Exploratory Thread: Mercenaries (3.5e)

[Pinoy]

so if i use whirlwind i can't use two-weapon fighting feat. liveable

[Spartacus]

so if i use whirlwind i can't use two-weapon fighting feat. liveable

Basically, you'll want to use whirlwind attack when you have either a lot of enemies in reach or several enemies with high Armor Class. That is, Whirlwind attack is good either when there are more enemies around you than you would otherwise be able to attack with your regular number of attacks, or if the enemies near you are likely to avoid your attacks if you use attacks with a lower to-hit bonus.

[Pinoy]

if i will just have the two sun blades, where can i best use the 46,940 gp (39,000 from fortification; 2,310 for the short sword, 5,630 see invisibility)

or atleast - 42,310 (39,000+2310) i will retain the see invisibility


will this add to my armour.
Bracers of Armor
These items appear to be wrist or arm guards. They surround the wearer with an invisible but tangible field of force, granting him an armor bonus of +1 to +8, just as though he were wearing armor. Both bracers must be worn for the magic to be effective.

Moderate conjuration; CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, mage armor, creator’s caster level must be at least two times that of the bonus placed in the bracers; Price 1,000 gp (+1), 4,000 gp (+2), 9,000 gp (+3), 16,000 gp (+4), 25,000 gp (+5), 36,000 gp (+6), 49,000 gp (+7), 64,000 gp (+8); Weight 1 lb.

[Ben Zwycky]

The second sun blade is replacing the short sword, that saving was already included in the cost calculation (sun blade +4/+6 98,335, short sword 2,310 versus two times 50,335), so you have 44,610 gp plus whatever money you had left.

You could either add some feats to your items, e.g. iron will (+2 to will saves) on your wisdom helmet, lightning reflexes (+2 to reflex saves) to your gloves of dexterity, each of which would cost 15,000 gp, or improve your bow, or increase the enhancement on your celestial armor back to +5 (costing 9,000 gp)

So, gloves of dex granting lightning reflexes plus helmet of wisdom granting iron will plus celestial armor +5 with no fortification would mean an extra 39,000 gp, so you could keep your see invisibility and both normal sun blades and be only down 25 gp. This would be nice and straightforward, giving you no other special features to manage.

Alternatively, you could make your ring of blinking be also a minor ring of spell storing, costing 54,000 gp instead of 27,000, so an extra 27,000 gp. You could then make the bow a +2 seeking composite longbow (18,900, so an extra 10,000 gp), have an efficient quiver (1800 gp) and have an extra 200 gp for miscellaneous items.

A ring of spell storing would mean more things to keep track of, but can be very useful, especially since we have some relatively high-level spellcasters in the party. You can have other people in the party cast level 1, 2 or 3 spells into the ring, which you can then use whenever you want (a maximum of three levels of spells can be stored in the ring at any one time, i.e. three level 1 spells, a level 1 and a level 2 or a single level 3 spell can be stored there). Once you use a particular spell, it's gone and someone else has to cast something into the ring for you to use.

This means that other people in the party can give you three of the really nice level 1 buff spells that only affect the caster, e.g. true strike {+20 insight bonus on your single next attack roll, but this has to be used in the next round}, divine favour caster level 9 {+3 luck bonus on all attack and damage rolls for the next minute (ten rounds)}, entropic shield caster level 7 {all ranged attacks against you have a 20% miss chance for the next 7 minutes}.

[Spartacus]

I thought y'all already went over the fact that Bracers of Armor don't help you if you're already wearing other armor?

[Ben Zwycky]

Pinoy, bracers of armor won't help you, we've already gone over this once.

[Pinoy]

The second sun blade is replacing the short sword, that saving was already included in the cost calculation (sun blade +4/+6 98,335, short sword 2,310 versus two times 50,335), so you have 44,610 gp plus whatever money you had left.

You could either add some feats to your items, e.g. iron will (+2 to will saves) on your wisdom helmet, lightning reflexes (+2 to reflex saves) to your gloves of dexterity, each of which would cost 15,000 gp, or improve your bow, or increase the enhancement on your celestial armor back to +5 (costing 9,000 gp)

So, gloves of dex granting lightning reflexes plus helmet of wisdom granting iron will plus celestial armor +5 with no fortification would mean an extra 39,000 gp, so you could keep your see invisibility and both normal sun blades and be only down 25 gp. This would be nice and straightforward, giving you no other special features to manage.

