I don't know why more people don't love this item.
BLADED BELT
Price 2,000 gp; Aura faint transmutation; CL 1st; Weight 3 lbs.
Rather than being made of one continuous line of material, this belt consists of many bits of tanned leather joined together by thick metal studs. On command, the belt's wearer can transform the belt into a single masterwork slashing and/or piercing melee weapon of her choice. As long as she is holding the weapon, she can also revert it back to belt form with a command. Furthermore, the belt can be enchanted like a piercing and slashing melee weapon, using the cost of the belt as the cost of the masterwork item.
The ultimate stealth weapon for thw users.
Gee I'm unarmed poof great sword, poof glave, poof whip
This rocks and is super versatile.
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Because it takes up the slot where you would want your stat-boosting belt of choice. I guess it might not need to actually occupy the slot if you just don't wear the belt, in which case it is great. But then, why even have it take up a slot?
I does make one wonder if you could make it into say a oversized bastard sword for a damage boost.
This is my favorite item for 2h wp master/fighter with a hvy shield of bashing. First, enchant BB w keen. Take quick draw, combat expertise, imp trip, greater trip, twf-ing and improved shield bash. It seems like a mash of feats that dont work, but BB brings it together like so:
Using BB as guisarme,
Ready action to attack 10' out and 5' step back.
when they entered threatened area, attack
you step back
when they leave threatened, trip
swap bb to one handed melee and draw shield as free action
AoO prone target with shield bash, melee
When enlarged this does tons of damage and adds more reach, allows 3 attacks and leaves target prone at your feet. Wp prof with falcata is a boost.
But the real point is that you can swap from reach to melee easily and use the BB to fit circumstances. Also, with reach, you dont necessarily need trip feats because they cant even hit you when you provoke and they are 10' away. Having a single weapon that is many weaponsand can be enchanted is super efficient.
Command word is a standard action. Also it appears you have to return it to belt form (and be wearing it) before you can choose a new weapon.
Why not just get a vest of Giant Strength instead of a belt? Or enchant the belt itself with the additional enchantment of stat increasing?
Bother are valid and legal options (unless you are in PFS, where you can't craft).
Custom items are valid and legal options with GM approval. I don't think stat enhancement on a bladed belt would work well though, the belt has to be worn to transform, but once it is transformed it is no longer being worn, so you would lose your stat bonus.
The better option, if we are talking custom, is probably just to make the belt slotless, at double cost, although many GMs would frown on this as it now pretty much a cheaper way to get the transformative property (although it would take two actions to change weapons, so it might be acceptable)
Naturally, you would enchant it to allow you to maintain the bonus while worn OR wielded.
Still for for the base cost of 2000 gp having any masterwork slashing or piercing weapon would be handy.
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I am entirely in favor of grabbing magic items that are not the standard. It honestly is super boring seeing the exact same gear (and other things) on so many peoples 'characters'. For this reason I feel that new players offer a lot of variety in character design while really skilled veteran players know how to take the time to make a guy who has no stat belt or stat headband or cloak of resistance or whatever other utterly generic and ubiquitous magic item there is and -still- make a very solid character. Unfortunately, this is pretty rare.
I actually make it a point to make almost all of my characters in pfs and home games use anything else in the shoulder slot as long as the first word is not 'cloak' and the last word is 'resistance'.
Seems that no matter what level of play I am seeing, this has only a oven to be both a good thing and a much more interesting thing. I picked the shoulder slot because there are far too many other magic items that are all really freaking cool and like, they're more than just treasure to be sold and NPC gear. I feel like the homogenous element that the internet and optimization creates really buries half of the fun of a lot of things once it hits a certain point.
That belt is excellent when you want to use different weapons for different things. It is also efficient in terms of only needing to purchase and upgrade a single weapon. The cost is you lose the benefit of higher stats but if you need them badly enough you can pay double and grab an ioun stone or find another interesting item that boosts them.
This item is also excellent for assassins and anyone who needs to get weapons past security points. If I try, I am sure that there are plenty of worthwhile uses for it that make up for having lower bonus stats.
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Nobody else pictures a dude triumphantly whipping off his belt and his pants falling down?
What pants?
I'd keep it as a backup weapon for corner cases like having ghost touch and construct bane or the like.
I am resurrecting this topic for one quick question related to the bladed belt, since this will determine if its the best friend for me.
What happens if it gets damaged like being bent while in weapon form, does it need to be fixed or can it just reform?
The Belt doesn't mention any ability to repair itself so it would need to be repaired normally.
The Belt doesn't mention any ability to repair itself so it would need to be repaired normally.
Yep, but since it's CL 1, even a simple Mending spell is sufficient to repair it as long as it doesn't actually get broken. And even if it does get broken, a minimum-level Make Whole can still fix it.
Although I wonder how damage is translated between weapon and belt form. Being described as leather, it has hardness 2 and HP of 5 per inch, so probably less than 5, actually. I think it's kinda odd that magic items other than weapons, shields and armor don't actually get any more resilient, but them's the breaks.But it states that it transforms into any weapon. A two-handed blade has 10 hitpoints, but does the Bladed Belt gain those hitpoints? Or does it still have the same amount? I know that for creatures, the damage is translated one-to-one and you don't actually get any additional hit points from polymorphing into a big, stomping monster, so I'd rule the same for objects, but I don't think it's explicitly stated.
Speaking about this, do temporary enhancement bonuses (like from Magic Weapon or Legacy Weapon) add to an object's HP? And if so, do they function as temporary HP or as HP gained from temporary constitution bonuses?
I realize I'm getting into Rules Questions territory here, but I suspect this is either a very simple question or mostly house rules territory.
We have a paladin in our group who wears a Bladed Belt.
"Don't make me take my belt off!"
He also wears suspenders, just in case.
Nobody else pictures a dude triumphantly whipping off his belt and his pants falling down?What pants?
Both good points.