Are there rules for crafting artifacts?

[JoeYounger]

I'm not seeing any, but I figure a forums worth of eyes is better than two right?




Thanks,

Explo

[Emperor Tippy]

Deities can do it. Those are the only rules for creating artifacts iirc.

[JoeYounger]

bummer, lol.

thx!

[Gavinfoxx]

The thing is, you don't generally NEED artifacts to do stuff. A lot of artifacts are really, really, really weak. The thing that makes an artifact an artifact is that it just happens to not follow the normal rules for what magic items can do -- it doesn't have to be powerful.

What is the story effect that you need the item to accomplish? Not 'what will the item do and how will it do it', but what BIG thing needs to happen as a course of the powers of this item?

[Aidan305]

An artifact (aka McGuffin) is pretty much anything a GM decides to call an artifact. Given the widely varying levels of power that's pretty much all it means. If you want to craft something immensely powerful, have a chat with your GM and work out with him how much it'll cost.

[JoeYounger]

Yeah, more or less I was hoping to cause some fun with my shiny new deck of many things :P

[Gavinfoxx]

So you want to craft something to create chaos in the game and campaign? That is all you want to do?

[JoeYounger]

Lol, you say create chaos like Im intending it to disrupt our campaign.

We've had the deck several times before, and they've always been fun sessions. I'm not looking to use it to piss anyone off, or ruin anyones game play, but it would be fun to add a bit of randomness to the session in a way that only that deck can.

[Gavinfoxx]

I thought the Deck of Many Things was the item specifically designed to END campaigns, though? It's something you get and then the DM retcons you ever getting that, or you get and it ends the campaign, or the last day of the campaign, the DM writes it in, so you don't care what you get? It is a totally disruptive campaign ender, far more than the other artifacts. The only RATIONAL thing to do with it, unless a divination can work on the blasted thing, is not to draw a single card and lock it away...

[JoeYounger]

I thought the Deck of Many Things was the item specifically designed to END campaigns, though? It's something you get and then the DM retcons you ever getting that, or you get and it ends the campaign, or the last day of the campaign, the DM writes it in, so you don't care what you get? It is a totally disruptive campaign ender, far more than the other artifacts. The only RATIONAL thing to do with it, unless a divination can work on the blasted thing, is not to draw a single card and lock it away...

Nah, last time we all drew at least 3, and one guy drew 12.

Most of the stuff is able to be mitigated, or if not, the benefits of the pros outweigh the negatives of the cons.

We've never had a campaign that was ended from drawing from it.

[HunterOfJello]

In Forgotten Realms, it's mentioned that some of the Nether Scrolls may have knowledge on them about how to create Artifacts. Getting the full knowledge would require reading a full chapter of 10 specific Nether Scrolls.

If you're a DM, then setting up an adventure where the high level PCs seek out one Nether Scroll after another to find the secret of creating Artifacts could be a fun plot.