Artifacts/Ambisinister

• Level 1 Artifacts 3 total
  
• Level 2 Artifacts 10 total
  
• Level 3 Artifacts 12 total
  
• Level 4 Artifacts 8 total
  
• Level 5 Artifacts 6 total
  

The Back Room

A section where we place our devices that don't quite fit into the 1-5 Hierarchy, in addition to those things which may not be artifacts in and of themselves, but may have something to do with one or more artifacts.

The Legacy of Coalition's Wrath- The story of an ancient weapon and the legacy it left in its passing.

Temple's Vestment-A set of artifacts forged for the Akuma Temple by his Yozi masters.

Chop Shop

This is a home for my artifact prototypes. Maybe someday they'll find a place within the hierarchy and join their completed brethren.

Flicker Spear

Flicker Spear
Artifact Level ~ 3
Commitment ~ 7 motes

Lookshy has recently come by 6 of these miraculous weapons, five crafted from Jade and one from Moonsilver. Each is inscribed with a symbol, a striking falcon, and a name. The Jade are called Teff(white), Kholle(red), Syrti(Black), Tansa(Blue), and Llerdryn(green) and the Moonsilver is Pazdri.

The spears are five and a half feet in length and have barbed, angular heads similer to a hunting arrows. Elegantly simple yet pleasing geometric patterns are carved from the base of the heads all the way down to the butts of the weapons. Though they are seemingly carved from a single piece of Magical Material there are no hearthstone settings.

Flicker Spears may be wielded in melee or as thrown weapons and additionally possess a few useful qualities. With but a thought the spear’s wielder can cause it to collapse into a slender rod a foot in length and an inch and a half in diameter. Expanding the weapon back to combat readiness is the equivalent of a draw weapon action and may be combined with the physical act of actually withdrawing it from a pack or holster.

Flicker Spears may also be reflexively summoned to hand so long as they are within a mile of their attuned owner, vanishing and reappearing in the blink of an eye. While this feat is certainly not unique amongst artifact thrown weapons, the fact that it can be reversed certainly is far less common. By reflexively spending 3 motes the attuned owner may instead transport himself to the spear’s location. When using the power in this fashion the wielder does not have to appear holding the weapon, but may instead appear standing on it, laying next to it, hanging from, essentially anything he can imagine so long as some part of his body is in contact with some part of the spear. While there is no constraint on the number of times the spear can be called to its owner, the owner may only go to the spear once per tick.

Finally, beyond the enhanced performance one usually receives from harmonizing with a weapon’s material these spears have an additional benefit. When harmonized to the Jade weapons wound penalties will never affect the character’s pools to use the Flicker Spear to defend himself or to attack his foes.

When fully harmonized with Pazdri will always shape itself so that it can wielded regardless of the form its owner wears or the condition his body is in. While this does not mitigate penalties, it does allows for some unexpected avenues of attack such as a swallow dive bombing opponents with a five and half foot spear clutched in its tiny claws or a prisoner hurling the weapon using only his head.

Thoughts and Concerns

I still can't decide if I like the name on this one. If anyone has any clever suggestions I'm very open to them. Balance is also something I'm slightly concerned about as well. Personal teleportation is something of a big deal in the Exalted setting. I really like the concept of the weapon as I feel it can provide for some great combat and athletic stunt material. I'm also looking for some input on limiting travel to the spear to once per tick. On the one hand, I think the idea of throwing the damn thing, teleporting to it, throwing it again in mid air, then throwing it again, all within the same flurry, could be used for some really cool stuff. On the other hand it might also be ridiculously broken. What do you guys think?-A.

Comments

Let us know when you're ready for comments. - TonyC

I'm always ready for you guys, fire away! (Although I still need to clean up Warp and Weft in Artifact 5)-Ambisinister

I don't think that the penalty-elimination mechanic really meshes with the rest of the design (I am, however, extremely picky about these things), and I would change the teleport limit to "once per action." It's my feeling that with the outlined powers, this would be Artifact 4 (again, my judgement has been known to be suspect in these matters). Nifty concept. - Han'ya

Thanks for the input. After re-reading the description it occurs to me that the penalty reduction mechanic, as written, was far more powerful than intended. I've amended the text to reflect my intent, which is that penalties will not effect pools to use the spear to attack or defend, not some sort of blanket bonus. As for the flavor, my two key concepts were reliability and tactical flexibility. As it stands these things straddle where I draw the line between three and four, being a strong three and a weak four. Adding hearthstone settings would slide them up into a more solid four, but I'm not sure what I'd strip to make them a solid three. If forced I'd strip the extra harmonization powers but I'm somewhat torn on that. It's a tough decision. I'm leaning towards putting their stat lines closer to mundane spears. They certainly will be nowhere near dire lances in oomph. I'm curious to know why you'd limit the teleport effect to once per action. Which abuses are you looking to end run? I can't think of too many aside from some clever responses to getting disarmed. -A.

Personally, with the teleport, I would put it at four. It's an incredibly cheap and reflexive effect (as opposed to things that have it as their main power, like Amulets of Shadow Walking), making it a very easy way to smuggle yourself anywhere. Also, for stat lines - it's a thrown spear, isn't it? I would think it's stat line would be based on a Vajra, not a dire lance. - TheHoverpope

I agree. Also, Ambisinister, the once-per-action limit is aimed at preventing just that. If you are disarmed multiple times within an action, then theoretically you could teleport to your spear each time. This is a personal opinion (treat it as such), but that's just not very cool to me, and it also seems kind of over-the-top. When you have a gimmick that useful, it would definitely push the artifact up to 4, since there's no easy way to overcome it except disarming them so much that it's too much of a bother to spend the motes (And if you're that good, why waste time disarming them when you can just kill them?). I can't see anybody using this artifact as you've set it up, PC or no. Powers are only cool when they have limits , if you know what I'm saying (Chuck Norris being the obvious exception). - Han'ya