Dominions 3: The Awakening/Items/Items of Air

Explanations

 * DTS - Damage type shock - reduced by shock resistance
 * DTN - Damage type normal
 * AN - Armor Negating
 * SNA - Strength Not Added
 * Effect: Shock - 10 damage to a single target. AN, SNA, DTS

One Handed Weapons

 * Thunder Whip, a weapon purely of the elements. Beware of shock resistant units.
 * Lightning Spear, stronger than it looks, it makes the thunder whip obsolete. It's like two weapons in one- one dinky normal spaer (takes full advantage of your strength) and one free Thunder Whip included. Effect: Shock
 * Star of Thraldom, not only does it cast False Fetters, it is a flail type weapon that ignores shields.

Two Handed Weapons
Ranged:


 * Longbow of Accuracy, above average damage and excellent precision.
 * Thunder Bow, a rare ranged weapon affected by strength.
 * Bow of War, fires 17 arrows all at once.

Melee:


 * Staff of Storms, very versatile. Increases defense, has Effect: Shock, brings stormy weather for air mages to play in as well as hampering missile fire and fliers. Casts Lightning Bolt, an already cheap spell, and makes Corpse Man Construction six times more effective. No particular reason it should be on your mages during combat, though, since it functions fine in a supporting role, and is a little expensive to risk on a 10 hit point, senile weenie.
 * Tempest, a wonderful weapon with high damage, high attack, high defense, and AreaEffect: Shock, which does 8 points of armor negating shock-type damage over an area of 1. If that wasn't enough, it makes you immune to lightning and grants you a cheap Thunder Strike.

Shields
The Weightless Shields both possess less protection and parry than their blacksteel counterparts, and at a greater price. Still, they have a couple points in their favor. Most significantly, zero encumberance makes them useful for mages and supercombatants alike. Thanks to the lack of a defense penalty, they increase the number of shield hits without increasing the total number of hits, whereas blacksteel results in more strikes.

If you can't decide which shield to forge, go with the Tower Shield. A shields' protection only comes into play as often as it's parry value allows. In most cases, the protection difference is insignificant. Armor 15, Shield 15 is still 30, and a human wielding a 10 damage weapon is still at a -10 DRN disadvantage. Armor-piercing/negating or extra strong opponents are another matter...

Helmets

 * Winged Helmet, it boosts air by one. Not much to say about it.
 * Spirit Helmet, it casts lightning bolts. I'm unclear on the details.

Armor

 * Robe of Missile Protection is great for never-see-melee spellcasters, especially ones with encumbering armor by default. You'll see less fatigue and suffer fewer casulties due to pesky archers or Blade Wind.
 * Lightweight Scale Mail, not the most exciting armor ever, but cheap enough to be useful for thugs, especially in the early age or high hit point giants with skimpy leather armor. Or, combat spellcasters who've got a little too much encumberance on their hands.
 * Weightless Scale Mail, only a small advantage over Lightweight Scale Mail, but twice the cost. Good for supercombatants, however, who need to watch every point of encumberance.
 * Copper Plate, duplicates the deadly effect of charge body, but is kind enough to give you the 100% SR necessary to avoid suicide. The one-shot part might be a disappointment, but 20 points of armor negating damage will take care of many assassins and other thugs. Cheap enough to spam, as well.
 * Chain Mail of Displacement, is little more than its stats suggest. Still, it is a nice piece of armor, benefiting you rather than penalizing you. When you're depending on not getting hit, this is excellent.

Boots

 * Chi Shoes (5) allow you to deliver one kick a round of combat. Better be strong to kick that tin can. On the plus side, every attack does decrease defense, and you needn't be strong to kill a skeleton.
 * Winged Shoes (10) allow you to fly on the strategic and battle map. What's not to love? If your star mages/thugs have air paths, its a bit redundant though. Great for getting a rare mage around to wherever they are needed, though.

Miscellaneous

 * Ring of Tamed Lightning (5) grants you 100% shock resist.
 * Ring of Warning (5) helps prevent assassinations by allowing you 10 bodyguards.
 * Owl Quill helps (5) helps with research (+3 bonus)
 * Eye of Aiming (5) increases your precision, but at the cost of an infliction- losing an eye. It's cursed as well. Don't give to anyone likely to see close combat, you'll incur attack and defense penalties. Don't give it to any one-eyed creature as well. I'm looking at you, Fomoria. Beware 'Vision's Foe'.
 * Amulet of Missile Protection (10) is more expensive, but it does free up your armor slot for very specialized builds.
 * Amulet of Breathing (10)
 * Pills of Water Breathing
 * Dancing Trident
 * Wall Shaker
 * Bag of Winds
 * Flying Carpet
 * Barrel of Air
 * The Flying Ship