give him a cache of backup items, and multiple backup spellbooks stashed around the 'realms.

[Biggus]

Due to overwhelming popular demand...ok one guy thought it was cool and that's enough for me. Seeing as how most NPC's are vastly underequipped, what would they look like after the playground did their thing?

I guess we can start with one of the most well-known: Elminster. Equip him as your own PC with 7,900,000 gp, or as an epic NPC with we'll call it 920,000 gp.

I'll go for the 920,000GP version as it's more of a challenge. Likewise I'll assume no entirely new custom items, but existing items can have multiple powers of other existing items added, costing +50% unless they're one of the common effects listed on p.234 of the MIC.

Head: Circlet of Rapid Casting, Headband of Conscious Effort, +6 Int 54,000GP
Face: Hathran Mask of True Seeing, Third Eye Clarity, Third Eye Penetrate 91,500GP
Neck: Amulet of Health +6 Con 36,000GP
Torso: Vest of the Archmagi 200,000GP
Body: Robe of Arcane Might, Mysterious Conjuration 36,000GP
Waist: Belt of Battle, Monk's Belt, Ruby Cincture of Immutability 49,000GP
Shoulders: Minor Cloak of Displacement 25,000GP
Arms: Bracers of Arcane Freedom 2,300GP
Hands: Casting Glove, Dex +6 56,000GP
Ring 1: Evasion, Anticipation, Protection +5 84,000GP
Ring 2: Freedom of Movement, Arcane Might, Enduring Arcana 79,000GP
Feet: Sandals of the Vagabond, Anklet of Translocation, Boots of Tremorsense 14,100GP

Other
4 Blessed Books 50,000GP
Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone 5,000GP
+1 Eager Warning Dagger (stored in Casting Glove) 18,302GP
Talisman of Undying Fortitude 8,000GP
Handy Haversack 2,000GP
+1 Animated Heavy Mithral Shield of Moderate Fortification with a Crystal of Bent Sight 37,670GP
Metamagic Rod of Extend Spell, one each of lesser/normal/greater 38,500GP
Metamagic Rod of Silent Spell, one each of lesser/normal 14,000GP
Jade Circlet for Shapechange 1,500GP

Things he intentionally doesn't have and why:

Resistance item to saves (Superior Resistance)
Flight (spell)
Mind Blank (spell)
Bracers of Armor (Greater Mage Armor gives you +6AC and doesn't cost anything except a level 3 spell slot)
Natural Armor (Dragonskin)

I'd probably spend the remaining 18,000GP on scrolls, wands and spell components.

First of all, redo his feats and possibly class levels. He was printed in 3.0 before the ELH even existed. Keep the three cleric levels so he can take Initiate of Mystra, and it also enables Divine Defiance.

I don't know what version of him you're looking at, but the one I know is in the ELH (it's still badly built of course).

Immunity to Death Effects: Robe enchanted as +1 Soulfire armor (body)

You can put armor special abilities on a robe?

[Morcleon]

You can put armor special abilities on a robe?

Normal clothing can be enchanted as armor that grants +0 to AC.

[Maat Mons]

I don't think that's true. Normal clothing can be targeted by Magic Vestment. But I think that's as close as you can get.

[Biggus]

Normal clothing can be enchanted as armor that grants +0 to AC.

I don't think that's true. Normal clothing can be targeted by Magic Vestment. But I think that's as close as you can get.

Yes, Magic Vestment says "an outfit of regular clothing counts as armor that grants no AC bonus for the purpose of this spell". I'm not aware of anywhere that says you can treat it as that for any other purpose.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A robe occupies the same body slot as armor does. Enchanting it as though it were armor works the same as other slotted magic item effects, it's only dependent on the body slot, not the base item's composition.

[RNightstalker]

I don't know what version of him you're looking at, but the one I know is in the ELH (it's still badly built of course).

ELH is actually the most recent version, as I searched for a 3.5 version before making my post. I think it would be ok to build his levels in whichever order desired to attain feats necessary that would contribute to items needed.

Of course you can't get rid of the iconic pipe, but I wouldn't count it against WBL.

[Maat Mons]

I'm not quite sure what you mean?

