What kind of rewards would tinker gnomes give?

[Gnaritas]

In my D&D 3.5 campaign my party might go on a sidequest helping a gnome town famous for their gnomish inventors.

What kind of rewards could i give the party if they help them? Obviously i am looking for some kind of inventions.

The party is lvl 6-7.

[Sinfire Titan]

Give them a Darksteel Ingot.


AKA: A refluffed Pearl of Power.

[LibraryOgre]

Question: Are these Tinker Gnomes, or gnomes who like to invent things?

Tinker gnomes (a la Dragonlance "We've replaced stairs with catapults and a number of failsafes") type will attempt to pay with a death machine designed to trim nosehairs or something. They will be talked into paying with gold only reluctantly.

Gnomes who like to invent will likely simply pay with gold or magic items, like normal people.

[Quincunx]

I supPOSE you could make a case for being paid in 'raw materials' like gold ingots, if you had no respect for innovation.

How 'bout rainproofing armor with shoulderpads that dispense absorbent dust (of Dryness) whenever the armor gets too wet? Temporarily stops you drowning if you fall overboard with it on and stops rust in its tracks! Quantities of dust sufficient to dry out actual monsters would first desiccate the wearer, so it can't be used offensively.

Gnomish grabbystilts--great for getting items off the top shelf AND pulling flying critters down to earth, one at a time! The basic design is built upon one 10' pole and a bared blob of sovereign glue, but for adventurers in the field, they would be glad to make a custom grabbystilt of stronger materials and greater reach. (Speaking of reach, it would be treated as a reach weapon for purposes of determining where you could strike with it and when.)

[Lord Vukodlak]

The d20 Warcraft book has a variety of technological items.

One of them is the goblin army knife,
which can dig holes, saw wood, hammer, light fires, make duck calls, polish armor, sew, stores spidersilk rope with a strength for 100lbs extend into a fishing rod or unreel into a 1 person tent(for a small sized creature anyway).

It does all this in a simple 4lb and it even cuts things. However using the item requires a DC 5 skill check in technology and on a natural roll of 1 it falls apart.

[JohnnyCancer]

Going strictly by core and not considering magical gear, a group of inventors would probably give alchemical items and masterwork crossbows made from exotic materials. Masterwork tools and a spyglass might also be thrown in.

[Asbestos]

These are gnomish inventors. Everything has to be as fantastical as it is worthless.

Anyway, anything from this list would probably work fine:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archeb/cw

[BRC]

Refluffing is your friend here.

Beads of Fireball, call 'em Grenades.
Armor made out of a special alchemical alloy of stuff and some other stuff: +2 armor.


But that's boring, let's get interesting.

The Clockwork Man! Counts as having 5 ranks in every skill (besides Knowledge and any charisma based skills). Can carry things. Has trouble understanding commands.

Ultraboots! puts a protective shield around a character, then flings them very fast in a random direction. Sucks to be anyone or thing in the way.


Clockwork Horse: A steady mount that is resistant to damage, never eats, never tires, and may or may not actually take you the direction you want at teh speed you want.

[Vizzerdrix]

A set of masterwork flintlock pistols.

[Quincunx]

Clockwork Horse: A steady mount that is resistant to damage, never eats, never tires, and may or may not actually take you the direction you want at the speed you want.

It comes with two speeds: Slow and Fast. There is no "Hold Still" speed. Hope you raised your Ride skill high enough, and are unencumbered enough, to do a running vault whenever you need to get back on it.

*****

Clockwork Carapace: A cunning system of overlapping scalemail plates and rack-and-pinion gears allow you to reconfigure the armor freely until the mechanism gets too bashed-up in battle. (Benefit: barding at the cost of regular armor, if they can pass a Knowledge: The Way Gnomes Think check to reconfigure it so.)

*****

Gnomdetectable Alignment Aligner: This translucent bottle, almost full of a viscous liquid with two cork-and-pointer assemblies floating atop it, will give you valuable information such as the location of the nearest draconic being, the location of the nearest gnome, atmospheric pressure and likelihood of rain, and whether or not the surface the bottle is placed upon is level.

*****

Rubber Gnomie Punting Bumpers: These rubber discs and loops were sized for protecting gnomish backsides, but one of the inventors has made a logical leap, and would like you to try them as shield backing and helmet padding. The same force-absorbing qualities which allows a gnome to stay grounded might reduce injury, but then it might also deflect the force and give the wearer whiplash. Clearly, this can only be resolved by experiment.

[Darrin]

A folding boat/catapult/pipe organ that occasionally breaks down (and disgorges the equivalent of a stinking cloud).

Clockwork Steed (MM4) with Enhanced Jumping Capability that gives it a +5 on Jump checks but occasionally (rolls a "1" on a Jump check) launches 50' straight up in the air (the Emergency Drogue Chute to negate falling damage is still "under development" and not available).

