Surviving Artifacts with Demi-Relics (BC Apr 2021)

Image by Matt Rogers from Pixabay
All GMs should recognize and follow the rule of cool, which states that if a player wants his character to do something cool, the GM should try to find a way to let him, even if it violates canon or what the character should normally. be capable of.
Alas, in one of the great inequities of the TTRPG, the same is NOT always true of anything that the GM thinks would be cool. In fact, more often than not, anything that’s “cool” for the GM is troublesome for the campaign.
The GM is an enabler – it’s his job to make sure that everyone is having fun. Often, anything that he perceives as “Cool” is self-indulgence, and while a certain amount of that may be warranted to give the GM his share of jollies, a campaign has a strictly-limited capacity for such.
Perhaps the most seductive of temptations for the GM is the introduction of an artifact or relic. Dropping one of these into the campaign immediately makes the campaign all about that artifact or relic, whether the GM realizes it at the time or not.
To explain why this is the case, it will be necessary to dig deep into the conceptual fabric at a metagame level, and take a good look at the very concept from a multitude of angles.
This is being written as Campaign Mastery’s contribution to the April blog carnival, which is all about Artifacts and other over-the-top magic items, and is being hosted by Codex Anathema.
I could have simply done another in the series describing the Omega Archive, because anything there would probably qualify, but for a number of reasons, I didn’t want to do that – most notably because magic items are primarily a Fantasy device, and Artifacts are supposed to be the ultimate in magic items, while the Omega Archive primarily has a science fiction orientation.
While some of the contents might be adaptable to fantasy gaming (and any such adapted creation would definitely be considered a relic or Artifact, there’s no certainty that the contents of any given part of that series will be so translatable – so while it might meet the letter of the challenge laid down for this Carnival, I didn’t think that it did so in spirit.
Artifacts can generally be considered unique magic items of power greater than that which is normally available to PCs.
Artifact / Relic – D&D, AD&D, 2e
Artifacts have been a part of the D&D mythos since the publication of the third supplement to Original D&D, Eldritch Wizardry. These classic examples include such notable examples as the Hand and Eye of Vecna.
Relatively little was specified about them as a class of magic item; that took place during the creation of AD&D.
In AD&D, they were all considered “Miscellaneous Magic Items”, even those that were weapons, armor, or rings. Each had a number of Minor and Major Powers, and always came with side effects which triggered when the item was acquired, and when its Major Powers were used.
The DMG in 2nd Edition expanded greatly on the text surrounding these items as a class.
“Vastly more potent than the most powerful magical items are extremely rare items ancient power and majesty – artifacts, constructs of the utmost wizardly might, and relics, the remains of awesome powers and the greatest of holy men. These are items of great import and effect, so their use must be strictly controlled.”
“The appearance of an artifact or relic must always be the basis of an adventure. These items should never be casually introduced into play.”
“Each artifact and relic is unique. There can only be one of that item in existence in a given campaign. It appears in a campaign only when it has been placed there by the DM. These devices never form part of a randomly placed treasure and so are not on any treasure table. The DM must choose to include each particular artifact in his game.
Artifacts and relics always possess dangerous and possibly deadly side effects. These effects are all but irreversible, unaffected by wishes and most greater powers. Artifacts can only be destroyed by extraordinary means.”
— Selected excerpts from the 2e AD&D DM’s Handbook.
For the most part, these conceptual foundations have been preserved throughout the many incarnations of D&D that have followed, including the derivative rules systems of Pathfinder (D&D 4e is a notable exception).
There are some important implications. First, there is a conceptual division between magic items that a PC can commission or create, given sufficient resources – “mundane” magic items – and artifacts.
