| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Should probably also include the other generic stuff like skill boosters, speed boosters, perception booster, flight and apex that every character picks up.
Level 01
Gauntlet bow - fake out activator - gunslingers and anyone with the archetype - if 2h gun, release hand as a free action and end your turn unloaded so you can fake out and regrip as part of reloading next round. If 1h gun or bow, just wear on off-hand
Weapon siphon + bombs - free damage - melee magi and melee dual wielders that bypass the increased MAP
Level 02
Silver Salve - silver bonuses - martials
Level 03
Jolt coil - electric arc access - casters who need it
Snapleaf - feather fall - everyone. cheap, beats cliffs, pit traps and any flying monster that tries to lift you up and drop you
Level 05
Shifting spider collar + energy mutagens - free damage - 1h melee martials, doesn't work for unarmed
Level 06
Phantasmal doorknob - 1/enemy free dazzle on crit - every martial - low priority compared to greater version
Staff of illusions - some of the best spells in the game that don't need heightening - casters, especially spont casters that can heighten if needed
Level 08
Potion patch + potion of quickness - single action haste - all characters, too expensive to be realistic until later, but cauldron witch can supply free potions at this level
Level 11
Mask of uncanny breath - suffocation cheese strat enabler - melee martials
Master magus ring - 1/day free action teleport - good on everyone
Other focus items - free focus point - applicable classes, generally low priority item
Level 12
Greater doorknob - 1/enemy free blind on crit - martials, still good post-nerf
Stunning snares + damage snares - push strat & quandry payoff - anyone with snarecrafter archetype, pair with kineticist berms for big push payoffs or deploy in enemy space after quandry for free damage+stun
Level 15
Major saurian spike - precise scent - all characters
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I’ll contribute my list of long-duration buff spells—always useful and often more cost-effective than permanent wearable items that provide similar benefits—which are recommended for use via wands, even for non-spellcasters, thanks to the Trick Magic Item feat.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I’ll contribute my list of long-duration buff spells—always useful and often more cost-effective than permanent wearable items that provide similar benefits—which are recommended for use via wands, even for non-spellcasters, thanks to the Trick Magic Item feat.
Rank 1: Alarm, ant haul
Rank 2: Tailwind (heightened), instant armor, marvelous mount
Rank 3: Marvelous mount (heightened), translate (heightened), water breathing (heightened), cozy cabin, environmental endurance (heightened)
Rank 4: Floating Harness (heightened), marvelous mount (heightened), translate (heightened), water breathing (heightened), speak with plants (heightened), liminal doorway
Rank 5: Darkvision (heightened), cloud current (heightened)—combined with rank 6 marvelous mount, divine dragon's watch, telepathic bond, umbral journey, see the unseen (heightened), tremorsense (heightened)
Rank 6: Marvelous mount (heightened), heatvision (heightened), speak with magic (heightened), speak with stones (heightened), spirit sense (heightened)
Rank 7: Deep sight (heightened), truespeech (heightened), speak with water (heightened), planar palace
Rank 8: Cloud current (heightened)—combined with marvelous mount or migration, migration, hidden mind
Rank 9: Return beacon (heightened), resplendent mansion (if your GM doesn't allow planar palace), sacred covenant
I would add contingency + containment to this list, for the characters who can cast contingency off wand. Use it to block line of effect on the most dangerous attacks targeting you. You’ll be stuck in the containment but that’s well worth blocking a big scary melee monster crit or a boss’s spell. And the enemy will sometimes break you out of the containment for free.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You’re also missing false life and heroism. False life you just refresh whenever you lose it, and has an upgrade in the wand of teeming ghosts if you use demoralize.
Heroism you buy ~6 or so wands of - however many you think you’ll almost always get through on a typical adventuring day - and a bunch of scrolls, and you adopt a policy of literally never doing anything foreseeably imminently dangerous without casting heroism first.
Going to walk around a dungeon, enter new rooms? Heroism. See a weird statue? Heroism before you try and figure out what it is. Possible trap? Heroism. Important conversation? Heroism before you walk in. 10 minutes is usually long enough, and you can have enough wands and scrolls to cover the parts of the day you’re at most risk.
At level 20 this can also be worth doing with invisibility, just for the hidden before your turn in initiative - or after if you’re just throwing buffs round 1.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Here is my very incomplete list of items.
Item levels are not the level of the item, they’re when you should get them.
