Treasures to share; advice needed

[Malapterus]

So I am starting my game by allowing my level 10 players to pick from a selection of treasures the queen has collected over the centuries. They will select based on a visual description and not know what they do. I'd like an opinion on some of them to see if they are too powerful.

+5 returning vorpal dagger - I understand that this is technically an epic weapon at +11, but it's also just a dagger. Vorpal is unreliable and the player is unlikely to know about the property for some time - and no, they are not allowed to sell it. It is on loan. Yes, I know a dagger is technically piercing but I do not care.

+2 adamantine scythe. Ignores 100% of hardness. Weapon damage is maximized against objects, constructs, and nonsentient undead.

+2 tanto - basically a masterwork slashing dagger with a better crit. Blade is made of one of those special ices from Frostburn (not stygian) magically treated so it will not break or melt. When unsheathed in temperatures above freezing, it gives off copious amounts of a thick foggy mist, obscuring sight and scent in a growing radius.

Bag of several +1 daggers. These daggers are somewhat alive, and can crawl around like inchworms or leap about ten feet. They follow verbal orders from their master and are usually smart enough to figure out a task without step by step instructions. If thrown, they will crawl back to their bag, but this takes a while.

Quiver full of +1 throwing returning silvered longswords. Swords drawn from the quiver are replaced instantly; swords released by the owner disappear after a minute. Belonged to a guy who hated werewolves and loved throwing swords.

A book bound in the rough hide of some monster, decorated with bits of claw and fang and horn, with a single living, expressive, orange reptilian eye in the middle. The book's pages contain information on almost every known creature, and the user can roll something to find the page for any monster they have seen or heard described. The monster's page contains its name, type, and possibly one or more relevant factoids.

A +1 glaive with a glassteel crescent moon shaped blade. The staff is spell-storing and can try to 'catch' spells if it has room for them. If held up to the full moon, it erases its contents and charges up with a pre-set selection of light/radiant/healing spells.

[Mike Miller]

So I am starting my game by allowing my level 10 players to pick from a selection of treasures the queen has collected over the centuries. They will select based on a visual description and not know what they do. I'd like an opinion on some of them to see if they are too powerful.

+5 returning vorpal dagger - I understand that this is technically an epic weapon at +11, but it's also just a dagger. Vorpal is unreliable and the player is unlikely to know about the property for some time - and no, they are not allowed to sell it. It is on loan. Yes, I know a dagger is technically piercing but I do not care.

I emphasized that because identify is a level 1 spell. Will you somehow prevent them from simply identifying all these? There are plenty of other means to identify magic items, too. A party of level 10 PCs should have multiple methods of learning what items are.

[Deophaun]

+5 returning vorpal dagger - I understand that this is technically an epic weapon at +11, but it's also just a dagger. Vorpal is unreliable and the player is unlikely to know about the property for some time - and no, they are not allowed to sell it. It is on loan. Yes, I know a dagger is technically piercing but I do not care.Daggers are both slashing and piercing. Vorpal is thus legitimate. The weapon is just boring with no synergy between the enhancements. (Vorpal wants you rolling lots of attacks. Returning essentially limits you to 1/round. And what's with the "just a dagger" remark?)

And being on loan means no one should bother upgrading these weapons, turning them into vendor trash that you cannot vendor.

+2 adamantine scythe. Ignores 100% of hardness. Weapon damage is maximized against objects, constructs, and nonsentient undead.That is all hardness, regardless if it's above 20 or not, correct? That's useful, though as it encourages slicing through walls, you may regret it. Especially if they figure out how to increase its size.

+2 tanto - basically a masterwork slashing dagger with a better crit. Blade is made of one of those special ices from Frostburn (not stygian) magically treated so it will not break or melt. When unsheathed in temperatures above freezing, it gives off copious amounts of a thick foggy mist, obscuring sight and scent in a growing radius.
Dagger with flavored smoking enhancement. Useful.

Bag of several +1 daggers. These daggers are somewhat alive, and can crawl around like inchworms or leap about ten feet. They follow verbal orders from their master and are usually smart enough to figure out a task without step by step instructions. If thrown, they will crawl back to their bag, but this takes a while.
Cool fluff. Why are so many of these weapons daggers?

