[3e] - Help Me Spend some Money!

[SamTheCleric]

So, we recently made a pact with a dwarven stronghold to help deal with a Big Blue Dragon who is making pacts with devils and growing immensly in power.

They have offered us 75,000gp in magic items (each) to help assist with this problem. And by "help assist" I'm pretty sure they mean "be the squishy players between him and us".

I'm playing a level 12 Crusader of St. Cuthbert. I'm the secondary melee battlefield controller, I also provide healing through my devoted spirit manuevers.

My current magic items are:

+2 Guisarme
+1 Animated Steel Shield
+2 Mithral Full Plate
Steadfast Boots
Crystal Mask of Mind Armor
Belt of Giant Strength +4
Gloves of Dex +2
Amulet of Health +2
Bracers of Opportunity
Ring of Adamantine Touch
Cloak of Minor Displacement

[avr]

The obvious things you're missing for fighting a blue dragon are electricity resistance and flight. There are many ways to either and I'm sure you know several. This could chew up a lot of money, especially if you want permanent electricity resistance to reduce the impact of a surprise attack.

If your GM has seen the entangling exhalation feat, you need a ring of freedom of movement; accept no alternatives.

Check out the magic items in ToB as well - martial scripts would be useful for the setup for a big fight if you can get them.

[Chronos]

To be clear, are you specifically looking for items to help defeat the dragon? Or is this an opportunity to pick up general-purpose gear that you might find useful in other situations, in the future?

[fleet]

look into ioun stones.I don't think crusaders have insight bonus to ac, so you can pick up +1 ac for 5k, and not use any character slots. Of course, getting a path appropriate legend would be VERY good.

Also you seem short on rings. A ring of energy resistance(electricity) major, may seem steep at 28k but 20 resistance, is great aid in not being burnt to an crispy cinder by the flying blue dragon.

If you want to be absurdly cheap and petty, buy a feather token, tree. Then pin the dragon down with it, or throw it into the poor bugger. (400gp)

If you have a mage, you shouldn't need to bother with flight, but if you lack one an ebony fly could make a good mount.(10k gp)

Finally a horn of goodness/evil, provides an efficient way of not getting wiped out by those pesky infernal beasties. (6,500 gp) Just don't go hunting your dragon on another plane. If you going to do that, ask for more cash...

[Kizara]

1) Upgrade your armor to +1 heavy fort. Everyone needs heavy fort armor.

2) A keen on your weapon goes a long way too to adding to your damage.

3) Belt of Battle if you want cheese. I don't care if you have a belt slot, this is like top 5 best item in the game (after stuff like candle of invocation, dust of cheesing and laming, karma beads etc).

4) I'm assuming you have a caster in your party? If so, why the hell do you have ability booster items? (especially the gloves of dex) That's what spells are for.

On that note, get a ring of spell storing and get your friendly wizard to cast stuff like haste, fly, endurance, etc in it.


Some assorted underpriced goodies from the MIC that you should look at:

Heartseeking Amulet: Attack as melee touch 3/day.
3,000

Reciprocal Bracers: 2/day you can auto-threat in response to someone that criticaled or sneak-attacked you.
5,000

Ring of Avoidance: 3/day gain +20 deflection to AC for 1 round.
10,000

Scarab of Invulnerbility: 1/day Complete immunity to damage for 1 round.
40,000

Scout's Headband: +2 to spot checks. Can grant dark vision, See Invis or True Seeing for good durations.
3,400

Skirmisher Boots: 2/day can make an additional attack at full bonus if you move more then 10 feet.
3,200

True Strike Gauntlets: 1/day gain +20 insight bonus to your next attack roll.
3,500

[SamTheCleric]

To be clear, are you specifically looking for items to help defeat the dragon? Or is this an opportunity to pick up general-purpose gear that you might find useful in other situations, in the future?

Mostly things for the future, but things to defeat the dragon is always good (I was considering a ring of Greater Energy Resistance... but *shrug*)

1) Upgrade your armor to +1 heavy fort. Everyone needs heavy fort armor.

2) A keen on your weapon goes a long way too to adding to your damage.

3) Belt of Battle if you want cheese. I don't care if you have a belt slot, this is like top 5 best item in the game (after stuff like candle of invocation, dust of cheesing and laming, karma beads etc).

4) I'm assuming you have a caster in your party? If so, why the hell do you have ability booster items? (especially the gloves of dex) That's what spells are for.

1 - Heavy Fort is a good idea.
2 - Keen... only a +1 bonus ... but it would only take me to a 19-20 crit. Then again, Guisarme is x3. A good possibility.
3 - I'm going to try avoid using Belt of Battle... when I start using it, so does the dm. (You should've seen the chaos the first day I started playing the crusader and Ruby Knight Vindicators started showing up. The party was sufficienty unamused)
4 - We're short on a divine caster, the healing is mostly accomplished by myself, a warlock 9/cleric 2 and a Marshal/Chameleon with lots of UMD... I usually ask the Wizard to prep one spell for me... I suppose I could switch out gloves of dex and have him give me Cat's Grace (I mostly use it for extra AoOs)

[Saph]

Hmm, this is difficult. Normally I'd recommend several low-cost, efficient items, but your character is actually pretty well tricked out already. All of your items are useful, and you don't have many slots left.

Definitely keep the stat-boosts - you can't count on having 1 minute/level spells up on you when you need them. The only one you might be willing to drop is the Gloves of Dex, depending on what your dexterity is already. I used to get around this by using the item enchanting rules in the MiC to put +2 stat boosts on pre-existing items of something else, but you might not have the access and time to do that. Putting a +1 deflection or +1 natural armour bonus on only costs 2,000 gp and 2 days, though, so it's worth it if you can.

I wouldn't bother with energy resistance items - they're horribly expensive for what they do. A Resist Energy spell at a moderate CL is a much better deal; get some scrolls of it and ask the warlock to cast it on you prior to the battle, or just ask the wizard to put Mass Resist Energy in his spellbook.

Your main free slots are your rings, and the main thing you're missing, besides flight, is resistance. Actually, if your DM is as tough as he sounds, I'm surprised you've lasted this long without it. :P Get a +5 Vest of Resistance from the MiC at 25,000 gp - it's worth the money, failed saving throws at high levels can and will kill you. Winged Boots would solve the flight problem for 12,000 gp, but that would mean losing your Steadfast Boots. A Ring of Freedom of Movement won't be much good against the dragon, but it's a good long-term investment. I wouldn't go for the Ring of Spell Storing, as it's really expensive and requires you to constantly nag the party casters for refills.

In the long term, you'll probably be better off with an adamantine weapon than with the Ring of Adamantine Touch, but that's one for later. If you can't afford any flight items, just buy a few potions of fly and you'll be okay as long as you're only using them occasionally.

- Saph

[SamTheCleric]

Oh, I forgot... I do have a Vest of Resistance +3. Thanks for reminding me

Freedom of Movement is probably the best investment I could make right now... perhaps scrolls of Fly or Mass Fly for the Wizard, warlock or chameleon to cast.

I don't know exactly how pressed for time we are... I know we are supposed to stop the dragon DURING the ritual that he is performing, as that is when he'll be at his weakest (Carving Infernal Runes onto his heart to make him immortal, like another dragon living between planes, a centuries old Red... that I have a feeling we have to fight )

I could drop the cash on FoM and then see about upgrading the Guisarme and the Full Plate.... 75,000 will probably go a long way towards that goal.