Electrum Clockwork Horror (MM2) that has a permanent undispellable confusion effect when ordered to attack in combat but can dispense 13 different alcoholic beverages (with only a 5% chance of accidentally dispensing poison instead).

A construct very similar to a Packmate (Magic of Eberron p. 152) that has a nasty habit of eating (i.e. permanently destroying) footwear.

"Arquebus of Wonder", full round action to activate, 3/day roll Rod of Wonder effect.

Magic rollerskates or anything else from the Clockwork Wonders articles.

[taltamir]

Question: Are these Tinker Gnomes, or gnomes who like to invent things?

Tinker gnomes (a la Dragonlance "We've replaced stairs with catapults and a number of failsafes") type will attempt to pay with a death machine designed to trim nosehairs or something. They will be talked into paying with gold only reluctantly.

Gnomes who like to invent will likely simply pay with gold or magic items, like normal people.

pfft, everyone knows gnomes aren't REAL people... :P
just kidding... your post is pretty much dead on, I have to agree with it.

[Quincunx]

Self-Erecting Tent: No more muss! No more fuss! No more losing tent pegs in the dark! All the comforts of home in anti-magic zones! Capacity 15 gnomes or 6 too-tall folk. (Caution: Product may spontaneously fold back into its box if struck by lightning or lightning-type attack.)

Universal Lubricant: The same esteemed minds which brought you sovereign glue and universal solvent have answered the question of the ages: if it moves and you don't want it to, you use sovereign glue, but what do you use if it doesn't move and you want it to? (Buy the 3-pack and get free tabletop sovereign-glue-gob-hockey kit! Glue the goals in place, grease the table, squirt out a gob of glue at center-grease, grease your sticks, and you're good to go!)

[taltamir]

Universal Lubricant: The same esteemed minds which brought you sovereign glue and universal solvent have answered the question of the ages: if it moves and you don't want it to, you use sovereign glue, but what do you use if it doesn't move and you want it to?

is it water based?

[Quincunx]

Probably not, otherwise it'd introduce moisture into the clockwork works and promote rust.

(Hey, when you're a gnome, you get accustomed to things flying over your head--innuendoes included. )

[Accersitus]

They could just give the adventurers a "wand of mechanical missiles" (a machine gun or rifle) Make it in game terms be a wand (use magic device to activate or int check) Charges = bullets in clip, damage it deals = a lot :D

[Deepblue706]

Indoor Plumbing.

[Swooper]

Whatever actual, functional rewards they get, make sure to throw in a couple of completely pointless trinkets. Personal favourites include:

*A steam powered candelabra. You feed it coals, steam comes out... and nobody seems to know what this accomplishes. The mechanism is completely seperate from the bit where you stick the candle.

*A solar-powered lamp. Works only while in strong, direct sunlight.

[Ormur]

Indoor Plumbing.

I support that wholeheartedly, dangerous steampunk boilers for hot baths included.

[Evard]

A portable hole that leads to a room that does something like this everytime someone walks in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

[DragonOfLies]

Experimental construct grafts? I'm not sure how gnomes feel about replacing body parts with bits of Warforged

[Starbuck_II]

In my D&D 3.5 campaign my party might go on a sidequest helping a gnome town famous for their gnomish inventors.

What kind of rewards could i give the party if they help them? Obviously i am looking for some kind of inventions.

The party is lvl 6-7.

A Boomstick: Wand that shoots sling bullets with much damage. Holds 2 shots before need to reload.

[Evard]

Golem animal companion?

Hmmmm

[Asbestos]

Guns are just so... mundane.

Shocker Lizard powered Taser!

Device consists of a tamed shocker lizard in a cage worn backpack-style attached to a crossbow-like device by a metal cable wrapped in horsehair. Operates as a normal crossbow, but creatures hit by the bolts suffer the effects of the shocker lizard's "Stunning Shock" ability but without the Reflex Save (1/round).

[Starbuck_II]

Guns too mundane? How about a nuke!
That way you can't miss.

[taltamir]

Experimental construct grafts? I'm not sure how gnomes feel about replacing body parts with bits of Warforged

that would get interesting if there is a warforged in the party...
or how about a "human parts" graft for a warforged?

[Asbestos]

A rock that keeps away the dreaded hydraskcoliskodracosaurus. Don't ask what the hell that is though.

[bosssmiley]

White elephants and monkeys paws, but with steampunk FX.

[erikun]

Self-Returning Sling Stone: A sling with the stone attached to a rubber band. It fires out to the maximum range, then returns to your hand for free reloading. Most likely, it will come with a "safety gauntlet" until they work out all the kinks.