Quiver full of +1 throwing returning silvered longswords. Swords drawn from the quiver are replaced instantly; swords released by the owner disappear after a minute. Belonged to a guy who hated werewolves and loved throwing swords.
And that makes three throwing weapons. The Queen does not like variety. But very much better than the bag of daggers. Anyone who takes the bag over this is a chump. Yes, the daggers can crawl on their own and do tasks, but a collar of perpetual attendance is only 2k.

A book bound in the rough hide of some monster, decorated with bits of claw and fang and horn, with a single living, expressive, orange reptilian eye in the middle. The book's pages contain information on almost every known creature, and the user can roll something to find the page for any monster they have seen or heard described. The monster's page contains its name, type, and possibly one or more relevant factoids.
Basically an inferior version of anyone who has invested in knowledge skills--this has to be in your hands and presumably will take an action to consult and you primarily want to know about the monster that's currently trying to eat your face off--yet an odd book is exactly what someone who has invested in knowledge skills would go for. Trap.

A +1 glaive with a glassteel crescent moon shaped blade. The staff is spell-storing and can try to 'catch' spells if it has room for them. If held up to the full moon, it erases its contents and charges up with a pre-set selection of light/radiant/healing spells.
It's not a dagger, it's not throwing, is practical, and has neat fluff. I like.

[Gnaeus]

More than all being throwing daggers, they are basically all melee weapons except the trap book.

If you know your party has a bunch of guys who want sharp sticks, that’s not painful. But a level 10 wizard couldn’t care less about any of those things but the spell storing Glaive which he won’t pick. Are there any of those an archer would want? Or a Druid? Or a chain tripper?

Maybe that’s on purpose to nerf casters. But I’d be sorta annoyed if you gave me a pick from a bag of stuff all useful to other people. Maybe a ring or wand or cloak or something else?

[Malapterus]

I emphasized that because identify is a level 1 spell. Will you somehow prevent them from simply identifying all these? There are plenty of other means to identify magic items, too. A party of level 10 PCs should have multiple methods of learning what items are.

The items are in the Queen's trophy room behind a very over-engineered glass wall. Casting spells in there is not allowed & they don't get to handle the item before taking it. They just point it, then the room's golem moves the wall and they get it. I suppose the could Identify it later, and if they do, I don't really care, but it will be fun if they don't.


Daggers are both slashing and piercing. Vorpal is thus legitimate. The weapon is just boring with no synergy between the enhancements. (Vorpal wants you rolling lots of attacks. Returning essentially limits you to 1/round. And what's with the "just a dagger" remark?)

Daggers are not the fiercest of weapons. 1d4 damage is not that great for a weapon that only works if you score a natural 20; I mean I'd assume I'd want my vorpal to be a greatsword so I do a lot of damage anyway or a shortsword so I can spam attacks or something. I guess I am saying +5 seems odd to put on any 1d4 simple weapon.


And being on loan means no one should bother upgrading these weapons, turning them into vendor trash that you cannot vendor.

They are allowed to upgrade them, but not sell them. Keep in mind these aren't mercenaries; these are proud citizens on a mission from the queen, so their goal is duty over treasure. Also, the queen is giving them a bunch of money to start out with, since this is a sanctioned mission and all.



That is all hardness, regardless if it's above 20 or not, correct? That's useful, though as it encourages slicing through walls, you may regret it. Especially if they figure out how to increase its size.

Yeah I worried about them slicing up walls. Maybe I should get rid of the adamantine and give the maximized damage vs inorganic/ignore all hardness a use-per-day limit.


Dagger with flavored smoking enhancement. Useful.

Thanks! It's the first one I thought of, I think the ice is Rimefire or something. Need to look it up.


Cool fluff. Why are so many of these weapons daggers?

I haven't got them all written down in one place before so I think I just move on to the next one that the last one makes me think of.


