Ultimate Artifacts

[Rowanomicon]

Firstly: No, this isn't necessarily about artifacts as they are in D&D. I meant the term generically.
Now, down to business:

The ultimate artifact is a common occurrence in fantasy. One of the more famous one is The One Ring, but many stories have included extremely powerful items that need to be either found, destroyed, unlocked or otherwise used in order for a team to win.

Anyway here's the question/topic:
What are some of your favourite ultimate artifacts to use in your games (as a player or a DM)? Sword, ring, staff? Powers? History? Intelligence, personality?

Heck, you don't even have to have used these ideas in a game; it's just a thread to discuss any cool ideas about possible awesome artifacts in games.

[Hario]

My favorite is the head of Vecna.

[Tor the Fallen]

Tombs that are meant to keep things in, but that the PCs insist on breaking into.

Or the old Soulstone trick. So, you've journeyed through the cathedral cellars, its winding catacombs, down into the very pits of Hell itself to slay the archdemon whose minions plague the countryside, and recover the gem it's trapped in. Then you are convinced to shove it into your forehead. Or convinced to travel back to the abyss to smash it, thus releasing the foul evil it contains upon the world.

[triforcel]

There was one artifact I made. I called it the Book of One Thousand Curses. Basically it was a tome that when opened would inflict a curse upon everyone within 100 ft with a random curse from a table I made for that specific item. The catch was that the book would then snap shut again and the curses wouldn't actually take effect for 1d6 days. I remember the group I tossed it to opened it about ten times and then had an interesting week.

[Anxe]

Ooo artifacts. I've used a lot in my campaign.
A talking rock that symbolized the element earth.
A talking flame that symbolized fire.
A sword that symbolized wind. Never did do water...
I also used the Deck of Wondrous Things.
A legendary suit of armor, shield, and sword that combined were very powerful.
One of my favorite places to have an adventure was a special tower. At the top of the tower were a bunch of murals that each symbolized a type of monster. The BBEG used this level of the tower to summon things. The mechanics for the tower were pretty simple. It took 5 minutes for each HD of what you were summoning. You could summon anything with HD less than your level and control it. If it was equal to your HD, you didn't control it. If it had more HD than you the creature's soul was summoned and possessed your body. I loved those towers...
Oh another artifact I used was the Monkey Idol. The Monkey Idol had three golden monkeys on it that faced outwards. One monkey had its hands over its eyes, one over its ears, and one over its mouth. When somebody took the Monkey Idol from its forest, everyone within 100' was stricken with either blindness, deafness, or mute. When I pulled that on the players they had to wear noise canceling headphones (The type jackhammer dudes use) for deafness, a blindfold for blindness, and just not talk for mute. That was a pretty fun adventure.

[Gralamin]

I use Artifacts in the same fashion as the Tome of Artifacts (http://secure1.white-wolf.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=861)

One of my favorites would be this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49193)

[CASTLEMIKE]

I liked the Apocalypse Stone and the Bastion of Broken Souls was pretty cool especially getting the key. Moon Blades and Mythals are nice. The Seal of Jafar and all the problems with the genies.

[Xuincherguixe]

I have two artifacts (so far) I'll be using in an upcoming game.

I'm undecided on the name (top contenders are Holocaust axe, and Destroyer's Voice), but the idea is that the thing is a ridiculously heavy, extremely sharp axe. It channels the essence of one of the settings most powerful entities, The Destroyer. The Destroyer like all of the other top level Demons has no physical presence, it exists as waves of vibration that violently destroys everything it comes into contact with.

The Axe itself has the ability to cut through anything (mostly, ignoring a fair amount of damage reduction). I may use it in a plot device manner (as all artifacts should) so that the concept can be extended. Cutting the sky, or a Lake. It'll probably come with a variety of damaging spell like abilities, but those aren't terribly interesting.


Another Artifact, which I haven't put quite as much thought into is Light Drinker. It's a similar artifact as the above, in this case it's a Scythe that holds part of the essence of the Devourer, a Demon Black Hole. It would have the power to create black holes, and create darkness. Hence the name.

