Continuing off of our last update, we’re taking a look at the new magic items you can find in Path of the Wilds.
As with the previous two books in the Path series, the magic item chapter in Path of the Wilds contains a spread of the most commonly-used magic item types. It’s got new weapon and armor properties (with matching unique weapons and armor to use), rings, and wondrous items. For today, we’ll focus on the weapons and armor.
The new weapon properties are mostly elemental in design. The cycling and cycling burst properties let you switch between elemental types on the go: cycling lets you switch between flaming, frost, shock, and corrosive, whereas cycling burst switches between the “burst” versions of those enchantments. You can only have one element active at a time, but the flexibility helps when fighting foes that would otherwise be resistant to a fixed damage enchantment. There’s also the solar property, which infuses your weapon with sunlight to more directly harm creatures impacted by sunlight, like vampires, nightshades, or lowly fungi.
Armor properties are unsurprisingly defensive. The weathered property is a flat-cost bonus that makes your armor weatherproof and waterproof. It also reduces penalties you take in rough weather, making it great for characters that want to manipulate wind without impeding their own movement. There’s also the verdant property, which infuses your armor with plant life. A suit of verdant armor lets you root yourself to the ground to resist combat maneuvers, but more interestingly counts as a plant source for the purpose of effects like entangle, letting you use these effects in regions that otherwise would prevent a plant-focused character from functioning. Finally, there’s the energized property. Made specifically for the new elementalist class, it boosts your AC and energy resistances while in aegis form, and since it applies to all energy resistances, it works well for an elementalist that has generalized their resistances rather than focused on one or two types.
There’s also unique items to showcase each of these new enchantments in the book. The wheel of elements, for example, is a unique cycling starknife that gets additional on-hit effects depending on the current element being used. The stormlord’s raiment is a unique breastplate that improves the weathered property to grant defenses against air, electricity, and sonic effects. Further still, it’s resistance to high winds is paired with a special enchantment that lets you fly at-will while in heavy winds: the harder the wind is blowing, the faster your fly speed gets.
To close, here’s a few concrete examples of two new weapon properties, tracking and glacial, along with a unique longbow, the rimeflower. As always, check out the Kickstarter page or stick around here on the website for more updates!
Tracking
Price +1 bonus; Aura moderate divination; CL 7th; Weight —
A tracking weapon helps mark targets for the hunt. If the wielder has the studied target, quarry, or hunting bond (companions) class feature, they can activate that class feature as a free action upon striking an opponent. The wielder must target the creature struck with the chosen class feature and must otherwise follow its normal rules (such as maximum number of studied targets or the waiting period between denoting quarries).
Construction Requirements: +1 bonus, know the enemy
Glacial
Price +2 bonus; Aura moderate evocation; CL 9th; Weight —
A glacial weapon is perpetually coated in a thin layer of ice. A creature struck by the weapon has its movement speed reduced by 10 feet for 1d4 rounds. Multiple hits do not stack the duration or penalty. On a critical hit, the target becomes partially encased in ice, entangling it. The duration of the entanglement is based on the critical multiplier of the weapon: 1 round (x2 critical multiplier), 2 rounds (x3 multiplier), or 3 rounds (x4 multiplier or higher). Further critical hits do not stack the duration of this entanglement. A creature that is immune to cold damage is immune to the glacial property’s effects. A weapon cannot have both the glacial property and any other property that inflicts fire damage, such as fiery burst.
Construction Requirements: +2 bonus, creeping ice
Rimeflower
Price 72,380 gp; Aura strong evocation; CL 13th; Weight 4 lbs.
The rimeflower appears as an icy-blue longbow whose limbs are wrapped by pale white vines, small crystalline leaves and buds running down its length. The wielder of this +1 adaptive glacial icy burst composite longbow is shielded from extreme cold (as endure elements). Sleet, snowfall, and other wintry precipitation (both magical and mundane) do not penalize the wielder’s vision or their attack rolls with the rimeflower. Once per day as a standard action the user can fire a single rime shot at a creature within the bow’s first range increment: on a hit, the target is affected by the spell icy prison (DC 17). If the attack was a critical hit, the glacial and icy burst properties apply before the icy prison does. The prison takes the form of a blossoming flower of clear ice, typically a rose, which gives the rimeflower its name.
Construction Requirements: 36,390 gp, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, creeping ice, ice storm, icy prison