Equipment...

[sexymonkeys]

I am currently playing in a party consisting of:
Me (Half-elf Ranger/Cleric)
Korgan
Mazzy
Jan Jansen

I am currently in the Asylum, and I'm starting to think of what equipment I will be using. I've already decided on going with the Flail Of Ages and Defender Of Easthaven for my ranger/cleric, but I'm unsure of what I should equip her with in terms of armour and other bits and pieces.

Can anyone please suggest equipment that will work well on a Ranger/Cleric?

[VonDondu]

It depends on how you want to play the characters. When it comes to armor, for example, you need to decide whether you want your Cleric/Ranger to use stealth or whether you want her to wear the most protective (metallic) armor available. You should also consider the effect of having item combinations. For example, ordinary (non-magical) full platemail works very well in combination with a Ring of Protection +2. There are also several cloaks which improve Armor Class, including the Cloak of Protection +1, the Cloak of Protection +2, and the Cloak of the Sewers, to name a few. There are also some rings you would want your "tanks" to wear, including the Ring of Gaxx, the Ring of Free Action, or the Ring of Regeneration. Your Cleric/Ranger might be able to wear Keldorn's armor, depending on her stats. It has the same effect as a Ring of Free of Action, so that is one redundancy you can eliminate.

Here are a few item combinations off the top of my head:

CLERIC/RANGER:
Gorgon Platemail
Ring of Gaxx
Ring of Free Action
Girdle of Giant Strength
Helm of Defense
Boots of Grounding
Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise
Cloak of the Sewers
Sensate Amulet
Crom Faeyr
Defender of Easthaven
(switch to the Improved Mace of Disruption when you need protection against level drain)

MAZZY:
Armor of the Hart +3
Ring of Regeneration #1
Ring of Fire Control
Girdle of Giant Strength
Helm of Balduran
(boots?)
Bracers of Archery(?)
(cloak?)
Kaligan's Amulet of Magic Resistance
Cutthroat +4 (unless you switch to another weapon proficiency)
Short Bow of Gesen (use any kind of arrows with it)

KORGAN:
Full Platemail
Ring of Protection +2
Ring of Regeneration #2
Golden Girdle
Dragon Helm
Boots of Speed
Gauntlets of Dexterity
(cloak?)
Amulet of 5% Magic Resistance
dual-wielding axes (Stonefire, Frostreaver, etc.)

JAN:
Robe of Vecna
Ring of Wizardry
Ring of Acuity
Belt of Inertial Barrier
Pale Green Ioun Stone
Boots of Missile Avoidance
Bracers of Defense AC 3
Cloak of Protection +2
Amulet of Power
Firetooth Dagger
Buckler +1
Alternative: Staff of the Magi

[wise grimwald]

The gauntlets/belts etc that you use will largely be dependent on your stats.
For instance, if you have a dexterity of 19, you won't want to wear gauntlets of dexterity. The same argument can be applied to strength. Being a cleric/ranger I would expect your stats to be very good as it is the easiest character for getting good stats. My most recent one didn't need buffing at all with equipment, but yours might. Hence let us know your stats and people can give better advice.

[Saros]

Here are a few item combinations off the top of my head:

CLERIC/RANGER:
Gorgon Platemail
Ring of Gaxx
Ring of Free Action
Girdle of Giant Strength
Helm of Defense
Boots of Grounding
Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise
Cloak of the Sewers
Sensate Amulet
Crom Faeyr
Defender of Easthaven
(switch to the Improved Mace of Disruption when you need protection against level drain)

MAZZY:
Armor of the Hart +3
Ring of Regeneration #1
Ring of Fire Control
Girdle of Giant Strength
Helm of Balduran
(boots?)
Bracers of Archery(?)
(cloak?)
Kaligan's Amulet of Magic Resistance
Cutthroat +4 (unless you switch to another weapon proficiency)
Short Bow of Gesen (use any kind of arrows with it)

KORGAN:
Full Platemail
Ring of Protection +2
Ring of Regeneration #2
Golden Girdle
Dragon Helm
Boots of Speed
Gauntlets of Dexterity
(cloak?)
Amulet of 5% Magic Resistance
dual-wielding axes (Stonefire, Frostreaver, etc.)