Caveat:
Some of these worn items (such as spring heels and the collar of the shifting spider) have activations that involve manipulate. This was probably so that they trigger reactive strike, it doesn’t really make any sense for many of these items to need a hand to activate, and the chain of RAW that leads to that interpretation isn’t obvious. If your GM is likely to rule that they need a free hand, you should simply avoid playing characters that occupy both hands. While the benefits of i.e. two handed weapons are great, it’s not worth locking yourself out of so much itemization - especially when you also can’t use held items effectively. For reach, you can pick up an asp coil or flickmace.
Consumable use:
Consumables typically become affordable to use in most fights around 4 levels below your level. Occasional use before then is fine.
Echo receptors
Level 9+
Mandatory for everyone
Provides a non-visual precise sense. This (within range) completely negates invisibility, blindness, and concealment. That’s enough reason to get them on it’s own, but if your whole party has them (make sure they do) you can place down darkness, vision blocking, and mist effects and get one way concealment or hidden. An alternative is the major saurian spike, which has its advantages, but is much more expensive.
Spring heels
Level 6+
Recommended for everyone, more important for melee martials.
Stride twice as an action 1/hour. Zip across the map. You can get a second one later too.
Spider chair
Level 13-14+
Recommended for people who like sitting on the ceiling.
How good this item is depends in large part on whether your GM rules that it’s climb speed doesn’t also use your hands.
Sunflower censor
Level 9+
Recommend for anyone who has echo receptors
Ignore all the stuff about hiding undead. This is here solely because it is the best form factor of the mist spell.
Thrasher tail
Level 13+
Recommend for people with spare bulk and/or no other good way to escape grabs
Reaction to automatically escape the grabbed condition.
Boots of bounding/clockwork heels
Level 8+
Recommended for everyone
The boots are cheaper, boost jump distance, and have an upgrade for +10 movement speed later. The clockwork heels aren’t invested. Which one you want depends on the character.
Rooting rune
Level 7+
Recommended for anyone with reactive strike, especially fighters
You said no runes, I don’t care as I need to highlight how baller this rune is. Immobilized on crit is insanely powerful - especially with weapon crit effects like prone or shove. The fixed DC will fall off into uselessness quickly, but that doesn’t matter as the enemy still has to spend an action (and increment MAP) to escape. Fighters especially can turn into real CC machines whenever they land a crit with one of these installed.
Spellwatch
Level 13+
Recommended for everyone, mandatory in campaigns with lots of enemy casters.
You get another chance to save vs an enemy spell at the start of every turn, and if you succeed the spell just ends. This can turn a crit failed slow into nothing, as well as a fair number of other spells. This is the most important armor property rune, maybe the most important property rune period.
Phantasmal doorknob, greater
Level 12+
Recommend for fighters
Fallen from its glory days but not a bad option.
Collar of the shifting spider
Level 7+
Recommended for mutagen users
Activate a mutagen as a free action
Potion of quickness
Level 9, 13 for regular use.
Recommended for everyone, mandatory for some builds that really like the extra action
It gives you another action. Use with potion patches for hands free activation.
Moderate prey mutagen
Level 3+ occasional, 7+ regular
Recommend for anyone who can’t find a better polymorph effect.
Bring a strong move speed and a nifty defensive reaction. Most characters will have something better to do with their polymorph slot eventually, but in the meantime this provides value.
Greater juggernaut mutagen
Level 12 occasional, level 16 regular
Recommended for classes without fortitude evasion.
Tanks will save a bit in exchange for fortitude evasion and some temp hp.
Lesser soothing tonic
Level 1
Recommended for everyone
Premier emergency healing option, dirt cheap and can get someone back up after going down
Life boosting oil
Level 3 occasional, level 7 constant
Recommended for anyone without fast healing
Prebuffable soothing tonic, gets you up if you go down within the first 3 rounds of being hit.
Vital earth
Level 3 to have one on hand, level ~8 for prebuffing daily.
Mandatory for everyone, especially especially spellcasters
Pathfinder 2e has incredibly lethal suffocation mechanics. This item negates them completely.
Ghost arrows
Level 17+
Recommended for: Ranged martials whose team uses wall spells
Bola shot
Level 4 occasional, level 8 regular
Recommend for any ranged character
The goat of magical ammo. Dirt cheap with a strong effect (prone, stunned in crit). Many ranged characters want to use this every fight. Special mention for it’s use as an anti flight tool, knocking fliers out of the sky
Imp shot
Level 8-9
Recommend for any ranged character
Sidegrade to bola shot without the anti-flight specialty.
