Do Boots of the Earth (From ISG) do what they seem?


Rules Questions


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Spoiler:
These sturdy leather dwarven boots have soles made of thick gray marble. As a move action, the wearer can plant her feet and draw strength from the earth, gaining fast healing 1 and a + 4 bonus to CMD to resist bullrush, reposition, and trip combat maneuver attempts. These effects end if the wearer moves or is moved, knocked prone, or rendered unconscious.

Price 5,000 GP

Do these grant you Fast Healing 1, basically whenever you like, so long as you stand still? A ring of regeneration is 90,000 GP, these are only 5,000, that doesn't seem right, since these boots have other bonuses too...

Is there some sort of uses per day or something that I'm not seeing for this, or is this genuinely a way to get near infinite healing for even a low level character? (Or even a party, taking turns wearing the boots)

It seems entirely to good to be true, so... what am I missing?


Too good be true. Probably makes hair on palms.


Well, one critical difference is that regeneration prevents death until it is shut down. Fast healing will not keep you from dying.

Regeneration 1 at -100 hp? Still alive, but in need of alot of healing.
Fast healing 100 at -15 and a CON score of 14? Dead as a door nail.


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I'd still go for the Fast Healing 100. That would be sick.


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I want to play a fighter with these now. That would be fun. "Healing? No thanks. I'll just stand here and look stoic for a few minutes, that'll fix me right up..."

Oooh, hit-and-run types, ring of invis and these boots. Fight until half hp, invis and run off to heal for a minute, come back and kick more ass. Excuse me, I have an encounter to write...


FiddlersGreen wrote:

Well, one critical difference is that regeneration prevents death until it is shut down. Fast healing will not keep you from dying.

Regeneration 1 at -100 hp? Still alive, but in need of alot of healing.
Fast healing 100 at -15 and a CON score of 14? Dead as a door nail.

The regeneration (Ex) special quality creatures have prevents death. The ring doesn't give you that quality. However, it does give you regeneration of limbs that you lose while wearing the ring, and prevent bleed damage, and it can be used without sacrificing move actions, or while moving. Although really, the primary benefits are probably the out-of-combat healing.

(Our GM has houseruled the ring of regeneration to grant actual regeneration, because that's More Interesting.)

Lantern Lodge

FiddlersGreen wrote:

Well, one critical difference is that regeneration prevents death until it is shut down. Fast healing will not keep you from dying.

Regeneration 1 at -100 hp? Still alive, but in need of alot of healing.
Fast healing 100 at -15 and a CON score of 14? Dead as a door nail.

Also, don't forget that the boots do NOT work if you are unconscious. You can still bleed to death wearing these!

Lots of other small but important angles to the boots:

You plant your feet and draw strength from the earth. Does this mean you have to be standing on the ground? Makes them much less useful in a shipboard campaign, such as Skull & Shackles, or any game where you don't spend much time on land.

Doesn't work when prone.

Doesn't work when moving.

I'm not surprised by this item. Pathfinder has been making healing easy to obtain, and many groups don't even have a cleric or other healer these days. This item is a good substitute for a Wand of Cure Light Wounds.


seebs wrote:
FiddlersGreen wrote:

Well, one critical difference is that regeneration prevents death until it is shut down. Fast healing will not keep you from dying.

Regeneration 1 at -100 hp? Still alive, but in need of alot of healing.
Fast healing 100 at -15 and a CON score of 14? Dead as a door nail.

The regeneration (Ex) special quality creatures have prevents death. The ring doesn't give you that quality. However, it does give you regeneration of limbs that you lose while wearing the ring, and prevent bleed damage, and it can be used without sacrificing move actions, or while moving. Although really, the primary benefits are probably the out-of-combat healing.

(Our GM has houseruled the ring of regeneration to grant actual regeneration, because that's More Interesting.)

Re-read the item description. I believe I stand corrected.

Well, I suppose if you're not too picky about food...it also serves as a self-replenishing food-source...