JAN:
Robe of Vecna
Ring of Wizardry
Ring of Acuity
Belt of Inertial Barrier
Pale Green Ioun Stone
Boots of Missile Avoidance
Bracers of Defense AC 3
Cloak of Protection +2
Amulet of Power
Firetooth Dagger
Buckler +1
Alternative: Staff of the Magi

Just a few add-ons to that... no, offense, VonDondu, I hope...

Gorgon Platemail, Crom Faeyr, Armor of the Hart, Ring of Fire Control, Kaligun's amulet of MR(10%), Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Cutthroat and the Short Bow of Gesen cannot be obtained until chapters 5 and 6. Our friend is still in the Asylum(chapter 4).

I don't get your obsession of giving 5% or 10% MR amulets to characters who have none of their own. Such low MR is total crap IMHO. Better give them other, more useful amulets. There are plenty of those.

Buckler +1 to Jan? Well, that's a first. I'd say that in SoA only game, Jan has to walk through only with a nice crossbow, or staff - something like switching between Staff of the Magi and the Light Crossbow of Speed with nice ammo - bolts of Wounding and of Lightning, and later - Quo-Toa Bolts of Stunning. And there are a lot more useful boots than the boots of Missile Avoidance.
BtW - Bracers of Archery are better if given to Jan, because his THAC0 is total crap, and Mazzy's THAC0 is better enough without improving it further.

The Golden Girdle of Urnst is available only to a wizard or sorcerer protagonist, and only if wizard stronghold quest is completed(the Planar Sphere).

About the team - lacks a nice arcane mage. Jan hasn't got access to the Necromancy spells, and more specifically - Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Death Spell, Skull Trap and Spirit Armor. Especially the SA spell equals to a full plate, doesn't hinder a character(Ranger can use stealth), provides with a save vs spell +3 bonus, and unlike all other armor spells, can be cast on other characters, not only on the caster. Maybe you should consider taking Edwin in the party in the future... Note that a nice mage like Edwin, with one hell of spell slots, will definitely solve your AC problem, but also your elemental resistance problem, because of the various wizard elemental&magical damage protective spells which all last a very long time and provide 100% prot from one element.

A Ring of Free Action is good indeed. The only thing is that it negates such things like (Improved) haste, or Boots of Speed, or Oil of Speed. So this is definitely not a good item to be worn all of the time. Not to mention that there is a similar spell which can and should be cast only when needed...this ring is for soloers rather than in a party.

About equipment. In chapters 4,5 and 6 the most needed items&spells are:

Vhailor's Helm - an additional fighter is something very valuable
Reflection Shield - versus Sahuagin bolts of wounding, and Kuo-toan and Drow bolts of stunning, these take effect even through Stoneskin, Iron Skins or Mirror image.
Shield of Harmony or Chaotic Commands spell buff all characters(Use Wondrous Recal: lvl 6 priest spell, if your lvl 5 spell slots are inadequate) - this is versus Mind Flayers and Umber Hulks
Shield of Balduran - a must vs Beholders
Spell Shield scroll - versus Beholders
Improved Mace of Disruption, Azuredge and Amulet of Power - versus vampires and other undead.
If you plan on killing Adalon, the silver dragon, to make a nice suit of armor for Korgan, I advise taking the Dragonslayer sword with you too.
A lot of Protection from Undead scrolls - several liches in your way are defeated most easily this way.

