Class Tools and Skill Kits
This equipment is particularly useful if you have certain skills or are of a certain class.
Alchemist’s Lab: This includes beakers, bottles, mixing and measuring equipment and a miscellany of chemicals and substances. This is the perfect tool for the job and so adds a +2 circumstance bonus to Alchemy checks, but it has no bearing on the costs related to the Alchemy skill (see the Alchemy skill, page 63). Without this lab, a character with the Alchemy skill is assumed to have enough tools to use the skill but not enough to get the +2 bonus that the lab provides.
Artisan’s Tools: This is the set of special tools needed for any craft. Without these tools, you have to use improvised tools (-2 penalty on your Craft check) if you can do the job at all.
Artisan’s Tools, Masterwork: As artisan’s tools, but these are the perfect tools for the job, so you get a +2 circumstance bonus on your Craft check.
Climber’s Kit: Special pitons, boot tips, gloves, and a harness that aids in all sorts of climbing. This is the perfect tool for climbing and gives you a +2 circumstance bonus to Climb checks.
Disguise Kit: A bag containing cosmetics, hair dye, and small physical props. This is the perfect tool for disguise and adds a +2 circumstance bonus to Disguise checks. It’s exhausted after ten uses.
Healer’s Kit: This kit is full of herbs, salves, bandages and other useful materials. It is the perfect tool for anyone attempting a Heal check. It adds a +2 circumstance bonus to the check. It’s exhausted after ten uses.
Holly and Mistletoe: Sprigs of holly and mistletoe are used by druids as the default divine focus for druid spells. Holly and mistletoe plants are easily found in wooded areas by druids, and sprigs from them are harvested essentially for free.
Holy Symbol, Silver or Wooden: A holy symbol focuses positive energy. Clerics use them as the focuses for their spells and as tools for turning undead. Each religion has its own holy symbol, and a sun symbol is the default holy symbol for clerics not associated with any particular religion. A silver holy symbol works no better than a wooden one, but it serves as a mark of status for the wielder.
Unholy Symbols: An unholy symbol is like a holy symbol except that it focuses negative energy and is used by evil clerics (or by neutral clerics who want to cast evil spells or command undead). A skull is the default unholy symbol for clerics not associated with any particular religion.
Magnifying Glass: This simple lens allows a closer look at small objects. It is useful as a substitute for flint, steel, and tinder when starting fires (though it takes light as bright as direct sunlight to focus, tinder to light, and at least a full-round action to light a fire with a magnifying glass). It grants you a +2 circumstance bonus on Appraise checks involving any item that is small or highly detailed, such as a gem.
Musical Instrument, Common or Masterwork: Popular instruments include strings, flutes, and drums. A masterwork instrument is of superior make. It adds a +2 circumstance bonus to Perform checks and serves as a mark of status.
Scale, Merchant’s: This scale includes a small balance and pans and a suitable assortment of weights. A scale grants you a +2 circumstance bonus to Appraise checks involving items that are valued by weight, including anything made of precious metals.
Spell Component Pouch: A small, watertight leather belt pouch with many small compartments. A spellcaster with a spell component pouch is assumed to have all the material components and focuses she needs except those that have a listed cost, divine focuses, or focuses that wouldn’t fit in a pouch (such as the natural pool that a druid needs to look into to cast scrying).
Spellbook, Wizard’s (Blank): A large, leatherbound book that serves as a wizard’s reference. A spellbook has 100 pages of parchment, and each spell takes up two pages per level (one page for 0-level spells).
Thieves’ Tools: These are the tools you need to use the Disable Device and Open Lock skills. The kit includes one or more skeleton keys, long metal picks and pries, a long-nosed clamp, a small hand saw, and a small wedge and hammer. Without these tools, you have to improvise tools, and you suffer a -2 circumstance penalty on your Disable Device and Open Locks checks.
Thieves’ Tools, Masterwork: This kit contains extra tools and tools of better make, granting you a +2 circumstance bonus on Disable Device and Open Lock checks.
Water Clock: This large, bulky contrivance gives the time accurate to within half an hour per day since it was last set. It requires a source of water, and it must be kept still because it marks time by the regulated flow of droplets of water. It is primarily an amusement for the wealthy and a tool for the student of arcane lore. Most people have clocks to tell time, so there is little point in knowing that it is around 2:30 using water.