Artifacts of Legend

[Cabral]

After reading Doom3524's thread about Excalibur, I decided I wanted create some stats for various artifacts of legend. There are a few that I know of and I'll post my writeups here, but if anyone has some suggestions, please let me know.

As a note: The books I have available (the ones with item abilities and spells) are (in spoiler block for space reasons ):
[sblock]Arms and Equipment Guide, Book of Erotic Fantasy, Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Complete Divine, Complete Warrior, Draconomicon, DMG, Dungeon Master's Guide II, Eberron Campaign Setting, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Faiths and Pantheons, Forgotten realms Campaign Setting, Magic of Faerun, Oriental Adventures, Player's Guide to Faerun, Player's Handbook, Races of Faerun, Savage Species, Unearthed Arcana plus the 3.0 class books and some others I've forgotten.

Wow that's a long list.[/sblock]

Excalibur. The Sword in the Stone.
Alignment LG
Int 12
Wis 16
Cha 20
Ego +13
Speech (Common, Sylvan, Celestial)
Special Purpose: to rule Justly
Special Purpose Power: Excalibur may cast Zone of Truth. (this is kindo a weak ability. I was considering Dictum, but think that is too strong and too combat oriented.)
Excalibur has 10 ranks in Sense Motive and Diplomacy.
In all forms, Excalibur does not detect as magical.

False Excalibur (Artifact) - Excalibur with a non-magic blade. Treat as a +1 Holy Bastard Sword. Excalibur's Ego is 16. On the first confirmed critical hit, the blade shatters.

Lesser Excalibur (Artifact) - Excalibur's time in the stone has weakened it. Treat as a +2 Keen, Holy, Adamantine Bastard Sword, Excalibur may detect evil or chaos at will. Excalibur's Ego is 20. On the first confirmed critical hit, the blade shatters.

True Excalibur (Artifact) - The Lady of the Lake has reforged Excalibur. Excalibur is treated as +5 Holy, Keen Bastard Sword. Exalibur is indestructable and ignores all damage reduction and hardness (treat as 2 greater powers). Excalibur can now cast Dictum as an additional special purpose power. Excalibur's Ego is now 29. Slaying a [Good] creature shatters Excalibur's blade. Should this happen, the wielder (or a potential wielder) must have an Atonement spell cast on them and the balde. Then they may request that The Lady of the Lake reforge the blade.

Excalibur should have a few miscelaneous utility powers. I had considered Righteous ability but I can't see why anyone would use it. (detect evil at will and +2 hit and damage verus evil creatures for a +4 equivelant bonus)

Scabbard of Life. The True Scabbard of Excalibur.
(Artifact)
The possessor of the scabbard has Fast Healing 2 and Regeneration. If the wielder already has Fast Healing, add the scabbard's value to the creature's. The wielder is also immune to energy drain, ability damage, and Death effects. Once per week the scabbard can cast True Ressurection on the wielder. This last ability triggers whenever the wielder dies, if the week's usage is available. The wielder is restored with full hit points. In addition, the scabbard itself is immune to damage and can alter it's shape to hold any weapon.

Lady of the Lake
The Lady of the Lake appears as a beautiful elf composed of purest water, dressed in exquisite finery. While submerged in water, The Lady is more than invisible and cannot be percieved by non-deific senses. The Lady can walk on the surface of the water or swim beneath it at will. The Lady never leaves the water.

Alternate description: The Lady of the Lake appears as a beautiful elf dressed in silvery armor under exquisite finery. While submerged in water, The Lady assumes a form of purest water and is more than invisible and cannot be percieved by non-deific senses. The Lady can walk on the surface of the water or swim beneath it at will. The Lady never leaves the water.

Female Quasi-Deity (Divine Rank 0)
Artificer 20 Medium Fey (Aquatic, Water, Extraplanar);

 

[Doom3524]

Wow, very good!!!

 

[Kisanji Arael]

What? a +3 Sword of sharpness isn't good enough for you whippersnappers? Bah.

But seriously... Good Job. This is awesome. If you're still looking for ideas on that spell, I think Break Enchantment would be about par for the course (wih a range of touch, that means that the sword could cut through enchantments). You really have done a good job on this. Gonna do more?

 

[Shadowbane2]

Those stats look great! One suggestion, I might add, for a special ability, perhaps allow that blade to use the "smite evil" ability at will? Simply emiting spells is great, but some powerful martial abilities would really help show just how much of a power weapon Excalibur really is. This is excalibur, after all, and it must be able to bring to bring down the evils of Mordred with one fell blow!

(I know that in the legend that inst exactly what happened, but you get the idea.)

 

[wuyanei]

How about a variation of vorpal: A natural 19 or 20 is automatically treated as a smite evil attack (as a 20th level paladin with Cha 20: +5 to the attack roll, +20 to damage). If the wielder also has the smite evil ability, the bonus damage (but not the bonus to the attack roll) stacks.

 

[Cabral]

I'm a bit busy with the holdisays and such, but I do intend to sporadicly update this.
1) I'll need to finish The Lady's stats. In addition I'll look inot other supplements for other spells.
2) I'll add more artifacts as I think of them/they are suggested. I'm planning on doing the Singing Sword and the Holy Grail (seperated from its Cristianness)

Please, please, list more artifacts and I'll see what I can do. I don't know of that many off the top of my head, and I'd like the list of artifacts to be really astounding.

 

[Shadowbane2]

This might be a little bit out of the blue, but how about doing El Cid's sword, Tizona? This was the mighty blade he weilded in the fictional epic, "Poem de mio El Cid"

(In reality, he carried a nondescript longsword which he used to smite both good and evil, but Tizona is an artifact of legend!)

 

[Shadowbane2]

Though not really a suggestion, I'd like to post the following stats for Mjolnir (From Dieties and Demigods)

Mjolnir (Artifact) - +5 Chaotic/Distance/Ghost Touch/Holy/Mighty/Cleaving/Returning/Thundering Warhammer

Special Abilities:

Weighs 2 tons*
4d8 base damage
Critical Hit Victims must make a fortitude save (DC 55) or become permanently deafened
Anyone not wearing Thor's special Gauntlents takes 4d8 points of constitution damage every round Mjolnir is held
(Thor himself can throw Mjolnir at any target he can see, reguardless of distance.)

*Thor's Belt (Artifact) - Doubles the user's stength score allowing him to (hopefully) carry and weild Mjolnir with ease.

 

[Shadowbane2]

For those who don't know, Aegis is the name of Zeus/Athena's legendary shield. The stat block (once again from dieties and demigods) looks like this:

Aegis (Artifact) - +5 Huge Fortified (Heavy) Steel Shield

Special Abitlities:
Bestows frightful presence on the weilder (All creatures within 10ft. of the weilder must make a will save (DC 50) or be frightened.

Athena also carries another shield when she is not using Aegis. It's stats are:

Athena's Shield (Artifact) - +5 Large Fortified (Moderate) Steel Shield

Special Abilities:
When activated, the shield makes one gaze attack every turn. Mortals within 150ft. must make a will save (DC 25) or be turned to stone. Athena can have the shield's power activate or deactivate as a free action.

However, for godly defenses these do seem rather weak...