Incidentally, I'm with Captain Zoom on the math involved.
A wand of infernal healing (which gives fast healing 1) heals 500hp for 750 gp. If you're just after the healing alone, you'd need to heal 3333 hp to break even. Now, sure, the boots also give some bonuses when used, but...you're stuck to the spot when using the boots, and can't have more than 1 person benefitting from it at any one time (whereas you can use the wands on several characters). Heck, you can't even use it sometimes (e.g. if you're on a boat or raft).


Which book is the ISG?


Inner Sea Gods.

Grand Lodge

I also expect they won't work if you are in a building and on a floor not directly resting on the 'earth' below it. (Mileage will vary on whether the flooring that does rest directly on the earth would allow them to work or not - there's wiggle room for interpretation on this.)

Still, I know my cleric/fighter dwarf needs these - need to read up on this gem... (Standing like a rock, or rolling like a boulder, are a Thing for Zolands...)


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*sigh* Now we'll see every PC ever pausing to swap shoes and stand around for a few minutes between battles. Nice one, guys.

Scarab Sages

Anyone with the Fast Healer feat will love these. Especially Stonelords or Stalwart Defenders.

Liberty's Edge

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blahpers wrote:
*sigh* Now we'll see every PC ever pausing to swap shoes and stand around for a few minutes between battles. Nice one, guys.

5.000 gp isn't exactly cheap for a low level group, and characters with spells that last rounds or minutes level will hate the pauses, but for a middle to high level group it is a cheap way to recover HP between battles. I comprehend that there are groups that hate the need to heal between battles or treat your hp as a resource that you need to manage, but making easier and easier to recover them don't seem a great idea.


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Diego Rossi wrote:
blahpers wrote:
*sigh* Now we'll see every PC ever pausing to swap shoes and stand around for a few minutes between battles. Nice one, guys.
5.000 gp isn't exactly cheap for a low level group, and characters with spells that last rounds or minutes level will hate the pauses, but for a middle to high level group it is a cheap way to recover HP between battles. I comprehend that there are groups that hate the need to heal between battles or treat your hp as a resource that you need to manage, but making easier and easier to recover them don't seem a great idea.

Pool the party's resources for one set and you can see infinite out-of-combat healing for the entire party by level 2 for the price of a few minutes of Mr. Rogers silliness.

Yeah, not happy with this item. In fact, it's one of the rare first-party items I'm likely to simply ban.

Scarab Sages

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The reasonable option is to houserule the limitation that a ring of regeneration has: "Only damage taken while wearing the boots is healed."


Yeah, I noticed these too. My own discovery of these was when I was looking at how to make a wyrwood character viable.

Needing a 2nd level spell as pretty much your sole form of healing, or forcing someone else to take craft construct (or worse, restricting yourself to classes that could easily take craft construct) seemed like a pain. You could also benefit from a wand of infernal healing...but everyone else could benefit from both that and the much more popular wand of cure light wounds.

But these boots makes it easy for such a character to heal without taxing party resources. And heck, as a wooden construct, these practically seem rather thematic (I mean, they are made from trees). It would also pragmatic in setting since it is so complicated for them to heal themselves (I mean, usually people could sleep most things off; maybe have someone by their bedside giving a bit of care for something 'serious'). I could imagine a wyrwood community with a 'healing booth' that was simply a pair of Boots of the Earth staked to the ground. I mean, infernal healing, while convenient and all, seems like it would be at least somewhat hard to get consistently on a community level since you would have to deal with evil clerics (who would probably price gouge).

So it is either that, or you go to a specialist wyrwood wizard who either has craft construct, or he took eschew material components. And even then, they would be rather taxed to keep up with every nick and scratch with a limited number of casters. No, something that could be made by 3rd level casters with Craft Wondrous item (which is much more useful and easier to grab than craft construct) is far more feasible when it can be made as a public service to the community. A small toll per minute and it would pay for iteself.

Anyway, for in game terms: eh, this mostly just saves the party on buying so many wands of cure light wounds. The healing is not that great in a fight by the time you can actually afford the boots personally (I mean, an alchemist could have fast healing 5 for rounds/level by then, and that would actually matter in combat, especially since it both can work on the move and activates when they are go to critical health). So really, this mostly just means that you would have to adjust for wealth since the party would be using much fewer consumable items. It works well depending on the game, since the party might not be able to just out and buy more wands of clw (and while they are almost universally useful, it can be a stretch for them to always find so many wands as loot...when they might be fighting monsters without hands/thumbs) , and the cleric wants to do something other than serve as heal bot.

