The misty past holds many secrets. Great wizards and powerful clerics, not to mention the deities themselves, have used spells and created items that are beyond the ken of present-day knowledge. These items survive as artifacts, but their means of creation have gone.
Artifacts are extremely powerful. Rather than merely another form of magic equipment, they are the sorts of legendary relics that whole campaigns can be based on. Each could be the center of a whole set of adventures, a quest to recover it, a fight against an opponent wielding it, a mission to cause it's destruction, and so on. These items should only enter a campaign through deliberate choice of the DM.
Artifacts come in two categories, Minor Artifacts, and Major Artifacts. Minor Artifacts are not necessarily unique items. Even so, they are magic items that can no longer be created, at least by common mortal means. Major Artifacts are truly unique. Only one of each item exists. Each has a long history, and the tales told of them are fantastic, and usually fraught with error and misconception. Major Artifacts are secretive things, their current whereabouts unknown, waiting to be found and once again unleashed upon the world. These artifacts should never be introduced into a campaign without careful consideration. These are the most potent of magic items, capable of altering the balance of a campaign.
Unlike other magic items, Major Artifacts are not easily destroyed. Each should have only a single, specific means of destruction, determined ahead of time by the DM. Examples of means of destroying a Major Artifact include:
Throwing it into the volcano lair of the dragon Uthrax.
Crushed under the heel of a demigod.
Buried in the Rift of Corrosion in the Abyss.
Disintegrated while placed at the base of the Infinite Staircase.
Devoured by Talos, the triple iron golem.
Immersed in the Fountain of Light in the holy Halls of Heironeous himself.
Because the means of destruction of a Major Artifact are so different, such an item is often buried in a deep vault, thrown into the Astral Plane, or buried behind extremely powerful and untiring guardians by those without the power, knowledge, or wherewithal to destroy it.
This is a complete list of all Artifacts that I use in my games. It includes all those from the Players Handbook 3.5 in navy and others gained from supplements, adapted from material printed in Dungeon or Dragon magazines or the WOTC website in maroon and some of my own in Green.
MINOR ARTIFACTS |
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| Book Of Exalted Deeds |  |
Book Of Infinite Spells | |
Book Of Vile Darkness | |
Tvash-Prull's Symphony |
MAJOR ARTIFACTS |
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| The Hand And Eye Of Vecna | Fountain Of Fortune's Folly |
The Mace Of Cuthbert | The Moaning Diamond | |||
| The Orbs Of Dragonkind | Rod Of Profion | Rod Of Savrille | Savina's Scepter |
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Last Updated: 3rd March 2005