[3.5] My level 1 party has 8 ounces of sovereign glue

[Myou]

So in a fit of generosity I decided to respond to my player's dissatisfaction at the lack of loot dropped by zombies, spiders and eldritch abominations, and gave them a wealth of various items after the last fight. They're level 1, but now have a Lantan-made glue-gun that applies sovereign glue as a standard action, keeps the glue fresh automatically and holds 8 ounces.

Their first reaction was to want to sell it. It's worth about 25,000 gold. :smallannoyed:
This is why I don't give them more loot.
They already have 250gp each at the end of level 1, what more could they want?! >:C

But after convincing them that they wouldn't get that much due to the specialist nature of the item, they have decided to keep it.

What kind of inventive, interesting uses could this item be put to? :smallsmile:

[Gavinfoxx]

They're adventurers. Their job is to go into hideously dark places, kill whatever is in their, take the things those things had, and get back alive and in one piece What the hell do they need a gluegun for? seriously! Why didn't you expect them to sell it for the first person who would give them a non insulting price, and use that for actual equipment??

Let them sell it for like 4K GP or something and split the proceeds amongst the party. Seriously.

[Flemkopf]

When they're being chased by enemies they can run through an open (very sturdy) door, close the door and have the Barbarian/Fighter/Strong Guy hold it closed while someone else uses the glue gun around the edges to stop the pursuers. Suddenly they have an effective way to get out when encounters go wrong. (Just be careful when your players start carrying around custom adamantine plates to seal up hallways with.)

[Myou]

They're adventurers. Their job is to go into hideously dark places, kill whatever is in their, take the things those things had, and get back alive and in one piece What the hell do they need a gluegun for? seriously! Why didn't you expect them to sell it for the first person who would give them a non insulting price, and use that for actual equipment??

Let them sell it for like 4K GP or something and split the proceeds amongst the party. Seriously.

Very exciting. :smallsigh:

I wouldn't expect them to sell it because when I get items like this I like to put them to use.
If they decide to sell it then sure they'll get some gold, I never said they couldn't sell it, just not for 25k. What I'm asking is what ways it could be used given that they plan to keep it.

[Jack_Simth]

What kind of inventive, interesting uses could this item be put to? :smallsmile:Quite a few, but most of them would need to be 'on the spot' uses - locking a door for good, gumming up a trap, making sure a particular lever never moves, and so on.

[Madara]

Very exciting. :smallsigh:

I wouldn't expect them to sell it because when I get items like this I like to put them to use.
If they decide to sell it then sure they'll get some gold, I never said they couldn't sell it, just not for 25k. What I'm asking is what ways it could be used given that they plan to keep it.

Yeah...what you would do and what your players will do are two different things. Plus if you give them the ideas, that will take away from the cool creative moments they might have. Just be open to their ideas, and let yourself be surprised.

[Flemkopf]

They can also start gluing hand-holds onto "unclimable" walls.

[Myou]

Yeah...what you would do and what your players will do are two different things. Plus if you give them the ideas, that will take away from the cool creative moments they might have. Just be open to their ideas, and let yourself be surprised.

I'm not planning on showing them this thread, I'm planning on using the ideas here to come up with scenarios where they might think to use it.

I want to introduce situations where they could use it, not tell them how to.

[Epsilon Rose]

Very exciting. :smallsigh:

I wouldn't expect them to sell it because when I get items like this I like to put them to use.
If they decide to sell it then sure they'll get some gold, I never said they couldn't sell it, just not for 25k. What I'm asking is what ways it could be used given that they plan to keep it.

Out of curiosity, when these items fall into your possession, do you normally already have good equipment?
See, I'm the same way, I don't like selling rare gear, and I'll go out of my way to get that kind of stuff, but, and this is big, I make sure I'm properly equipped before hand, so I don't need to sell it. You said they were complaining about a lack of loot (and fighting eldritch abominations at lv1?), so they might want to sell something like that so they can get stuff that will give them better odds of survival in more situations. I think you'll find that they'll be more willing to keep neat gewgaws once they've gotten to higher levels and equipped themselves better, both because they're less likely to die if they don't get better gear (or, quite possibly, already have the gear they want) and because there's simply more they can do with it.