Of course, running out of healing items/spells might be an important part of your grind as you try to wear the party down. Still, hit point damage tends to be the least threatening kind when the party is given opportunities to sit down and patch themselves up like this item needs. Negative levels and ability score damage is usually the way to go. And heck, some conditions might also limit this item's use (I mean, they need to be conscious and standing to use it. There are plenty of ways to prevent that.


LOL, and this after the thread where someone said an unlimited CLW ring for the 95k or whatever it came to was unfair! Bet you guys wish it was the ring now, at least that was an end game item.


Those shoes must be horribly uncomfortable to wear. Soles made of thick marble? Bleh...


Imbicatus wrote:
The reasonable option is to houserule the limitation that a ring of regeneration has: "Only damage taken while wearing the boots is healed."

I'm down with that. Otherwise, they're effectively slotless free gold wondrous items.

Liberty's Edge

lemeres wrote:

Yeah, I noticed these too. My own discovery of these was when I was looking at how to make a wyrwood character viable.

Needing a 2nd level spell as pretty much your sole form of healing, or forcing someone else to take craft construct (or worse, restricting yourself to classes that could easily take craft construct) seemed like a pain. You could also benefit from a wand of infernal healing...but everyone else could benefit from both that and the much more popular wand of cure light wounds.

But these boots makes it easy for such a character to heal without taxing party resources. And heck, as a wooden construct, these practically seem rather thematic (I mean, they are made from trees). It would also pragmatic in setting since it is so complicated for them to heal themselves (I mean, usually people could sleep most things off; maybe have someone by their bedside giving a bit of care for something 'serious'). I could imagine a wyrwood community with a 'healing booth' that was simply a pair of Boots of the Earth staked to the ground. I mean, infernal healing, while convenient and all, seems like it would be at least somewhat hard to get consistently on a community level since you would have to deal with evil clerics (who would probably price gouge).

So it is either that, or you go to a specialist wyrwood wizard who either has craft construct, or he took eschew material components. And even then, they would be rather taxed to keep up with every nick and scratch with a limited number of casters. No, something that could be made by 3rd level casters with Craft Wondrous item (which is much more useful and easier to grab than craft construct) is far more feasible when it can be made as a public service to the community. A small toll per minute and it would pay for iteself.

Anyway, for in game terms: eh, this mostly just saves the party on buying so many wands of cure light wounds. The healing is not that great in a fight by the time you can actually afford the boots personally (I mean, an alchemist...

Mending should work.

The construct type cite make whole, and there is no difference between the two, beside:
1) Make whole ability to repair destroyed magic items;
2) Make whole ability to bypass any SR when repairing a construct, but wyrwood character don't have SR AFAIK.

Dark Archive

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Imbicatus wrote:
The reasonable option is to houserule the limitation that a ring of regeneration has: "Only damage taken while wearing the boots is healed."

That or the old 'must wear these for 24 hours before they start working for you' chestnut. Seems easy enough to house rule into shape.


Diego Rossi wrote:
Mending should work.

I checked that a few weeks ago when I wanted to make a Wyrwood character. Guess what I found out?

"This spell does not affect creatures (including constructs)."


Not to mention, mending has a weight limit that would preclude a great many constructs.


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Makes the RAW text version of Glorious Heat more tolerable, since everyone has an unlimited healing option.


Harrison wrote:
Soles made of thick marble? Bleh...

Clomp clomp clomp

Stealth penalty? Speed reduction?

New prestige class "Shadowclomper"?

Vivisectionist has countertop made from these to heal subjects slowly so ready for next experiment.


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You could have a town where they have a couple of these afixed to the ground, so anyone who is injured need only make it to the town square and be fully healed in minutes.


Imbicatus wrote:
Anyone with the Fast Healer feat will love these. Especially Stonelords or Stalwart Defenders.

Sick.


Oh! An Oracle of Life with Fast Healer and Life Link. Plants his feet, and heals erbody. Then you'd not even need to swap the boots around. He'd have to be heavy con focused to make it work right, but... that is always a good thing anyway.

