I am in a group running Serpent Skull that consists of a Zen Archer, Ninja, Fighter, and Archaeologist Bard (all humans except the bard who is a gnome). The group is obviously light on casters. When we fight big, mean things that just require stabbing, things tend to go well, but otherwise we can have trouble. I would like some advice on gear we could purchase as a group to help shore up our vulnerabilities (incorporeal with DR/cold iron or good being the most recent). We are currently level 5 (maybe 6 soon) and I am interested in any suggestions but, predictably, cheaper solutions are preferred.
For the zen archer, have him use cold iron arrows. It's only double the price of normal arrows which are 1gp (20). So 20 cold iron arrows are only 2 gp.
Have him then get ghost weapon blanches.meach one ismamdose for 10 pieces of ammunition. Blanches work better on ammo vs. melee due to the one hit per use of them.
Now your archer can hit incorporeal, and bypass the DR. Unless he has clustered shots, then what's the point?
Have the players get weapons, or items that will round out eir weaknesses. Fighter has a low will save. Cap of the free thinker will help here. Special material weapons may help.
Scrolls, potions, and wands are all in order here. Well, if there is someone with a sufficient UMD score to use the wands and scrolls.
For ghosts or incorporeal things... a +1 ghost touch net is in order.
To use a net you make a ranged touch attack against the ghost. If you succeed the ghost is entangled.
Now, I'm not certain how it works within the confines of RAW, but once the ghost is hit by the net his total lack of strength score should render him effectively unable to move.
For the specific scenario mentioned, the Zen Archer did have cold iron arrows and a magical bow (not as good as ghost touch, but not bad). However, we didn't get the knowledge check so it took a few rounds of trial and error before he figured out cold iron, and when he did the monster immediately rushed and killed him. The group scraped by and managed to kill it, but it wasn't pretty.
Where are ghost touch weapon blanches listed? I can only find silver, cold iron, and adamantine. As I said, we are level 5 so clustered shots isn't on the table for a while (level 9).
And really, I know that if we had anticipated that particular enemy we could have prepared for it. What I am interested in are ideas of stuff we should keep around JIC something similar, but not necessarily identical, comes along. I know that we can't possibly cover every eventuality, but if we could reduce our risk pool from 30% to 10%, that would be really nice.
I always enjoy having some acid, alchemist fire, and holy water handy. Also if you have some money to burn, you can get such fun items as a ring of the ram or necklace of missiles to add some magical oomph to the group.
The bard should have a high enough umd that a wand of flaming sphere may be great for swarms, some scrolls and potions of bless weapon might help out against evil and incorporeal foes, and load up on scrolls and potions of protection from evil and remove (anything bad).
Jingasa of the fortunate soldier
Cap of the free thinker
Feather step slippers
Cloak of resistance
Wands of cure light wounds (amazing for the price)
Light fortification armor
Ghost touch net: will hit their touch AC and they can't escape it.
Poisons: drow poison, blue whinnis, wound weal, spellscorch, dragon bile, death blade
Alchemy items (of note): nets, alchemist fire, sound burst jar, tanglefoot bags, tangle burn bags, fungal stun vial, ghast retch flasks, smokesticks, thunder stones, acid.
Opium
First part are some typical magic items my party and I typically get for campaigns due to their overall effectiveness, utility, and for saving our butts.
Second part are the two mundane parts that you can utilize to some great effect versus a wide gamut of things. Poisons are ok at lower levels. By mid to higher levels the DC's drop off to the point of rarely working. Also, many enemies wil be immune to poison or have high Fort saves.
However, that's where opium comes in. If you don't mind using it, it's an auto effect that will drop their con and wisdom by 1d4 and make them fatigued. No save for it. They get some benefits, due to it being a drug, but not enough to offset the negatives.
The other alchemical items have varying uses and are even somewhat useful at higher levels.
But yeah, I would definitely try to sell the bard on being a backup item based caster and have the whole party chip in to load him up with wands and scrolls.
We actually discussed the ghost touch net at the time, but right now it is outside our price range. Definitely something for the future. I figured that scrolls and potions were going to make up most of the suggestions which is great because I don't really have a good idea of what spells will be the most efficient use of our funds.
Regarding bless weapon, it sounds like a good way to bypass DR (good, get it?) but it sounds like it doesn't improve the situation with incorporeal if you already have +1 weapons, which most of us do. Otherwise the protection stuff makes plenty of sense. Certainly things would have gone differently if the zen archer hadn't been killed when he got pounced.
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