Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Super_Demolition_Christ 09-16-05, 11:21 PM	Just thought it would be interesting to hear other players reactions when they found out you bought/brought something strange; or even when you had a useful item you forgot about or didnt realize something about it at the time Not really funny, but I remember I brought along 2 daggers, 1 brilliant energy and 1 vorpal as BACKUP weapons Also, I remeber us saying we wished a certian someone who wasn't playing was because he always has his character buy a whole lot of useless stuff. I once brought 20 peices of chalk cause I didnt want to use change under a Gold Piece. :D
SodaGuy 09-16-05, 11:24 PM	Well, most of these things are only like a gp. I say just buy tons of stuff you might never use and shove it into a bag of holding. Or make the dwarf carry it. Stupid dwarves.
kuhTHOOloo 09-16-05, 11:32 PM	Oh yes...this is always a fun topic. One campaign we were stuck at a doorway that we couldn't get through. My ranger, which the party had been ignoring the entire session just stood there being quiet while everyone else tried to break through. An hour passes (our time) and still nothing. Finally my character quietly suggests that we try his sledgehammer. The party flips out as to why he didn't suggest it earlier. Another game, I made a character that was a walking toolbox. High int skill monkey bard who had ranks in every knowledge, spoke tons of languages, did everything, and had bags of holding and an HHH and basically had the entire equipment list in the PHB.
UltimateReality 09-17-05, 12:21 AM	For awhile, all my characters carried shovels on them. (They came in surprisingly handy.)
Shaken, not Stunned 09-17-05, 12:32 AM	My favorite custom made item is a bag of stuff. Bag of Stuff A bag of stuff is a minor artifact which contains a whole mess of stuff. It is about the size of a medium grabage bag and typically made of burlap or canvas. Each bag has 1d4+1 charges upon being discovered. The user of the bag declares he is looking for something, and then makes a search check to find it. The difficulty of the search check varies depending on the usefulness of the item. For example, A halfing just ate a huge, deep-fried turkey and decides he would like a tooth pick. DC 12. If that same halfling were trapped in a room filling with water at a rate of 40 gallons a round and wanted to find a key to the door, that would be DC 35. If he were in combat with out a weapon and needed a replacement, that would likely fall around DC 16, depending on the weapon in question (a loaded heavy x-bow would be more difficult to find than a club, and a primed match-lock rifle would be nigh impossible to find). Regardless of whether or not the search is succesful, a charge is consumed. It takes a standard action to search the bag, and only one search may be made every round. Two varients of this bag exist. One actually creates items as they are needed, the other merely pulls them from another time or place. In either case, the item is simply added to the pile of things already there, so it is often quite difficult to find. Any item pulled out of the bag is permenant and real. Weight: 15lbs Aura: faint evocation or faint conjuration. As a side note, it is widely considered that the evocation version is far safer than the conjuration version. The theory goes that if you accidientally call something from the bag from the future when you would otherwise discover later, you would create a paradox and destroy existance. The first person to suggest this was shot by a loaded, primed laser-rifle pulled from a conjuration bag of stuff in the year 20 A.D. It is now widely thought that the bags are intelligent, at least until the final charge is consumed.
gamerd0rk 09-17-05, 02:16 AM	one time I bought a graplleing hook but no rope. also back with version 1 my friends and I would always buy 10 ft. poles. And everyone bought one not just one person
gamerd0rk 09-17-05, 02:18 AM	For awhile, all my characters carried shovels on them. (They came in surprisingly handy.) I find that if you buy it you ususaly find a way to use it. like steel mirrors are really useful for surprising an enemy
Serielle 09-17-05, 02:41 AM	In one of the oh so rare times I got to play, I fully decked out my character with the survival needs. Rope, sleeping bag, rations, etc. When the DM looked at my sheet, he gave me a confused look and said that I didn't need to write that stuff down, but I told I'm I wanted it for completness, and continued shopping. Later in the campaign, we come across some guy fleeing from a town, and tells us about some stranger that showed up there. The NPC says "If any of you had paper I could draw him for you..." Me: (to the DM) I have paper! DM: You have paper? Me: Yep! See, I wrote it down on my character sheet when I was shopping for mundane items :D DM: :eek: He most certainly was not expecting anyone to have any. It doesn't sound too funny, but ah, his reaction was priceless.
Otto the Bugbear 09-17-05, 07:53 AM	I find that once I get a magical carrying device (HHH or Bag of Holding or Portable Hole), I tend to start buying up stuff that someday just might come in handy. In one game a couple years ago, I had a MW portable ram, set of MW manacles, shovel, sledge hammer, and a crowbar. I'm sure I had more seldom seen stuff, but those were the ones that the party commented on. Especially the portable ram and manacles. Cheers Otto :)
feartheinvinceblehamster 09-17-05, 09:01 AM	my characters are usually ready for everything...crowbars, shovels, rope, grappling hooks, hammers, pitons, chalk, in this new campaign i've got going, the party is a human samurai, an elf fighter, and a NPC rogue. the human samurai and the elf probably have 200 ft. of silk rope between them. and they started with donkeys and carts for there stuff. but both of the donkeys were eaten by this monstrous centipede. oh well. the rogue is funny, he has nothing but a mithril shirt, a dagger, and some thieves tools. but he has 11 skills maxed out, so he can do just about everything. he may buy a wand of CLW and use that for some awesomeness.
