ArtifactCreationExamples/TalonsOfInevitability

The Talons of Inevitability: A worked Thrown Artifact creation example

This is Guybrush's example of creating a thrown Artifact using the ArtifactCreationErrata. The Talons Of Inevitability are a good example for relatively simple creation, since they have no special powers other than being kick-arse. They are a pair of Soulsteel daggers, balanced for throwing. (More on the daggers and their owner, the Abyssal Exalt the Valeyard Obsidian, can be found on EdgeOfCreation.) The example here also doesn't factor in the Soulsteel materials bonuses - I figure that should be done after the final base stats are finished, since that makes it easy to convert to other magical materials.

For starters, I wanted these daggers to be good for both throwing and fighting; the Valeyard is equally deadly close up and at a distance. So we're using the rules for throwing weapons rather than melee, and I have made a few assumptions on how the rules should be applied; feel free to comment below.

We start with a baseline Level 2 thrown Artifact: this has +6 damage, a range of 30 yards, and a rate of 2. It also has a base Melee score of +6 damage, and a base committment of 2 Essence.

Thrown: Accuracy +0, Damage +6L, Rate 2, Range 30\\ Melee: Speed +0, Accuracy +0, Damage +6L, Defence +0\\ Committment: 2 Essence

Most of the rules for melee weapons can be used for thrown weapons also. Increasing the committment cost of the weapon increases the base damage by +1; though the rules do not explicitly state this, I'm assuming that since the base levels start the same, this adds +1 damage for both thrown and melee stats. So now we have:

Thrown: Accuracy +0, Damage +7L, Rate 2, Range 30\\ Melee: Speed +0, Accuracy +0, Damage +7L, Defence +0\\ Committment: 3 Essence

As per the ArtifactCreationErrata, damage is the "currency" for point exchange; we can exchange 1 point of damage for 2 points in the other melee stats or 10 yards of range. 2 points of damage can be traded in to increase the Rate by 1.

The Talons don't need to fly any further or faster, so we'll concentrate on the accuracy of the thrown stats, converting +2 damage into +4 accuracy. This does not change the melee stats, which are altered separately.

Thrown: Accuracy +4, Damage +5L, Rate 2, Range 30\\ Melee: Speed +0, Accuracy +0, Damage +7L, Defence +0\\ Committment: 3 Essence

We want to even up the Talons' melee and thrown abilities, but since there are more stats we need to beef up for melee (speed and defence, as well as accuracy), points are going to be stretched pretty thin. Here I made a house ruling and decided that a point of thrown damage can be sacrificed to add a point of melee damage. This gives us the following:

Thrown: Accuracy +4, Damage +4L, Rate 2, Range 30\\ Melee: Speed +0, Accuracy +0, Damage +8L, Defence +0\\ Committment: 3 Essence

Now, to make the melee damage equal the thrown damage, we convert 4 melee damage into 8 points to spread between speed, accuracy and defence. These blades are fast and sharp, but aren't built for defending, so I put most of those points into Accuracy and Speed.

Thrown: Accuracy +4, Damage +5L, Rate 2, Range 30\\ Melee: Speed +3, Accuracy +4, Damage +4L, Defence +1\\ Committment: 3 Essence

Finally, we want a pair of these daggers. We can increase the Artifact cost by one to make the Artifact a "set" of the weapons, instead of a single item. The number in the set is equal to the rate, which is 2, giving us our pair. Because I already upped the committment cost by a level to get bonus damage, this makes the final committment for the pair 4 motes. (This may be increased to 6 if you feel I was a little greedy taking a bonus damage point for melee and thrown.)

So, the final stats are:

Thrown: Accuracy +4, Damage +5L, Rate 2, Range 30\\ Melee: Speed +3, Accuracy +4, Damage +4L, Defence +1\\ Committment: 4 Essence for the pair

Hopefully this is instructive and helpful. All comments and criticisms welcome.