These items are particularly useful to characters with certain skills and class abilities.
Table: Tools and Skill Kits
| Clothing | Cost | Weight |
| Abacus | 2 gp | 2 lbs. |
| Alchemist's lab | 200 gp | 40 lbs. |
| Alchemy crafting kit | 25 gp | 50 lbs. |
| Antidote kit | 100 gp | 3 lbs. |
| Anvil | 5 gp | 10–100 lbs. |
| Artisan's tools, common | 5 gp | 5 lbs. |
| Artisan's tools, masterwork | 55 gp | 5 lbs. |
| Balancing pole | 8 sp | 12 lbs. |
| Bear trap | 2 gp | 10 lbs. |
| Bellows | 1 gp | 3 lbs. |
| Climber's kit | 80 gp | 5 lbs.* |
| Disguise kit | 50 gp | 8 lbs.* |
| Footprint book | 50 gp | 3 lbs. |
| Forger's Kit | 200 gp | 6 lbs. |
| Formula book | 15 gp | 3 lbs. |
| Fortune-teller's deck, common | 1 gp | 1/2 lb. |
| Fortune-teller's deck, quality | 25 gp | 1 lb. |
| Fortune-teller's deck, masterwork | 50 gp | 1 lb. |
| Healer's kit | 50 gp | 1 lb. |
| Juggler's kit | 15 gp | 10 lbs.* |
| Leeching kit | 5 gp | 5 lbs. |
| Mapmaker's kit | 10 gp | 2 lbs. |
| Masterwork tool | 50 gp | 1 lb. |
| Merchant's scale | 2 gp | 1 lb. |
| Midwife's kit | 10 gp | 2 lbs. |
| Musical instrument, common | 5 gp | 3 lbs.* |
| Musical instrument, masterwork | 100 gp | 3 lbs.* |
| Parasol | 1 gp | 2 lbs. |
| Parasol (umbrella) | 2 gp | 3 lbs. |
| Portable alchemist's lab | 75 gp | 20 lbs. |
| Portable altar | 250 gp | 40 lbs. |
| Portrait book | 10 gp | 3 lbs. |
| Spell component pouch | 5 gp | 2 lbs. |
| Spellbook | 15 gp | 3 lbs. |
| Stretcher | 1 gp | 10 lbs. |
| Surgeon's tools | 20 gp | 5 lbs.* |
| Symptom kit | 25 gp | 5 lbs. |
| Thieves' tools, common | 30 gp | 1 lb. |
| Thieves' tools, masterwork | 100 gp | 2 lbs. |
| Traveling formula book | 10 gp | 1 lb. |
| Traveling spellbook | 10 gp | 1 lb. |
| Veterinarian's kit | 10 gp | 20 lbs. |
*These items weigh one-quarter this amount when made for Small characters.
Abacus: This device helps you perform mathematical calculations.
Alchemist's Lab: This lab is used for making alchemical items, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks. It has no bearing on the costs related to the Craft (alchemy) skill. Without this lab, a character with the Craft (alchemy) skill is assumed to have enough tools to use the skill but not enough to get the +2 bonus that the lab provides.
Alchemy Crafting Kit: An alchemist with an alchemy crafting kit is assumed to have all the material components needed for his extracts, mutagens, and bombs, except for those components that have a specific cost. An alchemy crafting kit provides no bonuses on Craft (alchemy) checks. (This item was called an “alchemist's kit” in the Advanced Player's Guide, and was renamed to avoid confusion with this book's pre-selected set of adventuring gear called an “alchemist's kit.”)
Antidote Kit: This small box contains a wide variety of remedies and treatments against not only specific poisons but also their most common methods of delivery, including such things as purgatives to eliminate ingested toxins. It grants a +3 circumstance bonus on Heal checks made to treat poison. An antidote kit is exhausted after 10 uses.
Anvil: While anvil sizes vary depending on the type of smithing for which they are used, all anvils have the same basic shape and construction. Blacksmith anvils are much heavier and larger (100 pounds) than farrier anvils (50 pounds), which in turn are much bigger than silver- or goldsmith anvils (10 pounds). Many metalworking tasks are impossible without the proper anvil.
Artisan's Tools: These special tools include the items needed to pursue any single craft. Without them, you have to use improvised tools (–2 penalty on Craft checks), if you can do the job at all.
Masterwork Artisan's Tools: These tools serve the same purpose as artisan's tools, but masterwork artisan's tools are the perfect tools for the job, so you get a +2 circumstance bonus on Craft checks made with them.
Balancing Pole: This flexible pole can be anywhere from 15 to 30 feet in length. When used properly, it helps you keep your balance when crossing narrow walkways. Using a balancing pole grants you a +1 circumstance bonus on Acrobatics checks made to traverse a narrow surface.