JD 09-17-05, 09:46 AM	In the first campaign I played, the DM was ridiculously generous with treasure (apparently he generated it randomly and we got really lucky. He never thought to fudge the rolls.), and the elf in our party started carrying around obscene amounts of sacks, given that we couldn't get a bag of holding from anyone. He had a sack entirely filled with nothing but other sacks, just like my mum does with plastic bags. I once brought 20 peices of chalk cause I didnt want to use change under a Gold Piece. :D Many of the characters I've played get a reputation for leaving very generous tips, simply because they don't want to fiddle with "small change". It certainly guarantees you good service if you visit an inn more than once.
CryoSilver 09-17-05, 11:45 AM	I had a character once who had 500 feet of rope in his pack. We got to the tower we were supposed to fight through, and I suggested we climb all the way to the top...
Venom of the Yuan Ti 09-17-05, 12:05 PM	DM:Ok party, descripbe your camp PC1:I am sleeping on a bedroll PC2:Ditto PC3:I brought a blanket... PC4 (Me):Im sleeping in a tent, my chest and portable ram are up agains the sides to help ancour it down, I have a bedroll, two blankets, a barrel of ale and an everburing tourch in here with me. PC1:Ale cool! Can I PC4:I only have one tankard.
psionichamster 09-17-05, 12:14 PM	had one wizard-character who was obsessed w/ having the "right tool for the job" at all times so, he had a handy haversack, filled w/ all kinds of nifty tools/alchemical supplies/"shrink-item'ed" furniture he also had a belt of many pockets (10k, basically has 64 mini-bags o holding) otherwise works like a haversack and was going to get a robe of useful items, but decided it wasn't worth it. at one point, he pulled out his sofa/armchair/ottoman set, along with the armoir that matched, and made a roadside hostel a more palatable environ. (all that time, and i was just DYING to use my portable ram...never did though...shatter/knock/rogues are just, well...better.) namaste' the hamster (oh yeah, when you can pull 100' of rope from a belt pouch, it's fun!) h
Radin Of The Justice 09-17-05, 12:48 PM	well i like to have alot of stuff, alot. so one time in my very first game session we were going into the sunless citadel, and i thouhg hmmmm a portable batering ram may come in handy, but the elf said it would just slow us down and i already had enough stuff so i didnt buy, then when the dm says "the door is reinforced iron, the rogue has tried but cant seem to pick the lock, i sappose a portable ram would work if one of you has one" so i took my rope tied up the elf, slapped my helmet on him and improvised with the help of the other fighter.
CryoSilver 09-17-05, 02:45 PM	And of course the chicken. My rogue once had a glove of storing, n which he kept a live angry chicken. The BBEG got him in a grapple at one point, so I made a touch attack to put the glove in his face and summoned my chicken while screaming. This gave me a +2 bonus on my roll to escape the grapple...
tharivol266 09-17-05, 04:59 PM	one of my players once had a bag of holding with every holy symbol that was in the pantheon and he successfully got help from every temple due to those and good bluff and diplomacy modifiers. at one temple he did so well that they were begging him to join the temple as the 2nd head priest. (i think he weighted the dice because he got like 3 nat. 20s in that temple alone that day)
Thaebius 09-17-05, 04:59 PM	1 lb of flour. I refuse to make a character who does not carry a sack with 1 lb of flour on them at all times, and if they're skill-based, several of them. They're just SO HANDY!!! Invisible Opponent? Splash some water all around, and poof out that flour- voila! Reveal invisible! Works on all invisible items. Or, need a light source doused? Cover the object with a sack of flour! Need a handy distraction? A Bullseye lantern + 1 sack of flour leads to a quick and easy explosion! (It works, IRL, I swear to god...). With one gaming group in particular, I've gotten so inventive with uses of that sack of flour, whenever my Rogue seems stumped or doomed, and I say "Oh! Ok, I pull out a sack of flour and...", the DM goes :rolleyes: , everyone else goes :eek: , and I go :D .
Hochiu 09-17-05, 06:38 PM	1 lb of flour. I refuse to make a character who does not carry a sack with 1 lb of flour on them at all times, and if they're skill-based, several of them. They're just SO HANDY!!! Invisible Opponent? Splash some water all around, and poof out that flour- voila! Reveal invisible! Works on all invisible items. Or, need a light source doused? Cover the object with a sack of flour! Need a handy distraction? A Bullseye lantern + 1 sack of flour leads to a quick and easy explosion! (It works, IRL, I swear to god...). With one gaming group in particular, I've gotten so inventive with uses of that sack of flour, whenever my Rogue seems stumped or doomed, and I say "Oh! Ok, I pull out a sack of flour and...", the DM goes :rolleyes: , everyone else goes :eek: , and I go :D . Basically you're a D&D version of MacGuyver? Only with flour?
