Ten Cool New Items In Pathfinder Treasure Vault

With the release of Pathfinder Treasure Vault, adventuring groups now have access to countless new treasures and tools. Whether your skills are arcane or martial, this new supplement to Paizo's wildly popular fantasy TTRPG has something for you. In fact, this book is packed with so many useful items and rules across many diverse fields, doing an extensive dive into each section would be a lot for a single article to handle. However, we would like to highlight ten distinct items found within these book's pages. By no means is this an extensive dive into the new book, but a mere taste of what you can bring to your gaming table.

10. The Swallow-Spike Armor Rune

Of course, Pathfinder Treasure Vault also includes new armor property runes, giving players more ways to customize their adventurer. The book does sport plenty of helpful runes to give players more variety, such as applying spell effects to the armor or even providing resistance to certain magical effects. But a special shout out must go to the Swallow-Spike armor rune.

As the name implies, if you are grabbed by a creature or swallowed, you can activate spikes as a reaction, causing ongoing damage to your target. It can even protect you from being immobilized. If your party knows they'll be facing gargantuan monsters on the road, this is not a bad enhancement to have.

9. The Black Hole Armor

Moving on to specific kinds of magic armor, Pathfinder Treasure Vault has plenty of flavorful options to choose from. This armor can be the centerpiece of a campaign, a major goal for craftsmen, or even a reward as part of a character's subplot. While some of this armor features thematically rich options, including those tied to Iomedae and Asmodeus, a special shout out must be given to the black hole armor. This sci-fi inspired armor not only provides a lot of physical resistance, the armor can absorb ranged attacks. On top of that, once a certain number of projectiles are absorbed, you can throw all of those failed attacks back at your enemies in a burst.

8. The Clockwork Shield

For those who enjoy the complexities of the Inventor class or just wants to maintain a steampunk aesthetic, the clockwork shield is worth a look. At first, it seems like a basic means of defense, the spinning gears acting like shield spikes. But the shield has a unique ability, allowing you to shield block as a reaction one more time each turn. Every little bit of defense counts, and this shield does its job here.

7. The Bow-Staff

If you're a fan of wuxia movies, then the weapons section of Pathfinder Treasure Vault should give you plenty of fond memories. This section is absolutely packed with weapons that would be right at home at the students of Jalmeray's Houses of Perfection or the lands of Tian XIa.

These weapons include the feng huo lun, naginata, kusari-gama and meteor hammer, just to name a few. But special mention must be given to the Bow-Staff. It is a combo weapon that can switch from a deadly whip staff to a long-range bow with a few quick adjustments.

6. The Piston Gauntlets

Sometimes, you enjoy a weapon for its coolness factor. Sometimes you like a magic item for the storytelling possibilities. But, there are times where the weapon is so ridiculous in design and efficient in what it does that it leads to both cheers and laughter. Enter the piston gauntlets, a clockwork item that is basically a novelty pantograph boxing glove that is on fire. If you think your table can use some Loony Tunes antics, get crafting.

5. The Spark Dancer

Yes, even Gunslingers have some new tools to play with in this book. There are plenty of intriguing new entries in Pathfinder Treasure Vault for those that deal with firearms, but one of the more evocative ones is the Spark Dancer. This enchanted pepperbox not only fires powerful rounds in its own right, it can unleash powerful fire and electric spells at will. Gunslingers of Arcadia, start saving up your gold.

4. The Fearcracker

Do your dedicated casters feel underpowered or underutilized? Pathfinder Treasure Vault brings in some enhancements to certain spells in the form of catalysts. Described as a form of alchemy for magic, these objects give additional benefits to spells.

A great example of this is the Fearcracker. This enhances the Mirror Image spell, causing any of your illusory doubles to die horribly in great detail when destroyed, which will give your opponent the frightened condition. It's a small touch, but it can be very effective in the right circumstances.

3. Cooperative Waffles

As for Alchemists out there, Pathfinder Treasure Vault contains some new recipes for you to mess with. In addition to new ammunition types, compounds, oils, pastes, and poisons, several of these new recipes include magically helpful lozenges, food, and confections. Arguably the most novel of these entries are Cooperative Waffles. These are specially made breakfast foodstuffs, complete with “alchemical syrups and compound butter.” You split these waffles with a fellow party member, and for 24 hours afterwards, you get enhanced bonuses for aiding one another on skill challenges. It does cost a bit of gold to make, but the idea that eating waffles leads to better teamwork is just amazing.

2. The Sanguine Fang

In addition to new enhancement runes and new weapon and armor traits, Pathfinder Treasure Vault also introduces a new form of magical enhancements called Spellhearts. Like runes they are attached to weapons or armor, they can also cast limited numbers of spells like magic wands, and the provide permanent and persistent effects to weapons and armor. This does mean they cost a lot more to integrate, but the benefits are worth it.

Case and point is the Sanguine Fang. This preserved vampire fang can either provide extra defense to bleed effects or negative energy when applied to armor, or can provide extra bleed damage and vampiric damage to melee weapons. Plus, you can cast Chill Touch once a day. Even if your spellcasting fails, that's a lot of magical punch for one enhancement.

1, Cayden Caillean's Tankard

Pathfinder Treasure Vault contains a chapter on artifacts. It includes rules and mechanics for cursed objects, ancient relics, as well as intelligent items. But out of all of the fantastical items of great power that is in this book, one of them stood out. Cayden Caillean, the mortal man who underwent the Trial of the Starstone while on a bender and came out as a god, is beloved by all Chaotic Good adventurers.

Now, you can potentially have a campaign around the discover of the Accidental God's tankard. Not only is this thing a powerful weapon, drinking from the tankard gives you benefits. Not only will it protect you from being controlled or mentally manipulated, in certain scenarios the attempt can be thrown back at your attacker. But the book also lays out the ways in which this relic can be destroyed....

This list cannot cover everything contained within Pathfinder Treasure Vault. We haven't even mentioned the alternate crafting systems, arguably the book's second biggest selling point. But if any of these entries got your attention at all, Paizo's book will provide new adventuring opportunities and more.

The copy of Pathfinder Treasure Vault used in this feature was provided by Paizo