Min/Max Boards

Is it wild because the crafting cost in gold is like 2% the market price? Cause that's wild.

PRAENOMEN
Price 64,200 gp; Slot chest; CL 11th; Weight 4 lbs; Aura strong abjuration and enchantment
Source Lost Treasures pg. 48

The Praenomen is a two-part amulet, comprising an oval plate that covers the wearer’s chest and a counterweight that hangs down the wearer’s back, joined by chains. The front plate is inscribed with the cartouche of the pharaoh who is the Praenomen’s master; the counterweight is shaped like a cobra to honor Wadjet, protector of Osirion and Osirion’s pharaohs. The Praenomen was traditionally worn by a pharaoh’s royal envoy to signify that the envoy acted in the pharaoh’s name and was under her protection. It grants its benefits only to loyal subjects of its master—the pharaoh whose cartouche is inscribed upon it.

The Praenomen grants its wearer a +4 bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks. Once per day, the wearer can impose a geas on another creature, compelling the target to undertake a mission for the Praenomen’s master. The Praenomen also shields its wearer and other faithful subjects of the pharaoh from the pharaoh’s enemies. Its wearer gains a +2 deflection bonus to Armor Class, and three times per day, the wearer can activate the Praenomen to grant the benefits of heroism to all loyal subjects of its master within 30 feet.

The Praenomen can be rededicated to a new master by replacing the front plate and engraving the name of its new master on the cartouche, requiring a successful DC 21 Craft (jewelry) check.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Cost 32,100 gp
Craft Wondrous Item, eagle's splendor, geas/quest, heroism, shield of faith

Surprised this one doesn't seem to have been brought up yet: Class kits are an utter clusterfuck, defeating their entire point.  You've got issues like Bloodrager's Kit which is just a Barbarian's Kit but without rope, the heaviest inclusion by far, yet somehow weighs a pound more while costing the same (and came after Barbarian's Kit!). Ranger's Kit is one of the less awful, and it costs 4 silver extra for no real reason.

The original/oldest such kit, Pathfinder's Kit, is to my knowledge far and away the best kit as it's both calculated correctly (you save 1 silver and 5 copper over buying its contents individually and an exact match for the weight, and that's not counting the cost or weight of the "50 feet of thread" because it doesn't seem to be an item of its own), the only stuff you might remotely not want are light, and cheap.

• Clouded Vision
• Wolfscarred Face
• Haunted
• Reclusive
• Wrecker

• Damage. The most fundamental role, as all D&D games have something that needs killing.
• Protection. This character protects other characters from damage, either by being in the way and using AoO tricks or by magical means or by creating obstacles for the enemy. Basically, Prevent Damage.
• Healing. All D&D games have things that will hurt PCs, so somebody has to patch them up afterwards. In practice this is a minor role, a side-gig for characters who also do something else.
• Control. This means Solving Combat Problems: there is some obstacle that prevents the PCs from properly damaging the enemy, and this character overcomes these obstacles. This is almost always a spellcaster in D&D.
• "Rogue." I put this in quotes because it is an actual class name, but I cannot think of a good general name at the moment. This character overcomes environmental obstacles: locked doors, traps, blockages, stealthy entry, disguises, and so on. The party needs to get to the place where they do damage, and this character gets them there. While a thief-type character is traditional for this, it could also be done with spells.
• Face. This character solves social problems. Since social problems aren't a constant issue in D&D, the party face always fulfils some other role as well.
• Buff/Debuff. While not strictly necessary for the game to function, helping other characters do things has long been a standard part of the game.

• Damage-dealer: Very straightforward. You reduce enemy HP to zero. Comes in melee, ranged, and AoE varieties but it all comes down to the same job. There is often an implicit requirement, however, that the damage-dealer be able to perform for many combats per day, allowing him to carry the party through encounters where they are either conserving resources (like spells) or low on such resources. It is also strongly advised for martial damage-dealers to carry backup weapons so that they do not become useless if there is an unusual encounter.
• Protector: Also very straightforward, in principle. You keep your allies from harm. The most common form is being a front-liner (ie. positioning yourself between the party and the enemies and making it difficult for enemies to get past you), and for most martial-types (not Rogues or, frequently, archers), this is often a second role they take on naturally. However, a party's vulnerable party members can be protected using anything from illusions, monster-summoning, buffs, battlefield control, crowd control, debuffs, etc. There is an implicit requirement, however, that you not be overly resource-limited or circumstantial in your ability to protect party members. For this reason, there is usually a primary protector (the front-liner) and a supporting role (the spellcaster, who uses battlefield control, crowd control, defensive buffs on the party) when it comes to protecting the party.
• Healer: Often a secondary role, in the sense that you do not want this to be all a particular party member is contributing. There are really 3 distinct subtypes of healer, and it's important to be aware of them:
  
