Custom Magic Items Questions

Which slot should my first custom magic item go into?

Preferably it will be one that I wouldn't regularly (ever) need to take off, since I want it to have a wisdom bonus to increase the amount of spells I can memorize.

This excludes the necklace slot as I am still using the Wanderer's Amulet on a regular basis. Probably not a ring either, as I am still swapping out rings with different enchantments based on where I am or what I'm doing. Unless I can combine some of those enchantments on the same ring, but I don't think my first item will be expensive enough to cover them...

The other thing is, not having played long on this server, I don't know what kind of "stock" items to expect. I'd hate to build my custom item only to run into something else useful or even better than it during the course of play...

Along those lines, the only magical head wear I've seen in-game so far has had intelligence bonuses and no concentration bonus. Those aren't overly useful to my character, except for boosting appraise checks. I also haven't seem much in the magical footwear department either. A few with low constitution bonuses and low resist bonuses, but nothing extremely useful to me. Well, constitution is useful for everyone, but you know what I mean.

At this point I'm not even really set on wisdom bonuses, I could really use AC and damage resistances at the moment too.

Ok, now that I've rambled on a bit and made it a bit confusing, let me simplify:

1.) Which slot generally has the least useful items for a lower-ish level druid?

2.) Are there any other rules like, "It's better to have AC on a cloak and not a ring, because rings have much more varied enchantments and they share the same type of AC." that apply here? That one came from the original campaign and applies to Aenea too.

3.) Are there a lot of ranged touch attacks that deal elemental damage? (I ran into one already...) Which suggests I should prefer AC over elemental damage resistances.

At this point I'm thinking probably head wear or footwear, or maybe a ring if I can combine the effects of several I am already using. That will determine the combination of AC, wisdom, and resistances.

Now that I have thoroughly rambled on, anyone have tips, thoughts, or suggestions?

I'd say armor or boots are a great candidate for worn custom items.

There's plenty of nice armors out there (armor of the redeemed, chitin armor), but there's far more goodies for the other slots. Boots tend to be the second choice I look at, specifically for +5 dodge AC, as there's no dodge boots I know of period besides gargoyle boots (+2).

However, knowledge of what stock items are out there is good, and in the end, it's up to you on what you really want.

Cloak wise, there's lots of decent cloaks, highly useful cloaks even. The stonebreaker's cloak is a real life saver should you run into things that like to petrify you (beholders, basilisks, Crideas Banes). For charisma based builds, cloaks of charisma are a must. For daylight sensitive races, it's always good to have a cloak of shadows handy for when there's no shelter within reasonable running distance. There's many rings and amulets that suit a variety of needs too. Rings of power, rings of clear thought. Talismans of pure good/evil (wisdom and charisma bonus), the wanderer's amulet, amulets of natural armor).

Also realize too, that you can use vouchers to upgrade your custom items, so while that 20K item you first make might not seem so impressive in the long run, you can add your later vouchers to it, making an item that is not only unique, but also worthy of taking a permenant residence in one of your inventory slots.

I'd say, think long term. What will you want to do with your build in the long run? Then think about what it's strengths and weaknesses are. Try to work up an item that will enhance your strengths further, or shore up those weaknesses, or a combination of both.

It's also possible to do non-wearable custom items. Granted the 'buffs' received from such items won't be as powerful as the undispellable effects of a wearable item, but they can still be very versatile and useful. A spell sequencer property has tremendous use. Improved invisibility, teleportation/magehounding/summoning/transference properties are extremely useful.

The hardest part about giving such advice though is, nobody but you knows what you have planned for your character in the long run

MannyJabrielle wrote:I'd say armor or boots are a great candidate for worn custom items.

There's plenty of nice armors out there (armor of the redeemed, chitin armor), but there's far more goodies for the other slots. Boots tend to be the second choice I look at, specifically for +5 dodge AC, as there's no dodge boots I know of period besides gargoyle boots (+2).

Good to know I'm thinking along the correct lines as far as boots. Armor is a "not yet" though as I will be taking Heavy Armor Proficiency as my next feat, but I need something to help NOW.

MannyJabrielle wrote:However, knowledge of what stock items are out there is good, and in the end, it's up to you on what you really want.

Cloak wise, there's lots of decent cloaks, highly useful cloaks even. The stonebreaker's cloak is a real life saver should you run into things that like to petrify you (beholders, basilisks, Crideas Banes). For charisma based builds, cloaks of charisma are a must. For daylight sensitive races, it's always good to have a cloak of shadows handy for when there's no shelter within reasonable running distance. There's many rings and amulets that suit a variety of needs too. Rings of power, rings of clear thought. Talismans of pure good/evil (wisdom and charisma bonus), the wanderer's amulet, amulets of natural armor).

OOO... nice to know there is a lot of nice goodies I have yet to find. As for what ability is important for a druid-wisdom for his spell casting and strength/dexterity for fighting.

MannyJabrielle wrote:Also realize too, that you can use vouchers to upgrade your custom items, so while that 20K item you first make might not seem so impressive in the long run, you can add your later vouchers to it, making an item that is not only unique, but also worthy of taking a permanent residence in one of your inventory slots.

Yes, already saw that and am drooling over the prospect.

MannyJabrielle wrote:I'd say, think long term. What will you want to do with your build in the long run? Then think about what it's strengths and weaknesses are. Try to work up an item that will enhance your strengths further, or shore up those weaknesses, or a combination of both.

Well, LOL, that's a lot of the problem. In the 3 days or so I played before the server crashed, I racked up over 20 hours of playtime. Not enough time to really get a feel for what is going to work for me in the long time in Aenea... Shortly after starting Chapter 3 of the original campaign, I decided it was time to stop and go back and redo from my character from scratch, including level one and even race. I did something like 5 distint builds before I hit on what satisfied me.

