Death Knife

This sinister instrument can appear to be a bladeless knife, but it is more often disguised as something more innocent such as a case for a comb or spectacles or quill pen, a tool of some sort, etc. The disguise will not fool any close inspection, however. The blade of the knife is within a barrel inside the handle and is spring-loaded. The knife is triggered by pressing a catch on the handle; the blade shoots forward with considerable force. The weapon does the same damage as a normal dagger, although one point of damage is added for a first strike when the blade is triggered.

The obvious advantage of the death knife is its capacity for surprise. Since it doesn't look like a weapon until the blade is sprung, a victim can be taken totally off guard by its use. If the target does not realize a blow is coming and the thief manages to get the weapon close to the body of the victim so that a lunge can be made with it, any strike is treated as a backstab, with standard hit and damage bonuses, given the surprise element. A backstab is not always literally a stab in the back!

An envenomed death knife in the hands of a skilled assassin is an extremely dangerous weapon, and the DM may wish to rule that since the blade has to be concealed for some time before a strike there is a 25% (or higher) chance that the poison will have dripped from the blade before the assassin strikes with it.