JD 09-17-05, 06:44 PM	A sack of flour is so going in my pack when I start my next adventure.
feartheinvinceblehamster 09-17-05, 06:46 PM	Basically you're a D&D version of MacGuyver? Only with flour? :heehee :bounce: :pile: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :bow: :bounce: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :bow: OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Salla 09-17-05, 08:56 PM	Basically you're a D&D version of MacGuyver? Only with flour? Now you need to have an alchemist invent Duct Tape, and you have it MADE!
Loren Pechtel 09-18-05, 12:00 AM	My favorite custom made item is a bag of stuff. Bag of Stuff A bag of stuff is a minor artifact which contains a whole mess of stuff. It is about the size of a medium grabage bag and typically made of burlap or canvas. Each bag has 1d4+1 charges upon being discovered. It's power is nowhere near artifact level.
Loren Pechtel 09-18-05, 12:20 AM	In one of the oh so rare times I got to play, I fully decked out my character with the survival needs. Rope, sleeping bag, rations, etc. When the DM looked at my sheet, he gave me a confused look and said that I didn't need to write that stuff down, but I told I'm I wanted it for completness, and continued shopping. Later in the campaign, we come across some guy fleeing from a town, and tells us about some stranger that showed up there. The NPC says "If any of you had paper I could draw him for you..." Me: (to the DM) I have paper! DM: You have paper? Me: Yep! See, I wrote it down on my character sheet when I was shopping for mundane items :D DM: :eek: He most certainly was not expecting anyone to have any. It doesn't sound too funny, but ah, his reaction was priceless. Go adventuring without something to write with and something to write on???
Valgaav 09-18-05, 01:43 AM	Big list o' crap. (http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/roleplaying/charsurvival.txt) some of it is for modern games...
Zathyr 09-18-05, 02:04 AM	Go adventuring without something to write with and something to write on??? Why not? Charcoal can be made in the field, and paper-like tree bark is often readily available. Aint Survival wonderful? ;) Who needs to buy equipment? Seriously I was playing a wood elf or a wild elf or something back in a 2nd ed game before they ... did whatever they did to the elven subraces. Anyway the character had this proficiency and in his short career he managed to put surprisingly good use to it. Nowadays my characters tend to take the lazy way out and acutally buy stuff rather than trying to scrounge/make it. Good thing too, because I'm not sure exactly what in nature would serve as a good crowbar, and I swear I'm the only player in any of my gaming groups who ever buys one. More than that, every time I mention my character has a crowbar, someone at the table will say "You got a crowbar?" :rolleyes: Quite a handy piece of metal, that. Tried to buy an adamantine crowbar once, but the DM wouldn't allow it.
wrecan 09-18-05, 08:31 AM	All my characters tend to bring unusual items that turn out helpful. I had a Gnome illusionist that fancied himself an artist. I had him buy ten colors of chalk, which turned out helpful for marking different aspects of mazes. I had a ranger with a dire snake animal companion. He would carry a cage full of live rodents as part of the dire snake's rations, and the rodents ended up being used for all sorts of useful stuff.
Toby 09-18-05, 08:41 AM	Not quite the same but close, We had just started a new campaign and went marching off to the local ruins with tents, grappling hooks, ropes, parchment, you name it we had it. upon entering the dark ruins we all get out our torches and then someone says "Anyone got a flint & steel?" LOL :rolleyes:
Crystal Monk 09-18-05, 10:04 AM	More than that, every time I mention my character has a crowbar, someone at the table will say "You got a crowbar?" :rolleyes: Quite a handy piece of metal, that. Tried to buy an adamantine crowbar once, but the DM wouldn't allow it. okay, I am so putting an adamantine crowbar in my game at some point. it'll probably be dwarf-forged. :P I gotta agree with whomever it was who said that they always carry a shovel. that's just one of those things that you should never underestimate the uses of. had someone in my first D&D group, back in the days of 2nd Edition, who carried around... a wooden duck decoy. yeah, like you use to hunt. it only saw any use when another character stole it from him and threw it at a charging monster. it's amazing what you can do with a natural 20, a duck decoy, and a monster with a really big mouth. :eek:
Super_Demolition_Christ 09-18-05, 08:27 PM	it's amazing what you can do with a natural 20, a duck decoy, and a monster with a really big mouth. OMFG!!! I'd pay good money to see that :eek: And of course the chicken. My rogue once had a glove of storing, n which he kept a live angry chicken. The BBEG got him in a grapple at one point, so I made a touch attack to put the glove in his face and summoned my chicken while screaming. This gave me a +2 bonus on my roll to escape the grapple... I have to keep that in mind :smirk: One time whe where going in a dungeon and wanted to go down a trap door that went down, like 30ft. We had a rope, but I knew we might want to get back up, but there was nothing to tie the rope to, So i was the last one to go down, but before I did, i tied the rope to my crowbar and basically did stuff(I dont remember what exactly) :thinks: so that the rope was secure and the trapdoor didnt close(in case it was enchanted)
Serielle 09-18-05, 08:34 PM	Go adventuring without something to write with and something to write on??? Was playing a wizard at the time, and I did plan on scribing scrolls in my offtime, so naturally I did have parchment and ink.
