I would love to see a world neutral book of artifacts that have stats for many real world artifacts from history, myths, legends, books, movies, etc.
Excalibur
King Solomon's Ring
Muramasa
Ankh of Life
The Golden Fleece
Thor's Hammer
The Shield, Aegis
The Arc of the Covenant
The Holy Grail
Kavacha
Cap of Invisibility
Armor of Achillies
Srivatsa
Shamshir e Zomorrodegar
Amenonuhoko
Gungnir
Vijaya
Death's Scythe
Hide of the Nemean Lion
Hope Diamond
A +5 Dagger that projects an antimagic field out 1 inch along its blade that teleports away from its current owner whenever they become aware that it isn't just a really sharp knife.
Looks like I am the only one interesting in real world based artifacts.
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Looks like I am the only one interesting in real world based artifacts.
That's pretty much about right. Not many of us want to truck with or trivialise real world religious beliefs. And artifacts without a setting based history, simply aren't interesting.
Even Artifacts And Legends from days of yore (1st and second edition) were more NPCs then artifacts.
The Aegis is already in Mythic Adventures, as a Minor Artifact ;)
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I think this would would well as a 3rd party publisher book, but paizo's only setting nuetral books are the hardcovers.... Artifacts without backstory included is boring... that's why the artifacts in the core books then have to be rewritten into the world before they are used extensively. The history and hooks for how to incorperate that history into your game is what makes it an artifact interesting.
I have a version of Pandora's box.
Pandora’s Box
This ornate box looks like ivory set with mosaics of mythological monsters. It radiates magic and identifies as a mega-bag of tricks. So much for the box text. When opened, the first person or creature that looks in is attacked by a random monster. After the initial melee, if the monster survives, it will become free willed and typical of it’s species. The item requires it be closed and 10min. recharge. Functions only 3 times a day. I mean, it creates permanent monsters.
01: Basilisk
02: Boar (Dire), Max hits.
03: Centaur
04: Cerberus Hell Hound: 3 headed, fire breathing, dire wolf.
05: Chimera
06: Cockatrice
07: Cyclops
08: Gorgon
09: Griffon
10: Harpy
11: Hydra
12: Lamia (Serpentine, add 3 cleric levels with D10s)
13: Lion(Dire) Max hits.
14: Manticore
15: Medusa
16: Minotaur
17: Nymph
18: Pegasus
19: Satyr
20: Sphinx
Hook: This is where all these monsters come from, the gods. There are no female Minotaurs or Satyrs. No male Medusas, Harpies, Nymphs, or Lamias. Even though this is not the original box, it is not made by mortals. If a cleric wants one they should start praying.
This topic can be for conversions of mytic artifacts. It should be opened up for items of other stories such as The One Ring. Also, does Aroden's sword retain any of his essence? What about his sandals?
Looks like I am the only one interesting in real world based artifacts.That's pretty much about right. Not many of us want to truck with or trivialise real world religious beliefs. And artifacts without a setting based history, simply aren't interesting.
I don't think there are many people left who would consider the Armor of Achilles or Excalibur to be a part of ttheir religious beliefs. I don't think it would be too hard to make a book of setting neutralish artifacts for Pathfinder with some or many of them coming from real world ancient mythology.
I mean D&D did it with the Book of Artifacts back in AD&D. Though some of those were setting specific, it noted in their entries what their setting ties were.
Artifacts are weird.
They mess with Wealth By Level.
They often provide abilities vastly higher than normal for the PCs' level.
Multiple artifacts might have to be given out to balance the party. If you do this, it kind of cheapens the specialness of artifacts. If you don't do this, one PC might be vastly more powerful than the rest of the party.
Artifacts can often trivialize many encounters.
Artifacts can also have interesting back stories, can be great story elements to campaigns, and can be used in fun ways.
Pandora's Box would be another one I would like to see.
I don't think there are many people left who would consider the Armor of Achilles or Excalibur to be a part of ttheir religious beliefs.