[Rowanomicon]

Cool stuff.

I always liked the idea of several artifact multiplying in power when used together.

Tome of Artifacts is officially on my "Some Day I'd Like to Buy it, but I Probably Shan't" list. Yes, there are many sdilbips (things I want, but will probably never have).

[leperkhaun]

in general i dont like to get a hold of major artifacts as PC's. They tend to blow the power curve. Minor artifacts are good to use for the most part.

From a DM prespective, just about anything, as long as i know that the PC's wont get a hold of it.

In the world iv DM'd alot, asmodius was Banished (instead of tricking the gods) into hell. the hammer that did that is my favorite.

Its in the hands of a rank 19 diety, and its power is based upon drawing energy from that god. He can give it to a mortal for a time, but the hammer downgrades to a minor artifact and alot of the "ultimate" power is not avalible.

[random11]

Limited, but still powerful:

- A book that will answer questions that you write within it, as long as it is within his knowledge.
The book's knowledge is limited to the combined knowledge of all the people who ever used it.
Every user can see only his questions and answers, and is limited by the book's number of pages.


- A sword that can change it's shape and weight to match any weapon the user can think of.
Not limited to weapons, it can be used to imitate things such as keys, as long as the user knows exactly how they look like.


- A small round stone in the shape of the earth.
Can be used to know your location (marked in a tiny red dot), and to teleport anywhere you want.
However, teleport is limited to once/month, and isn't accurate, so be careful if you want to use it to reach an island...

[Rowanomicon]

I have to say that I also really like items that scale in power based on the power of the user.

Random, those are some cool ideas.
I don't think I'd have the last one in anything short of an epic campaign though because most of my campaigns have been limited to one continent and often times only part of that continent.

[Collin152]

A scepter that symbolized the weaving of the four elements (and the two energies) into a material plane, dead center in the plane. if you know how, you can manipulate the elements at will (Move Earth, Stoneshape, Control Winds, Control Water, so forth).
But if you move it without knowing how to do it safely, the world starts falling apart. Destroy the staff, and all of material creation is sucked into the astral plane.
Yeah, it's an omnipotent tool, and PCs aint allowed near it. it's strictly plot material.

[random11]

I especially enjoy strong items that also have enough restrictions and drawbacks to make the PC think twice before using it.
So two more to add:

- Bow of the pacifist -
This bow was created to teach people restrain and to show them the harm of killing others. The bow creates it's own arrows, which canges according to the number of times the bow was used by this man.
All arrows seek their target and even move around corners, but they can be stopped if the target is in a closed space or if something blocks all directions.

First arrow (blue) - a magical arrow that deals more damage then usual, used to demonstrate the power of the bow.

Second arrow (green) - In addition to the increased damage, it is also poisoned with a nasty, slow and deadly poison. However, the user of the bow will share the physical and emotional pain of his victim until the man dies or several hours, whichever is longer.

Third arrow (red) - The arrow damns his victim to hell (or whatever you have that is similar in your world). If the target dies, the user will dream every night, for the rest of his life, about the man that is now in hell because of him.

Fourth arrow (black) - instant death to both target and user.

There are rumors of a fifth arrow, but naturally, they are hard to confirm...


- Piercing sword -
The blade of the sword can simply pass though any non-organic material, ignoring all armor (except wood, leather or natural skin of monsters).
The catch? It doesn't really pass through objects, it actually moves to another plane until it reaches the organic material.
This plane has creatures that are not happy to see a blade appearing out of thin air, striking them randomly.
These creatures are also intelligent, and unlike humans, have the ability to see and move between planes...

[Telonius]

I had a set of artifacts for a "Demon/Devil invasion" campaign. The Bell, the Book, and the Candle. They were game-breakingly powerful, but they needed to be. The players were going to fight Asmodeus (they'd be about level 25) at the end. The Bell dealt ridiculous sonic damage, and had a continuous Freedom of Movement effect on it. The Book was an intelligent spellbook with every spell in the game written in it, and gave +20 to all Knowledge checks. The Candle had a continuous Zone of Truth and Hallow effect on it. Upon command, it would change into a Vorpal Holy Avenger. They had resonance effects as well. And if all three of them were activated at once, it would automatically destroy (or send back to their native plane) all Evil Outsiders within a 1000-mile radius. (Usable only once).

