Crothian
First Post
Artifacts of Legend
There has been a few different ways of balancing out artifacts. Artifacts either never seem to have enough power being out shined by simple magical items. Or there is a cost that is just too cumbersome and too steep for most players to want to bother with them. Artifacts of Legend takes another approach to these items of marvel.
Artifacts of Legend is written by Robert Wheater and it is published as a PDF from Mindforge Games. The PDF comes in an on screen version as well as a version to be printed out. There is a very cool cover in full color done by Les Edwards. There are many interior illustrations done by Mark Allen. The art and layout of the book really do a nice job of making the feel of these artifacts truly grand. The PDF has very nice selections of book marks as well.
Artifacts of Legend is a book all about legendary artifacts. These are powerful magical items that can be given to characters at low levels as the power of the items grow with the character. The character places experience into the item to unlock new powers as the character gains levels. Some items have powers that can go up to tenth level and the most powerful of them go all the way to thirtieth level. There are not new abilities revealed at each level. Some it is possible the character will invest experience and nothing new will happen. There are occasions when that will happen for two consecutive levels and that may frustrate a player as they would invested a few thousand experience or more at that point and not much new is happening. There are also artifact stigmas that get unlocked. These are drawbacks the legendary artifacts have and serve as an additional cost.
One area the book excels out is creativity. There are fourteen legendary artifacts in the book and each are very well described. Each has a unique name is full described. All have non legendary statistics. This is how the item appears when it is not bonded to a person and has additional powers. It is its base abilities basically. There are requirements listed for what one needs to bond with the legendary artifact and be able to use it more effectively and have its power grow. All legendary artifacts are intelligent items in their own right. There attributes for intelligence, wisdom, and charisma are listed as well as the skills they have and what they are at. There are also assisted skills. These are skill the legendary artifact can assist the character on and what bonus the artifact gives that character for those skills. Each artifact can also communicate with their owner in different ways. The history of the items is where the creativity really shows forth. And again there is much creativity with the powers and stigmas of each item.
There are no tables or rules for creating items. The powers of each item seem tailored specifically to it and do not seem like they are generic off of a randomly rolled table. Some of the powers are a bit more mundane like the enchantment bonus increasing or the gaining of powers listed in the DMG. But they seem to really fit together rather well. It is really nice that they took that approach to the legendary artifacts and gives them a very good feel. But it also makes it so there are no rules or easily followed guidelines for a DM to create his own. I would have liked to have seen a bit on using the legendary artifacts in the book as examples and talk a bit about how more can be created.
In addition to the legendary artifacts there are some basic game mechanics in the book like feats, skill uses, and prestige classes. The feats are ways of taking advantage of the legendary artifacts and using them with greater ability. Some of the feats need revised to make a little more sense. One of the worst is artifact power attack. It allows half the damage dealt to ignore damage reduction, but the other half does not. There are some very nice feats like Legendary Leadership which gives a bonus in combat to ones followers as they are inspired by the legendary artifact.
There are two prestige classes. Steward of Legend is a character that has taken an oath to never bond with an artifact. They are served with the duty of finding someone worth while to accept the artifact they carry. It is very interesting class with many cool ways to use it on a campaign as a PC or NPC is carrying around an item of great power they have taken an oath to never really take advantage of that power. The other class is the Artifact Thrall. This is a person that is at the mercy of the artifact and its goals. It can be a willing person who gladly does so to serve a cause of good or evil. Or it could be someone who just was not strong enough to resist the weapon. It is also a class that has some very cool role playing potential.
Artifacts of Legend is a nice collection of new and interesting powerful items. The experience cost and the stigmas serve as a nice balancing factor for the power though not everyone likes that type of cost. This is not the answer that will make everyone happy but it does a good job for the people that do not mind the way the mechanics work. Even if one dislikes those mechanics the history and the items themselves is nicely done and should be able to be used with whatever artifact rules ones likes.
There has been a few different ways of balancing out artifacts. Artifacts either never seem to have enough power being out shined by simple magical items. Or there is a cost that is just too cumbersome and too steep for most players to want to bother with them. Artifacts of Legend takes another approach to these items of marvel.
Artifacts of Legend is written by Robert Wheater and it is published as a PDF from Mindforge Games. The PDF comes in an on screen version as well as a version to be printed out. There is a very cool cover in full color done by Les Edwards. There are many interior illustrations done by Mark Allen. The art and layout of the book really do a nice job of making the feel of these artifacts truly grand. The PDF has very nice selections of book marks as well.
Artifacts of Legend is a book all about legendary artifacts. These are powerful magical items that can be given to characters at low levels as the power of the items grow with the character. The character places experience into the item to unlock new powers as the character gains levels. Some items have powers that can go up to tenth level and the most powerful of them go all the way to thirtieth level. There are not new abilities revealed at each level. Some it is possible the character will invest experience and nothing new will happen. There are occasions when that will happen for two consecutive levels and that may frustrate a player as they would invested a few thousand experience or more at that point and not much new is happening. There are also artifact stigmas that get unlocked. These are drawbacks the legendary artifacts have and serve as an additional cost.
One area the book excels out is creativity. There are fourteen legendary artifacts in the book and each are very well described. Each has a unique name is full described. All have non legendary statistics. This is how the item appears when it is not bonded to a person and has additional powers. It is its base abilities basically. There are requirements listed for what one needs to bond with the legendary artifact and be able to use it more effectively and have its power grow. All legendary artifacts are intelligent items in their own right. There attributes for intelligence, wisdom, and charisma are listed as well as the skills they have and what they are at. There are also assisted skills. These are skill the legendary artifact can assist the character on and what bonus the artifact gives that character for those skills. Each artifact can also communicate with their owner in different ways. The history of the items is where the creativity really shows forth. And again there is much creativity with the powers and stigmas of each item.
There are no tables or rules for creating items. The powers of each item seem tailored specifically to it and do not seem like they are generic off of a randomly rolled table. Some of the powers are a bit more mundane like the enchantment bonus increasing or the gaining of powers listed in the DMG. But they seem to really fit together rather well. It is really nice that they took that approach to the legendary artifacts and gives them a very good feel. But it also makes it so there are no rules or easily followed guidelines for a DM to create his own. I would have liked to have seen a bit on using the legendary artifacts in the book as examples and talk a bit about how more can be created.
In addition to the legendary artifacts there are some basic game mechanics in the book like feats, skill uses, and prestige classes. The feats are ways of taking advantage of the legendary artifacts and using them with greater ability. Some of the feats need revised to make a little more sense. One of the worst is artifact power attack. It allows half the damage dealt to ignore damage reduction, but the other half does not. There are some very nice feats like Legendary Leadership which gives a bonus in combat to ones followers as they are inspired by the legendary artifact.
There are two prestige classes. Steward of Legend is a character that has taken an oath to never bond with an artifact. They are served with the duty of finding someone worth while to accept the artifact they carry. It is very interesting class with many cool ways to use it on a campaign as a PC or NPC is carrying around an item of great power they have taken an oath to never really take advantage of that power. The other class is the Artifact Thrall. This is a person that is at the mercy of the artifact and its goals. It can be a willing person who gladly does so to serve a cause of good or evil. Or it could be someone who just was not strong enough to resist the weapon. It is also a class that has some very cool role playing potential.
Artifacts of Legend is a nice collection of new and interesting powerful items. The experience cost and the stigmas serve as a nice balancing factor for the power though not everyone likes that type of cost. This is not the answer that will make everyone happy but it does a good job for the people that do not mind the way the mechanics work. Even if one dislikes those mechanics the history and the items themselves is nicely done and should be able to be used with whatever artifact rules ones likes.
