Wait....what did I make that artifact do again?

[D4rtagnan]

Alright one of my players has recently completed a side quest that he been working on in a campaign I run. The side quest was to become king of the sky pirates....which he has done. The side quest was a lot of work. The campaign is about two years old and the character has been working on the side plot from almost day one. I want to reward him by giving him a home-brewed major artifact....the crown of the sky pirates.

The only problem is I have seemed to lost my notes on what the hell this artifact actually does...and cant seem to recall it.
That being said I need to think up something quick. Any ideas?




P.S. Oh by the way the pirate is just under epic level. He a mix of Rouge, Dread Pirate and Scarlet Corsair.

[zlefin]

how about: enables an ordinary sailing ship to fly as long as he's on it; that'd be a cool ability.

[D4rtagnan]

Tempting be he already has a skyship...he put a lot of gold/downtime into building this thing. He very attached to it. It like a motor-head and their car.

[Chilingsworth]

How about something simple and universally useful: a +8 (or 10, or higher as you wish) to all stats? Kinda boring, though.

hmm...

How about:

+6 to all stats
Following powers at will:

Control Winds
Control Weather
Call Lightning Storm

[Psyren]

A MAJOR artifact should be just that, major. The kind of object that can warp the world. Making ships fly is a parlor trick.

It's a crown, and that implies leadership and control - so the artifact's powers should probably be along those lines. He has a flying ship, sure, but does it have a crew? Does he have a fleet or escort?

One suggestion is to allow it to control other things that fly, so he has an armada. Enslaving (or summoning) dragons to fly alongside his ship for instance, or generating a phantom fleet to fly behind it. This would help a pirate attack large or protected convoys. Or, it could let him commandeer or steal other flying ships for such a fleet, making him a terror of wind and wave. Another option still is that it lets him transport his ship (or fleet) through planar pathways, to beat an ethereal or astral retreat with the booty.

[DaTedinator]

What if the crown lets him control skyships? As long as nobody else is piloting and he's on deck, he has perfect control - letting him fly while also, say, fighting off boarders.

But if somebody else is trying to control it, or if the ship is further away, it gets harder. So he could try to wrest control of the enemy ship away from the pilot (or even the gunners), and has an easier time of it if he boards them first?

Other abilities that would make sense could be personal flight, counteracting the flight effects of others, weather control, treasure sense, or some benefits for skyships he's on - like they're faster, or more resistant to damage, or their attacks have the power of a thunderclap.

[almightycoma]

how about while he wears it he gets leadership with a bonus to get more or higher level pirates on his ship
or a bunch of morale/ crew buffs
or since its a crown big bonuses to social skills continuing with the crown them powerful awe/fear effect with a large area of effect

[limejuicepowder]

I think it should grant supernatural control over ships, like Black Beard from pirates 4 (pretty terrible movie btw, but Black Beard's sword was cool).

Some abilities it could have:
-Entangling Ropes (as Evard's Black Tentacles, but only usable on ships)
-Cannon/Ballista Barrage (aim and fire all loaded artillery on the ship as a full action)
-Reject the Land-Lubber (entire ship is treated as if a grease spell had been cast on it, effecting everyone except the wearer of the crown)
-Burst of Speed (triple the speed of the ship for 3 rounds. Usable once per 10 minutes)
-Master of the Helm (as a free action, change the direction the ship is facing and thus moving in. Usable once per 10 minutes)


Some other things I thought of:
-Salty Dog (once per day, when the wearer is on a ship and takes enough hit point damage to cause death, the character is instead reduced to 0 hit points)
-Devil's Luck (if the character is targeted by a ranged attack or touch spell, and there is a movable object adjacent to the character that is large enough to theoretically block the attack, the object moves automatically and blocks the attack. This ability activates automatically, but only one every minute. Alternatively, have this also move adjacent enemies/allies to the same effect)
-Wraith of the Pirate King (yeah I'm not really sure what to make this ability do. I just like the name)
Davy Jones' Locker (anyone slain by the wearer of the crown and then thrown off the edge of the ship cannot be brought back from the dead by mortal magic)

[Kol Korran]