Sadly, the campaign never got off the gound.

[Arakune]

Third arrow (red) - The arrow damns his victim to hell (or whatever you have that is similar in your world). If the target dies, the user will dream every night, for the rest of his life, about the man that is now in hell because of him.


Belkar would love to have this sweet dream every night :smallbiggrin:

[AmberVael]

I did come up with a nifty little idea for an artifact...

It was a dagger called Finality. When wielded against an opponent, it would instantly become a Bane weapon of the type of creature it was being used against. Furthermore, it would bypass all (ALL, even x/- types) damage reduction. It was considered lethal damage in regards to any regeneration.

But possibly the best part was that it became the most feared weapon that the target could face. For instance- a vampire would find Finality to be a wooden stake when it was used against them, while Fey would see it as cold iron. (Granted, this was often much more of a roleplay purpose since it bypassed damage reduction and regeneration).

[Jorkens]

I had a set of artifacts for a "Demon/Devil invasion" campaign. The Bell, the Book, and the Candle.
Once I found them, I'd probably spend a whole lot of time looking for a vibrating square...

[Human Paragon 3]

Had three magical artifacts "The Key, The Threshold, and The Doorway" that, when brought together, basically allow the wielder to pass back and forth into all possible other worlds, past, present, and future including the afterlife. This allows some obvious benefits including resurections at will, traveling to other dimensions and planes, bringing the denizens of those planes to wherever you are, visiting heaven and hell, plus other fringe benefits. Very difficult to use, though. Our adventuring party actually had all three together for an entire campaign before realizing what they had.

As for ultimate artifacts in literature, I thought the Elder Wand from Harry Potter 7 was cool (spoiler alert, there is an Elder Wand in HP7).

[Doresain]

My favorite is the head of Vecna.

i agree with this statement

[random11]

Had three magical artifacts "The Key, The Threshold, and The Doorway" that, when brought together, basically allow the wielder to pass back and forth into all possible other worlds, past, present, and future including the afterlife. This allows some obvious benefits including resurections at will, traveling to other dimensions and planes, bringing the denizens of those planes to wherever you are, visiting heaven and hell, plus other fringe benefits. Very difficult to use, though. Our adventuring party actually had all three together for an entire campaign before realizing what they had.

As for ultimate artifacts in literature, I thought the Elder Wand from Harry Potter 7 was cool (spoiler alert, there is an Elder Wand in HP7).

So, you created the TARDIS? :smallsmile:

[Rowanomicon]

What's this head of Vecna. I'm definitely getting a reading when I cast Detect Joke, but I don't get it.

Are you talking about slaying Vecna and taking his place as a god?

[Nerd-o-rama]

Head of Vecna (http://www.blindpanic.com/humor/vecna.htm)

[bugsysservant]

My favorite is the head of Vecna.

You know, I always preferred the gazebo of ultimate invulnerability. :smallbiggrin:

[Mewtarthio]

You know, I always preferred the gazebo of ultimate invulnerability. :smallbiggrin:

That's not an artifact, it's an epic monster.

[tyckspoon]

You know, I always preferred the gazebo of ultimate invulnerability. :smallbiggrin:

Naturally, this comes furnished with the Armoire of Invincibility.

[MCerberus]

Head of Vecna (http://www.blindpanic.com/humor/vecna.htm)

Pure. Unadulterated. WIN.

[SadisticFishing]

Pure. Unadulterated. WIN.

Quoted for truth.

[Human Paragon 3]

So, you created the TARDIS? :smallsmile:

::Googles TARDIS...:: Yeah, I guess I did. And it rocked.

[Rowanomicon]

Oh. My. Gods. That is one of the bloody funniest things I've ever read.

I love the Head of Vecna.