Agognon 09-18-05, 09:35 PM	We were once looking for a bad guy in his stronghold and made it to some room that had many fancy towels. Remembering how handy towels could be from reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books. I pilfered one. It became my most useful item. Smoke began to pour forth from a dragon head statue in one room of a dungeon. I plugged the nostrils with my towel and stopped the smoke. A friend fell in a pit and my rope was gone, I couldnt reach him with my hand but my towel was just long enough. Never go adventuring without your towel!
feartheinvinceblehamster 09-18-05, 09:49 PM	oh god :eek:
Salookanana 09-19-05, 02:41 AM	We were once looking for a bad guy in his stronghold and made it to some room that had many fancy towels. Remembering how handy towels could be from reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books. I pilfered one. It became my most useful item. Smoke began to pour forth from a dragon head statue in one room of a dungeon. I plugged the nostrils with my towel and stopped the smoke. A friend fell in a pit and my rope was gone, I couldnt reach him with my hand but my towel was just long enough. Never go adventuring without your towel! :ayyyy!: :ayyyy!: :clap: I demand more towel uses! Dont forget to bring a towel!
Black Kitten 09-19-05, 03:08 AM	Our party has a kind of collection we call 'standard equipment'. Including things like: Bedrolls, a few types of clothing (incl. for cold weather) at least 50ft. of rope a person, a source of light (or more!), oil, at least some writing material, 10ft. pole, manacles, healing kit, flint&steel, chain, belt with attachable points, melee weapon, ranged weapon, back-up weapon AND a few daggers, pets, and so on. And of course, the original uses of these things have been demonstrated often enough. DM: You see a group of 5 Orcs come around the corner Me: I call out to the group to throw the oil I gave them Party: *all hit the orcs* Me: I throw alchemist fire DM: *flips open DMG for XP and XP+50 for me :D* In addition to that, we generally want to keep alive what we can. Killing generally leaves a bad reputation, so even the barkeep that tried to kill us was immobelised and bound in his bar. (with a sign: "It's my birthday, take whatever beer you want") This bar was soon after locked down since the barkeep went bankrupt... still it's better than being killed, not?
Xaktsaroth 09-19-05, 11:51 AM	I second the oil comment. Once campaign I was in basically lived or died by oil. We were at the south end of a T junction, with a pair of guards at the top of the T, the following happened: Cleric: "Well, what should we do?" Me(Rogue): "I have an idea, let me borrow a zombie." I proceed to insert 3 bottles of oil into its stomach, make it hold 1 in each hand, then empty a few covering it head to toe. Me: "Ok, walk up to the guards, tap one of the shoulder, and fight them." Zombie wanders up and starts fighting the guards. Cleric: "What do you hope to do with that?" Me: *stuffing a hankerchief into the top of a bottle of oil* "That, is merely a distraction." I huck the flaming bottle of oil at the zombie and hit it, instantly inflaming the zombie. Cleric: "I don't see how that'll help." Me: "Keep watching." 1 round later, the fire finally reached the bottles in its hands. The resulting explosion killed both guards and covered the hallway in fire. Me: "And lo', the Zombie Bomb(tm) was born. And the peasents rejoiced." Cleric: "Guy, you just blew up half a dozen of these rejoicing peasents." Me: "Shut up!"
madd0g200 09-19-05, 12:46 PM	I had a fat gnome wizard once who arrived at an exotic meat shop in the desert. He purchased a roast pig and a humanoid hand. The shop owner incidently animated the hand for me so that it'd drag the pig behind me until I was ready to eat it. The rest of the party was rather disturbed when they saw what was following me around town. Eventually I ate the pig and the hand.
Judging Eagle 09-19-05, 03:52 PM	50' of rope is nice and all. 100' is usually best, silk ideally and with every party member also with about 100' of silk rope. Buying one of several of the 'adventuring' items out of the PHB, plus the complete books is usually a good idea. You never know when a complete climbing rig will be needed. Or a sledgehammer, or a silvered dagger.
Aeolus91 09-19-05, 09:13 PM	Yummy! Speaking of explosives, everybody get yerself some Rumblesticks. 50 gp a stick, 6d6 damage, 1/2 bludgeoning, 1/2 fire to everything within 30 feet. From Ultimate Equipment Guide, Mongoose Publishing. They're meant for mining, not combat, but that's one hell of a rumble, if you ask me!