I think I'd go somewhere along the roots Of what Psyren suggested, but a few additions/ ideas:
the crown enables the pirate to contact all of the dead pirates before him who held the crown. this can have several effects:
- a great store of knowledge (I'd suggest not just giving him a bonus to knowledge skills, but rather playing trying to haggle/ persuade each piece of knowledge from the ancient pirate kings. could be quite cool)
- The pirate crown can transport him and his ship to the land of the dead. this could lead to all kind of adventures, including a sort of an alternative way to bring the dead, or maybe bring back crewss of the dead to serve (under a... "special" contract?)
- he might summon the spirits of some great former pirate kings to grant him their abilities. this works something like binder vestiges of high levels, but you'll need to create unique pirate spirits to represent this. some might offer this service willingly, most won't.
- the power to make his crew (or some small fleet?) all under the influence of some great buffs, making them an elite crew indeed.
- I like the idea of the crown summoning some sort of unique creature to work under the pirate king. a fairly fearsome and powerful creature, who dislikes this service, but the crown keeps it under check (though the creature will try and find any way it can to circumvent it's servitude and break free) think Calipso or the Kraken from pirates of the Caribbean. (perhaps combined into one?)

[Jeff the Green]

Building off of Psyren's idea:

Crown of the Sky Pirate King
The Crown of the Sky Pirate King grants the wearer versions of the Leadership, Epic Leadership, and Legendary Commander feats, but uses their Intimidate modifier to determine the level and number of cohorts and followers available. They may have a cohort up to his level -1 (instead of his level -2) if their cohort has the maximum possible ranks for his level in Profession (sailor) and has a fly speed.

The wearer may also decide to reduce the number of followers of followers to gain additional cohorts. The total level of these cohorts is equal to the sum of the levels of the followers he forwent times 1/50, with a maximum individual level equal to the wearer's level -1. So, for example, a 18th-level character with 2000 level-1 followers may choose to not recruit 850 of these followers to gain an additional 17th-level cohort, or 1500 of these followers to gain an additional 17th-level cohort and an additional 13th-level cohort. Any cohorts gained by reducing the number of followers must have the maximum possible ranks for their level in Profession (sailor) and a fly speed, and must remain within one mile of a sky ship the wearer controls or owns.
__________________

The second power may need to be tweaked, but I think it's suitably powerful for a major artifact. It'd let him grab an escort of couatls or succubi for his ships, or a number of captains if he decides he wants an armada.

You could also make it so that the creatures are actually ectoplasmic constructs or spirits that disappear if the crown is ever removed.

[ReaderAt2046]

Allows him to call up the spirits of all dead pirates (and the ghosts of their ships) to serve him in battle. This ability takes a year and a day to recharge between uses.

Grants him a perfect sense of where he is and how to get anywhere he wants to go.

Grants him pun-based damage, immunity to glass, and other Dashing Swordsman class bonuses (but not HP, skill points, or save bonuses) as if he had a Dashing Swordsman level equal to his total character level (if he has any actual Dashing Swordsman levels, they count twice for this purpose.)

[JaronK]

How about make it an upgraded version of the Admiral's Bicorn from Stormwrack? Perhaps double the bonuses and quintuple the area of effect... that's quite strong and would definitely fit the "King of the Pirates" concept. Perhaps give it an additional weather control ability too.

JaronK

[Gavinfoxx]

Artefacts aren't artefacts because they are powerful; they often aren't that good of items, even compared to the presumed price in equivalent gear... even major artefacts might not be too useful, comparably. Artefacts are artefacts because they break the rules of what sorts of things are supposed to be possible with Magic Items.

[donnerdrummel]

or how about a darker theme.
make it look like from the deep phlogiston/void whatsoever(which it is).
some basic powers for controling a vessel and combat:

- speed bursts for the vessel he is on
- Control Winds
- Call Lightning Storm

some medium powerful stuff:

- mass regenerate serious wounds 3/day
- wind walk the whole ship with everyone on it 1/week
- heroes feast 1/day

major powers:

- spelljamming
- glory beyond death
whenever someone of your crew would die in combat but his body remains somewhat intact he gets back up with half hp if he can make a fortitude safe vs. 18. however cheating death like this grants an alien/pseudonatural touch (tentacle hair, nick skins, facetted eyes and so on) and the next time you would die the save is down by 3.
if the safe ever gets below 10 the crewmember gets fully enslaved to the crownbearer or the creator of the crown (no mind control only spoken commands).
if the save ever goes below 1 the creator of the crown can posses the crewmate in question wherever they are.

story:
the crown is the conduit/beacon whatever for a mighty voidtraveling alien creature all its powers are alien/pseudonatural themed(think tentacles insect and deepsea fish)
whenever the voidling gets possesion of a crewmember he is utterly lost also he will leave ship asap and start to collect strange things for a gating/summoning ritual to summon the crowns creator...

sorry for bad my english i m not a native speaker