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The Perfect Hunter's Knife has some good ideas and some real imagination behind it, and I think it has a lot of potential, but one of its abilities strikes me as seriously overpowered:

fcalife wrote:

...Unavoidable hunt: The user spills his blood from the knife to another weapon. This weapon gains the Bane property (if it doesn't already have it), exclusively against the subject to which the knife points;

For how long? Does the other weapon now permanently have the bane ability, or is this a temporary thing? Can you do this every day? (And does the other weapon have to be masterwork, as is usual for magic weapons?) If there are no further restrictions on this ability, this is waaay underpriced. You've got something that can create an indefinite number of bane weapons? Yowza. Actually, even if there are further restrictions, this is probably way underpriced. Keep in mind, enchanting a weapon with the bane ability normally costs 2000 gp, and at least two days' work (well, okay, one full 8-hour day of work if you're willing to take the +5 hit to the DC). And now you've got an item that can give the bane ability for free (well, okay, at a cost of one hit point), almost instantly, to a weapon a day? And it costs only 500 gp? That's... yeah, I think you may want to rethink that.

Now, I realize that there are some restrictions on this ability. I gather the weapon is only bane against the particular individual creature the knife is pointing at, not against all creatures of its type (though it may be worthwhile to be a little more explicit about this; I think this is what you mean by "exclusively against the subject to which the knife points", but I'm not completely sure). And I know the fact that you have to have line of sight to the desired subject to activate the bane power (so that you can point the knife at it) is a significant limitation. So, yeah, I get that the bane...

Yeah, sorry, I can see from where you're coming from - some serious wording problems there, my apologies!

My intent was for the weapon to turn into a Bane weapon specifically against a single enemy (the one against which the knife points at the moment, not his type, species, or anything of the kind), and only during the knife's effect's duration (i.e. only until that specific creature is dead, captured, or the day is over).

Yes, I didn't think of masterwork, but I believe applying it to any weapon (even non-masterwork, nonmagical) for a limited time would be fine; flavor-side, you could just tell your DM/players the blood impregnates the weapon with a craving for that creature, magical weapon or not. Or something to that extent.

Due to this power's limitation, I chose to make the price of the item low. Please note it is very limited in combat usefulness, effectively granting +2 to hit and damage against a single enemy 1/day *if* you prepare for 10 minutes beforehand, and that it cannot be used in conjunction with Manhunt to target a specific creature, so applying this effect against a specific enemy would be quite difficult. It's tracking capabilites are a bit better, however, as tracking is a hunter's bread-and-butter, and this is the Hunter's knife =P

There should probably be notes on how multiple knives interact with eachother (Can't see problematic interaction so far, but players are a creative lot) and about how the item mixes with counter-scrying and divination spells, but as it's not an official entry, I'm happy enough to deal with these matters on a case-by-case way, as they crop up in our game.

Thanks for all other feedback as well, and good luck in the contest!

EDIT: About "pointing" the knife - I thought of it as simply opening your hand and letting it spin towards the right direction. Clearly, I wasn't precise enough. That helps with future submissions... Thanks!

My item is not really a "reject". Actually, as I don't intend to work for Paizo, I didn't enter the contest (even though the chance is minimal, getting in a top-something and then saying "no thanks guys, I'm outta here" doesn't look morally appropriate to me...).

However, as the contest itself is highly stimulating creatively, I make a "fake entry" every round. Minus proofreading, this is what I would send in:

Perfect Hunter's Knife
Aura faint divination; CL 5th
Slot --; Price 1000 gp; Weight 5 lbs.
Description
This battered, ancient-looking knife is a valuable addition to any professional hunter's arsenal. In addition to working as a normal masterwork dagger, the knife may be used to carve a wooden figure of any specific kind of animal (this task takes ten minutes). With a successful Craft (Woodwork) check against a DC of 10 + the animal's typical HD, the knife will point to the closest animal of the specified type in a 3-mile radius for one day, or until one animal of the specified kind is captured or slain.

Additionally, once per day, when activating the Perfect Hunter's Knife the user may puncture his hand to draw some droplets of blood (losing 1 HP in the process) and deposit them on the knife, invoking one of the following effects:

Endless hunt: The user spills his blood from the knife to the wooden carved figure. For the whole day, the knife continues to point to the closest live animal of the specified type, even after one of those is captured or slain;

Unavoidable hunt: The user spills his blood from the knife to another weapon. This weapon gains the Bane property (if it doesn't already have it), exclusively against the subject to which the knife points;

Manhunt: The user may carve a specific being in the wood, together with its name. In this case, the Craft (woodwork) DC is 12 + the being's HD. The knife will then work as normal, but only pointing to that subject;

Construction Requirements craft wondrous items, locate person, 5 ranks in Craft (Woodwork); Cost 500 gp

Yes, pretty unoriginal naming, but I didn't really think it through very much. Cheers and best of luck to all who have entered!