But, check it out... to get Fast healer, you need Endurance and... Diehard.

Diehard makes it so going negative HP doesn't make you unconscious... so even that wouldn't stop you from staying put and healing.

Hrm, I think I'm actually going to make a character based around this...

Character idea ramblings in spoiler form cuz… ramblings…

Spoiler:
So, be human, cuz... feats. Try for a 20 con. Level 1, take a level of (Unbreakable) Fighter. For free endurance and diehard feats. Then take fast healer and fey foundling as your 1st and human bonus feats.

Then progress as Oracle (life), and choose life link. Grab whatever other goodies you like... by level 4-5 you can keep life link on all party members, so are free to progress however you please. Put all your stat boosts into con, and get a con belt.

So, level 2, they'd heal you 3 hp a round. And you could life link one party member at a time to heal them 5 hp a round (at range). And you'd have about 25 hp, so pretty beefy. And can keep functioning until -20. Minimal spell/ability use for healing necessary, and everyone is at/near full between combats with ease.

By 5th or so, you should be able to have a +2 belt, and could be healing 4 hp a round from these guys. You'd be able to maintain life link on your whole party, so transferring up to 5hp from each to yourself per round. You'd have like 65 hp and could go to -23. And supplement any group spike damage by channeling or curing yourself. But would mostly be free to cast offensively/defensively/utility instead of heals. And yet still be healing.

You should be able to afford a +4 or +6 belt easy enough by 10th level. So, assuming a 4, 20+2+4 is 26 (+8), and your stone boots are healing you 5 hp per round. You can go to -26 hp before dying, and have about 150 hp or so. You'd be one hellova hp battery, and one that self charges. And all for no actions whatsoever in combat, aside from one move, and then not moving.

I like how this would work in theory.

Scarab Sages

I like Half-orc much better for the fast healer oracle. Get Fate's Favored and Sacred Tattoo for the delicious +2 luck bonus to all saves, Shaman's apprentice to pick up endurance, plus a smattering of other goodies. This lets you have more versatility in fighter archetype options, or just wait until 5th (the soonest you, alone, could afford a pair of these boots anyway). Also see if you can manage to be in a party with a druid, and have them burn all their unused slots on Goodberry at the end of the day(s). For this particular build, they are amazing. Also pick up a Fortress Shield with a bunch of fortifying stones for an invincible box on command.

A little slower on the fast-healer train, but I'll gladly take the +2 to saves in exchange and other bonuses.


Captain Zoom wrote:


You plant your feet and draw strength from the earth. Does this mean you have to be standing on the ground? Makes them much less useful in a shipboard campaign, such as Skull & Shackles, or any game where you don't spend much time on land.

I spotted these and that was one of the first things my gaming group discussed. It quickly devolved into chanting "I've got a jar of dirt!" at one another.

Reference

On a more serious note, I like this item. It's a good way for the fighter to contribute to the resource pool of the party (as that is one of the reasons I've been given as "Why Fighters Suck" a lack of party resource contribution). The tl'dr of this item is simply Fast Healing 10 while standing still, feet planted on earth. It would be easy enough to use the massive amounts of time that the party spends healing up in this manner to have the BBEG organize and marshal the minions into positions to dunk the party. For 5k gold, a solid item with both upsides and downsides, a decently designed item.

Silver Crusade

Don't you also have to worship Torag so these boots work on you or not?


Nothing in the item entry says so. And nothing in the introduction to the chapter of the book says so. In fact, since many of the other items in the chapter have extra effects for worshippers of the correct god, I think there's a very strong argument that there was no intention to restrict them to worshippers of Torag.

(And even if there were, they're so incredibly useful for an Oradin that every Oradin would be a Torag worshipper.)


The problem with them is that it may well take some thirty minutes for a barbarian or other tank to heal up fully. Man, that's gonna grate on some nerves.


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Sissyl wrote:
The problem with them is that it may well take some thirty minutes for a barbarian or other tank to heal up fully. Man, that's gonna grate on some nerves.

