new Ranger needs magic item

Hey all,

I have recently been passed the DM baton and I want to outfit the previous DMs new character with an appropriate magical item as befits a 2nd level [gay] Elven Ranger.

Any suggestions for rangerly items? This character will be slaying drow servants of Lloth. On the "neat but not useful" vs. "munchkin" scale, I'm leaning toward the former, but mainly I just want something interesting -- an heirloom perhaps or something of the kind that augments his abilities.

The other characters have the items they found in the previous adventure, which includes an 8th level Staff of Law. Since they were first level at the time (and are now only 2nd), I will be taking away the staff for the time being and replacing it with a couple of utilitarian magical items which could benefit the whole group (which doesn't have an arcane spellcaster). My thought is to replace it with two of the following, I haven't decided which:

a wand of cure light wounds
a wand of identify
a wand of detect magic
a wand of magic missle

Any suggestions or thoughts?

The ranger can only use the Wand of CLW.

No one in the party can use the other three wands ... unless they've taken many ranks in Use Magic Device.

He's not exactly new, but this guy was just re-signed along with his defending hockey stick +5...somebody said "new Ranger," right?

Wow. I must be rustier than I thought. Can't the rogue use magical devices?

I was under the impression that all he had to do was roll under his Use Magical Device skill vs. the spell level of the wand or something. Are the other spells simply too high in level for beginning non-wizards to use? [I don't have my books here at "work" otherwise I would look it up.]

For the most part wands are spell trigger-type items, which means that you have to have the ability to use the spell, based on your class. You don't have to actually know the spell, just be able to eventually use the spell (i.e. you could use that Wand of Fireballs as a 1st level Sorcerer).

If you're looking for an item (or items) that would be "useful" for the ranger and/or the party as a whole here are a couple of options:

1) Bag of Tricks, gray
This can come in handy, depending on situations and which animal gets pulled out Granted it's about the "maximum" you'd expect for a 2nd level character, based on the "wealth level" chart, but it has a lot of utility.

2) Various lesser Feather Tokens. You could easily give a bunch of the smaller ones and they'd come in handy in all sorts of different situations, plus they could be spread out among the party if you wanted

Depending on his fighting style I would suggest either

Archer - Masterwork Darkwood Mighty Composite Longbow (+[Whatever his STR is or higher if expected to get STR boosting items]

TwoWeapon - Masterwork Mithril Elven Thin-Blades (2) and the off-hand Thin-Blade a 'Light' weapon (thus both can be used without penalty).

The DC for using a wand with Use Magic Device, in 3.0 is 20. So if they want to have a good chance of success I would hope that someone there has 5 ranks and a good CHA.

I went home last night and thumbed through my 3.5 PHB, found that indeed the advice I had been given in the above posts was sage (as usual). I was pleased to see that Use Magical Device is now available to any class, albeit with cross class penalties for most, but another issue immediately emerged:

The wording of the UMD skill seemed to imply that players would have to make a check *every* time they used the wand, not just the first time (as we had previously played). Is that everybody else's interpretation of how to apply this skill? Thanks for the input!

Of course it is! Are you kidding me? If you only needed to roll it once everyone would take a level of thief. Once you succeed on the item it suddenly becomes always usable would be way too much.

The idea is that the Thief is emulating the wand as if he was a wizard. So he would have a start dc of 20.

If he was using other devices he'd also have to emulate a high enough int/cha/wis and level etc also.

Might be a stretch, but how 'bout "Heward's Handy Haversack"? It's kinda neat, kinda useful. I personally don't envision rangers carrying tons of stuff (only the necessities, really). Since each of the two side pouches holds 20 lbs (or 2 cu. ft.) of stuff, and the main pouch holds 80 lbs (or 8 cu. ft.), and the bag itself automatically moves whatever you're looking for to the top of the sack, might be something nifty to make a ranger's life slightly easier. Just my $.02

~Box