What would be a good birthday present for a nobleman and crime boss?

[Coidzor]

He's fairly wealthy and well-connected. He basically controls or influences all of the crime in the small city near his feudal holdings and is involved in legitimate trade as an investor and I believe owns a small personal fleet of trading vessels personally.

He's Lawful Evil, a Half-Elf from a line of Half-Elves.

The country is predominantly Lawful Good and has a relatively low number of Wizards, but there are some crafting wizards out there as well as some amount of adventuring uncovering lost/ancient magic items, so he'd probably have been able to get his hands on magic items that would be able to be cheaply and relatively quickly commissioned or doesn't cost that much and isn't directly useful to an adventurer.

He's an ally to the party, and the party is able to basically make any Alchemical item and has Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wand, Scribe Scroll, and Brew Potion item creation feats.

He doesn't appear to have any particular rivals or enemies in the local area, so there's no one that really seems like a good fit for killing and then serving their head on a platter to him.

I've got a budget of about 7K for what it would cost us to make and/or buy it.

Edit: We're currently Level 8 and playing Pathfinder, should have provided that as context initially.

We also have some skill with tailoring.

[DeTess]

How much Paladins can regularly be found in the setting? Given that he seems to be a bit of an odd duck, alignment wise, an lead sheet amulet of 'Undetectable alignment' might be appreciated.

[Gildedragon]

There's a dragonscale item in dragon magic iirc that's made from a river or ocean dragon scale, it helps with navigation, makes ships tougher amd less likely to capcise
Edit: Okimono of the Sea Dragon

A set of beholder daggers

Edit: A false persona is better than an undetectable alignment item. It misleads quite thoroughly

[noob]

Does he have a ring of intelligence +N?
It gives him faster learning which is nice.
If he do have N and not N+2 and that you are ready to spend the money for a N+2 you might give him a new ring.
But watch out the fact it is a ring might be interpreted weirdly due to the associations between rings and engagement.

[Hackulator]

Cloak of the Diplomat is an incredibly useful item for non-combat power players ie nobles/politicians/other power brokers.

[Baby Gary]

hes LE omg I know what to get him...an arrow to the face (or 10 or 100...).

*reads 'he's an ally to the party'*

get him an item to help with political stuff (ie masterwork tool of diplomacy, and other stuff I can't think of right now)

[TheIronGolem]

Does it have to be a magic item? A wealthy noble is likely to appreciate things like artwork or jewelry - preferably something exotic that's hard for most people to get hold of. For something more practical, the deed to a plot of land or a building could be great, too. Or you could arrange for him to receive a more prestigious title of nobility?

[Coidzor]

Does it have to be a magic item? A wealthy noble is likely to appreciate things like artwork or jewelry - preferably something exotic that's hard for most people to get hold of. For something more practical, the deed to a plot of land or a building could be great, too. Or you could arrange for him to receive a more prestigious title of nobility?

It doesn't have to be a magic item. Magic items is just one of the things we can do.

I just recalled that one of us has tailor abilities, but I don't think we'll be able to whip up any art or jewelry or commission it in a week or so. Could make him a nice deathtrap in his personal study, I suppose, too.

Land definitely isn't something we can do for him, at least not in quantities above insulting(at least with such short notice). We did get him the deed to a smithy recently, though, but we had already looked its stock, though we left the raw material and tools intact and undisturbed.

Edit: Not really a way for us to arrange him to get another title to anything at this point in time, but that is a promise for him in the future as part of the deal for him helping us.

[Gildedragon]

a single +1 Warning, Initiative, Morphing Shuriken.
Morph into a poison ring.
It is a wonderful gift that lets them not be caught flatfooted when things go south.

[Coidzor]

Cloak of the Diplomat is an incredibly useful item for non-combat power players ie nobles/politicians/other power brokers.

