When should artifacts appear

[Gildedragon]

Heya, I am aware the DMG says "at DM" discretion, but around which level ought one start introducing artifacts into the campaign. I've so far managed by steering clear of DMing artifacts, but I'd like to use them.

[BowStreetRunner]

Artifacts can honestly enter a game at any level whatsoever. The key is not to treat them merely as powerful magic items. An Artifact is, first and foremost, a DM plot device. Players should never really control them - the DM should always be the one truly controlling all artifacts in the game.

[Phelix-Mu]

Since artifacts should be closely connected to the plot, it really depends on plot usefulness.

Suppose you are running a game with lots of undead enemies everywhere, a gothic horror/Ravenloft-type place where it is quite dangerous to be alive. In such a campaign, introducing an artifact that grants multiple undead slaying spell-likes usable multiple times a day will be very useful, and will boost the effective level of the party. However, since there is a good plot reason for the undead to now hunt down and concentrate forces on killing the pcs, you can scale up the challenges accordingly.

If you want some kind of eyeballed ruling, I'd say that the party should be high enough to use/emulate the weakest power granted by the artifact (like be able to cast searing light normally if the weakest power of the above example is searing light 3/day), and between 5-7 levels from emulating the strongest power of the artifact. Again, just ballpark.

Just remember that if the artifact is going to be useful/influential in the outcome of encounters, then you need to increase the challenges. Too early on in the campaign will also tend to make the campaign primarily about the artifact(s), which may or may not be what you are looking for.

[Urpriest]

In general, PCs should only be actually using the artifacts for a few, climactic fights. The rest of the time should be spent seeking them, protecting them, seeking to destroy them, etc. Basically, treat artifacts like NPCs, not like equipment.

[Volthawk]

Well, in the game I play in, we got a depowered artefact (read: just a magic weapon) at level 3-4, and getting it back to its former glory was the hook that dragged us into the multiverse-affecting mess we're trying to deal with now (due to a deal with a relevant godess, it's currently acting like a legacy weapon, as it scales with my character - the wielder - as he levels, but without all that loss of hp and stuff).

[NichG]

My take is that usually artifacts should do something normally impossible by the rules (or at least difficult to attain otherwise), but not necessarily mechanically very powerful. Think of it this way - you have perhaps 3-7 PCs. That super-powerful +10-vs-undead sword can be used by one PC. That's less fun for the group than something that the entire party can discuss how to deploy, take turns using, or benefit from.

An example from my campaign is an item that creates a 10ft field of roll twice and take the better result. Including things like random encounter rolls, DM luck checks, loot generation, and the like. One person may carry it, but everyone else can make use of it too. It does increase the power of the party by quite a bit of course.

An example that doesn't really influence the power of the party but changes their ability to affect the world might be something like this. A pen that can both write and erase that, when used to edit a text, causes all copies of that text to simultaneously update. Useful for messing with infernal contracts, city laws, long distance communication, etc. But does it increase the party's CR? Not at all. You could give that to Lv1 or Lv20 characters and it won't change the combat part of the game.

[awa]

it depends on the nature of the artifact some artifacts are adventure facilitators. Say a magic item that made you immune to being perceived or attacked by a evil god and his top followers and directed you towards his one weakness. or an artifact that extinguish the sun forever and is being sought after by vampires who aren't very bright.

these artifacts are extremely powerful but they are plot devices designed to make the plot possible as opposed to something like the sword of kaz which is really just a powerful magic sword.


But here the thing you don't need to introduce any artifacts at all there not mandatory.

[SilverLeaf167]

it depends on the nature of the artifact some artifacts are adventure facilitators. Say a magic item that made you immune to being perceived or attacked by a evil god and his top followers and directed you towards his one weakness. or an artifact that extinguish the sun forever and is being sought after by vampires who aren't very bright.

these artifacts are extremely powerful but they are plot devices designed to make the plot possible as opposed to something like the sword of kaz which is really just a powerful magic sword.


