Artifacts/Adamantineheartguard

Back to Eldmar

Back to Artifacts/Eldmar

Hesiesh’s Adamantine Heart Guard (level 3) </b>

• • • Speed +10, Acc +1, Dam +4, Def +5, Rate 6 (including 5MM bonus)

• • • Grants +4 to declared parry attempts or permanent essence number of reflexive parries (dice pool equal to melee)

• • • Opponents attack successes reduced by 2

• • • Staunches Bleeding (self or others) 1 mote per activation

• • • Grants user Aura of Invulnerability at usual activation cost

This Red Jade Short Daiklave was designed and constructed specifically for Cathak Rae after he was able to access the Fire Dragon Martial Arts style as a gift from his parents. It is weilded along side Clenched fist of the dragons might, cost to attune to this blade is 3 motes. It must be weilded as a pair to give access to the charm function.

Comments

Ditto here, stats are mega-brilliant for this artifact level, with extra powers on top. And such a low commit here too. Maybe if they were both artifact 4, it would be closer to appopriate (for me at least) although I'd still be leery, seems like they all do an awful lot of things.
-- Darloth

Well I made them as per the rules in the S&S book, this was my first attempt at using them. According to that the artifact should have 2 level 3 powers, or a level 3 could be broken down into 2 level 2, 1 level 2 and 2 level 1, or 6 level 1 powers . So The +4 to parry is a level 3 power, the -2 successes is a level 2 power, the bleedling power is a level 1 power and I upped the stats a little. I alloud the charm power as it can only be used if both blades are dual weilded by a fire dragon M.A. user. and they have to pay the essence cost to activate it as per the standard rules. yeah maybe slightly O.T.T but its not too bad i didn't think, how would you suggest altering the blades powers?. Eldmar

Interjection - if, as you say, this thing has multiple level 3 powers, it is a power 4 artifact. So far so good. According to page 26 of S&S, that means it has a base commit of 20 motes. You also need a number of points of drawback equal to the power (which, again, is 4), so you might, if you're in the mood, give this thing 4 points of Component, or perhaps Notoriety - because you almost certainly aren't giving it Essence drawback, which adds to the already high commit cost, bringing it up to 100 motes of commit for a level 4 Essence Drawback. My guess is that there's a very slight misinterpretation of how to calculate base essence cost and power levels, and people confuse "Essence Required" with "Essence Drawback" which is above and beyond the essence required to commit. Anyway, here's the thing - that means this single blade has a commit of 20m, not 3. Suddenly, it seems a lot more balanced, as all that stuff it does comes at a great cost. I know it's too late now to do anything, but I think misinterpreting the commit cost calculations is the number one way to make the S&S rules seem overpowered. - GregLink, staunch defender of S&S

Charm-activations I have little problem with, although what happens if a solar steals them and attunes, I wouldn't like to say. The fact that they're statted as quite a LOT better than shortswords is a power by itself, at LEAST level 2, possibly 3. Therefore, you seem to be short on powers. Also, why do they have 2 level 3? That implies they're a power 4 item, if I can remember the rules there correctly. If you're using those rules, it's probably a good idea to include all of the separate breakdowns (power, usefulness, etc) so people can see how you did it... It hardly matters if someone built them using the teeth of a 3rd circle demon if they're never going to need them again, hmm?
-- Darloth

S&S rules can become hideous. Going by the book can easily lead to a massively overpowered artifact. I made a mistake in one of the first games I ran and allowed an armor in character creation that had a permanent Flow Like Blood effect on it which was crafted by a Terrestrial and only Artifact 3 (maxed out component drawback). Needless to say, I am not going to make that mistake twice, mostly because I will not allow the Component drawback for any artifact not being made in play. Another problem with S&S rules, is that weapons and artifacts have a very strange costing system for power, you put the powers together, add the resources cost of the base artifact and then half it for the actual Power rating.

I would make comments on changes you could make, but I'm not too sure exactly what you are after. Is it something that exemplifies the Glorious Path of the Fire Dragon? This would imply that there would be further bonuses to the actions encouraged by the style. Unfortunately I can't quite remember exactly what Fire Dragon Form does and I don't have my books on me right now. - Somori

• Yeah I see where you are comming from with your comments, as for the charms - in our group we have a number of items that can activate charms, including a set of 4 orichalcum daiklaves, a set of orichalcum armour and an orichalcum shield, it has just been assumed that the charms would only work for the relevent Exalt types (or Eclipse, moonshadow etc). But as I said this pair of swords were my first attempt at artifact creation and they have been in play for a while now so I can't really drop their powers. As to why they have 2 level 3 powers - thats because if I remember right thats what it says in Savant and sorcery..... If not I messed up and I have a very lucky player.... The next couple of sets of artifacts that go up on my page will be much more in line with power levels, but then Ive had a lot more exp Story telling the game now compared to when I made these up.

