Overlooked, underappreciated, magic items

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Wouldn't work... Hand of the Mage can't touch magical items. Kinda sux

Huh ...

Hand of the Mage: This mummified elf hand hangs by a golden chain around a character’s neck (taking up space as a magic necklace would). It allows the wearer to utilize the spell mage hand at will.
Faint transmutation; CL 2nd; Craft Wondrous Item, mage hand; Price 900 gp;Weight 2 lb.

Mage Hand
Transmutation
Level: Brd 0, Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One nonmagical, unattended object weighing up to 5 lb.
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

You point your finger at an object and can lift it and move it at will from a distance. As a move action, you can propel the object as far as 15 feet in any direction, though the spell ends if the distance between you and the object ever exceeds the spell’s range.

I wonder why that limitation is in there ...

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Yeah... it sux because for a while (before I realized this) I would use my bow, then if it got to melee combat I would drop my bow and pull out my melee weapons. If I needed my bow again, assuming I had moved since I dropped it, I would mage-hand it back to me. Well, my bow is magical. I still wear it, and it has gotten me outta some tight places, but it's just not as cool with that seemingly small limitation.

 

[RuminDange]

RuminDange, keep in mind that with that item, someone has to be at the center of that spread. So that takes out one of the PC's as well as anyone withing 20ft.

Very true if used as normal dust is used. The idea of the cursed dust is believing it to be one of the more useful sorts and tossing it into the air to activating it as in this case of using dust of appearance, which the S&C dust tends to be identified as. Now dust of appearance is not a dust you would use on yourself but on an area to make invisible targets appear right? See how it tends to be stored? That means tossing the open packet or blowing the dust out of a tube means the activator doesn't necessarily get caught by it, except the S&C dust covers a 20 ft spread as opposed to the 10 foot radius of the dust of appearance which means the person unknownly could get caught in it as well as others it was not intended for.

Dust of Appearance: This fine powder appears to be a very fine, very light metallic dust. A single handful of this substance flung into the air coats objects within a 10-foot radius, making them visible even if they are invisible. It likewise negates the effects of blur and displacement. (In this, it works just like the faerie fire spell). The dust also reveals figments, mirror images, and projected images for what they are. A creature coated with the dust takes a –30 penalty on its Hide checks. The dust’s effect lasts for 5 minutes.
Dust of appearance is typically stored in small silk packets or hollow bone tubes.
Faint conjuration; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, glitterdust; Price 1,800 gp

Emphasis mine.

However if you know it to be the cursed kind you could fly over head and drop the open dust packet on a target area or launch it like a grenage to throw the packet into a square near the target to mark the center of the area of effect or even blow it from the tube into the area in which you will not be caught the area of effect when it spreads out, but not sure if RAW is clear how that is possible off the top of my head but that's why we DM's have to make on the fly calls at times right?
So I'm not convinced that someone who knows what the dust is would always get caught by it when they used it.

RD

 

[RuminDange]

Unless, of course, you use the cantrip Launch Item ...

That is one cantrip I tend to forget about when doing RBDM tricks like the dust of S&C.
I'll have to remember that more often.

RD

 

[RuminDange]

Huh ...
...
I wonder why that limitation is in there ...

A limitation I've never understood either, sort like the Cure Minor Wounds only healing 1 point when damage doing cantrips do 1d3 points.

RD

 

[Hypersmurf]

Wouldn't work... Hand of the Mage can't touch magical items. Kinda sux

You don't use Mage Hand to move the magical dust.

You use Mage Hand to move the non-magical handkerchief that contains the magical dust, and invert it over your opponents.

-Hyp.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I've always chaffed at the "no magic items" restriction on Mage Hand as well. In a previous game I played a fighter/mage with a bonded weapon, and wanted to use Mage Hand so he could call his sword to him, ala Luke Skywalker, if he ever lost hold of it. The DM generously allowed me to do so with the sword (and only the sword) on account of the magical bond, but it was clearly a House Rule.

I believe the restriction is there as a relic of earlier editions of D&D, where the party would often encounter a small magical item set in a trap. Such as a ring gleaming from inside a sinister skull. With an unfettered Mage Hand the party could get the ring without ever having to deal with the trap on the skull.

 

[Hypersmurf]

With an unfettered Mage Hand the party could get the ring without ever having to deal with the trap on the skull.

So you cast Mage Hand to maneuver your non-magical fish-hook...

-Hyp.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

So you cast Mage Hand to maneuver your non-magical fish-hook...

-Hyp.

Well, not all design rationale is Smurf-proof.

 

[Jeremy]

Go forth mine unseen servant! Drop this over yon!

What? You mean one of them actually FAILED the DC 15 save? Doesn't matter really, you're all dead anyways.