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Artifacts/Relics |
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Notes Regarding Artifacts
and Relics: Each artifact or relic is a singular
thing of potent powers and possibly strange
side effects as well. Regardless
of how any of these items come into your
campaign, only 1 of each
may exist. As each is placed by you or
found by PCs, you
must draw a line through its listing on
the table to indicate it can no longer
be discovered randomly - if the dice indicate
an item no longer available,
you may substitute a clue as to its whereabouts
or simply ignore the
result so that no magic item is found
at all.
Because of the unique nature of each artifact
and relic, their powers are
only partially described. You, the DM,
must at least decide
what the major powers of each item are
to be. This prevents players from
gaining any knowledge of these items,
even if they happen to own or read
a copy of this volume, and i t also makes
each artifact and relic distinct from campaign
to campaign.
Those artifacts and relics which you bring
into play should be so carefully
guarded by location and warding devices
and monsters that recovery of
any one is an undertaking of such magnitude
that only very powerful
characters, in concert, and after lengthy
attempts have any chance whatsoever
of attaining one. Naturally, each artifact
and relic might have a
body of rumors, tales, and other lore.
Discovery of such information should
not be by chance. Minor clues may be placed,
but any extensive oral or
written information must be sought out
and obtained only after considerable
expenditure of time and money, if at all.
Please note that you need not use any or
all of the artifacts and/or relics
here. If you prefer, you may rename those
in your campaign to suit a
particular mythos, or you may devise your
own entirely. But any creation
by you must be done so as to maintain
the item in balance with the game
as a whole - and this goes for assignment
of powers with respect to any
of these items, too! A super-weapon is
certain to blast the whole campaign
to smithereens, unless it is given proper
limitations (and also a nemesis
creature in some cases).
At the end of the descriptions of artifacts
and relics are 5 tables which list
the various powers and side effects of
these items. Each item is described
with only a few of its attributes, and
its other characteristics are mentioned
with respect to the number of each power
or effect from the appropriate
table, i.e. each item has several powers
ond/or effects you must select and
record in your copy of this book. Players
can know virtually nothing about
any powers and effects of any artifact
or relic. These must be discovered
by them through experimentation by their
characters, legends, legend
lore, etc.
If a player refuses to risk his or her
character when an item is discovered,
preferring to ollow some hireling
|or| henchman to hazard the trial and
error process necessary, the character
given the item or ordered to
determine its powers and effects will
certainly do one of the following
things:
1 . If the character
is evil, he or she will destroy, or at least escape
from, the player character once the artifact or relic abilities are
known to the character.
2. If the character
is neutral and neither good nor evil otherwise, he or
she will use the powers of the artifact or relic to dominate and
control his or her former employer/master or mistress, destroying
him or her if threatened.
3. If the character
is good, he or she will realize that his or her
employer/master or mistress acted in a most evil fashion by giving/
forcing upon him or her the artifact or relic; so the character
will use every wile to escape the player character and take the item
along to give to his or her religious leaders or other suzerain. (And,
of course, this character will never again associate with the player
character in question.)
All hirelings
&& henchmen of a player character
foisting off on artifact or
relic in such manner will have a drop
in loyalty of 10%-30% if the character
having the item is permanently harmed
or killed.
All artifacts and relics are of such power
that they are virtually impervious
to harm - magical or physical. Some predate
the known gods, and others
were formed by the gods. Typically, each
can only be destroyed by a
single means. A table after those of powers
and effects gives a sampling
of the various means suggested. Any character
attempting to destroy an
artifact or relic by disassembling its
parts, removing a portion, or similarly
defacing it must usually save versus magic
at -5; failure equals death.
Many of these items tend to make their
possessor reclusive, secretive,
arrogant, and/or greedy. These effects
are best to handle through manipulation
of the player by means of powers, non-player
characters, etc.
Finally, whatever befalls the possessor
of an artifact or relic, or the effects
he or she causes by use of the prime powers
(or even the major powers in
some cases), is permanent and usually
irreversible by the most powerful
of spells- including wishes, for example
- or even bydeities. Exception:
A deity who created the item, or one which
can fully control it, may (at
your option) be able to reverse effects
of some powers.
ADQ: Can a low-level
character (5th or
less) use a relic or artifact,
if found?
ADA: Yes. There are
no level limits on
the use of the artifacts
in the DMG.
However, the side effects
might destroy
a low-level character quickly.
In addition,
a high level character or
NPC will
probably show up soon, seeking
the
artifact, if word of its
discovery or use
gets out.
(Polyhedron #12)
ADQ: At what level
of ability does an
artifact function?
ADA: Most artifacts
function at 20th level
unless noted otherwise.
In high campaigns,
the DM may (and probably
should) modify
this upward (probably to
25 or 30).
(Polyhedron #24)
ADQ: What happens
when 2 artifacts
collide? Can the Sword of
Kas be stopped
by the Invulnerable Coat
of Arnd? Would
Excalibur or Stormbringer
be stopped?
ADA: As a general
guideline, all defensive
absolutes take precedence
over all offensive
effects. Attacks are rarely,
if ever, given
absolute powers. If the
effects are nevertheless
utterly at odds and not
resolvable by
other means, both artifacts
may either
teleport away from the reality
conflict to a
random location, or may
rupture normal
space-time, causing both
(and possibly all
things nearby**) to be lost
in vortices of
nilspace.