And that makes three throwing weapons. The Queen does not like variety. But very much better than the bag of daggers. Anyone who takes the bag over this is a chump. Yes, the daggers can crawl on their own and do tasks, but a collar of perpetual attendance is only 2k.

I think the daggers are better for a rogue; throwing swords is kind of a build commitment. I don't think the sword quiver is all that great.

Also, the collar of perpetual attendance is too small to fit any of my allowed races.


Basically an inferior version of anyone who has invested in knowledge skills--this has to be in your hands and presumably will take an action to consult and you primarily want to know about the monster that's currently trying to eat your face off--yet an odd book is exactly what someone who has invested in knowledge skills would go for. Trap.

I'll be dredging up monsters all the way from the SRD to Drow of the Underdark to whatever book starts with Z. I feel like it would take a lot of specific knowledge skills to cover all that, so if someone has the book they can be "Oh, that's a Rampager, don't let it touch you."


It's not a dagger, it's not throwing, is practical, and has neat fluff. I like.

Also, if they return it to the place where the queen 'obtained' it, the Moon Goddess will lift the curse she put on the civilization it was, uh, 'borrowed' from!


More than all being throwing daggers, they are basically all melee weapons except the trap book.

If you know your party has a bunch of guys who want sharp sticks, that’s not painful. But a level 10 wizard couldn’t care less about any of those things but the spell storing Glaive which he won’t pick. Are there any of those an archer would want? Or a Druid? Or a chain tripper?

Maybe that’s on purpose to nerf casters. But I’d be sorta annoyed if you gave me a pick from a bag of stuff all useful to other people. Maybe a ring or wand or cloak or something else?

I got a little tired, there's more! I was over-ambitious. More coming up!

[Deophaun]

Daggers are not the fiercest of weapons. 1d4 damage is not that great for a weapon that only works if you score a natural 20; I mean I'd assume I'd want my vorpal to be a greatsword so I do a lot of damage anyway or a shortsword so I can spam attacks or something. I guess I am saying +5 seems odd to put on any 1d4 simple weapon.
Weapon damage die isn't important unless you're looking to go for a greater mighty wallop build or something similar. What is important is the class: light weapons cannot be used with PA, non-light weapons cannot, generally, be finessed. Daggers and short swords are both light weapons, and I'd argue the dagger is superior simply because a short sword is piercing only. They're both equally capable of delivering sneak attack damage.

For vorpal, all that matters is "did you roll a nat 20." And if you want to, TWF with two vorpal daggers, with Combat Reflexes, Double Hit and Robilars gambit, can make an every-other-round occurrence. It's an investment and not optimal, but it can work.

They are allowed to upgrade them, but not sell them. Keep in mind these aren't mercenaries; these are proud citizens on a mission from the queen, so their goal is duty over treasure. Also, the queen is giving them a bunch of money to start out with, since this is a sanctioned mission and all.
Basically, they are their weapons. OK. That makes it better. I would recommend easing off on the +s, though. That increases the cost of improvement and can be easily replaced by greater magic weapon.

Of course, if your group never thinks to do that...

Yeah I worried about them slicing up walls. Maybe I should get rid of the adamantine and give the maximized damage vs inorganic/ignore all hardness a use-per-day limit.
It is odd to make a scythe that works against constructs and inanimate objects. The adamantine really isn't the problem, as that's just a 3k weapon. I think mainly the maximized damage is more of a psychological direction to cutting through everything rather than a practical use of the weapon. As I said above, weapon damage die isn't really important.

I think the daggers are better for a rogue; throwing swords is kind of a build commitment. I don't think the sword quiver is all that great.
The sword quiver is pretty close to the holy grail for throwing builds. It's much easier to get proficient with a longsword than it is to get sufficient, appropriately enhanced weapons to attack with.

Also, the collar of perpetual attendance is too small to fit any of my allowed races.
The collar is a wondrous item. Like all wondrous items, it resizes to the wearer. It fits a tiny cat, a medium human, and a colossal great wyrm dragon.

