I'm currently running a game that has a certain major artifact as a plot device and one of my players purchased a rod of cancellation, saying that he could use it to effectively destroy it if they can't get it away from the BBEGs safely.
Well at first i just said flat out that there's only one given way to destroy an artifact (at least a major one) but my player insists that since the item calls out what happens when it meets a Sphere of Annihilation and that Mage's Disjunction is used in it's construction as proof that it works on artifacts.
But that can't be right can it? An 11,000 GP magic item capable of wrecking an artifact seems off to me, particularly because it doesn't carry the risk that the spell does.
Can somebody please tell me whether the rod of cancellation is actually capable of taking out a major artifact by repeatedly whacking it until it Nat 1's it's save?
You are the GM. If you say the rod has no effect on the artifact then it has no effect.
Definitely not.
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Definitely not unless you want it to. Artifacts are meant to be hard to get rid of. Your campaign, your rules for ridiculously powerful items.
Even if he wants to make the argument that Mage's Disjunction is there, the same rules as disjunction would apply - it's still a small % chance (minimum for a 9th leel spell in fact), and the chance of an interested outsider noticing would definitely be in play. Plus the artifact would get a will save. What's an artifact's will save? Technically I guess it's 2 + half its caster level. Since artifacts are insanely powerful and up to GM fiat anyway, it's easy to say its CL 40, so it has a +22 bonus on a DC 23 save and that artifacts can pass saves on a 1, or otherwise get to roll twice. It's also easy to make the % chance rolls secretly. You could allow its destruction and have a demon lord get pretty pissed at the party. You could easily say it fails to disjoin the artifact anyway. This is countering a ridiculous argument with an even more ridiculous one though and I suppose we should be civil.
Simply put, you are well within your rights to straight up tell the player "It's not going to work".
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The Rod of Cancellation specifically works on only the Sphere of Annihilation. It has no particular effect on any other artifact. That's why the text is there in the Sphere's Destruction section, and not at, say, the beginning of the whole Artifacts chapter.
That would be like saying that a Portable Hole opens a gate to the Astral Plane when you put it in a regular burlap bag, not just in a Bag of Holding.
Never mind the Rod of Cancellation. An artifact can readily be destroyed by causing it to be seared by the odious flames of Geryon's destroyed soul, or expose it to the penetrating light and flame of truth, or cause it to be crushed by the gates of hell, or cause it to be steeped in the encephalic fluids of the brains of Bahamut.