But here the thing you don't need to introduce any artifacts at all there not mandatory.
Emphasis added.
Please let this be a reference to Skyrim: Dawnguard, just so this post won't end up being one of those awkward ones where I mistake it for such. :smalltongue:

[Gildedragon]

Thanks for the replies; I should have specified I meant the DMG knickknacks like the moaning diamond, deck of many things, the talisman of reluctant wishes, etc...
Custom magic items are easier to adjudicate, I find, but the power level of these 'core' items is unclear to me

[awa]

it didn't start out a reference but i realized once i had the artifact of putting out the sun i had to put that in. (Ive never actual played any of the games but it gets enough internet reference so you know.)

for the deck of many thing the party needs to be at least powerful enough to defeat a dread wraith.

the philosopher stone needs to be introduced not to long after level 10 other wise it stops being anything more then a fairly large treasure haul.

[tiercel]

Well, for the deck of many things, you should be prepared for your campaign (or at least your current party) to end, as you know it at least. (Not all of the draws are total game-changers but there are enough of them that are that it's a big gamble all around, assuming you're not letting PCs try to game the deck.)

The moaning diamond pops out an improved version of a CR 11 elemental, and it sticks around constantly (until slain, and then you get another in 24 hours). I'd think that I'd want a party to be ~13+ level before this item starts going from "I win" to "amazing" to just "really really useful."

Orbs of dragonkind? Well...
The bearer of one of these Orbs earns the enmity forever of all dragonkind I think that's a slightly campaign-changing downside.

By comparison, the shadowstaff seems almost downright usable.... except being able to pop out a CR 18 creature even once a month is a little strong for most parties.

Hm, OK, let's look at more minor artifacts instead.

A hammer of thunderbolts is better than a +5 weapon even without the "set bonus," a sphere of annihilation is either uselessly dangerous or hideously game breaking (depending on whether you can somehow reliably control it), a staff of the magi is like having a rechargeable mid-to-high level sorcerer-in-a-box....

Honestly probably the most "usable" artifact is the book of infinite spells, which only gives the party one spell at a time, always has a chance to "flip" to the next spell every time they do use it (thus potentially limiting the use of a really useful spell), and you can always behind-the-scenes-DM-veto any "random" spell that comes up that would break your campaign (or outright choose spells, presumably). Even then, since the Major Spell Scroll table is used, you're looking at a book mostly full of 5th-7th level spells, which means your PCs should probably be at least 9th-11th level unless you are being really trigger-happy about your spell vetoes/choices.

I agree that artifacts should be more like "guest stars" in your campaign tied to plot rather than uber-loot to be permanent possessions; even then, you don't want your "guest star" so completely outshining anything/everything the party can do themselves that all their hard-won abilities mean essentially nothing as long as the artifact is around.

There's a reason artifacts don't see a lot of play, and it's that most of them are pretty overwhelming even as a "guest star" for any PCs less than 10th level; if I had to guess an average level range, I'd say maybe 13th-15th level is when artifacts are still very strong but not so much "stop playing your character as his own person for now and just play him as X, Wielder of the Artifact Y."

[ericgrau]

Well take the moaning diamond for example. It provides a CR 11 creature to join the party and reshapes a ridiculous amount of stone, equal to a 20x25x10 ft. area 3/day, letting PCs easily bypass dungeons. So around levels 9-15 is a good time for the artifact. You might introduce it before level 9 if you want the wielder to dominate with it, or perhaps when introducing it in the hands of a villain as a plot device but before the PCs actually encounter him. After level 15 OTOH it might not have the plot bending effect that artifacts are supposed to have. Likewise you can ballpark the other artifacts the same way.

[Alleran]

I gave my players access to a minor artifact when they were around level 4. Unfortunately, it didn't actually do anything or have access to its full powers because they don't know what it is other than "artifact" (and they only know that because Identify didn't work), and it hasn't been repowered yet (which requires a moderately dangerous planar adventure that I'm setting up for much later in the campaign). Right now, all it works as is a +1 magic greatsword that seems to really want to be wielded.

As in, really really wants to. Up to the point where when the party paladin tries to draw a different weapon, he finds himself pulling it out instead.