Interesting pair you brought up. Achilles' armor wasn't anything special. It didn't need to be because Achilles himself was invulnerable, it was more of a matter of pride, or the fact that Achilles' favored boy, Patrocles wore it, and was killed wearing it, because Achilles wouldn't fight, due to Odysseus having taken a prized slave girl from him.
Excalibur is an even more interesting case. Arthur was statted up in the original Dieties and Demigods as a high level Paladin. And so was Excalibur. And it wasn't a Holy Avenger with special powers, in fact it wasn't even a Holy Avenger, or even a good-aligned sword, it was a simple Sword of Sharpness, a stock magic sword in the original Dungeon Master's Guide. It might have been a +3 instead of a +1. In a world where the most powerful weapon that was commonly available was a masterwork sword or bow, that's all that you'd need to have it considered special, that and the fantastic origin story that came with.
II actually think the idea of a world-neutral artifact is kind of flawed. I would be more interested to see posts adapting an "Alien" artifact into the Golarian Mythos.
Drahliana,
I agree that Diety & Demigod was heavily flawed in all its versions.
It is the perfect example of the inherent difficulties of converting characters, etc. created outside of the game to in-game constructs.
Artifacts are weird.
They mess with Wealth By Level.
They often provide abilities vastly higher than normal for the PCs' level.
Multiple artifacts might have to be given out to balance the party. If you do this, it kind of cheapens the specialness of artifacts. If you don't do this, one PC might be vastly more powerful than the rest of the party.
Artifacts can often trivialize many encounters.
Agreed. By and large, an artifact shouldn't be in the hands of players for long. Make it the MacGuffin and Leacy Weapon that eliminates problems when used 'properly' but other than that, their swinginess makes them unwieldy in the hands of mere mortal PCs.
Excalibur in 2nd edition had at least 3 versions though all of them acted like a holy avenger plus it's scabbard had powers as well one version acting like a ring of regeneration.
Now that I look at it Achillies' shield is much more interesting, at least how Homer described it anyway.
II actually think the idea of a world-neutral artifact is kind of flawed. I would be more interested to see posts adapting an "Alien" artifact into the Golarian Mythos.
Drahliana,
I agree that Diety & Demigod was heavily flawed in all its versions.
It is the perfect example of the inherent difficulties of converting characters, etc. created outside of the game to in-game constructs.
The DDG portrayal wasn't flawed. You missed my point. Again, Arthur and his adventures take place in a generally non-magical world. Magicians don't blast cities into ash and are generally restricted to more subtle orms of magic.
Excalibur as a simple Sword of Sharpness makes sense in the CONTEXT of where it comes from. it's a magic item of Camelot, not Greyhawk, nor Golarion.
I don't really see the value or the need for a book of Artifacts, and quite frankly Mongoose did a good job of covering that ground already.
An artifact is really something that should be tailored for the campaign that you're playing, it doesn't have the be the World Engine of Doom, nor need it be the One Ring, if that's not what's appropriate.
I actually kind of have to agree with other folks. Paizo does setting neutral hardcovers that are designed to interact with the setting and APs they produce. Producing a setting neutral artifact book would require either stripping any flavor from the artifact and make it boring, or would result in artifacts that don't fit into the setting and thus will never be used.
On top of that...that seems a super narrow topic. I struggle to imagine being able to fill a hardcover with that many artifacts, or how many folks would be interested in such a book.
Artifacts without backstories are dull as dishwater.
And setting neutrality does not play well with backstory.
II actually think the idea of a world-neutral artifact is kind of flawed. I would be more interested to see posts adapting an "Alien" artifact into the Golarian Mythos.
The idea yielded the Book of Artifacts one of the best books in TSR's line.
A setting neutral artifact can have a back story since anything from earth myth can still be setting neutral.
Or even just something that could fit into most fantasy setting without having to reference setting specific things.
More alchemist based artifacts would be interesting, we only have the philospher's stone so far.
The caduceus. A staff with 2 snakes that both cures and poisons.
Relics are items empowered by their owner who ascended to a higher (or lower)plane. Thus the armor once worn by a hero might acquire their power.