Super_Demolition_Christ 09-19-05, 09:40 PM	Once I was with everburning torches, and we where going in a dungeon. I realized that I didnt want to hold one because I dual weilded sickles, so I decided to hold it in my mouth for light(since the fire doesnt burn) but then I realized that I tought my mount to respond to battle commands given as signals from a whistle(which I kept clenched in my teeth during battle) so I couldnt do that. I decided to tie it to my arm instead but had no rope, but lou and behold , the DM had allowed someone else to buy duct tape in town hours before, and thus I was a Halfing Druid, Dual weilding sickles, riding a raptor with a whistle in my mouth and an Everburning torch taped to my arm.
sparkster4242 09-20-05, 01:11 AM	I was creating a character in an AU campaign, when i stumbled upon the odd little factoid that an oar is considered a form of transportation... so far it has seen good use as a polearm, and _extensive_ use as a conversation piece. i plan to take it even further as a tent-pole, trapspringer, shephard's crook, protest sign, serving-platter, pry-bar, door-bar, the list goes on an on. one of these days, i might even propel a boat with the thing.
ChimericPhase 09-20-05, 02:10 AM	Just recently I was playing a game, we had a moment to acquire any normal equip from the supply master of the mercenary band we were members of. I bought caltrops, oil, string, sack, & tindertwigs. On the way to the next town, my character spent time tying each of the caltrops to the string, each approximately 1ft apart. Then I put them all in the sack and poured the oil in it. DM: What are you doing with that? Me: I've got an idea! DM: Right . . . whatever. Me: Flaming Caltrops! My idea was to keep them in the leather sack, soaking in oil, then string them out, zig-zagged, across an area - wait until enemies charge and step on them, then light the end of the string with a tindertwig! The flame would spread along the string, burning the oil first, until they were all stomping around on flaming caltrops! ;_; I didn't get the chance to use them, but it's still a cool idea damnit!
Andrew 09-20-05, 04:32 AM	One campaign started with us waking up in an empty field, with our basic equipment, but with no memories or coinage. Thanks to the conjunction of starting with a sling and an old joke that copper pieces = sling bullets, we had 10 coppers to buy food and drink with.
Oorlof 09-20-05, 10:43 AM	I once dropped the NPH into a short strictly-for-laughs eeeevil campaign. Talk about endless amounts of stuff...just like the article (link below) describes, my players started dropping everything they found into the NPH. We had a great time exploring the cellar. Icing on the cake was the experiments with the "waste disposal units" (whether those were portable holes, one-way gates or flattened spheres of annihilation was unclear...suffice to say that you did not want to put in your hand...) NPH - Nexus Portable Headquarters: http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue8/portablehq1.html
MarkB 09-20-05, 10:56 AM	We started our new campaign on Sunday, and the DM examined each of our character sheets as a preliminary. When he came to look at mine - written in pencil in my usual block capitals - the following conversation took place: DM: "What are AP?" Me: "Huh?" DM: "You've got fifty AP written down in your equipment list." Me: "That doesn't ring a bell. Where?" DM: <Shows me my sheet, and points out the entry in question> Me: "Oh, that. That's not 50AP, that's SOAP!" Upon which the player of the drink-swilling dwarf fighter calls my character soft, and the player of the female cleric wonders if he should have thought of buying soap. The DM also queried whether I needed to have five sacks in addition to my Handy Haversack, after which I managed to get through two of them in the first session (one held across the eyes of a gorgon-statue trap, whose snake-hair then animated and bit my character on the ass [he was flying, and had his back turned for obvious reasons], the other given to the dwarf after a mustard jelly digested his backpack).
Mirage_1 09-20-05, 11:57 AM	I remember being given a fireball wand on character creation (I started mid campaign). For whatever reason I promptly forgot about it and everything went fine. Later, DM had big plans on weakening us and us having to run. My wizard was out of spells and there were still hordes coming at us...I remembered my fully charged wand. Things didn't turn out the way he planned :D
solbergb 09-20-05, 12:51 PM	I play a sorcerer in a campaign where the DM and players change every time we sit down. She's something of a packrat, and her mule has an amazing assortment of stuff. The main thing though that gets surprised looks is the gloves of arrow snaring she quietly picked up around level 4, using most of her cash. It doesn't come up often, but when it does it is almost always somebody trying to disrupt one of her spells. The look of shock when she catches the arrow and keeps on casting is - nice. Although it seems like having them means people miss her pathetic armor class. Every time someone has used a thrown weapon on her it misses. I'm still waiting to catch the thing and throw it back as a free action (there's been an explosive shuriken, a thunderstone and a poison dagger in that category..the thunderstone was especially annoying because it still deafened me when it went off 5' away) Maybe I should have spent my cash elsewhere. But it makes me happy every time I'm in a ranged combat situation to have them, even if they don't come up.
kilroo 09-20-05, 11:40 PM	One of my favorites is a little trick I came up with while playing a relatively lightweight character with a haversack. Two ten foot poles...talked the DM into making them about eleven feet, actually. 10' by 2' sheet of canvas, with the long edges sewn into sleeves. Something to brace the poles apart from each other. Of course this character could jump a 10' gap in his sleep...but hey, you could use it as a stretcher too. Another favorite was actually in a different system, an online RPG where you could buy a fair number of random things in automated stores...I had a character buy two 1 square yard straw mats. Don't ask me why they had those. Eventually one came in handy when he needed something dry and flammable.