MannyJabrielle wrote:It's also possible to do non-wearable custom items. Granted the 'buffs' received from such items won't be as powerful as the undispellable effects of a wearable item, but they can still be very versatile and useful. A spell sequencer property has tremendous use. Improved invisibility, teleportation/magehounding/summoning/transference properties are extremely useful.

OOOO... good point, I hadn't thought about some kind of charm or trinket to help me get by. One question though, what's spell sequencer, mage hounding and transference do?

MannyJabrielle wrote:The hardest part about giving such advice though is, nobody but you knows what you have planned for your character in the long run

Well, when it comes right down to it, neither do I. I suppose there is no penalty for holding on to the custom item voucher until I figure out what I what to do with it?

Spell sequencers are neat. They store a spell cast on them, and you can use them later on. For example, if you have spell sequencers (3 spells) at 5 times a day usage, you could cast 3 buffs onto the sequencers, and then be able to use them 5 times a day. You can (and should) place a "clear sequencers" property on as well to empty the sequencers should you want to put different spells into it.

Transference is basicly short-range teleporting. It works within an single area (whereas teleport can take you into different zones). It's usefull for getting past jump points, over hills where you can't find any ramps to climb over.

Magehound works sort of like summon ally, but instead of bringing said ally to you, you go to them. Requires summoning gauntlets (like summon ally).

I will try to be brief, but in all honesty, this is a topic that took me MONTHS to nail down the ins and outs of.
I think I managed to do a very solid job with my items by taking into account what is already available in the module and blending in the right custom items, so here goes:

1. Dont make custom gloves with a bonus to your primary casting stat mod, as you will inevitably need to swap gloves for things like teleporting or summoning.

2. There are boots available in game that give properties that are not allowed on custom items. You may wish to not make custom boots if you would like to have immunity:knockdown, perm haste (only for a level 10 cleric of Gort), or improved evasion (for non-rogues) on your boots.

3. There are two VERY powerful rings in game that I would recommened for ANY character, and as such, custom rings may not be your best choice. There are more than just these two great ones, but the ones I am thinking of are useful in almost EVERY situation, while other rings would be more situational. Regardless, either you will be swapping rings a lot depending on situation, or you will want to get the two I have in mind and stick with them... hence, custom rings might not be your best bet.

4. There is only one item in game that will protect you from petrification, and it happens to be a cloak. If you make a custom cloak that you plan to wear constantly, this will leave a gaping vulnerability, albeit one that will rarely come into play.

5. There is only one item in the game that can protect you from Death Magic, it also happens to defend against level/ability drain. It is VERY hard to come by, but I can tell you it is a helm. If you want these properties, and can find this helm, you may wish to keep your custom items out of the helm slot.

6. Armor, belts, weapons, shields, and rods are probably your best bets for custom items. There are of course belts in game for Strength as well as gloves for Strength, belts for dexterity (though they dont go as high as the belts of str), and gloves of dexterity (these gloves are also quite rare). So depending on what you want for your character, the only "safe" slots I would recommend are armor and weapons/shields as you can easily make better custom gear than most of the armor/shields/weapons you can find in-game (though you may need to enhance them later).

Poking around in the toolset attempting to figure out what I want, I have noticed spells are listed like this:

Flame Strike (12)

Now, I am pretty sure that the number in parenthesis is the caster level the spell will have when the item is activated to cast it. Now, with many spells, the benefit of a higher level is obvious-more damage, longer lasting buff, etc. With some spells, like Sleep with two versions: (2) and (5), the benefit isn't immediately obvious from the spell description. But I'm pretty sure it has to do with how hard the spell is to resist. That means with Sleep, the DC to resist the (5) version is 3 higher than the (2) version. And again, I see how a higher level would be beneficial. But then there are a few spells like Bull's Strength, with multiple level numbers [ (3), (10), (15) ]. But it can't be resisted, and its description says nothing about it getting better at higher levels, so why are they there? Are they empowered, maximized, or something else good? I can't imagine people wasting their time to put them in if they don't actually change anything...

The number in parenthesis is the caster level, as you guessed.

For spells like sleep (and other spells), it can have an effect with relation to spell resistance (but not save DC).

For bull's strength, it affects the duration (which is 1 game hour per caster level).

Spells with multiple numbers just mean that the higher level ones are cast at a higher level, so they are more powerful. Adds some variety.

For example, my shield has 2 Bull's Strength (10) castings per day. So, for 20 hours, I have Bull's Strength. Pretty handy.

Can the properties on a custom item be upgraded? That is can start with say 10% slashing damage reduction and then later increase it to 25% or spell resistance 10 to SR 20? If you can do this is the cost the same for doing this in multiple steps the same as doing it in one?

On a different note, it seems that there is a notable lack of custom options for bards. It might be nice to have some of the bard specific feats or even option to make some custom instruments. I'm new so it could be I just missed something.

Yes, you can use higher vouchers to upgrade previous voucher items.

As for bard options, lyrics of the lich. Sacrifice a use of bardsong to toss out a horrid's wilting effect. Other than that, bards have pretty much the same options as other caster classes for their abilites/spells. Armor with reduced spell failure, charisma boosts, skill boosts, those are still decent custom properties for a bard item.

Do magic staves get unequipped when you rest? If not that's the first spot I'd like to put my item, otherwise I'll have to start thinking about what slot to use

Yes, they do. Any items held in your hands get unequipped while resting (weapons, mage staffs, torches, shields).