Artifacts

These are the most potent of magical Items. A character can buy these with character points. They are usually ancient and powerful. They are always mostly indestructible. If the character does permanently lose the effect he should get his points back. These items are often more than simple enchanted items. They have a past and fate of their own. The character may just be passing thru the story of the artifact. The Item may have a dark agenda or a noble purpose that it intends to have the character help obtain. If a character manages to find an artifact, he may spend the points to bind his story with the items or he may just use it. If the character doesn't use it at least add the cost of the item to the characters point total when determining difficulty of the character. An unbound artifact may quickly change hands looking for a more "worthy" host. Artifacts can not usually be exchanged for money.

Abilities

Intelligence and Drive

All artifacts have a purpose for which they exist. In the simpler ones this is just a subtle drive. In the more intelligent artifacts this drive filtered thru the alien nature of their minds results in what appears as unusual behavior. It should be treated as all artifacts have an obsession as listed in the Karma and Insanity Rules. Most artifacts have no way of sensing or interacting with the world around them and experience thru a linked user. This can also further warp their view of the world. For dividing skill points treat the artifact as a devotee and have all Wil based saves at maximum(level+1).

Intelligence Kno Cun Pre Wil Communication Level Skills Drive Cost
Minimal 0 0 0 5 Warmth/Chills 0 0 Candid 0
Animal 1 1 5 6 Empathy 3 30 Any Means 5
Low 3 3 6 7 Empathy 4 40 Candid 8
Human 7 6 7 8 Telepathy 5 50 Insistent 10
Divine 10 9 10 12 Telepathy 5 50 Any Means 8

Drive

Candid

The artifact will use what communication it has to give the user a sense of how it feels about the actions it is taking. It will only revoke powers in the case of the most blatant violations of its goals.

Insistent

The artifact will actively try to convince the user to take actions in line with the artifact's purpose. It may be quite chatty. It will only revoke powers in the case of blatant violations of its goals.

Any Means

The artifact views the user only as a tool to get to its goals. It will use any means at its disposal (trickery, power revocation, mind control) to keep the user in line. A user may use persuasion, intimidation, authority etc. to try to keep the artifact in line.

Magic formulary

This a book of magic potion recipes or spell scrolls. This is a great way to kick start a wizard's spell knowledge. Work with the GM to find what effects are available.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Cost
20 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10
20 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12
20 6 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14
20 6 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16
20 7 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 18
20 7 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20
20 7 4 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 22
20 7 4 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 24
20 8 4 4 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 26
20 8 4 4 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 28
20 8 4 4 4 4 2 0 0 0 0 30
20 8 4 4 4 4 4 0 0 0 0 32
20 9 4 4 4 4 4 2 0 0 0 34
20 9 4 4 4 4 4 4 0 0 0 36
20 9 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 0 0 38
20 9 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 0 0 40
20 10 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 0 42
20 10 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 0 44
20 10 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 46
20 10 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 48

Mystic Battery

The mystic battery holds power for later use. This allows stockpiling PSI for later use or even saving life energy for another character. Each battery has a maximum capacity and a type of energy it can store (Karma, HP, Positive PSI or Negative PSI). A user may use energy from the artifact in place of their own.

Cost = Karma Capacity * 2
or 
Cost = HP Capacity / 2
or
Cost = PSI Capacity

Magic Tool, Focus or Weapon

Bonus Cost
+1 10
+2 40
+3 90
+4 160
+5 250
+6 360
+7 490
+8 640
+9 810
+10 1000

Spell Effect (3 per day or 10 minute cool down)

Cost = (Spell DC - 15) / 2  : minimum 1.

Psychic or Karma Feat

Artifacts that grant a psychic or karma feat, should also grant all the prerequisite feats, at a cost of 5 per feat granted this way. If an artifact is to use an ability on its own it must have a mystic battery PSI or karma pool or make use of the user's PSI or karma pool, and have the appropriate skills involved.

Other feats as appropriate

If the GM wants to allow other feats as well. Use the same rules as Psychic and Karma feats.

Magic Weapon Powers

Transformation

Some artifacts can Transform a character who is fully bonded to the item. The transformation is a free action. Transformation back leaves the character dazed for 1 round, and unable to transform back for 2d6 rounds. See ??Combat Forms for more details.

Soul Containers

A fairly common artifact among powerful necromancers. The soul containers holds a character's soul to allow manipulation. A soul container can be either open or closed. An open soul container can be used to grant immortality. As the soul will be able to remotely control its body, though the body will eventually lose its ability to heal naturally and start to take on undead like qualities. An open soul container can be used to command the body linked to it, the soul inside may fight for control as an intelligent item would. The creator of the soul container gets a +5 bonus to any contest for control. A closed soul container is more common as it disconnects the soul from its body allowing the necromancer to store the soul for later use without the pesky control issues. Any soul container can be used as a mystic battery directly tapping into a contained character's PSI, HP or Karma. The contained soul no longer regenerates these points naturally and the soul will be destroyed when any is completely drained. A character killed this way cannot be brought back to life. A smashed soul container releases the soul, severing the link to the body, killing it. There are rituals for returning a soul to its body.

Note Any use of a soul container except to release souls is an inherently evil act, causing Karma loss for any good path characters.

The body of a character in a soul container takes on some interesting qualities. When not commanded it will enter a fairly normal seeming coma state. Otherwise, it will seem normal. It will however continue to function as normal down to negative HP equal to twice End. Once the body falls below 0 hit points it is dead and no longer heals on its own. It now requires negative energy to heal as an undead. Time may also cause the body to die. If it doesn't eat it will die. As time progresses the body requires more and more similar food to keep alive. Below is a table for a human body over time. A body that has died may be restored by consuming something live from two food categories higher. So a 75 year lich would need to eat humanoids to keep there body alive and blood relatives to restore it if it becomes dead. It is usually easier to just learn the magic to maintain a negative energy body.

Separated Soul Food
< 20 Years Normal Food
< 40 Years Only Mammals
< 80 Years Humanoids
< 150 Years Humans
< 300 Years Blood Relatives

Examples

Tyrfing

Excaliber

Mjolnir