Viper Rapier
1d6P·Martial·Sword·One-handed
Runes +3, greater striking, speed
Crafted from flawless jade, the guard of this rapier takes the form of a twisting serpent with the blade thrusting from its open mouth. This rapier functions as a +3 greater striking quickstrike rapier. While wielding the rapier, your movement doesn't trigger reactions when you Stride, Balance, or Tumble Through. When you invest the rapier, you either increase your Dexterity modifier by 1 or increase it to +4, whichever would give you a higher value.
Activate ↺ (concentrate)
Frequency once per day
Trigger You fail, but don't critically fail, an attack using the viper rapier
Effect The tip of the rapier briefly takes the form of a viper's head, and the blade twists and contorts, biting the target you missed. The target is affected as if successfully poisoned with cave worm venom (DC 43).
Activate ↺ (concentrate)
Trigger A creature misses or critically misses you with an attack
Effect With a slight, obviously mocking bow or curtsy, you Step.
Activate ◆◆ (manipulate)
Frequency once per hour
Effect You twirl your rapier in a serpentine pattern, causing your form to become a blur of motion. You're Concealed for 1 minute or until you take a hostile action. While you're concealed, you also gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Reflex saving throws.
Effect: Viper Rapier
Traits
When you Invest an Item that has the apex trait, it improves one of your attributes, either increasing the attribute's modifier by 1 or to a total of +4, whichever would give you a higher value. This gives you all the benefits of the new attribute modifier until the investiture ends. For example, in addition to increasing rolls you make using the attribute, increasing your Intelligence lets you become trained in an additional skill and learn a new language, and increasing your Constitution gives you more Hit Points. An apex item grants this benefit only the first time it's invested within a 24-hour period, and you can benefit from only one apex item at a time. If you attempt to invest an apex item when you already have one invested, you don't gain the attribute modifier increase, though you do gain any other effects of Investing the Item.
On a critical hit, the weapon adds a weapon damage die of the listed size. Roll this after doubling the weapon's damage. This increases to two dice if the weapon has a greater striking rune and three dice if the weapon has a major striking rune. For instance, a rapier with a greater striking rune deals 2d8 extra piercing damage on a critical hit. An ability that changes the size of the weapon's normal damage dice doesn't change the size of its deadly die.
You can use this weapon to Disarm with the Athletics skill even if you don't have a free hand. This uses the weapon's reach (if different from your own) and adds the weapon's item bonus to attack rolls (if any) as an item bonus to the Athletics check. If you critically fail a check to Disarm using the weapon, you can drop the weapon to take the effects of a failure instead of a critical failure. On a critical success, you still need a free hand if you want to take the item.
You can use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls using this melee weapon. You still use your Strength modifier when calculating damage.
A character can invest only 10 magical items that have the invested trait. None of the magical effects of the item apply if the character hasn't invested it, nor can it be activated, though the character still gains any normal benefits from wearing the physical item (like a hat keeping rain off their head).
The target is made off-balance by your attack, becoming off-guard until the start of your next turn.