Alternatively, you could make your ring of blinking be also a minor ring of spell storing, costing 54,000 gp instead of 27,000, so an extra 27,000 gp. You could then make the bow a +2 seeking composite longbow (18,900, so an extra 10,000 gp), have an efficient quiver (1800 gp) and have an extra 200 gp for miscellaneous items.

A ring of spell storing would mean more things to keep track of, but can be very useful, especially since we have some relatively high-level spellcasters in the party. You can have other people in the party cast level 1, 2 or 3 spells into the ring, which you can then use whenever you want (a maximum of three levels of spells can be stored in the ring at any one time, i.e. three level 1 spells, a level 1 and a level 2 or a single level 3 spell can be stored there). Once you use a particular spell, it's gone and someone else has to cast something into the ring for you to use.

This means that other people in the party can give you three of the really nice level 1 buff spells that only affect the caster, e.g. true strike {+20 insight bonus on your single next attack roll, but this has to be used in the next round}, divine favour caster level 9 {+3 luck bonus on all attack and damage rolls for the next minute (ten rounds)}, entropic shield caster level 7 {all ranged attacks against you have a 20% miss chance for the next 7 minutes}.

Ok i will go with minor ring of storing (27,000gp), +5 to celestial armor (9,000gp), efficient quiver (1,800), adamite for shield (2,000).

Thanks.

[Ben Zwycky]

you only had 200 gp left over, not 2,000 gp. You can have either the efficient quiver or the shield made of adamantine, not both

[Ben Zwycky]

By the way, my character has 2 wands, barkskin CL 12 (+5 enhancement to natural armor bonus for 2 hours), costing 18000 gp and resist energy CL 11 (selected energy resistance 30 lasting 110 minutes) costing 8250 gp {resist energy is a level 1 ranger spell, making it much cheaper as a wand}, which will be available for the whole party to use (they can be cast on anyone in the party and the wands themselves can be activated by anyone with levels in druid, ranger or cleric). If someone wants to make a contribution towards them, or if you Spart want to buy the resist energy wand instead of me, then I'll be able to increase the resistance bonus on my saves to +5 instead of +4. Any takers?

[Pinoy]

you only had 200 gp left over, not 2,000 gp. You can have either the efficient quiver or the shield made of adamantine, not both

I can always buy the efficient quiver later. So i will get the adamantine.
For the meantime, if i will store cure light wound in the ring, rather than buy cure light wound potion. How much is the cost of the cure? Also with anti toxin?

[Pinoy]

I can buy the wand if no one else will do it. I can buy bow seeking later. I will buy a regular bow for now.

[Ben Zwycky]

I can always buy the efficient quiver later. So i will get the adamantine.
For the meantime, if i will store cure light wound in the ring, rather than buy cure light wound potion. How much is the cost of the cure? Also with anti toxin?

Antitoxin is an alchemical substance, not a spell, you can't store that in the ring. Someone else would have to cast cure light wounds (or cure moderate as a second level spell or cure serious as a third-level spell) into the ring for you, but cure light wounds potions are useful as an emergency backup, since you can pour it down someone's throat when they're unconscious or dying. (This won't apply to you, since you have the diehard feat).

[Ben Zwycky]

Your HL character can't activate the wand, since he has no ranger levels, but I expect we'll be travelling together most of the time, so it could work. Thanks. You'll need to save 8250 gp, dropping your bow to non-magical masterwork will save you 8000. If you have 250 gp left over, then you can cover that, otherwise you'll have to go for a non-masterwork bow or lose a few potions to cover the cost of the wand.

[Pinoy]

Your HL character can't activate the wand, since he has no ranger levels, but I expect we'll be travelling together most of the time, so it could work. Thanks. You'll need to save 8250 gp, dropping your bow to non-magical masterwork will save you 8000. If you have 250 gp left over, then you can cover that, otherwise you'll have to go for a non-masterwork bow or lose a few potions to cover the cost of the wand.

I will wait for others, they might buy it. Otherwise, i will.

[Ben Zwycky]

I'm sorry, I made a mistake with the see invisibility with permanency, you can only do it with see invisibility when you are casting the spells yourself (which is obviously impossible for your character). Something with almost the same effect for the same price is to have goggles that on command three times a dayenable you to see invisibility as the spell (caster level 3, so lasting 30 minutes each time), which would cost 6480 gp. I think this is 50 gp less than what I said for see invisibility with permanency. My apologies for the mistake.