EQUIPMENT
Adventuring Gear
These items follow special rules or require more detail.
Alchemical Items
Alchemical items are not magical. They instead use the properties of volatile chemicals, exotic minerals, potent plants, and other substances, collectively referred to as alchemical reagents. As such, alchemical items don’t radiate magical auras, and they can’t be dismissed or affected by dispel magic. Their effects last for a set amount of time or until they are countered in some way, typically physically.
Consumables
This section includes magic items with the consumable trait. An item with this trait can be used only once. Unless stated otherwise, it is destroyed after activation. When a character creates consumable items, they can make them in batches of four, as described in the Craft activity. Consumables includes the following subcategories, with any special rules appearing at the start of the section.
Armor
Armor increases your character’s defenses, but some medium or heavy armor can hamper movement. If you want to increase your character’s defense beyond the protection your armor provides, they can use a shield. Armor protects your character only while they’re wearing it.
Shields
A shield can increase your character’s defense beyond the protection their armor provides. Your character must be wielding a shield in one hand to make use of it, and it grants its bonus to AC only if they use an action to Raise a Shield. This action grants the shield’s bonus to AC as a circumstance bonus until their next turn starts. A shield’s Speed penalty applies whenever your character is holding the shield, whether they have raised it or not.
Weapons
Most characters in Pathfinder carry weapons, ranging from mighty warhammers to graceful bows to even simple clubs. Full details on how you calculate the bonuses, modifiers, and penalties for attack rolls and damage rolls are given in Chapter 9, but they’re summarized here, followed by the rules for weapons and dozens of weapon choices.
Held Items
These items need to be held to use them. Weapons, wands, and staves follow special rules and have their own sections.
Worn Items
This section includes magic items you wear. Most have the invested trait, which means you can wear no more than 10 (page 531). Worn items include the following subcategories, with special rules appearing at the start of the section.
Intelligent Items
Magic items with a mind of their own have been a hallmark of myth and fantasy for millennia. When integrated into a campaign, they can become memorable characters in their own right.
Artifacts
A globe of utter darkness that consumes all things. Powerful weapons created in antiquity carrying the hopes of an entire people. A simple deck of cards representing fortunes both transcendent and deadly. These are artifacts—items of incredible power, spoken of in thousands of stories and beyond the capability of modern people to create.
Runes
Most magic weapons and armor gain their enhancements from potent eldritch runes etched into them. These runes allow for in-depth customization of items.
Staves
A magical staff is an indispensable accessory for an elite spellcaster. A staff is tied to one person during a preparation process, after which the preparer, and only the preparer, can harness the staff to cast a variety of spells throughout the day. The spells that can be cast from a staff are listed in bullet points organized by level under each version of the staff. Many staves can be found in multiple versions, with more powerful versions that contain more spells and can hold more charges—such a staff always contains the spells of all lower-level versions, in addition to the spells listed in its own entry. All magical staves have the staff trait.
Wands
Short, slender items typically made of wood, wands let you cast a specific spell without expending a spell slot. They can be used once per day, but can be overcharged to attempt to cast them again at great risk. Each wand holds a spell of a certain level, determined when the wand is created. Cantrips, focus spells, and rituals can’t be placed in wands.
Tattoos
A tattoo is a type of item that is drawn or cut into a creature’s skin and usually takes the form of images or symbols.