Silver salve
Level 2+, can prebuff constantly at ~6
Recommended for all martials
Lets you have a silvered weapon without touching the dogwater special material weapon rules
Transmuting ingot (cold iron)
Level 1+
Recommended for all martials
Lets you have a cold iron weapon without touching the dogwater special material weapon rules
Leeching fangs
Level 12, regular use at 17
Recommended for any high damage martial
Absurd self healing just from attacking enemies. Honestly, there’s good arguments to ban this item - the self sustain vs horde encounters is busted.
Chroma Kaleidoscope
Level 8, 11+ for regular use
Recommended for martials, especially fighters
Welcome back prenerf phantasmal doorknob - kinda, it’s not quite as good. Special mention for being one of the few items that goes off class DC instead of a fixed DC, without which it’d be mostly worthless.
Ear Plugs – super cheap +2 circ bonus vs auditory effects (from Demoralize to wailing banshees).
Basic Face Mask – super cheap item bonus before you get a Resilient rune.
Ancestral Geometry – poor man's hero points, fill your remaining investment slots with those.
Scorpion Whip – 1-handed reach weapon with light bulk (L); great on low-Strength non-martials with a free hand early in the game to help with flanking from a safe distance, e.g. casters before you hold staves, wands, or scrolls; there are also common options, but not with L bulk.
1 sp > 10 cp – 1 silver piece is a must-have for anyone with Needle Darts; for similar reasons a Cold Iron Dagger in your belt is good as well.
Warding Tablets grimoire – great for prepared casters to use with a cantrip like (Glass) Shield, Protect Companion, or Forbidding Ward to remove a harmful spell once per day.
Symbol of Conflict – for sanctified characters to get a rare +1 circ bonus vs holy/unholy.
Accessory Runes – like Soft-Landing or Pontoon are often overlooked, but quite useful if you have investment slots to spare.
Banner of … – Every party should have 1 banner, as some provide good stuff for low cost, e.g. Banner of the Restful, Hexwise Banner, or a (Major) Dawnfire Beacon.
Stormshard – if you're running a Demoralize-build in an undead-heavy campaign.
Spellhearts – especially Jolt Coil for Electric Arc, Foxglove Token for your only item option to get poison resistance, and the Devilwing Badge to get both Fire & Unholy resistance + the Divine Lance cantrip; for comparison, the latter two spellhearts provide the same resistance values as an Energy-Resistant runes for just a bit more gold.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I would add contingency + containment to this list, for the characters who can cast contingency off wand. Use it to block line of effect on the most dangerous attacks targeting you. You’ll be stuck in the containment but that’s well worth blocking a big scary melee monster crit or a boss’s spell. And the enemy will sometimes break you out...If you meant it like this, I will never allow this combo to prevent any attack or spell. You get hit and then it puts you in containment.
"using the same restrictions as for the trigger of a Ready action"
Also, 'on crit' triggers are absolutely impossible, doubly. And so are any 'on targeting'.
If this is a topic about practical advice, this is important.
Trigger: “I am the target of an attack, spell, or special ability” - with an implied qualifier of having to be able to perceive it coming, otherwise you couldn’t react to it.
When I said monster crit I didn’t mean in response to being crit. I meant in response to an attack that you think would mess you up, has a high chance of critting you out. Same for spells and dragon’s breath and what not. Obviously once you’ve been crit it’s a bit too late for a force field to do anything.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I would add contingency + containment to this list, for the characters who can cast contingency off wand. Use it to block line of effect on the most dangerous attacks targeting you. You’ll be stuck in the containment but that’s well worth blocking a big scary melee monster crit or a boss’s spell. And the enemy will sometimes break you out...If you meant it like this, I will never allow this combo to prevent any attack or spell. You get hit and then it puts you in containment.
"using the same restrictions as for the trigger of a Ready action"
Also, 'on crit' triggers are absolutely impossible, doubly. And so are any 'on targeting'.
If this is a topic about practical advice, this is important.