I'll be dredging up monsters all the way from the SRD to Drow of the Underdark to whatever book starts with Z. I feel like it would take a lot of specific knowledge skills to cover all that, so if someone has the book they can be "Oh, that's a Rampager, don't let it touch you."
There are six knowledge skills that are necessary: arcana, dungeoneering, local, nature, the planes, religion. If you have a wizard, they're going to have all of them, because they have lots of skill points and nothing else to spend on. Cloistered clerics will also have all of them. Anyone going for Knowledge Devotion is going to go for all of them. There's usually one in any party.

Furthermore, the two things I mentioned--having the book in hand and taking an action to consult it--are killers when you're in combat. Just using it has a high opportunity cost.

If the party doesn't have a resident knowledge expert, I recommend making the book an intelligent item, maybe give it telepathy, maybe, and let it tell whoever is carrying it about the monsters. Perhaps do it in riddle or something if you don't want it to be too much of a gimme, and if they can't figure out the riddle, they can then spend the time consulting the pages for the plain answer.

[Malapterus]

If anyone is so bold as to ask the Queen for the ring right off her finger, she'll give it to them. It's carved from a whole sapphire and bound with decorative bits of gold and platinum wire. It's based on a ring I saw in one of the books but for the life of me cannot find now; that ring allows you to automatically deal, I think, 2d6 nonlethal damage to anyone who touches you. Functions three times per day.
This one does 3d6 lightning 3/day, and 1/day can do a sort of, sonic-damage bull-rush to shove someone away from you, in response to them touching you. Hands off the queen!
I'm going to rule they just have to be adjacent to you and have made something come in contact you, so stabbing the queen with your spear still works.

The term 'trap book' gave me an idea of a little manual on traps; it contains the schematics for a bunch of different traps and grants a competence bonus to setting them up. If you rip out the page for a specific trap and set it down, that trap will neatly manifest there. I think the pages will regenerate, but it's more of a 'couple of days' thing verses a uses-per-day and the book probably gets irritated if you rip too many pages out of it in a short period of time. Of course, you don't get the competence bonus to setting a specific trap if the page isn't there. Maybe better traps take longer to regenerate?

A pair of large lockets. When both are open, one broadcasts the sounds in the area of the other one and vice-versa, so basically a primitive magic walkie-talkie. It may sound low for these treasures, but it's powered by a Gate spell, so regardless of how far away you are or what dimension you're in, the effect is as if you were in adjacent rooms with a hole drilled in the wall.

A tiny sword, a longsword made for a Fine creature. Very good for picking bits of assassin vine out of your teeth. It's not actually a longsword for a Fine creature, it's a Greatsword for a sub-Fine creature. As a Swift action, the user can make it grow to any size up to Colossal (in reference to intended user) and it will stay at that chosen size indefinitely, unless it is left unattended for a very long time. 101 uses around the house!
User takes no penalty so long as the size is within one category of themselves; a size down makes it a shortsword and a size up makes it a greatsword. Probably needs an enhancment bonus or some other effect; no, there is not a special attack about making it change size.

An ivory bracer plated in gold, etched to show the ivory below, with images of arrows and such; generally goes on the left arm. At the same speed they could equip any bow, it can generate a Brilliant Energy Longbow. The bow itself being brilliant energy is a touch useless, but it also generates brilliant energy arrows as fast as you can fire them. It can be dismissed as a free action. It needs something else; I was thinking maybe whenever you generate the bow you can pick a 1d6 energy enhancement to put on it, but I am not sure.

A little guitar, a ukulele maybe. Gives a sizeable bonus to being used as an instrument, be it for Bardic Magic or just rocking out with the gnomes. Additionally, it can be played to produce any sound. Any instrument, to be sure; but it can do thunder and lightning, galloping hooves, a speaking voice, two ogres fighting each other with sacks of mud - as long as you know what it is supposed to sound like, you can make it. This means you can't make it speak a language you don't know or make it imitate the distinct mating call of a specific White Dragon you never met, but otherwise the options are pretty open. When used like this, it can let you use Perform in place of some other social skills, such as Bluff, but if anyone actually looks at you they're going to see you playing the thing so if you're going to imitate someone you need to be imitating them from around the corner.

