Protecting Crucial Magic Items

[Toptomcat]

I'm considering taking an Item Familiar for a fifteenth-level semi-arena game, and I'm concerned about it being stolen, sundered, or specifically targeted with spells such as shatterDetect Magic and so that Divination doesn't come up with a 'smash his teeth' result, which could be extremely painful as well as inconvenient)
Make it a cursed item, many of which can't be easily removed: the Cursed Sword -2 is of special note due to its inability to be 'gotten rid of' (a clause inclusive of theft, sundering and disjunction) short of Limited Wish, Wish, or Miracle, but is pretty problematic for anyone who's not a primary spellcaster.
Make it an Eye of Horus (Dragon 325)- a magic item that can go from a lens to a tattoo and back again, removable only by the will of the user or upon the user's death.
Dip Soulknife and make your Item Familiar the Legacy Weapon Mau-Jehe, which has the unique ability to be turned into your Mind Blade.  Congrats, you now have an Item familiar that can never be taken from you, never sundered, and can even be active in an AMF if you make the Will save.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

I just make it out of a -2 sword, cursed (specifically, a masterwork dragonfang one made of blue ice: -1 normal damage +1 sonic damage, -1 to hit).  Later on I add spellblade:limited wish, and then it can't be removed without a miracle or wish

[PhaedrusXY]

Make your item familiar one of the Teeth of Dahlver Nar set. Who's going to try to destroy your tooth?

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Make your item familiar one of the Teeth of Dahlver Nar set. Who's going to try to destroy your tooth?

That, and they're immune to being taken in a grapple

[spoiler]Because you can't handle the tooth.[/spoiler]

[Glutton]

FOUL! FOUL ON THE FIELD!

[Toptomcat]

I just make it out of a -2 sword, cursed (specifically, a masterwork dragonfang one made of blue ice: -1 normal damage +1 sonic damage, -1 to hit).  Later on I add spellblade:limited wish, and then it can't be removed without a miracle or wish

Hmmm. It may be a common houserule, it's how things worked in the old Infinity Engine D&D games we all know and love, it might well have been how things worked in 2nd Edition- but many cursed items in 3.5, including the -2 Sword, don't actually have that 'not removable by means other than Remove Curse' language that we seem to have gotten ourselves used to as boilerplate for every possible cursed item: they seem to pack their punch by being functional versions of actual items with significant drawbacks, concealing their cursedness and pretending to be normal, useful magic items, or having an instantaneous negative effect when donned.
Notable exceptions include Boots of Dancing, Bracers of Defenselessness, a Cloak of Poisonousness, Gauntlets of Fumbling, the Periapt of Foul Rotting, and a Stone of Weight. Of these the Cloak of Poisonousness appears to be the best option: if you can contrive to reliably make the initial DC 28 Fortitude save against instant difficult-to-ressurect death- which is a tall order but manageable, most simply by being somehow permanently immune to poison- then it stays on until remove curse is cast despite the fact that it doesn't have any continuous effects, negative or positive.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

The sword can be gotten rid of only by means of limited wish, wish, or miracle.

Remove curse ain't doing shit.

[Toptomcat]

...wubba brbrbl. I skimmed right over that. It must be late- time for bed.

[Gavinfoxx]

Did anyone ever come up with a list of all the hardening spells / options / tools / treatments / etc.?

I vaguely remember a post I made back on WotC boards which figured out how to get an item's hardness into the 70s or something...

[Aharon]

Make it a legacy item for high saves - +20 on all of them. Also helps with hit points, I think.

Slightly cheesy: About everything can be used as improvised weapon, which makes it eligible for Greater Magic Weapon, so it gets better Hardness and Hitpoints.

Magic Aura also goes the other way - you can give your items overpowering, artifact level auras. This goes in the same vein as its above-mentioned use - make your non-crucial items look far more important than they are.

[irpadre]

[snakeman830]

This is kind of a unique move, but dip Soulknife for a level.  Yeah, it has no synergy with whatever you were doing, but if you really want your Item familiar to be invincible, it's worth it.

Now, grab the Legacy Weapon Mau-Jehe.  This isn't actually a bad weapon (has two of the best Legacy powers in the game), but is also the perfect price to be both a Legacy Item and your Item Familiar.  It also has the unique ability to be turned into your Mind Blade.  Congrats, you now have an Item familiar that can never be taken from you, never sundered, and can even be active in an AMF if you make the Will save.

[PhaedrusXY]

This is kind of a unique move, but dip Soulknife for a level.  Yeah, it has no synergy with whatever you were doing, but if you really want your Item familiar to be invincible, it's worth it.

Now, grab the Legacy Weapon Mau-Jehe.  This isn't actually a bad weapon (has two of the best Legacy powers in the game), but is also the perfect price to be both a Legacy Item and your Item Familiar.  It also has the unique ability to be turned into your Mind Blade.  Congrats, you now have an Item familiar that can never be taken from you, never sundered, and can even be active in an AMF if you make the Will save.

Wow. Finally a use for soulknife. 

[snakeman830]

This is kind of a unique move, but dip Soulknife for a level.  Yeah, it has no synergy with whatever you were doing, but if you really want your Item familiar to be invincible, it's worth it.

Now, grab the Legacy Weapon Mau-Jehe.  This isn't actually a bad weapon (has two of the best Legacy powers in the game), but is also the perfect price to be both a Legacy Item and your Item Familiar.  It also has the unique ability to be turned into your Mind Blade.  Congrats, you now have an Item familiar that can never be taken from you, never sundered, and can even be active in an AMF if you make the Will save.

Wow. Finally a use for soulknife. 

Yeah, it really is about it (although Soulbow is still a pretty good PrC).

[Toptomcat]

All right. I've gotten a lot of great Item Familiar-specific advice, including more than one suggestion that makes the problem almost entirely moot: but what about other vital items, like spellbooks, fighter-types' weapons and armor, and Haversacks? Surely there's more we can do in that optimization space.

Wasn't there some kind of shrunken-head guardian in one of the Completes that screams if an item's being taken away from you, with an upgrade that has a shit Fort DC to stun the thief?

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Didn't races of the dragon have rules about trapped weapons?

Because kobolds are dicks.