20goingon1232 09-21-05, 12:26 AM	1 lb of flour. I refuse to make a character who does not carry a sack with 1 lb of flour on them at all times, and if they're skill-based, several of them. They're just SO HANDY!!! Invisible Opponent? Splash some water all around, and poof out that flour- voila! Reveal invisible! Works on all invisible items. Or, need a light source doused? Cover the object with a sack of flour! Need a handy distraction? A Bullseye lantern + 1 sack of flour leads to a quick and easy explosion! (It works, IRL, I swear to god...). With one gaming group in particular, I've gotten so inventive with uses of that sack of flour, whenever my Rogue seems stumped or doomed, and I say "Oh! Ok, I pull out a sack of flour and...", the DM goes :rolleyes: , everyone else goes :eek: , and I go :D . I never go adventuring without three items: Flasks of oil Bag of flour Soap For all the reasons already listed above. Soap is great for impromptu Grease spell, especially on stone floor. Those things are slick, don'tcha know? Flasks of oil is great at low levels to get rid of vermin swarms. And other uses... :D
kilroo 09-21-05, 09:59 AM	I've carried soap before, but I also like to carry a couple of candles, whether the DM decides they're beeswax or paraffin. In addition to being lousy light sources, they can be used as timers (parts of traps), and both paraffin and beeswax can potentially be used as either a weak adhesive or a lubricant (a neat dichotomy that not many easily available materials have).
Beamup 09-21-05, 11:26 AM	My best moment like that was back in an old campaign, we were around level 4 IIRC. We were being chased - two very close, a dozen or so a couple miles back. Killed the two, then the following discussion ensued: Me: "OK, let's get off the road when we enter those woods and are out of sight. I'll make sure they can't track us." DM: "How do you plan to do that?" Me: "With my Dust of Tracelessness." DM: "You've got Dust of Tracelessness?" Me: "Yeah, I thought it might come in handy." DM: *Tosses a sheaf of papers over his shoulder* "Well, I guess I won't be needing these."
Bane 09-21-05, 05:33 PM	Bacon Grease. Need something flaming? Light the bacon grease. Charging enemies? Smear bacon grease on the floor. Rusty hinges? Bacon grease makes them quieter. Hungry? Cook wildlife with bacon grease. Enemies climbing a wall? Dump hot bacon grease on them. If you're lucky, you'll hit their torches. Bacon grease can do everything oil can do, and more.
Aeolus91 09-21-05, 10:36 PM	Bacon grease can do everything oil can do, and more. Including letting every carnivorous creature with the Scent ability within 10 miles know exactly where you are and that you taste like juicy, succulent pig? Sorry, but I stumbled upon the idea of carrying fresh meat affected by a Gentle Repose with me so that I would not have to eat dried rations, but after the second tyrannosaurus attack, I decided that it might not be the best idea in the world...
ShadowDragon8685 09-21-05, 10:40 PM	Including letting every carnivorous creature with the Scent ability within 10 miles know exactly where you are and that you taste like juicy, succulent pig? Sorry, but I stumbled upon the idea of carrying fresh meat affected by a Gentle Repose with me so that I would not have to eat dried rations, but after the second tyrannosaurus attack, I decided that it might not be the best idea in the world... Sounds more like a case of "GMlakkinghammergunningitis" than any problem with the idea, which is actually pretty good.
Loren Pechtel 09-21-05, 11:24 PM	Sounds more like a case of "GMlakkinghammergunningitis" than any problem with the idea, which is actually pretty good. It seems like a reasonable reaction. Wander around smelling like food and you should expect some things to show up wanting to eat you.
Coren 09-22-05, 12:05 AM	Salt I didnt really think about it until I ran into a couple of oozes. Dm ruled that they would act like slugs :D . Anyway, I was playing a ranger and wanted to salt my own meat.
l33t Shinobi 09-29-05, 07:46 PM	i have to agree, carring basic equips rules. rope owns, fire is required, sacks are fun. i never used flour before, ill try to pull that one on my DM later.
l33t Shinobi 10-21-05, 08:55 AM	:bump:
Radagast 10-21-05, 12:50 PM	Yep, soap is one of those odd things my characters always carry. Comes in handy at times, both in dungeons and places where one doesn't want to smell like he just came from the dungeon. As for torches, one of these days, we want to rig up torch-holders (sconses?) on heavier sets of armor, so that way people can just walk around with the torch on and their hands still free. Besides, it also lets us say stuff like, "It's dark in here - better light the Paladin on fire!"