That does seem like a very nice item, I will definitely consider that, thank you. :smallbiggrin:


Does he have a ring of intelligence +N?
It gives him faster learning which is nice.
If he do have N and not N+2 and that you are ready to spend the money for a N+2 you might give him a new ring.
But watch out the fact it is a ring might be interpreted weirdly due to the associations between rings and engagement.

Faster learning? What's this now? The Int boosting items I'm aware of are largely head-slot items or Ioun Stones. :smallconfused:


There's a dragonscale item in dragon magic iirc that's made from a river or ocean dragon scale, it helps with navigation, makes ships tougher amd less likely to capcise
Edit: Okimono of the Sea Dragon

A set of beholder daggers

Edit: A false persona is better than an undetectable alignment item. It misleads quite thoroughly

What are beholder daggers?

And what's this about false personas or a False Persona spell? The only thing I could find with a quick search was these Pathfinder rules. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/masked-personas/)


How much Paladins can regularly be found in the setting? Given that he seems to be a bit of an odd duck, alignment wise, an lead sheet amulet of 'Undetectable alignment' might be appreciated.

I believe he's already got that taken care of, since Paladins and LG/NG Clerics are more common than usual in this area.

We have a ring of mind shielding that we could gift to him, I suppose, come to think of it.


a single +1 Warning, Initiative, Morphing Shuriken.
Morph into a poison ring.
It is a wonderful gift that lets them not be caught flatfooted when things go south.

Yeah, that would be pretty nice. Not sure if I can replicate it in Pathfinder, though.

[noob]

That does seem like a very nice item, I will definitely consider that, thank you. :smallbiggrin:



Faster learning? What's this now? The Int boosting items I'm aware of are largely head-slot items or Ioun Stones. :smallconfused:



What are beholder daggers?

And what's this about false personas or a False Persona spell? The only thing I could find with a quick search was these Pathfinder rules. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/masked-personas/)



I believe he's already got that taken care of, since Paladins and LG/NG Clerics are more common than usual in this area.

We have a ring of mind shielding that we could gift to him, I suppose, come to think of it.



Yeah, that would be pretty nice. Not sure if I can replicate it in Pathfinder, though.

Forgot that headbands did get retroactive skill gains.
So I guess you can give him a headband of intellect +N

[Gildedragon]

Oh damn. Pathfinder.
Beholder daggers are a 3.5 object: eight eyestalk-like daggers inside a round sheath. One can use the central "eye" to see through any of the daggers' pommel stones
they're in Dragon Compendium (which is all paizo stuff so porting it forward ought'n't be too outrageous)

And false personas are from Eberron. They make divination give a wrong predetermined result (as if one was someone else)

[Coidzor]

So far the only other specific ideas I've had would be to give him an item of Raiment of Command (www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/r/raiment-of-command/), to give him a supply of gunpowder, which is fairly exotic/rare in the area; or to make a chest out of magically created obsidian using Stone Shape and then using mundane crafting to add around 600-800 gp of value in refinement and ornamentation.

We've got a large supply of Unholy Water, and the ability to make vast quantities of it, so I suppose under the table we might see about non-publicly giving him a nice supply to have on hand to give any unwanted celestials a nice shower. Which could tie in with the trap-making capabilities we possess, come to think of it.

[stanprollyright]

Go out and capture him a rare monster.

A Candle of Invocation.

A Whistle of Calling (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/r-z/whistle-of-calling/), bonded to you instead of an animal, with an IOU for one free rescue

[DeTess]

We've got a large supply of Unholy Water, and the ability to make vast quantities of it, so I suppose under the table we might see about non-publicly giving him a nice supply to have on hand to give any unwanted celestials a nice shower. Which could tie in with the trap-making capabilities we possess, come to think of it.

You might offer to 'adventurer-proof' his castle, since your group has these trap-making capabilities.

[Sayt]

Monogrammed towels, obviously.

[Pex]

Use a non-magical disguise kit just enough so that people won't recognize him on the street and treat him to a day and night on the town doing normal things freed from cares of business, politics, and identity.