Hot Tropics
It’s Tropical Week, and to me, that means long treks in hot, steamy jungles, lounging around on the beach under a parasol, and maybe having a nice beach bonfire. In that vein, I’ve come up with a few magic items that your characters may want to take with them on their next tropical excursion.
SPEAR OF SPIT-ROASTING PRICE 56,305 gp
Slot none; CL 12th; Weight 9 lbs.
Aura strong evocation
These +2 flaming burst longspears are made of blackened wood with long, tapered spearheads. In addition to the spear of spit-roasting’s other abilities, whenever its wielder successfully damages a creature with it, he can choose to leave the spear embedded in the target’s body. If he does, the target suffers damage from the spear automatically at the beginning of its turn each round (including the extra fire damage and the damage from its enhancement bonus, but not including any Strength bonus or other bonuses the wielder might have granted). The spear of spit-roasting can be removed as a standard action with a successful Strength check (DC 15 + 2 per point of enhancement bonus the spear of spit-roasting possesses, or 19 for most spears of spit-roasting). Failure on this check causes the spear to inflict damage again. The spear’s wielder can remove it without the Strength check, but must succeed on a Steal combat maneuver to do so, if the creature it is embedded in is unwilling to relinquish it.
If the target creature is adjacent to an object when the wielder embeds the spear in it, he can make a combat maneuver check to attempt to use the spear to pin the creature to that object. If he succeeds, the creature cannot move for as long as the spear remains embedded (unless he can carry or drag the object he is pinned to), and the DC to remove the spear increases by +4.
Finally, if the spear of spit-roasting is used as an actual spit to cook meat, it can do so without a fire, and always cooks the meat evenly and to the wielder’s exact specifications.
Some of a spear of spit-roasting’s unique abilities count as an enhancement bonus equivalent, and it is treated as a +5-equivalent weapon for the purposes of the cost of further improving its magical abilities.
Craft Magic Arms and Armor, fireball, flame blade, or flame strike
SURVIVALIST’S RING PRICE 7,500 gp
Slot ring; CL 3rd; Weight —
Aura faint divination
These rings are often made of copper or iron. They always feature three gemstones, with the central stone being much larger than the others, although all three tend to be from among less precious stones, such as tiger’s eye quartz, amethyst, malachite, or similar. The ring is of great value to those who must survive alone in the wilderness, and each gem has a different purpose.
The leftmost gem glows faintly when the wearer is facing north, and functions as a simple compass. This even functions on other planes or locations where north has no meaning, instead attuning itself to a similar cardinal direction (if one exists on the plane), or towards the spot that it first entered the plane, if no such equivalent exists.
As a move action, the wearer can concentrate on any of the following: food, fresh water, or shelter. If she does, the central gem on the ring will glow as long as she is facing in the direction of the nearest source of the visualized thing within 1 mile. The intensity of the glow indicates the relative distance, with it being brighter the closer the wearer is to the desired object.
The rightmost gem glows faintly whenever the wearer is facing towards a source of disease or poison within 60 feet, including venomous or diseased creatures.
Forge Ring, locate object, detect poison
UMBRELLA SHIELD PRICE 52,170 gp
Slot shield; CL 3rd; Weight 15 lbs.
Aura faint abjuration
These small hand-held umbrellas are made of cloth, and appear for all purposes to be standard umbrellas or parasols, but function identically to +3 heavy steel shields, when intentionally wielded as a shield. Additionally, the shield protects its wielder from the effects of light and heat. It absorbs the first 10 points of fire damage per attack that the wielder would usually suffer (similar to the resist energy spell), and it grants the wielder spell resistance 25 against any spell with the light descriptor. Additionally, the wearer can hold the umbrella shield over his head in order set the light level in his space to dim light, regardless of the current light condition, and reduce the wind speed in his space by 40 mph (to a minimum of 0 mph). This can protect the wielder from any and all harmful effects that he may suffer from sunlight (such as a vampire’s sunlight weakness, for example), but as long as the umbrella shield is held aloft in this way, it does not grant its shield bonus to AC.
None of an umbrella shield’s unique abilities count as an enhancement bonus equivalent, and it is treated as a +3-equivalent shield for the purposes of the cost of further improving its magical abilities.
Craft Magic Arms and Armor, darkness, resist energy