Bag of Tricks made of blue dragon hide - pulls out random chromatic dragons instead of animals, ranging from Tiny to Large. They're conjured dragons, so dragons generally won't think you're enslaving their kin, but anything you put in the bag is gone - added to the hoard of the dragon sorcerer who made the bag in the first place. Maybe putting coins or loot in it can let you pull out a specific dragon.

A Sjambok - a stiff whip made of a single strip of hippopotamus hide; not braided, just an inch-by-inch square strip of leather. While technically a whip, it functions more like a one-handed staff and does not wrap around things, so it's a simple weapon. It can't hurt you if you're wearing Medium or better armor, but if you're not, it is a +2 weapon dealing 2d4 nonlethal damage with a 19-20 crit range. On a crit, it inflicts some horrible pain, causing some kind of condition - a lesser one on a fort save. Base the save on BaB or something so that it levels up with the user. Failing the save will probably put the victim on the ground for a bit, ow.

The Sword of Truth - this is a big beautiful chrome-looking greatsword. I haven't decided what it does yet, derp.

A trim black jacket, suitable for all occasions. Anything you attempt to conceal within the jacket is treated as one size smaller. The jacket also has two pockets on the inside that lead to an extra-dimensional space; the smaller-size effect does not apply, but they cannot be found with a Search check unless you are the one wearing the jacket. They're big enough to hold a dagger-sized object each. But wait, there's more! From the sleeve you can, as a swift action, produce any mundane item of one pound or less that would conceivably fit up your sleeve. The items have to be inert matter - they can't be creatures or food or poison or alchemical items (with the exception of tindertwigs); just tools and random objects. The items disappear eventually and have no value. If it should ever matter, an appropriate skill check can identify the item as fake, so be careful trying to spit out a security badge. If appropriate, the items are Masterwork. You can't just dump out a kit of thief's tools because ii doesn't meet the criteria, but you could make the individual tools one at a time. Of course, you have to know what something IS to draw it from your sleeve.

taking a break!

[Selion]

So I am starting my game by allowing my level 10 players to pick from a selection of treasures the queen has collected over the centuries. They will select based on a visual description and not know what they do. I'd like an opinion on some of them to see if they are too powerful.

+5 returning vorpal dagger - I understand that this is technically an epic weapon at +11, but it's also just a dagger. Vorpal is unreliable and the player is unlikely to know about the property for some time - and no, they are not allowed to sell it. It is on loan. Yes, I know a dagger is technically piercing but I do not care.

+2 adamantine scythe. Ignores 100% of hardness. Weapon damage is maximized against objects, constructs, and nonsentient undead.

+2 tanto - basically a masterwork slashing dagger with a better crit. Blade is made of one of those special ices from Frostburn (not stygian) magically treated so it will not break or melt. When unsheathed in temperatures above freezing, it gives off copious amounts of a thick foggy mist, obscuring sight and scent in a growing radius.

Bag of several +1 daggers. These daggers are somewhat alive, and can crawl around like inchworms or leap about ten feet. They follow verbal orders from their master and are usually smart enough to figure out a task without step by step instructions. If thrown, they will crawl back to their bag, but this takes a while.

Quiver full of +1 throwing returning silvered longswords. Swords drawn from the quiver are replaced instantly; swords released by the owner disappear after a minute. Belonged to a guy who hated werewolves and loved throwing swords.

A book bound in the rough hide of some monster, decorated with bits of claw and fang and horn, with a single living, expressive, orange reptilian eye in the middle. The book's pages contain information on almost every known creature, and the user can roll something to find the page for any monster they have seen or heard described. The monster's page contains its name, type, and possibly one or more relevant factoids.

A +1 glaive with a glassteel crescent moon shaped blade. The staff is spell-storing and can try to 'catch' spells if it has room for them. If held up to the full moon, it erases its contents and charges up with a pre-set selection of light/radiant/healing spells.


I like these treasures, they seems to be fairly balanced with a little fluffy icing on it.
The book maybe needs a power up, i suggest it working as a metamagic rod with this feat:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/metamagic-feats/studied-spell-metamagic/