Bear Trap: Although intended for trapping large animals, bear traps work as well for trapping humanoids or monsters. The hinged jaws of the trap are attached to a chain, which in turn is secured to a spike driven into the ground to ensure that the victim cannot simply crawl away. Prying open the jaws or pulling the spike from the ground requires a DC 20 Strength check.
| Bear Trap | CR 1 |
|---|---|
| Type mechanical; Perception DC 15; Disable Device DC 20 | |
| Effects | |
| Trigger location; Reset manual | |
| Effect Atk +10 melee (2d6+3); sharp jaws spring shut around the creature's ankle and halve the creature's base speed (or hold the creature immobile if the trap is attached to a solid object); the creature can escape with a DC 20 Disable Device check, DC 22 Escape Artist check, or DC 26 Strength check. | |
Bellows: Bellows are useful for starting fires, providing a +1 circumstance bonus on Survival checks to start or maintain fires.
Climber's Kit: These crampons, pitons, ropes, and other tools give you a +2 circumstance bonus on Climb checks.
Disguise Kit: This kit contains tools like makeup and fake facial hair, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on Disguise checks. A disguise kit is exhausted after 10 uses.
Footprint Book: This 50-page tome contains accurate drawings of common animal, humanoid, and monster tracks, as well as notes on stride length, tread depth, and similarly useful information. The book gives you a +2 circumstance bonus to identify a creature by its tracks, though the use of shoes makes identifying many humanoids difficult or impossible. Though the book can't help you identify unique individuals, it can help you tell an ogre's footprint from a troll's footprint, or an elf's track from an orc's. Books sold in different areas may have different footprints, depending on what creatures are common to that location.
Forger's Kit: These inks, pens, papers, templates for certificates, and tools for modifying or copying official seals facilitates the creation of counterfeit documents. It grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Linguistic checks made for the purpose of making forgeries.
Formula Book: A formula book has 100 pages of parchment, and each alchemical extract formula takes up one page per extract level. A newly purchased formula book contains no extract formulas. An alchemist character begins play with a formula book containing the extract formulae he knows. This is the alchemist equivalent of a spellbook for wizards (a spellbook and a formula book are essentially the same item).
Fortune-Teller's Deck: This deck of illustrated cards is used by those in tune with the spirit world to predict the future—and by charlatans to take money from the gullible. A common deck only has simple drawings on simple wooden plaques. A quality fortune-teller's deck usually consists of wooden plaques with painted color images; it is suitable as a focus for the augury spell, and provides a +1 circumstance bonus on Profession (fortune-teller), Profession (medium), and similar Profession checks. A masterwork fortune-teller's deck may be wood, ivory, or even metal, with painted or carved images, and is often highlighted with gold inlays or tiny gems; it has all the benefits of a quality deck, except it provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the listed skill checks.
Healer's Kit: This collection of bandages and herbs provides a +2 circumstance bonus on Heal checks. A healer's kit is exhausted after 10 uses.
Juggler's Kit: This kit includes multiple sets of well-balanced objects, such as balls, clubs, knives, rings, and torches. It provides a +1 bonus on Perform (act or comedy) checks and checks involving juggling.
Leeching Kit: This sturdy ceramic jar has a heavy lid with a few tiny holes to let air in. It is normally half-filled with water and contains four adult leeches, each about 6 inches long. A leeching kit grants you a +2 circumstance bonus on Heal checks to treat poison. Used for medicinal bloodletting, a leech can survive for 6 months between feedings.
Mapmaker's Kit: This small kit contains a simple slate with a grid carved into its surface and a number of differently colored pieces of chalk. If you use this kit to draw a map as you travel, you receive a +2 circumstance bonus on Survival skill checks to avoid becoming lost.
Masterwork Tool: This tool is perfect for its intended job. It grants a +2 circumstance bonus on a related skill check (if any). The bonuses provided by multiple masterwork items do not stack.
Several common items already count as masterwork tools for particular skills. These are the alchemist's lab, climber's kit, disguise kit, healer's kit, masterwork musical instrument, and masterwork thieves' tools. Therefore, there is no masterwork climber's kit, masterwork healer's kit, and so on—those items are already the best available for general checks with the relevant skill.
Some skills have no appropriate tool or masterwork tool—no nonmagical item exists that grants a bonus for all uses of that skill. For example, just because a certain perfume is favored by local nobles (granting a +2 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks to influence them) doesn't mean that perfume has the same effect on a member of the thieves' guild, a foreign berserker, or a medusa. Likewise, just because a fake beard woven by dwarves out of the beards of famous dwarves may grant a +2 circumstance bonus on Use Magic Device checks to emulate the dwarven race doesn't mean the beard has any effect on using that skill to activate elven items or paladin items, or to decipher a written spell.
Individual GMs may want to allow masterwork tools for other skills at the listed cost. The circumstance bonus for such a tool should never be more than +2. The tool should either have a limited number of uses (such as the disguise and healer's kits) or only apply to certain aspects of the skill (such as the balancing pole's bonus on Acrobatics checks to traverse a narrow surface or the magnifying glass's bonus on Appraise checks for detailed items).
Merchant's Scale: A merchant's scale is a simple lever on a fulcrum, from which two trays hang. It grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Appraise checks involving items that are valued by weight, including anything made of precious metals.
