Min/Max Boards

Material from pretty much any published book is allowed-- the DM is even signing off on a steady stream of homebrew.  So feel free to suggest more obscure sources.

We already have an extremely secure base of operations.  And it will be useful, given the number of people beings we intend to anger.

The airship is definitely a good one.  Not for this campaign (long story), but definitely something I'll add to my "party shopping list" for future games.

Everyone got a certain amount of "free" experience, which is the only experience anyone is allowed to craft with.  Most people seem to be using it for LA buyoff or Epic Spell research, though.  I doubt the DM will let us get double the wealth he assigned by changing our backgrounds, but I admit I haven't asked yet.

Greetings!  I'm trying to come up with good "group buys"-- that is, items that everyone in a party could pool money for and be happy about getting.  So far I've come up with two: the Banner of the Storm's Eye and a Rod of Chaining.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Recently, something incredible happened.  I'm getting ready to play an Epic-level campaign (starting at level 24) where the DM has severely reduced wealth by level (starting with 200,000gp).  Some people groaned a bit, but that is the amount of money we're using.  So we all settled down to work on high-level builds that didn't take much money.
While we were working, I mentioned that I would be using a rod to cast Chain Greater Magic Weapon on everyone's weapons (all of them; some people have five or six).  I also said that it was a pity I couldn't Chain day-long buffs of a level higher than third, since a Rod of Chaining was too expensive.  More than half the party immediately chimed in, offering to share their gold.  In fact, one guy subscribed half of his total character wealth, and actively resisted suggestions for other items he could buy his own character.  I was very surprised.

So now it turns out I have a bunch of enlightened party members who will gladly work together to get the most out of limited wealth.  Obviously I want to take advantage of this-- the DM warned that the campaign would likely be quite lethal.  So I come to these forums looking for...
a) Good items to buy for the group with the group's money (like a Rod of Chaining and a Banner of the Storm's Eye.  I think)
b) Good "buffs" of first through sixth level.  They can be on any spell list (any 3.5 spell list), but they need to last for 1 hour/level or more and I'd prefer that they be legal targets for Chain Spell (Reach is possible, but undesirable, since my character is feat-starved in the extreme).


What we currently have in the party:
A Spellthief (using a homebrew fix that resembles a partial-progression blue mage)
A Marilith Abjurant Champion (some homebrew on the Marilith to help her get six weapons on low wealth)
A Swiftblade/Initiatie of the Sevenfold Veil
A Kensei/Rogue
A Shield Warrior (with a very nice homebrewed epic progression)
A Dread Necromancer
A Chaos Mage (odd homebrewed class)
A Conjurer (who I believe is using Malconvoker)
I'm afraid I can't give much more detail than you see here, since everyone is still working on their builds.  But (thanks to the Shield Warrior) it looks like we'll be staying pretty close to each other on the battlefield, so "aura" items like the Banner could see a lot of use.  What do you say?

Wow!  I go away for a day, and come back to all of this...  I'm impressed.  Alrighty, I'll go down the list and answer questions.

1.  Psion-- I'm not particularly fixated on Psion; it just seemed like the easiest way to do what I want to (Psionic Dominate and all that).  If you can find a way to pull this off with a Conjurer//Monk or whatever, go right ahead.

2. The Ultimate Goal-- I want to remind everyone that this character does not want to conquer the world, or destroy the world.  He wants to unite everyone under a single mind (his own).  I see a lot of people giving builds that produce huge armies, or infinite actions, or what have you.  That's fine, but only as a means to an end.  The endgame scenario is seizing power over everyone's brain.
If you could, when you suggest a build, give me a line or two about how it achieves the Ultimate Goal?  Remember I'm new to all of this, so things that seem intuitively obvious to all the veterans need to be spelled out for my brain.  Thanks!

3. Dragon Magazine-- Yep, that's allowed.  So is third party.  So is Pathfinder.  So is (most) homebrew from the D&D wiki.  Assume any material you've ever read is allowed, and suggest away.

4. Using that Shards of Leadership trick...  If you have NI psicrystals with Thrallherd cohorts, is that guaranteed to enslave every person on earth?  Or are some people just not psionically pliable enough?

Greetings, everyone.  I only recently (four years ago, now) started using systems, but I ran into the old boards almost immediately afterwards.  So, hello again, I hope these are as full of useful information as the last ones were!

A bit about me.  I'm an eager gamer who really likes to learn new systems-- the first I ever learned was 4th edition D&D, and since the one I learned after that (Exalted) was such a marked improvement, I have this constant sense that the -next- system will be even better.  I've tried quite a few since then-- HERO, BESM, D&D 3.5, Spirit of the Century, FATE, Sorcerer, Pathfinder, FFRPG, Dresden Files RPG...  Most recently I'm learning Legends of the Wulin, which is absolutely amazing.

The big one I haven't played yet is GURPS.  If anyone is starting a learner-friendly GURPS game in the state of Alabama, in the United States, do let me know.

Anyways.  I mostly play system games online using Roleplay Online (rpol.net).  It's a pretty flexible medium.  If you have a different site that's your favorite, give a holler-- I might go over there and stalk you.


That's enough about me, at least as an opener.  Let's talk about you guys!  If you could say one thing to your past self, just before you joined this forum, what would it be?