[nedz]

Rogue sneaks up to a *B*I*G* monster and glues one of its feet to the ground.

[Oscredwin]

This glue gun, if used carefully, can give them a large edge in 8 encounters. Selling it for 12k can get each of them a +1 weapon and a +1 armor (or a wand or metamagic rod for a caster). This would give them an edge for the next 30 fights or so (putting them about level 3 WBL).

Most of a characters WBL should be spend on weapons, armor, etc. If you're doing it right the cool stuff (glue guns, bag of tricks, etc) will take up most of the attention.

[Flemkopf]

Rogue sneaks up to a *B*I*G* monster and glues one of its feet to the ground.

[Laughs] Don't forget about sneaking up to the enemy wizard and gluing his spell component pouch, fingers and/or mouth. (If you can keep him still for the one round it takes to set.) The big enemy caster is now a glorified commoner.:smallbiggrin:

[ericgrau]

You have to hold the two objects together for 1 round which negates most of the combat uses. Well first I'd buy some universal solvent. At 50 gp even a level 1 party can pool the money for 1-4 uses and it gives you more options for tricks to pull since some tricks you want to reverse afterwards.

I might carry a big wooden board for blocking off side passages in dungeons. Out in the open if the party got ambushed I'd plant the same board onto the floor and glue for instant cover against range. Against small foes I'd apply the sovereign glue to my hand one round, then charge and grapple the next round. Chances are grappling and melee is not their strong point, and if they fail that first grapple check before the 1 round is up their chance of escape is gone. When transporting prisoners I'd hold their hands tight together behind their back and glue. Maybe the legs too if necessary.

[Roguenewb]

Soverign glue is deliciously hilarious. There are like a trillion uses for it. Glue your hand to the bad guy= Grapeled forever!

[animewatcha]

This is a bit of higher level behavior and plays on everyone's thing of ( don't take monk past x level ).

Glue the monk to the floor. Glue a bunch of wands together that go off on the same command word. Proceed to abracapocalypse to the person playing the important of armor resistance.

[Chronos]

So, you can't think of any uses for it, given that you're posting here to ask us. And you admitted to your players that you can't find any use for it, by telling them they can't sell it for its value due to how specialized it is. And then you're surprised that your players complain about getting useless loot?

[Endarire]

Careful that the group doesn't glue themselves to... themselves. Or each other.

[Voyager_I]

So, you can't think of any uses for it, given that you're posting here to ask us. And you admitted to your players that you can't find any use for it, by telling them they can't sell it for its value due to how specialized it is. And then you're surprised that your players complain about getting useless loot?

I think you're being a little harsh.

He's given them something worth far and away more than they'd normally have access to at their level, with the intent that they could use it to have some clever fun rather than simply breaking the hell out of typical combat encounters.

Of course he's not going to let them cash it straight into magic weapons and armor that they aren't supposed to have for another three levels...though, this is a good lesson for DMs. No matter what it is, if it looks valuable, your players will try to haul it into town and see how much they can hawk it for (in other words, do not have your BBEG lock his treasure in an Adamantine Chest).

[doko239]

This is easily the province of the party rogue. Some examples:

Rogue takes glue-gun and a scrap of cloth. Rogue sneaks up behind caster. Rogue applies glue to cloth, then holds it against caster's mouth for one round, muffling their cries of alarm and letting the glue set.

Rogue takes the glue gun and sneaks up behind the big burly fighter. Rogue then proceeds to glue BBF's sword into its sheath.

Rogue uses sleight of hand to apply glue to the top of a warhammer or some such, then plants it on the ground (glue down) and challenges the big dumb ogre to lift it or become his slave. (requires universal solvent and another sleight of hand check, but WORTH IT! :smallamused:)

Rogues can get a lot of mileage out of something like this.

[RndmNumGen]

This is why I don't give them more loot.
They already have 250gp each at the end of level 1, what more could they want?! >:C


250 gp at the end of level 1? The WBL for level 2 is 1000 gold. I can definitely see why they're crying for more loot if they can't even afford a masterwork weapon yet.

