Enchanting an artifact?

[j_spencer93]

Could you add more enchantments to an artifact? another post made me wonder if this was possible.

[ExLibrisMortis]

It seems you could, although your new enchantment would be separately affected by Mordenkainen's Disjunction and the like (it wouldn't have artifact-level magic resistance). The Magic Item Compendium has some rules on adding enchantments to already-enchanted items.

[j_spencer93]

i was actually thinking of adding several enchantments to the sword of kas (my BBEG thinks kas was a disappointment to their kind.)

[ExLibrisMortis]

The Sword of Kas is intelligent, it's probably allowed to use its spells if you try to enchant it against its will, and maybe it gets a saving throw, too. But I suppose your BBEG won't particularly care about that. However, your problem is that regular (non-epic) crafting can't make items worth more than 200.000 gp (iirc), and the Sword of Kas already has enhancement bonuses way beyond that. Per the Magic Item Compendium rules for improving weapons/armour, you "must meet the same prerequisites as if he were creating the item from scratch", which I think would prevent you from improving the item by adding Wounding or Fleshgrinding or whatever evulz you had planned.

The rules on adding common enchantments (mostly +x enhancement to ability/natural armour etc.) separately, regardless of previous enchantments, are on page 233 and 234, and those should work for artifacts too. But, as written, they won't work for weapons, as weapons don't take up a body slot.

[j_spencer93]

ya i do not know much about item enchantments so i was not aware of those restrictions. so i do not think my idea will work unless i say he is epic (well he is cr 24 does that count).

[ExLibrisMortis]

CR 24 does not count, having 21+ HD would allow you to take the right epic feat. However, a CR 24 BBEG should be able to locate a crafter with that feat (such as a famous demon blacksmith), and set them to work - you don't need to make all your equipment yourself. If you're looking for an excuse to give your BBEG a souped-up Sword of Kas, you don't need much but the ability to add three words to the description :P.

[j_spencer93]

lol
well the additions werent even that great, simply necrotic focus, ravenous, vampiric, souldrinking, bloodfeeding, and bloodthirsty.
hell maybe even drop souldrinking (he was intentionally enchanting it with more vampiric abilities btw, kinda to taunt kas).

[j_spencer93]

I got it, he will create another artifact based on the sword of kas (idk about the state bonuses) with those abilities, something like Nightlord's Blade, or something like that.