Midwife's Kit: This kit is used by midwives to care for pregnant women and to deliver babies. Each kit contains herbs to treat common conditions during pregnancy, salves for aches and distended skin, swaddling cloths, a small but sharp knife for cutting an umbilical cord, powder for cleaning the newborn, bandages, a needle, and thread. Using the kit gives you a +4 circumstance bonus on Heal checks when dealing with humanoid pregnancy or birth. You may use it for other kinds pregnant or birthing creatures (such as animals or monstrous humanoids), but it only gives a +2 bonus on such Heal checks. A midwife's kit is exhausted after 10 uses.
Musical Instrument: If you want to perform using a Perform skill associated with a musical instrument (keyboard, percussion, string, or wind), you must have an appropriate musical instrument; otherwise you can't use the skill. The listed cost and weight is for a typical small instrument you could carry by hand, such as a drum, lyre, bell, harp, or flute; larger instruments such as a cello or piano are of course larger and more expensive.
Masterwork Musical Instrument: This high-quality instrument grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Perform checks made to perform with the instrument.
Parasol: This folding umbrella is translucent and not waterproof. It cuts down on the heat from direct sunlight. In very hot conditions where the sun is a factor (such as a desert), it gives you a +1 circumstance bonus on your hourly Fortitude saves against heat, and reduces the damage from a failed save by 1 hit point (minimum 1). It provides insufficient protection in conditions of severe or extreme heat. You must hold a parasol in one hand and use it to shade yourself from the sun. Alternatively, you can hold the parasol and use it to shade another creature of your size or smaller. The listed price is for a simple, functional parasol made of fabric or lacquered paper. A parasol used as a fashion accessory can be far more expensive, depending on the materials used, and can cost from 1 gp to 10 gp.
Umbrella: An umbrella is a heavier, waterproof parasol made of oiled or waxed cloth. It is intended to keep you dry in the rain or snow, but can still protect against sunlight just like a standard parasol.
Portable Alchemist's Lab: This compact version of a full-sized alchemist's lab provides a +1 circumstance bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks.
Portable Altar: Portable altars are typically made of wood and are ornately carved and decorated with the religious iconography of a specific religion. The top of the altar lifts up, and items such as candles, incense, and oil can be stored within. These altars are modest, but give traveling priests a center from which to say their daily prayers, perform minor rituals, or preach to an assembled crowd.
Portrait Book: This 100-page book contains face drawings of male and female dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, halflings, and humans. By selecting an appropriate drawing and adding hair, a beard, or other small features such as moles or scars, even a poor artist can quickly create a reasonable likeness of a specific person—for example, an inquisitor making wanted posters of a half-elven witch.
Spell Component Pouch: A spellcaster with a spell component pouch is assumed to have all the material components and focuses needed for spellcasting, except for components that have a specific cost, divine focuses, and focuses that wouldn't fit in a pouch. Most spell component pouches are waterproof and can be strung onto a belt or bandolier.
Spellbook: A spellbook has 100 pages of parchment, and each spell takes up one page per spell level (one page each for 0-level spells). A newly purchased spellbook contains no spells. A wizard character begins play with a spellbook containing the spells he knows (Core Rulebook 79).
Stretcher: A stretcher allows two people to share the burden of carrying one heavy object. You can also use it to drag a load you couldn't carry on your own. A stretcher holds up to 300 pounds.
Surgeon's Tools: When used in conjunction with a healer's kit, surgeon's tools raise the kit's bonus to a +3 circumstance bonus on Heal checks to treat wounds or deadly wounds.
Symptom Kit: This small wooden box has many tiny compartments filled with items useful if you want to feign a sickness, as well as a handy reference book outlining common indicators for some of the more feared virulent diseases. The kit includes such things as false pustules, pills that cause the person chewing them to foam at the mouth, and herbal concoctions designed to induce fevers or vomiting. Using a symptom kit grants you a +5 circumstances bonus on Disguise checks made for the purpose of simulating illness. A symptom kit is exhausted after 10 uses.
Thieves' Tools: This kit contains lockpicks and other tools you need to use the Disable Device skill. Without these tools, you must use improvised tools, and you take a –2 circumstance penalty on Disable Device checks.
Masterwork Thieves' Tools: This kit contains extra tools and tools of better make, which grant a +2 circumstance bonus on Disable Device checks.
Traveling Formula Book: This is the alchemist equivalent of a traveling spellbook for wizards (a traveling formula book and a traveling spellbook are essentially the same item).
Traveling Spellbook: A traveling spellbook is less cumbersome than a normal one, but holds fewer spells. It has 50 pages. Some wizards prefer to travel with a smaller spellbook, omitting specialized spells that are rarely used on adventures. Others hide a traveling spellbook containing their most important spells, just in case.
Veterinarian's Kit: This item is the equivalent of a healer's kit, except its materials are especially suitable for treating common animals (cats, dogs, goats, oxen, sheep, and so on). It provides a +3 circumstance bonus on Heal checks to treat animals, but only a +1 circumstance bonus on Heal checks on other creatures. A veterinarian's kit is exhausted after 10 uses.