  • HP recovery: Very straightforward. Any idiot with a Wand of Cure Light Wounds can cover this role. This is very easily handled, but mandatory. This is typically a non-combat role as combat healing is a very bad way to spend your turns unless you optimize some really powerful heals or find a way to heal without using standard actions.
  • Condition removal: Everything from removing diseases to poisons to curses to fatigue/exhaustion/etc to fear conditions to ability damage to negative levels. This is very good to have, but not strictly necessary, especially if you make sure to carry appropriate healing items (will be a lot of items, though) just in case, especially if you have party members that can handle this in partial capacity (like a high-level Ranger). This role is sometimes useful to have in an in-combat capacity, and is probably the single biggest reason for wanting a full-on healer in the party. This role favors prepared casters because the spells are often too many and too situational for spells known but also too useful to not have.
  • Resurrection: Sometimes party members die and you need to get them back. Can be covered if you carry scrolls with UMD (death is not a frequent occurrence in your party... right?) or skipped if you are okay with revolving door parties, but is less skippable if you have to protect fragile NPCs. Occasionally this role breaks a campaign by resurrecting NPCs who weren't supposed to be alive.
• Scout: Any method of figuring out what lies ahead unnoticed. Typically a mundane role, wielding stealth, disable device, spot, listen, and maybe even survival. Usually only stealth and perception skills are necessary, but traps and locked doors are an issue at times, as is following tracks or getting lost depending on the terrain. Invisibility helps a lot, until higher levels, and it is possible to perform scouting purely with divination spells or by having a Wizard share senses with his flying familiar whom he made invisible. There are really three subroles of scout:
  
  • Reconnaissance: The actual job of figuring out what lies ahead and providing advance warning.
  • Pathfinding: Figuring out where you need to go and finding a working path for the party to navigate. Probably the most forgettable subrole as basic pathfinding is usually part and parcel of reconnaissance, but sometimes you notice that there is a more specific skillset that you need, when you remember that your Druid, Ranger, or some other class is needed to roll Survival checks or you have to cast divinations to figure out which way to go. Depending on the campaign this is usually totally forgotten but sometimes something that totally wrecks your party if you're missing it. The fun part about pathfinding is that it's the one scouting role your party Thief/Bard/etc is likely to be useless at (but not the Ranger or Druid).
  • Trapfinding: Finding and disabling traps, especially magical traps, that you find on the way. Usually the recon is also the trapfinder (or he will find many of the traps the hard way), but not always. The necessity of a trapfinder depends on the campaign, but it's usually a good working assumption to assume one is necessary, unless you want to manually test for traps (this is your ten-foot-poles, your magnets, your ball bearings, etc) or just send someone with stupid high saves in front (aka "monk trapfinding" or "paladin trapfinding" - but this is also done with disposable summons, like a bag of tricks). The bothersome part here is that not every class can find and disable magic traps out of the box, so sometimes you see the Recon and the Trapfinder being two different characters or trapfinding being done manually.
• Face: The face man, the one who handles social encounters on behalf of the party. DMs are often torn between whether they'd rather see you roleplay (ie. "stop rolling skills to get past dialogue encounters") or rollplay (ie. "stop trying to talk your way past situations if your don't have the appropriate diplomacy/bluff/etc skills on your character sheet") this one, and it makes a massive difference in how important this is as part of a character sheet. While you can handle face roles with magic spells like Charm Person, Disguise Self, and Suggestion (especially if you can cast them unnoticed), this is typically a mundane role wielding Diplomacy, Bluff, and Disguise skills, as well as Sense Motive.
• Utility/toolbox: Often a spellcaster, and a prepared caster at that. This is the utility role that carries the circumstantial options needed to overcome whatever obstacle is thrown in your way, whether in-combat or out of combat. This role probably requires further analysis to get a clearer picture, but usually provides the party the ability to fight in unfamiliar terrain, overcome strange terrain, can solve certain puzzles and challenges on its own, and otherwise gives the parties tools they need to interact with unusual threats.
• Loremaster: The person who can identify stuff and provide relevant information for you. Typically a mundane role, wielding knowledge checks, spellcraft checks, and appraise checks, but it tends to be done by spellcasters like Wizards and Bards, because they have the skills and modifiers for it. Sometimes this role is split across multiple characters.
• Investigator: Very much a noncombat role, and I'm not sure whether I ought to be listing this. This is the job of uncovering information. The scout, face, and loremaster usually handle sides of this, so does the Survival guy, but there are also a lot of dedicated spells like Detect Magic, Divination, Scrying, etc. and the speak with animals/plants/stone/dead/etc line that have a huge impacts on this. The right divinations pretty much auto-solve many of these quests.
• Support: A force-multiplier for the party or individual party members. This is when you don't solve problems on your own (unless you are self-buffing) but empower others to do a phenomenally more effective job than they would otherwise by making party members perform better and/or making enemies suck. Buffs, debuffs, and battlefield control are all parts of this. This is the domain of God Wizards, who tend to set up a party with conditions so advantageous that they can cakewalk their way through an encounter, as well as Bards. Clerics are often assumed to be good at this but they actually tend not to have the more impactful support options (although they still have some) without the right domains, prestige classes, etc.