I would like to know how each respondent equips their TOEE party in regards to magic items (cloaks, weapons, shields, helms, gloves, jewelry, etc). I do not feel I am maximizing my party's potential. Also what magic items do you feel are must have/craft. This will allow me to save up the pittance in xp and gold I have accumulated for the good stuff. Much thanks.
Probably the most important thing to craft are Periapts of Wound Closure. Of course, you can't craft them until well into the mid-game, but they should be top of your list when you get there (and certainly take priority over Amulets of Natural Armor). Weapon-wise, as I've said elsewhere, I prefer composite bows for the majority of the party. My one melee character starts off with a long spear, shifts to a cleaver (two when he gets sufficient feats), and eventually to Scather. For armor, the melee character goes with a chain shirt initially, and shifts to the Mithril Full Plate when it becomes available. Most of the rest of the party wears mithril shirts and darkwood bucklers (being archers). At high level, the mage (/fighter) shifts from a mithril shirt to mystic tatoos and Spoiler Senshock's robes. He also has a mithril buckler vice darkwood (no arcane spell failure). The Black Elven Chain is a nice choice when you obtain it, but that's very late. You'll find +2 Rings of Protection all over the place, and one or two better than that. Free Action is also a priority, and can be obtained through rings, or more easily crafted via Vests of Escape (which also give your Rogue masterwork tools). You'll definitely want to craft +6 Gloves of Dexterity and at least one +6 Belt of Giant Strength. As others have said elsewhere, the single most useful crafted item in the game is probably the Helm of Reading Magic and Comprehending Languages. Being able to identify every scroll and potion on demand is nice. The three Secret Chests Spoiler (one physical, two via scrolls) will probably be enough for most applications, but I've found myself wanting a fourth (or fifth) more than once.
I only use the periapts of wound closure for my two main melee characters(Dwarven ftr and human ftr4/pal"x"). The ftr/pal starts with the holy sword from Meleny's dad. The dwarf ftr eventually get's Spoiler silver sword of chaos since he is focused, specialized and everything else with the bastard sword which he uses 1 handed with the Spoiler hero's tower shield and +6 girdle of giant strength. I prefer +6 amulets of wisdom for my Druid and Cleric. I use an Elvish Druid so she gets a comp long bow enhanced with holy and shock and the +3 long sword which gets amped up as well. She wears the moon ivy armor. My cleric(Pelor Good and Sun) gets a light crossbow also with holy and shock as well as a mace with holy and mighty cleaving plus the helm of read magic. My human ftr1/wiz"x" also gets the comp long bow(holy/shock/frost). He also carries the Lamia, Fungus figurine, and a bag of tricks. He also eventually carries scather. My elvish rogue dual wields a holy/shock/mighty cleaving long sword and a holy/shock mace. She uses +6 gloves of dex and armor oil on the Spoiler blue elven chain with the silent armor enhancement, which means her bonuses far outweigh and negatives from wearing such armor. We pick up/make other stuff as we go, but I always shoot for that stuff and do initial builds with this in mind.
I'm not an expert but here goes. My party is so far (F2/P7, F9, R2/D7, W9, C9). The paladin starts off with Meleny's dad's holy longsword +1 and it get upgraded over time. It's currently +2 and I plan to bump it to +3 and add some elemental damage. He's wearing Royal Armor enchanted to +2. He got that from Nulb at that oriental merchant. He has a cloak of resistance +2 and gauntlets of ogre power. The fighter is destined for Scather, so he starts off with a bastard sword based on weapon proficiency. Then goes to a masterwork version, then he transitions to the Silver Sword of Chaos when possible with some enchant upgrades. Then we do the daring rescues and get Scather. He has the same cloak as the paladin. He is using Mithril plate enchanted up. He also has gauntlets of ogre power. The Wizard has bracers of armor and a high dex and stays out of combat. He has a cloak of resistance and a ring of protection. He uses Lareths staff as a melee weapon and a +2 holy longbow as a usual weapon when not using spells (he is an elf). My Rogue/Druid started off as a rogue with a shortsword. Upon converting to Druid she found a longspear and liked how it worked. She ultimately upgraded to a +2 holy longspear. WE hope to add more later. She uses a shortbow as a backup and of course there are her spells (call lightning, finally). She started off with leather then studded leather then masterwork studded and then troll bone armor and then enchanted troll bone. Thing is we needed a gauntlets of ogre power in order to carry the stuff at 50 pounds. The Cleric is designed to be destined for Moradin's hammer. So I started off with a warhammer then masterwork greathammer and it's currently +2 holy. Armor has gone up to Blue Elven chain. On the whole, the fighter and paladin have the best armor class followed by the druid. The fighter is unstoppable with all his feats and Scather. The druid is really EVERYBODY's backup. She is the backup healer, the backup mage, and the backup fighter. She can do everything pretty well. I'd like to have 6 characters and I could have done that with the co8 mod, but didn't. Maybe next time.
I find it hard to give an all encompassing answer to that question, as your party-composition has a large impact on which objects become valueable and which ones are not. Lareths ring of free movement is one of those things which has its use in every party, as you can negate all those nasty webs, entangles, etc... I like to give that one to my fighter. The chests of holding have an increased value if you've got few partymembers.