That means, secondly, that each artifact must have an origin that is exceptional. There has to be a reason why these items are beyond even the most powerful PCs or NPCs, and a set of circumstances that permitted some long-past creative force to go beyond those restrictions. Those circumstances, because of their uniqueness, tend to be noteworthy events in the past history of a campaign. It’s really hard to drop such events into the history after the fact. Perhaps the best analogy in modern media is the creation of Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet – how many movies did this take? Certainly everything from the Chitauri invasion engineered by Loki in The Avengers is part of it, and so are almost every movie in the Marvel Comics Universe through to Infinity War/Endgame. But there are hints here and there that even earlier events in the MCU were early signs of things to come. The Chitauri invasion and Loki’s manipulations were presaged by the end-credits sequence in Thor (2011), while Thor itself was presaged by the end-credits sequence of Iron Man 2 (2010). Returning to the topic at hand, while (possibly hypothetical) PCs who live through the events may not appreciate the significance of what is taking place, they will definitely notice that something big is going on.
Third and fourth implications stem from the power that these artifacts and relics posses, and the impact on game balance (third) and the share of the spotlight that a character possessing one comes in for (fourth). It is all too easy for the other PCs to become support mechanisms for the PC with the artifact. While some players will be fine with such a role, there is an inbuilt preference in good, well-run, campaigns for equality in such matters.
The worst-possible solution to this problem is to give each PC an artifact of their own. The power they posses already means that there are few challenges which the PC cannot meet; I have seen campaigns in which gameplay consisted of the other PCs arranging circumstances and working down a checklist of requirements for the (relatively) safe usage of the Artifact.
In a nutshell, these artifacts are so powerful that they become the central focus of a campaign, able to steamroller virtually any opposition. The notion of challenging PCs, which is at the heart of most campaigns, means that the presence of an artifact implies the in-game need for such power. Without such a need, the campaign becomes relatively boring. But the incorporation of such a challenge leaves the other PCs completely over-matched, and frustration is equally poisonous to a campaign.
As soon as such power is introduced, then,
- Significant Identities will take notice.
- Significant Entities will take immediate steps to possess the Artifact before the possessor masters its use.
- Other Significant Beings will attempt to prevent (2).
- Some Significant Individuals will seek to influence or control the PC, either directly or indirectly.
- Some Hostile forces will bring forward their plans, even launching them prematurely, in hopes of achieving their goals before the possessor can intervene.
- Every problem under the sun, from the trivial to the monumental, will be submitted to the possessor with a prayer for assistance.
- Lurking in the shadows is always the threat that the PCs need the power of the artifact to deal with.
- There will be good people who believe no-one should have such power; those who might have been allies under different circumstances will become mortal enemies. “I wouldn’t trust my sainted grandmother with that much power” (or similar sentiments) will become a dominant sub-theme of the campaign.
There are just two outcomes, when you boil all this down: either it was always the GM’s intention to introduce the artifact, and he has planned his campaign accordingly, and solved every problem that he can anticipate; or the artifact will become the dominant focus of the campaign, henceforth, with anything else that the GM wanted to incorporate reduced to secondary import if it survives at all.
Either way, the campaign will never be the same again. It will either ascend to new heights (rare) or crash and burn (far more common).
So, that’s the problem for today: how to have your artifact cake without completely destroying the campaign in which it appears.
A Scale Of Magic
The search for a solution begins by contemplating magic items as a continuum, from the trivial at one extreme to the epic at the other.
When you do so, you quickly find that there’s a very large and exploitable gap between the strongest magic items typically available to PCs and Artifacts like Baba Yaga’s Hut or the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords.
I have charted such a spectrum, and divided it into 11 distinct categories. It’s my contention that each category represents an entirely different proposition in terms of placement and GMing considerations; sometimes, these will be variations or nuances of a general theme, at other times there will be a distinctly different set of considerations and requirements from one category to the next.
- Trivial items
- Weak one-use items
- Weak multi-use items
- Moderate non-permanent items
- Moderate permanent items
- Strong permanent items
- True Artifacts – Minor
- True Artifacts – Major
- Artifact Sets
Sidebar: D&D 5e
D&D 5e uses slightly different scales in assessing item Rarity, essentially mapping the range of item categories 1-6 into a range of 5 frequencies of discovery: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, and Legendary. Artifacts then form a 6th category, in which every entry refers to a specific and unique item.