By the rules in MIC, yes, you could add an armor bonus to a magical robe. Let's say, you had a Robe of Eyes, and you wanted to add a +1 armor bonus. That totally works.

If you had a non-magical robe, I don't believe those rules would let you add an armor bonus to it. As far as I can tell, that applies only to items that are already magical. And anyway, if an item weren't already a magic items, it wouldn't occupy any slot.

And I also don't believe those rules allow you to substitute special abilities in place of the armor bonus. Magic armor explicitly says you can add special abilities to it and determine the cost as if it had a higher enhancement bonus. Bracers of Armor also have a rule in Arms and Equipment guide allowing this. So far as I know, nothing else does. So I don't think MIC rules allow you to add Soulfire to a Robe of the Archmagi, even though you could bump the armor bonus from +5 up to +6.

If you're referring to the guidelines in DMG for assigning costs to custom magic items, and the adjustments for inappropriate body slots … yes you can get a Robe of Fortification or whatever with that … but you can kind of get anything with that. That's why those guidelines are a bit notorious.

[RNightstalker]

If you had a non-magical robe, I don't believe those rules would let you add an armor bonus to it. As far as I can tell, that applies only to items that are already magical. And anyway, if an item weren't already a magic items, it wouldn't occupy any slot.

I wouldn't allow the robe thing if was going to be abused to add soulfire and whatnot. The robe occupies the same slot as body armor.

[Eladrinblade]

Elminster isn't the greatest example. He's depicted in the books as not having too many magic items on him, and often loses some of the ones he has. He's usually making do with what he comes across during the story.

[Maat Mons]

Hmm, found this reply I wrote sitting in a text document. I had thought I'd submitted this days ago. But apparently not.

I didn't forget that Elmister is a Chosen of Mystra … I never knew it in the first place. … What's a Chosen of Mystra?

[One Step Two]

I didn't forget that Elmister is a Chosen of Mystra … I never knew it in the first place. … What's a Chosen of Mystra?

The Chosen of Mystra is a template granted by said god, it's LA is unknown, some have claimed it's +4, it's source if Forgotten Realms Campaign settings book.

It grants:

One bonus spell of each spell level 1st through 9th per day, which can be used as a spell-like ability. This cannot be changed

They are immune to one spell of each spell level 1st through 9th, just as if the spell immunity spell were constantly in effect upon them. They cannot be changed.

They are immune to aging, disease, disintegration, and poison. They have no need to sleep (although they must rest normally in order to be able to prepare spells).

Detect Magic on at all times upto thier max LoS

+10 enhancement bonus to Constitution.

And the nebulous ability to use Silver Fire, which can repair Dead Magic zones, and a few miscellaneous effects.

[Max Caysey]

Due to overwhelming popular demand...ok one guy thought it was cool and that's enough for me. Seeing as how most NPC's are vastly underequipped, what would they look like after the playground did their thing?

I guess we can start with one of the most well-known: Elminster. Equip him as your own PC with 7,900,000 gp, or as an epic NPC with we'll call it 920,000 gp.

So, I would not so much care about the amount of money, he's Mystra's favorite chosen, so he has what ever he needs, but were I to build him for my own game I would start off with NPC gold.

I would start by giving him an augmented elite array. Being Elminster, he's even more talented that most, so I would agument his started ability scores somewhat. Probaly into something like 18, 17, 16, 15, 13, 11. So like elite array, but starting at 18.

Next up I would grant him the Spellcasting Prodegy feat for free. Because well he has an abtitute for magic.

His levels I would pretty much stick to the official. Fighter1/ Rogue 2/ Cleric 3/ Wizard 24/ Arch Mage 5 (using the 3.0 version of Arch mage!)

His items which I would use no homebrew enchantments but use costum combinations of. Also his Pipe and Sword would not count against his total wealth:

Arms:Bracers of Armor +1, with soulfire, Freedom, Comfort, Durable, Easy Travel, Healing Greater, Ornate, Planar Tolerance and restful.
Body: Robe of Eyes

Feet: GwaeronÂ’s Boots with Sprinting and Striding and Steadfast Boots

Hands: Casting Gloves of Object Reading

Head: Headband of Dark blue Rhomboid (Alertness), Hathran Mask of True Seeing, Orange Prism, Third Eye Penetrate

Shoulder: Starmantle Cloak of Evasion (Save for no damage)

Torso: Vest of the Archmagi

Fingers: Ring of Ring of Protection +5, with Anticipitation.

