# Skill bonus items



## Herzog (Mar 16, 2011)

I'm looking for (magic) items that give bonusses to Craft skills, Open Lock, Search, Disable device.

Something like Magic Craft Tools and Magic Thieves Tools?

I can use (3.5) PHB,DMG, Complete Arcane,Complete Divine,Complete Warrior and Complete Adventurer.

I may be able to use things from Dragonlance Campaign setting and War of the Lance sourcebooks. (those are on a case-by-case basis)


----------



## Rhun (Mar 16, 2011)

Vest of Escape gives +4 bonus to Open Locks and +6 to Escape Artist. Goggles of Minute Seeing give a +5 to Search.


----------



## Patryn of Elvenshae (Mar 16, 2011)

The prices for competence bonuses to skills are pretty clearly laid out, and everything I've done the math on follows them exactly.

Make your own?


----------



## BriarMonkey (Mar 16, 2011)

Ditto.

Use the magic item crafting rules and craft what you need.  Need a wee bonus on opening that lock, +2 or +4 Magic Thieves Tools, need a ginormous bonus, +8 or +10 Magic Thieves Tools; need ya some bonuses when forging that armor, a +X Magic Smith's Hammer; need a bonus when making your beer, a +X Magic Fermentation Tub; etc and etc.

Comparatively, the prices for skill bonuses are an order of magnitude cheaper than if you went for attribute bonuses to get the same effect.


----------



## Rhun (Mar 16, 2011)

BriarMonkey said:


> Need a wee bonus on opening that lock, +2 or +4 Magic Thieves Tools,




FYI, you can actually get a +2 bonus just from Masterwork items, such as Masterwork Thieves Tools or such.


----------



## Celebrim (Mar 16, 2011)

BriarMonkey said:


> Comparatively, the prices for skill bonuses are an order of magnitude cheaper than if you went for attribute bonuses to get the same effect.




If you are running a high skill use campaign were skills greatly impact your chance of success, this is actually a game wrecking bug.

Personally, I believe magical competance bonuses to skills should be capped at around +10, and that they are priced at about 1/5 of what they are actually worth.  

The default rules basically assume that skills are unimportant and since they will be greatly overshadowed by spells and combat, that they should be priced at bargain basement rates in order to make them even remotely attractive.


----------



## BriarMonkey (Mar 16, 2011)

Sorry, I forgot about Masterwork items as noted...  (Being at work does have its disadvantages.)

And too, I agree wholeheartedly about the issues with the pricing of skill bonuses in the magic system.  It really feels like an after though, or that, yes, skills are not as important as other elements.

In a campaign a friend of mine ran, one of the item creation changes he made was to change the skill cost to something much more significant (which meant running around in an Elven Cloak and Elven Boots was seriously more expensive).

And yeah, a cap at +10 would probably be a good thing.


----------



## Herzog (Mar 17, 2011)

Since Masterwork Tools already give a +2 bonus, whould that bonus be added to the magic bonus you add?

In other words, would a workbench that gives a +2 competence bonus to certain craft checks be the same price as a set of Crafting tools that give a +4 competence bonus?

Or, more precise, would Magic Armorsmithing Tools +5 (price 2555) give a +5 bonus or a +7 bonus?


----------



## Rhun (Mar 17, 2011)

Herzog said:


> Or, more precise, would Magic Armorsmithing Tools +5 (price 2555) give a +5 bonus or a +7 bonus?




+5 would be correct. Just like masterwork weapons and armor, the magical bonus would override the "masterwork bonus."


----------



## Patryn of Elvenshae (Mar 17, 2011)

Herzog said:


> Since Masterwork Tools already give a +2 bonus, whould that bonus be added to the magic bonus you add?
> 
> In other words, would a workbench that gives a +2 competence bonus to certain craft checks be the same price as a set of Crafting tools that give a +4 competence bonus?




If they're both Competence bonuses, they overlap, not stack.

However, MW tools usually provide _Circumstance_ bonuses (c.f. MW Thieves' Tools and the MW tool right below it).

Magical skill bonuses are usually Competence bonuses.  Competence bonuses stack with Circumstance bonuses.

So, in this case, your magic workbench will [most likely] provide a total of +7 to your skill check.


----------



## kitcik (Mar 17, 2011)

Rhun's seems to be the logical answer as an analogy to weapons, but in thinking about this:

A sword gets +1 from MW because the sword is better made. A sword gets +2 from an enchantment because, again, the sword is better - in this case, magically. So, it makes some sense that these don't stack.

The tools get +2 from MW because the tools are made better. However, the +5 from the enchantment is actually improving the user's skill, not the quality of the tools. So, I can see an argument either way to be honest.


----------



## Rhun (Mar 17, 2011)

Actually, I have to bow to Patryn's superior knowledge. I wasn't thinking that one was a circumstance bonus and one was a competence bonus. So I stand corrected!


----------



## MadLuke (Nov 25, 2013)

Pardon moi,
   I'd need a +10 bonus to Control Shape (Wis) for licanthropy. What could I look for? 

Thanks in advance, MadLuke.


----------

