Tome of Artifacts

[Kaed]

Any of you heard or perhaps also possess this sourcebook? It feels pretty third-party what with it having the occational typo and being in black and white, but it's still a really nifty book!

For those unfamiliar, it's a book dedicated entirely to those wonderful magical items created by gods or ancient wizards that surpass normal 'mortal' creations.

I was particularly interested in mentioning it here because while rereading it again I discovered that two of the example artifact articles were written by Rich Burlew! Specifically the Lucky Coin and Una's Shield, two of my favorites in there beside the World Tree.

I would recommend checking out this book to anyone, and not just because it has a couple of Burlew articles in it.

Anyone who does have it, got any stories to share about implementing one of the artifacts in the book or one you created with the help of it? :D

[Deimess]

I have and use the Tome of Artifacts :smallbiggrin: thought I was one of the only ones haha thanks for posting this.

I absolutely love the roll-up-your-own artifact creator and had hours of fun with that, and the story for the Lucky Coin is hilarious. (World Tree is awesome btw)

PLUS! The campaign I am DMing right now revolves around the perfect pairing of the Amulet of the False God and the Fang of the Devil Tigers :smallsmile:

Basically, an orc has come into possession of the amulet and rallied thousands of troops to conquer the world against their wills. The players have gone in search of the dagger as the only hope of stopping him. I think it's going pretty well, and love the overall idea and purpose of the book. I can see myself using other artifacts as well, for I like the idea of a campaign circling around an object that can ALWAYS be more powerful than the players can ever get.

[Kaed]

The Amulet of the False God is really tricky to use in a campaign though. It requires not only that the characters don't know, but that the PLAYERS don't either. Since the entire 'power' of the artifact is a trick it's pretty easy for anyone who bothers to check whether the 'god' is legit or not.

Una's Shield and the Lucky Coin are particularly fun though, I think, because they can fit into pretty much any campaign. The former would probably first be found in just a ring or the buckler form... though I've always wanted to do a game where using the Sap of the World Tree was required to save the world.

Though putting the King's Pepper Grinder into one would also be fun :>

[Deimess]

did you notice that the King's Pepper Grinder is the only artifact without a consequences section?



... though I've always wanted to do a game where using the Sap of the World Tree was required to save the world.

ME TOO! It would be the most epic campaign ever haha

Minor rant: another reason why I like this book is because it gives the DM the tools to ultimate power. By this I mean that it defines an artifact better than any other book. I have heard many stories of parties of characters loaded down with Pelor's Mace and Vecna's pinky toe or Boccob's Staff or whatever, and the DM complains about the party being unbeatable. The reasons I like artifacts are because the DM can make them as powerful as they want.

There is no party too powerful that a good trap or artifact can't bring down.

I'm not suggesting the best way to deal with such a thing is by slaughtering players, but I just like the way they were intended to work.

[Kaed]

Well to be fair, the King's Pepper Grinder is a pretty low-tier artifact, more unique in its abilities than powerful. Everything it does is below CR10, though it's political value could arguably be higher.

Also, destroying it is really easy, you can do it with stuff you find in a common store, for less than 1gp ;l

Though I wonder what the pepper tree you can grow it into would be able to do...

[Thurbane]

Yeah, I've got Tome of Artifacts. Some of the stuff in it is really nice and well written, but it does suffer a little from poor editing and/or lack of system knowledge in a few places.

[Kaed]

Lack of system knowledge? I didn't notice that, what do you mean?

[Randomguy]

After reading the the Horn of the Archangel and the Holocaust stone, I feel that someone can make a campaign where the villains want to destroy the multi-verse (Maybe to free Thraizdun? Just homebrew him from 4E to 3.5) by using the apocalypse effect on the demi-plane "The Black". It should work, since the demi-plane can cause disasters by even brushing up against another plane. Imagine the destruction if it was destroyed.

[herrhauptmann]

After reading the the Horn of the Archangel and the Holocaust stone, I feel that someone can make a campaign where the villains want to destroy the multi-verse (Maybe to free Thraizdun? Just homebrew him from 4E to 3.5) by using the apocalypse effect on the demi-plane "The Black". It should work, since the demi-plane can cause disasters by even brushing up against another plane. Imagine the destruction if it was destroyed.

Umm, Tharizdun is the real name of the Elder Elemental Eye. You know, the cause of the problems in the Temple of Elemental Evil.