Some_call_me_Tim 10-21-05, 01:00 PM	On the subject of "You had that all along" I would have to say the battle where we were fighting three Green dragons. One dead, most of the party was badly mauled, we were fighting a retreat action dragging our downed comrades toward the exit while carrying the hard-earned McGuffin. When the party mage turnds to us and says "I want to see what this does?" He then proceeds to produce a Dragonbane Spear +3. :blink: He turns to the party tank (me) and says "Could you go stick one of them with this?" "YOU HAD THAT ALL ALONG!!!" :banghead:
Super_Demolition_Christ 10-21-05, 06:28 PM	Oh, I remember we where playing a future-esk game. 3 countires. ON magic, on Psionic, on technology well, I was fighting for a bit with my Dwarven Waraxe. Had trouble getting around (stupid 20ft speed) so I though, "forget this" and pulled out my two Magnums
porygandrew 10-21-05, 11:00 PM	I bought 500 feet of rope. And all of it came in handy ;) I had the last laugh when we actually found ourselves in situations where we needed a lot of rope (didn't save my character from a 300 ft. drop, though. Figure that one out.) I also bought a spiffy +1 Mithril Fullplate at the beginning of our last game, only to randomly roll up a +1 Mithril Fullplate for treasure >.<
swanyusd 10-21-05, 11:28 PM	We did, in one game, have a belt of potions. Pretty much we got the DM to say it would cost like 60k, and you would have to declare you are drawing a potion, which was rolled randomly on the major potion list, and you HAD TO DRINK IT NO MATTER WHAT. Super hilarious, becuase many times, when you are just beggin for invis or fly or something cool, you get the greased pig potion or potion of owls wisdom or something completely useless. Although we did have an entire encounter where 3 potions were drank that turned combat around, rogue/assassin just so happened to get his potion of invis, our near dying wizard who had the necessary spells got his potion of cure serious, and the barbarian got hte potion of bull strength... uber damage ensued...
CannonFodder2244 10-22-05, 01:23 AM	Some chalk, some paints, some string, a few candles, some sand, Mage hand, and Presidigitation. Everything you need to clear a trap-ridden dungeon. :)
Rolof 11-18-05, 08:15 PM	Heh...years ago, playing my 2nd ed Dwarf fighter, I always had a shovel. Reason being, that due to the insane amount of hit points I had (19 con + some darn lucky hitdie rolls) plus I would like to think, smart play on my part...I was the only character who survived through the whole campaign. Whenever a new character joined the party after a player had just lost their old character, or we just got a new guy in the group, one of the first things they'd ask is "why does that grumpy Dwarf always have a shovel tied to his pack?" My answer? "It's to bury all my friends, they tend not to last long." Some of the things almost every character I start off with always have are a steel mirror (for peeking around corners in dungeons +many other things), chalk (for marking the way out etc) at least one bag of caltrops, usually 2 (great for fortifying a camp, stops charging monsters in their tracks and usually makes a sneaking one stop and go 'ow!' thus revealing them) and a couple sowing needles-cause you can do lots of weird stuff with a needle, including bend it into a fishhook if you're really desperate.
erendor the True 11-18-05, 11:39 PM	If I'm not playing an arcane spellcaster, and I'm in one of those situations where I'd rather not spend six hours optimising my equipment, I go for a ring of presdigitation, and an amulet of mage hand. (Not sure if they're called exactly that, but whatever they are, they allow me unlimited use of both spells). Extremely fun, and they have unlimited usefullness. Also: A sledgehammer and chisel. Lock? Chisel it. Door not opening anyway? Chisel the hinges. Among many other uses. I'll have to remember that sack of flour one, though.