Ring of Arcane Might with Enduring Arcana and Spell Battle

Throat: Necklace of Natural Armor +5, with Second Chances, Health, Proof against Poison, and Iridescent Spindle (Sustain without air).

Waist: Belt of Magnificent +6, MonkÂ’s Belt, Healing Belt, Battle Belt, Many Pockets


Im not sure how much that is, but thats probably very close to what I would give him... there might be some minor changes, and if I felt his saves were too low, I would probably give add somewhere an enchantment that gave +5 insight, luck, sacred or competence to saves.

Also forgot to mention that I would give him +5 tome for each stat!

[RNightstalker]

Elminster isn't the greatest example. He's depicted in the books as not having too many magic items on him, and often loses some of the ones he has. He's usually making do with what he comes across during the story.

Elminster is a perfect example for this thread as he's only at 400k and change in gear, not counting his pipe. For an NPC he's less than half of WBL...as a PC (which he was one of the original characters of Ed Greenwood IIRC) he's at 5% of WBL.

Also forgot to mention that I would give him +5 tome for each stat!

+5 tomes for each stat would eat up almost 90% of his total for an NPC. He's used wish 4 times for his IQ already, so he only needs to cast it one more time.

[Max Caysey]

+5 tomes for each stat would eat up almost 90% of his total for an NPC. He's used wish 4 times for his IQ already, so he only needs to cast it one more time.

Forgot about that! Then naturally he would cast 30 wishes over his 1100+ year life, so that he would have +5 inherent bonus to all stats. One way or another that’s what I would do too... 😊

Also a well crafted, well warded grimoire containing basically every spell in the game, and a large number of unique spell will easily set you back 500k... that I would also not include in any WBL for him... nor would I do so for Larloch, Srinshee, Ioulaum, the Terraseer, Halaster, Zsass Tam, or Ioulaum... or any of the other very ancient/powerful npcs...

[RNightstalker]

Forgot about that! Then naturally he would cast 30 wishes over his 1100+ year life, so that he would have +5 inherent bonus to all stats. One way or another that’s what I would do too... 😊

I agree, Wish will be the source of inherent bonuses. But as for the rest, here's my take on PC gear:
-Headband of Epic Intellect +12
-Cloak of Epic Resistance +10 combined with Mantle of Great Stealth, Mantle of Epic Spell Resistance, Cloak of Charisma +6
-Combining Ring of Regeneration and RoP +5
-Amulet of Natural Armor +5 combined with Amulet of Second Chances, Periapt of Wisdom +6
-Bracers of Armor +8
-+6 Adamantium Sonic Blast Longsword
-Ring of Spell Storing, Major
-Boots of Swiftness
-Monk's Belt combined with Belt of Giant Strength +6, Belt of Battle, Belt of Hidden Pouches
-Third Eye Conceal
-Rogue's Vest
-Robe of Thunder
-Greater Metamagic Rod: Maximize
-5 Boccob's Blessed Books
-Momento Magica 1-9
And 7485 spending cash.

I tried to fill all the slots and keep a certain flavor. What do y'all think?

[Biggus]

I would start by giving him an augmented elite array. Being Elminster, he's even more talented that most, so I would agument his started ability scores somewhat. Probaly into something like 18, 17, 16, 15, 13, 11. So like elite array, but starting at 18.

Yeah, it's always bothered me that even the mightiest NPCs all start with the elite array. I feel like at the very least there ought to be a "higher elite array" equivalent to 32PB or something. The idea that the greatest Wizard in the world only started out with 15 Int is just silly.

I tried to fill all the slots and keep a certain flavor. What do y'all think?

What flavor were you aiming for?

[RNightstalker]

[QUOTE=Biggus;24957045
What flavor were you aiming for?[/QUOTE]

Eh...trying to keep with the Thundering theme from the original longsword, but I didn't try to overdo it. The belt of many pouches for storage needs, upgrading the ring of spell storing, monk's belt for extra AC, some non-detection things. Amulet of second chances because sometimes we just need a mulligan.