But it has always been the case that an implicit increase in Rarity has accompanied an increase in the power of a magic item in D&D; the relationship was usually an indirect one, frequently addressed only through the value of the item. In it’s own way, this was a useful construct, because it reflected the economic reality that more affluent and politically-influential characters could afford better equipment than the plebs and commoners.
Sidebar Side-note: But this also has its own conceptual problems, relating to the cap on the power of such equipment; should the extremes available to such upper classes be greater than those available to the commons, such that the range spread is more or less the same, or should the ultimate reaches available to both (assuming the wealth and resources) be the same? There are profound consequences for the culture within a campaign regarding social mobility, amongst other things.
5e is simply addressing the relationship more explicitly and directly.
Anyone with sufficient ability to count on their fingers will have noticed the sizable gap in the list proffered, to which I alluded earlier.
The scale of the gap is not arbitrary; it results from having three entries to incorporate into the list. These complete the continuity, bridging the gap between Artifacts and “Mundane” magic items of the highest quality.
The missing entries are:
- Demi-Relics
- Legacy Items
- Epic Magic Items
I’m going to discuss each entry in the list a little more volubly in a moment, and it can probably be inferred from the title of this article that item 6, “Demi-relics”, are the primary subject of this article. But first:
Sidebar: Exotic Potential, a concept from the Tree Of Life campaign notes
In this campaign, materials were rated according to their “natural” potential for containing magical powers in a stable configuration from one to three.
Ordinary Wood, common Leather, and low-quality steel or high-quality bronze or brass were rated as a ‘1’, which meant that they could be +1 items, containing at most 1 magical effect other than the bonus. “Plus-1 items” could confer no more than +2 to a stat (i.e. +1 to the stat bonus), or +2 to a specific single skill, or +1 each to two related skills, or +1 to four related skills under specific circumstances or applications.
Rare Woods, Exotic Leathers, and Good-quality steel were rated as a ‘2’ – they could be enchanted to become +2 items, and could contain either two minor effects or a range of effects that occupied both “slots” (and so, were not available to materials with a rating of ‘1’). “Plus-2 items” could confer no more than +4 to a stat (i.e. +2 to the stat bonus), or +4 to a specific single skill, or +2 each to two related skills, or +1 to four related skills.
Rare Woods with unusual treatment or preparations, Extremely exotic Leathers or Exotic Leather with unusual preparation, extremely high-grade steel, and exotic materials such as Mithral (also spelt mithril, mythril, mythral, mythrel, or mithryl, depending on who’s doing the writing) are all rated as a ‘3’. They could be enchanted to become +3 items, and could contain either three minor powers, a minor- and an intermediate power (rated 1 and 2, respectively), or a single power rated ‘3’. “Plus-3 items” could confer no more than +6 to a stat (i.e. +3 to the stat bonus), usually configured to be +4 to one stat and +2 to another; or +5 to a specific single skill, or +2 each to three related skills, or +1 to all skills based on a specific stat under specific circumstances or usage..
To get more powerful forms of magic, you had to incorporate two materials into the one item, with both the individual treatment of each element and the act of incorporation being of masterwork quality (defined in the game as a success by 20 or more on an appropriate skill check). One slot of the original item’s enchantment potential was consumed by the blending. So a 3-rated material and a 2-rated material could be combined to get a four-rated composite (+3+2-1=+4). This not only could be enchanted to be +4 in capabilities, it had four slots for powers, which could be configured in multiple ways (3+1, 2+2, 2+1+1, 1+1+1+1) or which could contain one of a whole new range of 4-rated powers.
Finally, you could combine two 3-rated materials to get a five-rated material (+3+3-1=+5) – with the benefits being similar to those described above.
Enchantment had to be performed separately for each step of improvement, increasing in price, skill/character level required, and difficulty with each increase. Each power also required its own ritual and added to these variables by the scale of the power – so adding a 5-rated power made everything else cost a lot more, adding a combination of smaller abilities less so.