It gives back 10 HP a minute... I wish my Barbarian had 300 HP.


chaoseffect wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
The problem with them is that it may well take some thirty minutes for a barbarian or other tank to heal up fully. Man, that's gonna grate on some nerves.
It gives back 10 HP a minute... I wish my Barbarian had 300 HP.

Yeah... Not really realistic to see a half hour break, but a 15 minute break could easily be needed if you have been taken down to single digit numbers at around lvl 10-12... Which would mean that all min/lvl buffs (and below) are gone. The group I play in often forgo searching rooms to press on while our buffs lasts and then we go back and search the rooms we were in.


Lifat wrote:
chaoseffect wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
The problem with them is that it may well take some thirty minutes for a barbarian or other tank to heal up fully. Man, that's gonna grate on some nerves.
It gives back 10 HP a minute... I wish my Barbarian had 300 HP.
Yeah... Not really realistic to see a half hour break, but a 15 minute break could easily be needed if you have been taken down to single digit numbers at around lvl 10-12... Which would mean that all min/lvl buffs (and below) are gone. The group I play in often forgo searching rooms to press on while our buffs lasts and then we go back and search the rooms we were in.

Of course, there's nothing to say you couldn't use normal healing anyway. The boots will still cut into the amount you need.

And when you do have time, completely heal you for free.


Paizo should add the clause that it only heals damage worn while wearing it. It has to be an oversight that it wasn't included. Even with that clause, it's still an excellent item in my opinion. Makes for essentially all engagements at full health for the rest of their life as well as effectively a little bit of bonus hp, since the fast healing works in combat when not moving.

It should maybe even be limited to 5 or 10 minutes per day and 1 minute clumps.

Liberty's Edge

Joesi wrote:
Paizo should add the clause that it only heals damage worn while wearing it. It has to be an oversight that it wasn't included.

It is not an oversight.

CRB wrote:
Many magic items need to be donned by a character who wants to employ them or benefit from their abilities. It's possible for a creature with a humanoid-shaped body to wear as many as 15 magic items at the same time. However, each of those items must be worn on (or over) a particular part of the body, known as a “slot.”

So basically any magic item that has a slot has to be worn in order for it to be activated.


baradakas wrote:


It is not an oversight.
CRB wrote:
Many magic items need to be donned by a character who wants to employ them or benefit from their abilities. It's possible for a creature with a humanoid-shaped body to wear as many as 15 magic items at the same time. However, each of those items must be worn on (or over) a particular part of the body, known as a “slot.”
So basically any magic item that has a slot has to be worn in order for it to be activated.

I'm not sure how what you said pertains to what I said (probably due to miscommunication). Also I made a typing error. I meant to say "only heals damage that was taken while wearing the boots", in case you somehow misinterpreted my erroneous message.

This is so that people don't just equip them in order to heal themselves then take them off again. That conditional is in both the ring of regeneration and the pearly white spindle ioun stone's description/rules.


We play Fast Heal only cures damage that was caused while it was active. Is this an official rule? It would makes sence for this item given its price.

The Exchange Owner - D20 Hobbies

That's a house rule because Fast Healing doesn't list stipulations for it working.

PFS has a rule that this item can be activated once a day. It's a fair thing to do.


The rule the item can only be activated once per day isn't a PFS rule. It's an errata, so it technically applies to all games unless you houserule otherwise.


illyume wrote:
The rule the item can only be activated once per day isn't a PFS rule. It's an errata, so it technically applies to all games unless you houserule otherwise.

not really a non-PFS errata, since the rule change is in PFS-Campaign Clarifications


Farrindor wrote:

I also expect they won't work if you are in a building and on a floor not directly resting on the 'earth' below it. (Mileage will vary on whether the flooring that does rest directly on the earth would allow them to work or not - there's wiggle room for interpretation on this.)

Still, I know my cleric/fighter dwarf needs these - need to read up on this gem... (Standing like a rock, or rolling like a boulder, are a Thing for Zolands...)

With these boots you're pretty much Antaeus. So I'd rule if that there is anything other than dirt beneath your feet, the boots don't work.


Carry around a bag of dirt and a broom for sweeping it up. :)

Though the boots don't say you have to be standing on earth, just that you draw power from it. I admit there's table variance there.

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