• Somori, my thoughts initially were for something that fitted with the theme of the attack based and defence based sword, I wanted them to exemplify the path of the Fire Dragon, but also that of the leadership ideals of legion officers of House Cathak, I didn't want to put any of the Fire Dragon MA charms into the Sword as I thought that a bit to powerfull (fire dragon form gives automatic successes on any declared dodge action equal to MA rating), I thought about deadly wildfire legion from the melle tree but the virtually any melee specialist DB would have that from char gen, the others I'm not that impressed with really. I thought the multiple action charm would emulate the speed of the raging Fire, and the defensive presence charm because of the aura it gives the char making him stand out amongst his troups to inspire them and of course the extra health level, I did think about a dodge charm, or using a charm to increase soak but I settled for this one. And yes I wont be using the rules from S&S again either.

Eldmar

You don't need to simply have charm activations. S&S says you can use the effect of a charm of that level as a power. But you could have added something like allowing the character one reflexive dodge (at full pool) per turn equal to (half of?) the wielders Essence (minimum 1) to the normal Artifact Hooked Daiklaive and you'd have been set for a level 3 artifact. The key, as always in Exalted, is finding something that is in theme. You get 1-3 dodges that don't cost anything, allowing you to use more actions for attacks and don't suck up your motes of Essence.

The Artifacts/Clenchedfistofthedragon, which I'll talk about here so you can see my comments in one place, would then be built to capitalise on an attacking someone who can't defend. Perhaps doubling the pre-soak damage of the first undefended attack in a turn, or allowing MA dice to be converted to successes the first time in a turn an attack isn't defended against?

As someone who heavily exploits the S&S rules, I can say that they don't necessarily have to break the game. I've got a few artifacts that are pretty frigging amazing made out of those rules, as they use a geometric progression along the 'power' scale. Trick is to start with a power 5 artifact, that clearly notes you can have 3 level 4 charm effects if you want. Since a level 4 charm effect is a dead-on level four power, you can (in theory) trade that down for 3 level 3's, etc. What you end up with is a single Power 5 artifact that provides a +4 bonus to all attributes. That same power 5 artifact, with a high enough component cost, ends up being quite purchasable at character creation, and the player is quite happy, as now, he truly is a god among mortals, with base die pools upwards of 6 dice before he even adds in abilities. He has a good time, acts all heroic, and generally likes the setup. Then, one day, he meets "Slays Without Regret", wielding a Soulsteel Daiklave (standard stats) but also wearing the "Earring of Ultimate Smiting", a Power 5 artifact that has three Power 4 effects: +8 Damage, +8 Strength, and +8 Dex. Suddenly, the Solar, amazing at many things though he is, is suddenly staring down an enemy with a base damage pool in the range of 25L+, and a base attack pool in the range of 18 dice. Oh, and since he's an Abyssal, his Artifact background rules yours, and so he's got two of the dang things, putting him up to 41L+ base damage, and a base attack pool of 25 or so. Before charms. The trick, as with all things, is to recognize that any game and setting is "fair" and "balanced" as long as the effects are across the board. Letting your players make up super-artifacts seems overpowered, until the enemies start carrying them too. At that point, all you really need to do is recognize that artifacts really are great and powerful wonders, that characters fawn over, and spend heroic quests to make and reclaim. If you can buy "a Daiklave" at the Nexus market, that's great for you. It's (in theory) a "level 2 artifact", and that's about it. But hey - those are the Ford Explorer of artifacts. Mass-produced, common, and none too awesome. Spend some effort, and you'll get a nice Dodge Charger SRT8 for the same price, and not nearly as common.

Overall, I'm just defending the S&S rules, saying that they can work, and work well, as long as you recognize that many of the published artifacts are of the "Ford Explorer" kind, mass produced by Terrestrials (even the Orichalcum ones were made by those idiots, in the large factories), and the 'true' artifacts, the ones that take months to years to make, with special components, well of course they rule. They're the stuff of legend. If your players want to use the S&S rules, remember that a power 5 artifact has a base commit of 25m, which can only be reduced by either a) adding a hearthstone-type power source or b) getting extra successes on the craft roll. If they're buying things at character creation, remind them that since they won't be doing the craft roll, you'll assume minimum successes were rolled to make the artifact, and that yes, they'll be needing the full 25 mote commitment. It works surprisingly well, and results in players being much more conservative with their artifacts, rarely starting with artifacts of greater than power 3 - which, conveniently, ends up with artifacts on the same power scale as the mass-produced bland daiklaves, and other published artifacts. - GregLink, who loves the S&S rules, and has made characters around the concept that their entire starting peripheral essence pool was committed to 2 very very powerful artifacts.

Fair enough. You are correct that Artifacts should be creations of uber-ness that everybody wants. My main problems arise in the Components drawback and the "Powers are based on Solar charms" part of Artifact creation. Scribbling out a list of components, which can start at 9 components (5 colours of Jade, and the 3 celestial metals and soulsteel) in an attempt to buy down the artifact rating is almost encouraged by the rules. Even if the required components are things like "Air from the Northern Elemental Pole" the character has no mechanical drawback to the benefit he's gaining.

Now, as to Powers being based on Solar's, this means that by a literal reading of the rules it is possible for a character to get a massive boost in power over his contemporaries. Flow like Blood is a level 3 power for instance, and it is very easy to simply say it is a permanent power. That's just nasty, especially with a dodge-maxed air-aspect, there is *very* little another Terrestrial can do to that. I am somewhat mollified by the comments about the Earring of Ultimate Smiting on that point though, so I won't labour it any more. - Somori, who has a tendancy to understat artifacts these days.