On top of all that, exotic materials could be ritually consumed in the correct way to add up to another +6 to the mix (again, consuming one of the slots in the original material). The best that could be achieved by a magic item was therefore plus ten (+3+3+6-2=+10). The requirements at the top end of this scale were quite ridiculous – a flame capable of vaporizing rubies, for example – and no-one in the modern campaign world was capable of more than +2 in such enhancement. But they kept trying, and spending vast sums in the attempts. But some legendary artisans of the past got lucky on occasion. Any power slots over 5 can only be used for minor powers.
Note that such materials are themselves only rated 1-3 each – so +6 comes from consuming two specific ultra-rare materials in a specific way in the course of fabricating the item.
In theory, appropriate exotic locations or conditions could be used to confer up to another +6 in the same way, but the requirements start to get truly epic. “Plunge the blade into an intact ice cube at least 1′ on each side whilst in the heart of a volcano; the ice may not be permitted to melt or fracture in the process”.
Why mention this? Because it furnishes the basis of a systematic, continuous, architecture for magic item construction. Since the whole notion of such a continuous spectrum is at the heart of today’s article, I thought this worth spelling out (briefly). The same principles go into the making of scrolls, and potions – exotic ingredients and components, used the right way.
Before I get into the new category and other related concepts, let’s run through the complete list, at least briefly.
0. Trivial items
Trivial items contain magical effects so minor that they would be considered only an Orison if cast as a spell. These may be single-use or have a number of charges or even be permanently enchanted; the effects are so minor that it doesn’t make much difference, either way.
These generally represent some sort of convenience, nothing more. For example, I once gave a PC am infinite roll of toilet paper. Used sheets were instantly cleaned, magically, and attached to the beginning of the roll – so it couldn’t be used to write messages on, and wasn’t strong enough to form a rope or anything of the sort.
Another example: some potions were available in the Fumanor campaign that were multi-dose (healing potions, especially). So someone came up with the idea of enchanted spell bottles whose glass changed color according to the number of doses remaining unused.
1. Weak one-use items
Generally, potions and scrolls. Use once and they are gone forever.
2. Weak multi-use items
Some potions and minor wands. They are more powerful than category one, but that’s not saying a lot. Frequently useful, though.
3. Moderate non-permanent items
This category contains things like wands of fireballs. So ubiquitous in some campaigns as a poor-man’s artillery substitute that they deserve a category of their own.
You can have fun by making the spells as ‘interpreted’ by wands different to the spells cast by mages. A little goes a long way, however, and confusion & delay will result repeatedly if you aren’t consistent.
4. Moderate permanent items
Anything rated +2 or less is definitely either in this category or less. A vigorous debate is possible about whether or not +3 should fall into this category; I think, ultimately, which side of the line a given weapon or armor fell over would depend on what other powers the +3 item conferred.
This category is notable because these items should be bestowed with caution at low character levels; they are powerful enough to alter the balance of power between PCs. At the upper end of the scale, and depending on the campaign, this advice would hold into mid-level characters.
5. Strong permanent items
Anything +4 or +5, and perhaps some or most +3 items, are at home in this category. Nothing of this power should be available to a PC until double-digit character levels at the very soonest. These items tend to be individualized to a considerable degree, and usually have a history that can be traced from one past owner to another. That means that there is almost always going to be a story describing how they came to be wherever the item was when the PCs found it. These should be embodiments of the campaign history, or at least of parts of it; there should have been notable battles where the item was used. A key to the proper appreciation of the item is making this history relevant to the wearer/wielder.
6. Demi-Relics
Demi-Relics are a new idea being put forward for the first time in this article. For now, suffice it to say that they are more powerful than Strong Permanent Items but with limitations and a penalty to usage that is steep enough for characters to hesitate. At the same time, they are sufficiently limited in scope that the problems of most Artifacts are not applicable; you can treat them as even rarer examples of Strong Magic Items in terms of their presence in the campaign.