Now, except these must-have items, other equipment:

Protagonist(Cle/Ra):

Full Plate Mail
Helmet of Defense
Ring of Gaxx
Ring of Protection +2
Boots of Speed - better than Lightning prot, moreover there's a fourth lvl spell for that
Gauntlets(?) maybe Gloves of healing... - a C/R has an excellent THAC0 and wasting a pair of Gauntlets of Weapon Skill or Weapon Expertise is appropriate only if you have 6 of those...
Sensate Amulet
Belt of Inertial Barrier - a C/R doesn't NEED a strength bonus because of Righteous Magic.
Cloak of the Sewers
Flail of Ages main-hand
Defender of Easthaven off/switch to an appropriate shield when needed

Jan:

Robe of Vecna
Bracers of Archery/Jansen's gloves when needed/Bracers of AC 3 in close combat because of the lack of Spirit Armor spell...
Pale Green Ioun Stone
Amulet of Power
Ring of Acuity/switch to Mercykiller Ring when needed to set traps
Ring of Wizardry
Boots of Stealth
Belt of Hill Giant Strength
Cloak of Protection +2(in the Asylum +1, the +2 is in the Sahuagin city)

Dak'kon Zerth Blade - AC bonus, bonus spell slots. Main Weapon!
Staff of the Magi - defensive&dispellation weapon. Nice Activation abilities. Nice Equip abilities. Also main weapon....
Light Crossbow of Speed - quick ranged attacks with stunning/wounding ammo/ switch to Sling of Everard when you get the 'Weapon Ineffective'
switch to an appropriate short sword when needed - for backstabbing

Mazzy:

Helmet of Defense
Red Dragon Scale
Necklace of Form Stability
if you haven't patched - Cloak of Protection +1, these stack with Red Dragon Scale in the unpatched game. If you have - Cloak of Displacement.
Boots of the North or Grounding
Girdle of Piercing
Ring of Regeneration/switch to Ring of the Ram when more damage is needed
Ring of Free Action/switch to Ring of Invisibility before Improved haste being cast on her
Tuigan Bow with appropriate quantity of +2 arrows. Do carry some Dispellation Arrows, might come in handy. Don't waste those, their quantity total in the game is 90. Or 95. /Switch to Tansheron's bow(+3, no ammo needed), when +2 Arrows are ineffective.
Short Sword of Backstabbing main(if you have ToB installed - Short sword of the Mask) + Kundane off-hand. Switch to Arvoreen Sword or Arbane sword main-handed when you need certain immunities! Use Arbane's haste when needed.

Korgan:

Plate of Balduran
Helm of Balduran
Periapt of Proof vs Poison
Ring of Earth Control
Ring of Regenration(second found in the Asylum)/switch to Air Control when Improved Invis is needed
Cloak of Mirroring(found in Sahuagin city, don't miss it!)
Boots of Speed(second pair in Asylum)
Belt vs crushing weapons
Weapons:
Dwarven Thrower when needed + a nice shield off(Harmony)
Frostreaver + Stonefire dual-wield mainly. Frostreaver main, since most enemies are immune to fire, and few are immune to cold or acid.

Do keep weapons with activation effects on the quick-weapon slots of Mazzy and Korgan - things like DayStar, Ilbratha, Ras, Namarra, Arbane.

Split all four of your summoning items in between your characters - those are the Golem Manual(only if ToB is installed, Jan only may use it in your team), Spider Figurine, Efreeti Bottle and the Iron Horn of Valhalla.

There are more tricks in item usage. If you want some, or have some problems, don't hesitate to ask. Oh, and do be VERY careful in the Sahuagin City southeastern part....

I don't consider giving away item locations to be spoiler, because they're given in this site. There's full list of items and the exact location of each.

[VonDondu]

Just a few add-ons to that... no, offense, VonDondu, I hope...

No offense taken at all. Other people's ideas are always welcome, as far as I'm concerned. I'd be happy to discuss them with you. Besides, as I said, I made my lists off the top of my head, so they aren't the best lists of equipment anyone could come up with. And as you pointed out, there were a few oversights on my part.

Gorgon Platemail, Crom Faeyr, Armor of the Hart, Ring of Fire Control, Kaligun's amulet of MR(10%), Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Cutthroat and the Short Bow of Gesen cannot be obtained until chapters 5 and 6. Our friend is still in the Asylum(chapter 4).

That's true. But sexymonkeys said, "I am currently in the Asylum, and I'm starting to think of what equipment I will be using." I assumed that meant that she (or he) was looking ahead for the "best possible combination", like so many players seem to do. Besides, anything that sexymonkeys did not obtain in Chapter Two or Three will not be available until Chapter Six; so without knowing where she has already been, I wouldn't try to guess what sort of items she already has.