** "Nearby" could be measured
in any units, at the DM's option -- from inches to light years.)
(Polyhedron #25)
ADQ: Will an artifact
function in an anti-magick shell?
ADA: Yes. Though
many artifacts produce
"normal" spell powers, they
themselves are
far beyond the influence
of any such. Note
that deities are likewise
beyond mere "mortal
magick".
(Polyhedron #25)
ADQ: Can lejend lore
be used to hunt
down the location of an
artifact? Will it
tell of any of its powers?
What about a
wish?
ADA: Lejend lore
can be used to gain
information about an artifact,
but read the
spell description with care.
Powers may be
hinted at, in an exceedingly
obscure manner.
A wish may be used to duplicate
the
lejend lore effect, with
slightly better
results.
(Polyhedron #25)
ADQ:
Do Johydee's Mask and Queen
Ehlissa's
Marvelous Nightingale give the
possessors protection against
true sight?
The Nightingale "throws
forth a protective
sphere, preventing detection,
or magickal
(or psionic) intrusion in
a 30'
radius*. Does this mean
that there is
effectively an anti-magick
shell around the
Nightingale; or that within
a barrier of
30' magick does not function,
but rather <check 30'>
inside it does; or something
else? Can
someone CAST out of this
protective
sphere? What if the possessor
is psionically
endowed? Will his psionics
function
inside of the sphere and
beyond?
ADA: The Mask blocks
mental attacks of
all sorts, but does not
inhibit the user's
abilities in this regard.
The Nightingale
sphere of protection is
exactly that, again
not interfering with the
user in any way.
These artifact effects are
NOT like those of
any spell or other magick
item.
(Polyhedron #25)
* Page 160, AD&D..DMG.
* These items bring no experience points.
Darius wrote:
Then why were their artifacts
in AD&D if you do not like having them in a campaign?
Two simple reasons:
To furnish potent magical things for the use of unbeatable NPCs.
Because of demand by Monty Hall DMs to supply their power-gaming munchkins.
Do note that Brian Blume was the main creator od many of the latter sort of artifacts.
Gary
Stormcrow wrote:
Also note that artifacts
were designed so that the referee chose its powers. There was a problem
at the time of players memorizing the powers of all the magic items in
the game, and this was one way to combat it...
I did create an Artifact
for son Luke's PC after that worthy had gone through severe tests.
I told him to that if he
found a needle in a haystack in an hour's time thet Zagyg would reward
him with a special weapon.
Durned if the lad didn't
burn the hay and find the "needle" easily.
Thus that PC came into possession
of the Spear of Zagyg. It is a needle until drawn forth from fabric and
commanded to become a weapon.
A d8 is rolled and the weapon
size and plus is determined thus.
Somehow. though, a +8 pike
is not the favored result 
Cheerio,
Gary
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoffrey
Gary, in the artifacts and
relics section of your DMG, you mention several evocative names of various
locations. A few of them I recognize out of mythology, but many of them
leave me scratching my head. Did you make these up, or did you take them
from mythology and/or weird fiction? If it's not too much trouble, would
you be able to tell me the sources for these?
the Well of Time
the Earth Wound
Adonais' Deep (Shelley's
Adonais, stanza III?)
the Spring of Eternity
Marion's Trench (Is this
the Mariana Trench?)
the Living Stone
Mountain of Thunder
the Tree of the Universe
(Is this Yggdrasil?)
the Cornerstone of the World
Artur's Dolmen
the Juggernaut of the Endless
Labyrinth
the Ray of Eternal Shrinking
the Well of Life (Is this
the Fountain of Youth?)
the River of Flame
Short answer here 
I made them up, although a few were inspired by things I had read, such as Yggdrasil being the model for the Tree of Universe. To be specific would have chained DMs to my thinking. As writtem this empowers DMs to have those locations be where, and possibly what, best suits their campaign.
Now it is cocktail time 
Cheers,
Gary
Quote:
Originally Posted by the
black knight
Hey Gary,
Once again, thanks for your responses. I found them quite insightful.
If you don't mind, I'd like to pick your brain on the subject of magic items and artifacts. How many artifacts have you introduced into your campaigns over the years? Have any had a detrimental effect upon the campaign? Do you regret introducing such an item?
Welcome of course.
As I recall only one minor artifact was introduced to in my campaign. Son Luke's PC discovered it when he met a deadline for finding a needle in a haystack by burning the latter. He thus gained the Spear of Zagig. When the pin was held and commanded to become a weapon a d8 was rolled, the result determining the weapon and its attack bous, with 1 being a +1 dagger, 2 a +2 short sword, all the way to a +8 pike.
This was a most humerous
artifact from the DM perspective, and I never regretted adding it to the
campaign.
Quote:
Originally Posted by the
black knight
Lastly, how do you feel
about characters creating their own magic items? Does that remove the excitement
of discovering such magic? Does it better facilitate characters in the
long run? Should it be reletively easy the way it has become of late?
Curious,
the black knight
Mages of over 20th level
cancreate their own magic items, as they are not going to be adventuring
in the campaign, nor handing them out to
PC that are doing so. Mordenkainen and Bigby stay home and forge and concont
such things. they will smetmes trade their work for one or more other magic
items that are more valuable.
You want a particular magic
item PC, you can not buy it ir make it! Go out and quest to find it. That
is a part of the RPG form now isn't it?