7. Legacy Items
Like Demi-Relics, these were introduced to occupy and exploit the gap between major ‘mundane’ magic items like a +5 Holy Avenger and Artifacts. They were introduced as part of the background to Assassin’s Amulet, and the bonuses that come with that game supplement include ‘player friendly’ versions. The basic concept is artifacts that start off very weak (and so can be included in the campaign from early on) but which gain in power as the character gains in levels. In some cases, the abilities are relatively minor in comparison to established artifacts, in others they are not. Like artifacts, they have side effects, and in some cases, may have powers that can only be unlocked by using lesser abilities enough times for the side effects to have a marked and permanent effect on the wielder. I describe them in more detail in An excerpt from ‘A player’s Guide to Legacy Items’, Part One and Part Two.
8. Epic Magic Items
I can’t speak of other editions’ versions, but the 3.5 Epic Level Handbook contains a whole bunch of magic equipment that confers (effectively) +6 or more, without most of the limitations and side-effects of Artifacts, but with far steeper requirements that a character has to meet in order to utilize them. They don’t have the majesty or power of true Artifacts, though, which is how they can get away without those penalties and drawbacks. Some of these are, regrettably, quite boring; others look like being such fun that you will be tempted to incorporate them early.
9. True Artifacts – Minor
Even a minor artifact can be a literal game-changer. Most of the time that these are included in a campaign it’s because the GM thinks they are cool, and it’s done with insufficient thought as to the consequences. The official advice quoted earlier from the 2e DMG says that they should be the centerpiece of an adventure; I disagree, they should be the centerpiece of an entire campaign in my opinion.
There are times when an artifact is the absolutely appropriate thing to introduce to a campaign. Most of the time, it’s not. For that reason, I want GMs who are thinking about dropping an Artifact into their campaign to contemplate one of the lesser alternatives – because even an Epic Magic Item will do less damage to your campaign than a Minor Artifact when you aren’t prepped for it.
10. True Artifacts – Major
The Holy Grails, of course, are Major Artifacts. How do you draw the dividing line? Well, destroying a Minor Artifact should be the objective of a plot thread within a campaign, and should be its own plot arc within the campaign. It still leaves room for other plot arcs. Destroying a Major Artifact demands that anything else be set aside, no matter the cost – think of the destruction of the One Ring vs the destruction of a lone Nazgul, to borrow a metaphor from the Lord Of The Rings.
Everything said about minor artifacts goes double and triple for Major Artifacts.
11. Artifact Sets
A highly unofficial category, there are two examples that come to mind: The Wand of Orcus and the Rod Of Seven Parts. There are undoubtedly others. These are artifacts that may or may not hold powers in their own right, but which are designed to unite with others to form a set that is as powerful, or perhaps even more powerful, than most Major Artifacts.
The Imbalance Equation
All the negative impacts associated with the introduction of Artifacts are mitigated by the substitution of lesser items. The game imbalances and inequities don’t go away, but they are at least reduced in severity. As one of my gaming friends used to put it, “The Imbalance Equation yields a smaller dividend”.
There are, in fact, only two alternatives of which I am aware (other than letting ‘nature take its course”).
Controlled Abstinence
The first of these is controlled abstinence, aka the Lord Of The Rings solution – there is some reason why the Artifact is not to be used, regardless of the provocation, which the PCs buy into; they are only lugging it around to make sure that no-one else uses it. The GM is continually trying to tempt them by throwing problems in front of the PCs for which the Artifact is the perfect solution. That’s answer number one.
A Pantheistic Approach
This is really difficult to pull off, but in its essence, Artifacts and Relics form a balanced Pantheon in which the wielders of such items contest the shape of reality. If a Dark Artifact is found and claimed, a Light Artifact begins moving about in the world in search of a Champion.
There’s nothing intelligent in this relationship that should be inferred; it’s a Karmic Balance thing.
Four answers – risking a Campaign Implosion, Controlled Abstinence, a Pantheistic Approach, or choosing something that will do less damage to the campaign than a full-blown Artifact. Having looked at the alternatives, it’s time to get down to cases.
