Artifacts of the Future

[Ry Vor]

Just thought I might get some opinions on artifacts as they stand now.
1. Too hard to locate?
2. Too powerful or not?
3. Any that should be eliminated?
4. Any new that should be added?

[DuPont]

When you said 'Artifacts of the future, I was hoping for a Laser Gun that would kill Consuls. Off the top of my head:
1. No, I don't think they are too hard to locate. I think it's just right.
2. I don't really think any are too powerful.
3. There are a couple 'stupid' ones, but not worth eliminating, I don't think.
4. New ones - is there a consul slayer like there is for the Demon Princes? There should be.

[kevindusi]

Ancient Annihilator or something like that...

[bluefile2]

That wand of lightning should be improved or dumped.

[Jumbie]

-A school of sharks with frickin lasers on their head that gives you a brigade worth of transport over the seas and can fight in naval battles.

-Some kind of alchemy tool that boosts gold production at a town.

-'Banner of Command' that lets units combine and maneuver late without gold/morale costs.

-'Plague Wand' that reduces population a set significant percentage every turn for any PC the group is near, including Friendly PC's.

-Drones. No, seriously. You can call them 'stealth eagles' or something, but it'll be a drone that can be sent to hover over a city/area/group etc and recon it and also assassinate any target. It can function like a limited agent.

-'The King of Horses' which adds a bonus to your cavalry phase. Just don't call him Shadowfax.

-Lilies of the Mind. Gives power of divination to one emissary. Suddenly that ambassador is useful. Side effect is occasional madness leading to incorrect visions.

-Lord of Oxen. Gives a boost to food production in any PC

-Stormbringer. Could be a sword, could be a wand, could be a hammer or even a cooking pot. It will bring dark fog and blinding rain down upon any foe, cutting their visual range and hence negating their preparedness, so that the attacking group always has surprise.

-'Cauldron of Neverending Bounty'. Speaking of pots...how about a pot that never runs out of food so that the group gets a percentage morale boost? Double bonus for hungry races.

-Light of Confusion - Whenever activated, this artifact gives false readings to any reconnaissance at its location. e.g. Telling the agent that the King is there when he is not, but not telling the agent that the 1 DW is at the location etc. Will work for groups in the field too.

-Lord of Bears. Adds a bonus to infantry stage.

-King of the Eagles. Adds a bonus to the missile stage.

-I'd also like to see healing artifacts, but I have no specifics in mind.

[DuPont]

Lilies Of The Mind sounds like an awesome book title.

[Yellowbeard]

I have a suggestion regarding point 1. The high end artifacts that require keys to acquire, what if you changed it so it was still difficult to get them, but a little less random.

If you find the US for Elan flaming sword of the north, for example, when investigating it, there would be a difficult encounter guarding it even if you don't have the key. If you defeat that, you find a locked vault or whatever and can't retrieve the sword, however you find a map or clues to where the key is. it could be the location of the key, or 4 or 5 possible locations (1 being right). Then you'd have to go beat those US's adn then come back with the key, open the vault, and fight another US encounter to retrieve the sword.

Still difficult to get these, but less random. If you want to put the effort in, you can pursue that artifact for 4 or 5 turns and get it.

Just a thought.

[j2klbs]

I agree with this suggestion 100% Alternately, if you defeat the encounter you at least get the artifact code for the key so that you could then hire a priestess to divine its location.

~Jason

[Ry Vor]

I agree with this suggestion 100% Alternately, if you defeat the encounter you at least get the artifact code for the key so that you could then hire a priestess to divine its location.

~Jason

Yeah, I'd like something so that if you have either a key or the sighting for the artifact, you can get the other location without the random thing it is now with the HP. It's already too tough if one or the other is in a sea where you have no sea power.

I agree if there is a Demon Slayer there should be a counterpart for the AN.

I still think its too hard to find artifacts, but not sure what I want to do about that. In FoR, groups can scout, for example.

[unclemike]

While you're evaluating suggestions for new artifacts, also consider correcting some of the current mechanics of artifacts as well.

For example, the Ring of Invisibility artifact (which raises an agent's level by 4 for missions automatically) also comes with a surcharge of 2,000 gold (i.e. the four extra levels) for using that agent.

Just my luck that the first artifact that I get in a game, I have to pay to use it

So I don't think it's a good idea to start charging kingdoms to use artifacts because it distracts from the novelty of owning a magical item. What's next, start charging kingdoms who have a weapon artifact to pay 500 gold every time their group attacks another?

Just my two cents (er, 2,000 gold) worth of advice