MistWolf 11-19-05, 12:16 AM	I always have "powder grenades" with flour, garlic, belladonna, silver, cayenne pepper, sand and anything else I can think of, as well as sacks of marbles, caltrops, brass/copper discs (sound & look like coins, no?) fresh plant clippings (entanglement, baby). I even carry combo powder grenades- silver/garlic, flour/garlic, cayenne pepper/flour, marbles/caltrops, flour/marbles/caltrops and anything else I can think of. In a recent Gamma World campaign, I rolled up a USMC Scout/Sniper who was an awakened "corpsicle", a Strong Hero with Strong as an Ox that let me carry a ton of stuff. I loaded up on all the modern conviniences I could think of, stuff so cheap it didn't affect your wealth bonus and a few other gadgets. I wrote them all down and the list was so long, the eyes of the GM glazed over looking at it. He still played it off as if he read everything. We go into a crashed space station that still had much of it's systems operational. It was self repairing. We found a severed hand and knowing that tech meant palm readers, I told the DM "I'll keep the hand." "How are youkeep it?" he wanted to know "I put it in a Zip Lock baggie." The other players AND the GM looked at me and asked "You have Zip Lock Baggies?" While exploring, I wanted to see if the area was radio active, so I told the GM I wanted to check. "How you gonna do that?" he asked. "I'll use my geiger counter." "You have a geiger counter?" We came across a door that, according to the DM had 25 padlocks. Of course, that's a lot of lock-picking rolls- and the party was pressed for time. So I told the DM I was going to cut them. With my bolt cutters. "You have bolt cutters?" Another character, dressed in his environmental suit found a cracked pipe spewing radio-active steam. "We can't go any further until we repair this", he reported back to us. As a joke I said "Just wrap it up with duct tape!" The GM shook his head. "Ya don't even have to show me the list." We captured a mutant and needed to bind him. GM gave me that look. "You going to use your handcuffs?" "I don't have handcuffs," I answered. "What- something you don't have?" "Don't need'em. I got Zip Ties!" Nobody said anything at the next session when I used my fire extinguisher
Neo_Leviathan 11-19-05, 05:53 AM	An embarassing one for my Berokeen (Water Elf) cleric in a Living Arcanis game. We'd been grubbing our way through Nishanpour, a super-nasty city full of thieves and scoundrels, where they take your armor & weapons off you at the city gates, so we were going through there rather unequipped, taking hits left and right, me especially getting hit rather often by footpads and guards due to my crappy AC with no armor or shield. We won through in the end, everyone alive, left the city, grabbing our weapons and armor at the gates. My PC reaches into his pocket, looks surprised for a moment, then very sheepishly pulls out and puts on his Ring of Protection. :D
nastynate 11-19-05, 08:02 AM	Oh man, this reminds me of when my friends and I had characters we had played from first edition, on through second edition, and eventually into ravenloft and the planescape settings. Our characters had come from all sorts of different campagin worlds, and we had some crazy stuff. Just to put things in perspective, our characters survived the tomb of horrors, bloodstone mines, thoughts of darkness, the ruins of undermountain and more. I remember my character who was a human fighter 9 / invoker 16 / psionicist 16 (god dual classing was busted) found out we were going to be battling several great wyrm dragons. So I reached into my portable hole and pulled out my dragon orb, and six footmans dragon lances and equiped the whole party! I hadn't even played in the dragonlance setting for like five years!
obrysii 11-19-05, 09:39 AM	One of my characters carried around a large number of forks. The idea was that she'd use Mage Hand lift the forks to set off proximity traps. We never got the chance, though.
MarkB 11-19-05, 11:20 AM	One of my characters carried around a large number of forks. The idea was that she'd use Mage Hand lift the forks to set off proximity traps. We never got the chance, though. So she'd manipulate objects remotely by reaching out with the forks? Her surname wasn't Skywalker, by any chance?
Bane 11-19-05, 03:26 PM	So she'd manipulate objects remotely by reaching out with the forks? Her surname wasn't Skywalker, by any chance? :rolleyes: May the forks be with you.
Sybill 11-19-05, 07:42 PM	My psion carries a spell component pouch. Hey, you never know when you'll need some sulfur, or bat guano. The description says anything that doesn't have a specific price, so it can contain basically anything that any spell requires.
ashcat_lt 11-19-05, 10:44 PM	my last group seemed to have no idea what was on their character sheets at any given time. I can't count or even begin to remember everything. I do know that we had a halfling with a robe of useful items that she would never touch. Every once in a while she would look in the pockets, but she never pulled anything out. I played in a game a Winter Fantasy years ago where I was a kender. The character sheet included a full list of everything in her pouches. We ended up in a really horrible situation, headed for a TPK. I searched through my pouches and pulled out a wishbone from a turkey. I convinced another player to go along. We both wished for the encounter to end with our group still alive (don't remember the exact wording). Believe it or not, it worked.
Braids 11-20-05, 12:18 AM	As a player I am obsessed with having as many different mundane items as I can buy as long as I can carry them all. When I have a bag of holding and the money I will buy everything. There was this one time my DM described a common everyday well in such a forbidding way that we were afraid to look in it. Of course this made us want to know what was in there, so we spent an hour trying to devise something using stuff from my bag of holding that would allow us to look at the bottom of the well. I seem to remember digging a hole with my spade, sticking a 10-foot ple in there and filling the hole back up. Then tying a rope to the pole and tying an everburning torch to the end of the rope and throwing it down the well, then using a Spyglass to see down there. Then, we tied two ladders together [Creating an 18 foot or so long ladder], tying that to two other ten-ffot poles and sending our rogue down there with a flask to get a sample of the water. When we were sure the water was safe I climbed down and entered the water after using a scroll of water breathing to enter the water looking for a hidden door or something. In the end we found out it was just a normal well, but I had quite a bit of fun that day and I got to use a lot of the useless junk I bought.