Epic Magic Items
These are restricted to Epic Levels within the Epic Level Handbook for a reason – because they help make the new phase of the campaign more exciting and interesting. The problems confronting the PCs ramp up enormously, and so do the tools at their disposal. They become more than mere characters, they become legends – and perhaps lose touch with a little of their humanity in the process.
If your campaign fits this description, then these might be the perfect solutions.
Legacy Items
Legacy Items are a problem if introduced when the characters are already high level – they aren’t powerful enough until the character is a much higher level. They are designed to be part of the campaign from early on, and to “grow into” the role of a near-Artifact.
As a solution to the Artifact Problem, they only work if the GM has pre-planned for the situation from very early on. They are peerless under such circumstances; but they are far less satisfactory than anything else if those aren’t the circumstances of your campaign.
Demi-Relics
So there is still a gap. The prescription is for ultra-powerful magic items that are suitable for “cold insertion” into a campaign, that are nevertheless constrained enough that they won’t have the disruptive potential of Artifacts and Relics.
To leave room for the other solutions, when they become available and appropriate, in fact, they should be less powerful than Epic Magic Items.
As soon as I put the problem in those terms, having contemplated the spectrum of magic item power, a solution suggested itself to me, and Demi-Relics (aka Demi-facts) were born..
Contemplate a magic item that temporarily gives you a massive boost to one of your stats or numeric values – it could be hit points or attack or anything else. Each item affects only one specific such value. From the scale of mundane items (+1 to +5) I think +8 is about right (per level in the case of Hit Points). That’s the good news.
The item takes the permanent place of anything else – if its a suit of armor, you can’t have any other armors in your possession or it will not activate. What’s more, whatever the numeric quantity is, it takes a -2 hit whenever the item is not being worn – That’s the not-so-good news.
But there is worse to come: there is a price to pay for the activation of such an item. When the bonus wears off, it takes one point of whatever the numeric value is, with it – permanently, and cumulatively except when the item is activated– and the non-wearing penalty increases by one. That’s the bad news.
What the time frame is, is up to the GM – he can specify it as a minute, an hour, or a day. The longer it lasts, the more tempting the item will be.
Overall, this is a Faustian bargain of the first order. The first few times you use it, the benefits clearly outweigh the costs. Before you know it, you are relatively helpless without the item. Every time you use it, you become more dependent on it. Before too long, even relatively moderate threats pose a serious temptation – you can be your old self again, and more, you just have to say the word.
At first, you might think that character advancement means that the price is too low. But character advancement slows over time, inevitably; and so, therefore do the characteristic gains that can come from such advancement. All character advancement really does is hide the price of using the item from the PC – at least for a while – until they are well-and-truly hooked.
Think about the character potential – the legendary fighter who can barely lift his hand overhead, and can’t even get out of bed without his magic whatever, but who – once or twice more – can become the stuff of legend, the hero he was born to be. The rest of the time, he is short-tempered and feels worthless, and is forced to live on old glories. Worse still, people keep showing up, expecting the legend – only to be deflated by the reality. Some of whom will vocally express their disappointment. With every such event, the temptation to prove yourself worthy of the accolades would have to grow, until the temptation was too great to resist – and mark off another point of permanent loss…
Picture the paranoia that could easily result when your not-wearing penalties are up to -6 or so. In that key attribute, you are 8-12 levels behind your peers; what if the item on which you are dependent gets stolen? Would you ever take it off?
This is NOT a cursed item. It’s simply an item that costs something to use, something more precious than gold or gems. It steals the (metaphoric) soul of the character, one little slice at a time. And it’s the perfect mid-range magic item to throw into a campaign at the drop of a hat – simply because it’s cool, and the damage that it can do is contained, and self-limiting.
Be an evil GM and indulge yourself just this once – I won’t tell your players, I promise! Do so, and they will never forget the campaign that follows…
Whew! Finished at last (I slept in today, which never helps)! Hope it was worth the wait, everyone :)
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