The glue gun, while funny, is severely limited. Sovereign Glue is expensive for what is does, meaning that unless the PCs are high level, it tends to only get used when necessary, not just when it would be practical. Why spend 2,400gp to glue something shut with a 50gp Tanglefoot Bag is almost as effective, if less permanent?

[Myou]

I asked the players what they would get if they just sold the glue for, say, 10k. They said they didn't know. They were not very interested in buying +x weapons or other standard items. They don't even know the WBL values either - and they know I ignore WBL in any case.

Also, RndmNumGen, they are not 'crying out', and most of them actually have +1 weapons as part of their character backstory (all but the wizard, who instead has extra spells at each level).

Epsilon Rose, I never have good equipment. :smalltongue:

Chronos, I can think of uses for it, but the playground can likely think of ones I can not. The players wanted to sell it to farmers and woodsmen, these people do not have 25,000, let alone to spend on glue, and they are the ones I told my players had no use for it. I did not say anything about me being unable to find a use for it. If they sell it for a third of it's value they're still getting a huge amount of gold each, so it certainly isn't useless loot. I suppose when you DM players can just walk to the nearest village to cash in that +5 flaming colossal scythe at full value, hmm? Farmers need scythes after all! :smallamused:


To those people actually making suggestions, thank you, those are some great ideas. I want to try to introduce situations where the players could use this item (if they think of it).

[ChaoticBroth]

When they can actually afford it, let the rogue get some Feather Tokens (Tree). Combined with the glue gun, that feather token is ridiculously effective.

I mean, really. How often do you get to pin someone on top - or below - a tree?

[Rejusu]

Rogue uses sleight of hand to apply glue to the top of a warhammer or some such, then plants it on the ground (glue down) and challenges the big dumb ogre to lift it or become his slave. (requires universal solvent and another sleight of hand check, but WORTH IT! :smallamused:)

You've got to be careful with what you glue it to. Gluing it to bare earth would just result in an uncomfortable situation where the Ogre just wrenches up the hammer with a chunk of dirt on the end. Remember that although the bond is unbreakable the objects you glue together aren't, nor are they immovable. You could glue something to a tree, but all that'd happen is when it's ripped off it'd bring a chunk of bark with it.

[Larkas]

Have the players sell it to a traveling merchant, just to make that merchant return later as a LBEG in a dungeon filled with Sovereign Glue "traps" :smallbiggrin:

On a more serious note, it is a very situational item. It becomes much more useful if the players can set up some ambush, or sneak and pull stuff as described in other posts above. The "string stretched between two trees" trick is much funnier when you get to actually glue bad guys to the floor :smallamused:

Seriously, Portable Hole and Sovereign Glue leaves me thinking if ACME is a Hasbro subsidiary too :smallbiggrin:

[Krotchrot]

I can see a lot of hilarious uses, besides your standard gluing people to chairs.
I like the Glue Trap idea, especially if its over a smattering of caltrops. Another use could be going back to their local city and doing a bit of "Habitat for Humanity" like work. That is if they use Wood primarily for creating houses.

[Rickshaw]

I was playing a Item-creation based alchemist in a campaign with a DM who was super lenient with the rules (because of the total lack of min-maxer's in my group,) and he let me roll to create most of the wonderous items if I could make a case for an alchemist being able to create it.

long story short, Sovereign glue was by far my favorite.

glued a perpetually drunk kobold to the door of the inn we stayed at for a while
glued a everful cup to four wheels of a cart
repaired a friend's +4 sword(broke off the handle) by glueing a rod of wonder to it. (the DM would roll randomly to see if it went off when he swung the sword.)
since everyone was human, and we didnt have any handy monks or wizards to hold torches/cast light, I glued an everburning torch to each spike of our tank's spiked armour, and a big one to the back of his head. this later saved him from a gillotine, because the trap didnt roll high enough to destroy a wonderous Item
glued the main henchman of the BBEG to a hammer sphere, then hammered his tower down with it


it really is the best Item ever for creative, low level parties.

[Darrin]

Lasso (ranged touch attach) + Blister Oil (Races of Stone, cheap Xd4 damage on failed Fort save) + Sovereign Glue = Blister Oil Bomb (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9742205&postcount=2). Your target will eventually roll a "1".