It is very practical. Reactions already exist in the game that trigger off being targeted or retroactively after already being hit or even critically hit. Why would contingency, a 7th rank spell which lets you build a reaction with a custom trigger, be unable to use those same trigger conditions or the same retroactive ability to negate actions?
|
I've found there's quite a lack of good 6th level permanent items. This may not be an issue for home games, but in PFS 7th level characters get a 6th level item as part of their equipment at character creation. The only useful ones I've found are:
Level 6
- Lieutenant's Sash. +1 circ to AC and saves vs hazards and reactions from enemies. 1/hour grant the bonus to ally with reaction. AC bonus doesn't stack with Raise Shield and is very circumstancial.
- Cassisian Helmet. +1 status to AC and saves vs Unholy. 1/day mediocre line attack. Good vs undeads/fiends/demons, useless otherwise
- Aim-Aiding armor rune. You don't provide cover to your allies for being in their line of fire. Good if your party has ranged characters who refuse to exit turret-mode, bad if you want literally any other rune on your armor.
Decent, none must haves.
Echolocation graft and leeching fangs are some good items. Glad my players haven't found those yet.
|
|
Echolocation graft and leeching fangs are some good items. Glad my players haven't found those yet.
I've never played at high levels, so my perception of finances is definitely off, but do people really consider a 400gp consumable that lasts 1 minute really OP? I get it, you heal half the damage you deal in that minute, it's good healing, but how often are you in the position of needing that much healing so much to throw 400gp at the encounter? I don't see myself at mid-levels dropping 40gp for a full-HP heal. Aren't other non-consumable healing options at that level plentiful and better anyway?
If I was the last standing character, Cleric dead, out of self-healing capabilities, and this item helped me staying alive as I stave off death and a TPK, that's great, 10/10 item right there. But I'd hardly recommend it as a must have, let alone OP, the same way I wouldn't recommend any healing consumable as a must haves. But again, I'm happy to be corrected.
Echolocation graft and leeching fangs are some good items. Glad my players haven't found those yet.I've never played at high levels, so my perception of finances is definitely off, but do people really consider a 400gp consumable that lasts 1 minute really OP? I get it, you heal half the damage you deal in that minute, it's good healing, but how often are you in the position of needing that much healing so much to throw 400gp at the encounter? I don't see myself at mid-levels dropping 40gp for a full-HP heal. Aren't other non-consumable healing options at that level plentiful and better anyway?
If I was the last standing character, Cleric dead, out of self-healing capabilities, and this item helped me staying alive as I stave off death and a TPK, that's great, 10/10 item right there. But I'd hardly recommend it as a must have, let alone OP, the same way I wouldn't recommend any healing consumable as a must haves. But again, I'm happy to be corrected.
No, it's not OP. 400 gold is nothing for high level characters. I hit level 20 a bit ago and have like 16000 gold just sitting there doing nothing. The gold adds up. If you use crafting with Legendary Crafting and have time, you can churn out 400 gold items fairly quick and cheap.
You’re also missing false life and heroism. False life you just refresh whenever you lose it, and has an upgrade in the wand of teeming ghosts if you use demoralize.
Heroism you buy ~6 or so wands of - however many you think you’ll almost always get through on a typical adventuring day - and a bunch of scrolls, and you adopt a policy of literally never doing anything foreseeably imminently dangerous without casting heroism first.
Going to walk around a dungeon, enter new rooms? Heroism. See a weird statue? Heroism before you try and figure out what it is. Possible trap? Heroism. Important conversation? Heroism before you walk in. 10 minutes is usually long enough, and you can have enough wands and scrolls to cover the parts of the day you’re at most risk.
At level 20 this can also be worth doing with invisibility, just for the hidden before your turn in initiative - or after if you’re just throwing buffs round 1.
I didn't include them because, while they last long enough for one or two encounters, they don't last long enough to be effective throughout an entire day of adventuring.
Many of the ones you mentioned work better as consumables than as permanent items for me. They aren't bad options, though; I just didn't want to put items that I feel work better as consumables onto the list.
Echolocation graft and leeching fangs are some good items. Glad my players haven't found those yet.I've never played at high levels, so my perception of finances is definitely off, but do people really consider a 400gp consumable that lasts 1 minute really OP? I get it, you heal half the damage you deal in that minute, it's good healing, but how often are you in the position of needing that much healing so much to throw 400gp at the encounter? I don't see myself at mid-levels dropping 40gp for a full-HP heal. Aren't other non-consumable healing options at that level plentiful and better anyway?
They’re expensive but with how much damage a high level martial can dish out it’s bonkers healing, at no additional action cost.