I don't get your obsession of giving 5% or 10% MR amulets to characters who have none of their own. Such low MR is total crap IMHO. Better give them other, more useful amulets.

I'm not "obsessed" with them. I put them on my lists because 1) I thought of them, and 2) I was making the point that sexymonkeys should consider the "entire package", so I felt compelled to put some amulets on my lists. They're not necessarily the best choices. It really depends on personal preferences.

There are plenty of those.

"Plenty"? I can think of four that are available in Shadows of Amn. Which ones did you have in mind?

The Periapt of Proof Against Poison is useful on rare occasions. The Greenstone Amulet and the Amulet of Spell Warding are useful, without a doubt. The Necklace of Form Stability is only marginally useful, in my opinion. It provides a +5 saving throw bonus vs. Polymorph/Petrification, but most spells require a save against spells, not Polymorph/Petrification, and a Fighter already has great saving throws in that department. At 15th level, a Fighter's saving throw is 5, and with a Ring of Protection +2, it's down to 3 already, so a +5 bonus is no more useful than a +2 bonus. On the other hand, magic resistance is useful nearly all of the time.

There are different ways to look at magic resistance, just as there are different ways to look at saving throws or attack bonuses. ANY magic resistance is sort of like a "second saving throw". In some cases, totally avoiding a spell effect is life-saving. And a 5% or 10% probability isn't something to sneeze at. To put things in perspective, every +1 bonus to saving throws or THAC0 is only 5%. And think about the other items or abilities that have a 5% or 10% chance of having an effect, such as a vorpal attack or the Deathbringer Assault. Are those "total crap"?

Buckler +1 to Jan? Well, that's a first. I'd say that in SoA only game, Jan has to walk through only with a nice crossbow, or staff - something like switching between Staff of the Magi and the Light Crossbow of Speed with nice ammo - bolts of Wounding and of Lightning, and later - Quo-Toa Bolts of Stunning...

BtW - Bracers of Archery are better if given to Jan, because his THAC0 is total crap, and Mazzy's THAC0 is better enough without improving it further...

Bracers of Archery/Jansen's gloves when needed/Bracers of AC 3 in close combat because of the lack of Spirit Armor spell...
Ring of Acuity/switch to Mercykiller Ring when needed to set traps
Dak'kon Zerth Blade - AC bonus, bonus spell slots. Main Weapon!
Staff of the Magi - defensive&dispellation weapon. Nice Activation abilities. Nice Equip abilities. Also main weapon....
Light Crossbow of Speed - quick ranged attacks with stunning/wounding ammo/ switch to Sling of Everard when you get the 'Weapon Ineffective'
switch to an appropriate short sword when needed - for backstabbing

You suggest a lot of equipment swapping. Some players (including myself) like to keep that to a minimum. And if you remove items like the Ring of Acuity and Dakkon's Zerth Blade, you lose your bonus spells, which defeats the purpose.

I suggested Fire Tooth +3 because it's an easy weapon to use and it gives a character like Jan two attacks per round with a +3 bonus (which is like using the Bracers of Archery with a +1 Light Crossbow of Speed). With a free hand, he can use a Buckler +1, so why not?

I try to keep my Mages out of melee as much as possible, but they are still vulnerable against missile attacks. The lower their base AC, the better; but extra bonuses to AC against missile attacks (and breath weapons) seem more useful to me than extra bonuses against melee attacks. A Girdle of Giant Strength for Jan seems totally wasted to me, since his primary attacks are ranged attacks and spells, and it would be much more useful on a warrior who has less than Strength 19.

there are a lot more useful boots than the boots of Missile Avoidance.

"A lot more"? Again, I can't think of more than a couple. What did you have in mind?

Boots of Stealth would be useful for Jan if I used him as a scout, but I don't. They're practically useless in combat, since a Thief can't hide when his enemies can see him (unless you want Jan to run away from battles and hide). I don't do much backstabbing with Jan since his THAC0 is so bad. By the time he's high enough in level for me to feel comfortable with that, I've already put enough of his thieving points into stealth to make him effective.

