D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Magic Items To Gift My Players Tomorrow!

[hippononymous]

The group I DM is coming upon our 1-year anniversary. Therefore, for our next game I'd like to give the characters useful and fun items! They do not have to be from the Magic Item Compendium.

Here are the characters - I'd love to hear what YOU would love to get from your DM if you were playing them! Be as creative as you'd like!

The classes:
LVL 8 - TWF Ranger (he cheers every time he can show off - thinking a weapon that lets him do a magic attack on successful hit or something)
LVL 8 - Sorcerer (Loves offense - uses fireball, scorching ray all the time)
LVL 8 - Druid (Wolf companion; she never Wild Shapes, loves Wild Empathy)

Two items I'm giving our rouge, who is severely underpowered in-combat and frustrated with it:
- 2/day, on successful hit, he can teleport up to 30 ft. to any place in sight
- 2 arrows, on successful hit, do 1d6 damage each round for three rounds (DC 20 Strength check to remove)

Please help me gift some great items my players will enjoy in-combat!

 

[Dandu]

What causes the rogue to be underpowered in combat? I can't help with a poor build, but if she goes up against constructs, undead, and plants a lot, there's magic items for that. Crystals from the MiC, for example. Bracers of Murder allow you to reroll sneak attack damage if you get a 1 and would be nice as well.

Ranger might enjoy a Scabbard of Keen Edges. Sorcerer might like a Metamagic Rod of Empower Spell. Druid... give her a Wildening Clasp and see if she gets the hint? I suppose you could give the Wolf soemthing akin to Horseshoes of the Zypher.

 

[Vespucci]

Give them magic items? OK.

Ranger: Mace of Blood
Sorcerer: Robe of Vermin
Druid: Periapt of Foul Rotting
Rogue: Necklace of Thought Projection

(Yeah, I know, kinda soft, but it is their anniversary.)

 

[anest1s]

Hmm..aren't the 2 arrows going to get used like really fast?

Empowered spellshard would be nice for the Sorcerer...

 

[marcielle]

If rouge is new and simply building his character poorly, I suggest a custom magic item that gives him martial strike/stance progression= 1/2 his character level for shadow hand discipline. It fits and some of the abilities will be very useful for a rouge even out of battle. Before anyone says anything about ToB balance they have a druid and sorceror so 1/2 martial progression still leaves him behind in power.

If its because of creature types, piercing strike and a few sneak attack upgrades from complete scoundrel built into a ring/ bracer ought to boost his damage nicely.

Of course, its entirely posible your rouge is underwhelming simply because of the tier list.

 

[Dandu]

They have a druid who doesn't wildshape (and presumiably does not use the spellcasting well either) and a sorcerer who blasts (with mostly fire spells). I have a suspicion that the tier list is less involved than the build or tactics involved.

 

[xigbar]

The tier system doesn't show that strongly at lvl 8, generally. What kind of weapon does your Rogue use? A Gnomish Crossbow Sight might be nice, since it's cheap, and the MiC crystals mentioned are great as well.

 

[hippononymous]

[MENTION=6675688]Vespucci[/MENTION] You're evil, haha.

The Rogue uses a dagger. Just one. I'm giving him a pair of short swords (the ones that give +4 to SA) and going to give him permission to switch out a feat for TWF. As to the arrows I'm giving him, I'm going to assume they're reusable. He enjoys switching between range and melee, so I'd like to encourage him to keeping doing that. I'm hoping he'll use the bow while sneaking around in an evil cleric's chamber or something. I'd allow him to kill an NPC from the dark just so he can enjoy describing how the arrow guts the baddie or something. I think he just needs more attention and feel like a badass, like everyone else.

None of the characters are optimized by any means nor are the players particularly knowledgeable of the rules or magic items. I've actually given them a few magic items that could be used tactically. One item allows one player to switch places with another as a swift action. They haven't used it, even when the rogue got knocked unconscious and was bleeding out, too far from anyone else engaged in battle to run up to him and heal.

These new items are going to, hopefully, give them more options to do "cool stuff" in-battle. As suggested, I'll give the sorcerer an Empower rod. I'm not too keen on encouraging the druid to wild shape. I don't want to slow combat any more than summon nature's ally already does. I might just give her extra gold to compensate and let her decide.

I'm giving the ranger an upgrade to his primary that lets him use Whirlwind. He loves taking out the little guys, so I'll just throw minions at him so he can have more fun. The Scabbard of Keen Edges sounds fun, too.

The rogue, no doubt, will be getting a lot more than the others. We use a big grid and usually have large battlefields with lots of cover and (in dungeons) twists and turns and rooms, so I'm thinking I'll give him a bow and dagger that lets him teleport x/day after hitting with an attack. Maybe give him Boots of Haste and allow him to teleport from one enemy to another mid-attack during a full round. If it turns out to be OP'd (ie, if he ends up optimizing), I can always modify the items or have them stolen or damaged, then explain the situation to him so he understands the changes.

I'm open to more suggestions, of course, as I wouldn't mind giving my players one-use items or something to make combat more exciting for them. As you might have already guessed, we spend most our time in-combat (they get bored with skill checks and talking to NPCs), so anything that spruce things up during our 6-hour sessions is always welcome

 

[Herzog]

As an aside, if you're worried about slowing down combat because of the wild shapes options, I suggest taking a look at the Player Handbook II wildshape option for druid.

It's more managable (gives simple bonusses abilities and a very limited set of options) so might be more to your (and the player's) liking.

(note that I haven't seen it used in play myself, so no guarantees)

As to magic items:

Supporting the characters in their current play style would be my personal choice.
Giving the rogue access to Sniper's Shot a few times per day (no limit on ranged SA for 1 round) could help him to make more use of his ranged attacks.

For the TWF ranger, giving him the Pounce ability (a few times per day?) would be my choice. But then, I would combine that with levels of Scout, which would be optimizing.....

The sorcerer: ring(s) of Wizardry? maybe boring, but it would mean he has more spells to cast before having to take his 'nap time'.

The druid: mmm. I'm thinking of several things currently available through feats or prestige classes, that may work in some way through magic items?
Improving his Animal companion in some way, or adding more (a pack instead of a single animal?)
improving his summon nature's ally? (Sudden Persist rod? makes his creaturs stay 24 hours?)

 

[Vespucci]

Evil would be giving them all a +5 Vorpal Sword - in the neck.

I prefer to think of myself as "challenging".