You won’t need that most fights but if you’re in a horde fight it takes it from you getting worn down to HP damage not mattering vs you.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
4 gp – one Cold Iron ring & one Silver ring. You wear these and cast Needle Darts with your choice of metal.
Runes:
Resilient (level 8+) - fundamental rune for armor: +1/+2/+3 to all saves.
Damage property Runes (level 8+) - +1d6 of damage on every strike for martials. This damage is typed, as in fire, cold, acid, etc. One available per level of striking rune.
4 gp – one Cold Iron ring & one Silver ring. You wear these and cast Needle Darts with your choice of metal.
Runes:
Resilient (level 8+) - fundamental rune for armor: +1/+2/+3 to all saves.
Damage property Runes (level 8+) - +1d6 of damage on every strike for martials. This damage is typed, as in fire, cold, acid, etc. One available per level of striking rune.
How did you arrive at this price?
And why do you recommend armor & property runes, when these have been explicitly excluded? [see the bolded text in the OP]
The smallest size of object known to function for needle darts is the size of a silver piece. Because a silver piece works for silvered needle darts (it’s an item made of silver)
The smallest printed cold iron item is probably the cold iron chunk, which is 10gp… coincidently the same cost as the silver chunk.
So assuming the chunks are both the same size, an amount of cold iron sized the same as silver piece should also be one silver - maybe a little bit more because it’s not being produced in that size at such a large scale. There’s some wiggle room if you think that chunks and inhibit sizes vary between these materials, but in order for that to make it cost more by an amount that matters very much there would have to be well over a 10x difference in chunk/ingot size.
So a cold iron ring sufficient for needle darts should be quite cheap, but idk where they’re getting 4gp exactly. Maybe there’s a silver ring worth 4gp as treasure from some AP and they’re using that as a reference point?
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I did an equipment list a few years back. Feel free to steal from it.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Oh, one item I forgot, and that is super awesome for anyone using Athletics, is the Sash of Prowess:
Activate — Effortless Mastery [free-action] (concentrate);
Frequency once per day;
Requirements You succeed at an Acrobatics or Athletics skill check;
Effect You critically succeed instead.
Once per day you can upgrade a Grappled to Restrained, or a "Disarmed" to an actually Disarmed. And just because it's a Focused item doesn't mean you can't just wear 2, 3, or even more of those – as the Usage entry is merely "worn"!
|
I've found there's quite a lack of good 6th level permanent items. This may not be an issue for home games, but in PFS 7th level characters get a 6th level item as part of their equipment at character creation. The only useful ones I've found are:
Level 6
- Lieutenant's Sash. +1 circ to AC and saves vs hazards and reactions from enemies. 1/hour grant the bonus to ally with reaction. AC bonus doesn't stack with Raise Shield and is very circumstancial.
- Cassisian Helmet. +1 status to AC and saves vs Unholy. 1/day mediocre line attack. Good vs undeads/fiends/demons, useless otherwise
- Aim-Aiding armor rune. You don't provide cover to your allies for being in their line of fire. Good if your party has ranged characters who refuse to exit turret-mode, bad if you want literally any other rune on your armor.Decent, none must haves.
IIRC you can use the Lump Sum system instead.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
IIRC you can use the Lump Sum system instead.
Yes, but it's significantly less efficient. The lump sum is 720gp, while the items alone can be wort up to ~780gp, plus 125gp, so about +25% better than lump sum. Hopefully Paizo will add more compelling 6th level items in the future, although the Cassisian Helmet is not bad for an Undead/Fiend heavy campaign.
Apex Items:
Trip Martials: Bracers of Hammers
Social Skill Face Man: Mask of Allure
Scout: Mercurial Mantle
Recall Knowledge Intel Caster: Crown of Intellect
Good Trapfinding/Thievery Item:
Ring of Maniacal Devices
|
|
IIRC you can use the Lump Sum system instead.Yes, but it's significantly less efficient. The lump sum is 720gp, while the items alone can be wort up to ~780gp, plus 125gp, so about +25% better than lump sum. Hopefully Paizo will add more compelling 6th level items in the future, although the Cassisian Helmet is not bad for an Undead/Fiend heavy campaign.
IIRC there are many 6th-level Staves, and also the Shifting rune.
If these do not fit your build and you would get more actual play value from using the Lump Sum, use the most efficient way. Without caring about "wasting" wealth your PC does not actually get.
It is exactly like using a class feat at level 4 to take the level 2 feat that brings more value to your build than any available level 4 class feat.
Only the end result matters.