Boots of Speed would also be suitable for Jan to help him keep his distance from enemies. But a lot of players prefer to give the Boots of Speed to their main character--in many cases, regardless of class or playing style. Personally, I don't see any point in giving Boots of Speed to a "tank" unless everyone else in your party already has them. (That way, they can keep up with the group when you're crossing a map.) The Boots of Speed are more suitable for characters who scout (to me, that excludes Rangers or Cleric/Rangers who wear heavy armor) or characters who attack with ranged weapons (extra speed helps them to maintain an optimal firing position or to use snipe-and-run attacks). I meant to assign the Boots of Speed to Mazzy instead of Korgan, but I was in a hurry and I transposed them. Sorry about that.

Split all four of your summoning items in between your characters - those are the Golem Manual(only if ToB is installed, Jan only may use it in your team), Spider Figurine, Efreeti Bottle and the Iron Horn of Valhalla.

That's not a bad idea. But it seems like a lot of items like that never get used very much (just as Minsc's Druid spells and stealth ability rarely get used by most players). Not all players do enough micromanaging and inventory swapping to use every piece of equipment to its best advantage. So your good advice might unfortunately be wasted.

[Saros]

VonDondu, yes, I agree with your point of view. Anyway, then, the best advice that could be given now to sexymonkeys is: Don't miss not even one good item in chapters 4 and 5. There are items that you can return for in the future in Underdark, but some will be forever lost if you don't play the game right:

Spoiler

Asylum: Some important spell scrolls, the most important Power Word Stun on the Library level, and Delayed Blast Fireball scroll on the starting level(the one where Bodhi declares the chase).

Ring of Free Action - a magical book on the Library Level.

Ring of Regeneration - starting level, riddle statue.

Bag of Holding - starting level

Boots of Speed + Boots of the North - collect 20 mithril tokens on the Minotaur level.

Gesen's Bow String - Minotaur level.

SunFire and Limited Wish scroll - Minotaur level

Cloak of Reflection - Apparition's room table

Arrows of Dispelling(5) - Jon Irenicus' level

Horn of Silence + Staff of Thunder and Lightning - sneak past Saemon Havarian with one invisible character into Jon Irenicus' quarters. Loot these items and return to Saemon, accepting his proposal.

Merchant in Brynnlaw - buy every needed spell scroll since some are pretty rare, like Spell Deflection or Contingency.

Sahuagin city:

Boots of Etherealness + Cloak of Protection +2 - Imp Riddle.

Cloak of Mirroring - priestess near a great shark mouth.

Sahuagin priest - sells a lot of different low-level scrolls near the King's Throne Room.

The Wave Blade - Either kill Prince Villynaty or pickpocket him with Jan.

Spear +3 Impaler + Scroll of Protection from Elements - loot from the battle.

Underdark:

The thing you oughtta remember is that you can return here in chapters 6 and 7 to clear everything. So, here are the things which you will be unable to do later:

While in Drow Form:

Duergar Merchant has a different, richer shop shelf. More scrolls and potions.

Ust-Natha will be unavailable for you later. So:

Buy everything valuable from the 3 Drow Merchants.

Fight Lasaonar in the tavern for a bastard sword +3.

Kill Quilue the Priestess for a dagger +4. Quest triggers right after you free Phaere.

When Matron Mother Ardulace sends you on your 'blood finding' task, be sure to buy a rope from Visaj. Enter Deirex's tower and kill the lich. There is plently of rare scrolls, on the second floor after killing the lich too.

Clear House Jae'lat for money and a +3 scimitar.

Loot everything from Mother Ardulace's corpse when the demon kills her.

Kill Adalon. There are two ways to do it, but you can only do it in chapter 5.

First way - kill Adalon when you've finished all in the Drow City. Don't give her the eggs. Just kill her. This way you lose a nice crossbow and some quest xp.

Second way - return the eggs to Adalon. Attack her when she battles the Drow near the exit. Unfortunately, in the second you attack she tends to run away via a Dimension Door spell and after that cannot be found in her lair. So, you have to hit fast and hard.