Artificer

From Sagataflwiki

Revision as of 14:35, 31 August 2010

Artificer is an inborn Power, of the Item Creation type. Unlike most (if not all) other Item Creation procedures, the character must use the Power while he is physically creating the item, i.e. weaving an item of clothing, forging a sword, or making a torch.

This means he must have the necessary mundane craftsman skills. Also, the magic does not override the inherent quality of the crafted item, but rather augments it, so each item will be better if the Artificer has crafted it with great skill.

On the other hand, the character doesn't need to unlock the Power, it can be used as soon as it manifests (and it manifests early), and even before the character's Power manifests, the character will feel instinctively drawn or one or more of the craftsman skills he needs to learn in order to use this Power.

Manifestation and roleplaying

The Artificer Power usually manifests very early, and except for Power Level (PL) 10, Mythic Artificer, the Power always manifests all at once, rather than in degrees.

The player is free to choose any Youth level interval, i.e. 9-12 Years of age or 21-30 Years of age. The most common is the 12-15 or 15-18 interval, and for most player characters and many NPCs, this will be deep in the character's backstory, rather than something that happens during play. Also, very few characters are surprised when their Artificer Power manifests. They'll experience a sense of rightness, even if mixed with a sense of confusion. Or maybe they won't notice it at first, since the Artificer Power creates subtle effects.

An Artificer character using the Power without being aware of it, i.e. after it has manifested but before he consciously accepts the fact, makes subconsciuos choices as to what Enchantments and at what grades he will put into the item, in proportion with how important the item is.

A few Artificers remain in denial throughout their entire lives, but this can be an extreme roleplaying challenge, and many players and GMs will not be able to handle it. Fortunately, if a player (or GM) starts out deciding that the character will remain in denial about having a supernatural Power for his entire life, and then realizes that he (the player or GM playing the character) cannot pull it off, it is easy to change plans and simple have the character accept that he has a Supernatural ability.

That still leaves plenty of room for theological and existential angst, although for the sake of the sanity of the other players, such a period should not be too drawn out. Eventually the character should come to terms with what he is, or else go insane to the point where he is no longer an active participant within the game world.

With Mythic Artificer, the special variant of the Power that is PL 10, there is quite often a "lag" of manifestation, so that if a character has Artificer at PL 10, the Power will manifest at PL 9, and then only after a significant period of time, usually of 1, 3 or 6 Years, PL 10 manifests. Players are free to choose the duration of the lag, or leave it to a dice roll (1d6 Years, e.g., possibly rolled in secret by the GM), or let the GM pre-determine it but keep his decision secret. Even for Mythic Artificer, the full manifestation can very well have occured deep in the character's backstory, rather than being something the player anxiously waits for to happen to his character.

Power variants and cost

Power variants

The Artificer Power comes in two versions, one called Artificer (Gen.) that can be used for all craftsman skills that the character has (and as he learns new skills, he can use Artificer (Gen.) with those too), and another that is specific to one craftsman skill, or with GM permission to two very closely related skills (e.g. torchmaking and candle-making).

This requires GM acceptance for combinations not specifically mentioned in the rules, based on comparision with existing examples (e.g. candle- and torch-making are thematically very closely related in that they're about light-producing consumable objects).

A character can have the skill-specific Artificer Power up to thre times, in which case the second and third instance of Artificer have a lower Cost Factor. If more than 3 are desired, pay for the general version of Artificer, but optionally decide that the Power can only be used for a pre-defined list of crats.

Cost Factor

Take the lowest of Dexterity(Manual) and Intelligence.

Don't modify this value for for Artificer (Gen.).

For the skill-specific version, add 2 for the first instance, add 4 for the 2nd instance, and add 6 for the third instance. The first instance is always the one with the highest Power Level, the third instance is always the one with the lowest Power Level. If any modified Cost Factor becomes higher than 16, which is unlikely, treat it as 16.

Then look up the cost in the table below.

Since Artificer is an Item Creation Power, there are no Power Points.

Cost table

Power levels and effects

Power Level table

The Power Levels of 2.5, 7.5, 8.5 and 9.5 do not exist. Choose the level closest to your vision of the character.

Table entries explained

Minor Privilege and Major Privilege

At low Power Levels, you can only use your Artificer Power when you spend Minor Privilege points to do so. Each 1 Minor Privilege Point lets you make one Simple I Item (for which you pay the Esseence cost). From PL2 onwards, you may make as many Simple I Items as you wish, not being limited by Minor Privilege Points, although you must still pay the Essence cost.

Starting at PL 1.5, you may also make Simple II Items, each such item costing 4 Minor Privilege Points (plus its normal Essence cost). From PL 3.5 onwards, you may make as many Simple II Items as you wish, so for PL 3.5+ you can ignore Minor Privilege Points.

Also, starting at PL 2, you may begin making complex items which are items that can contain multiple Enchantments, each of your choosing, but limited by Enchantment level. Everything is explained further down.

From PL 4, you begin getting Major Privilege points. These are way cool! They let you make Simple I Items (and from PL 6.5 also Simple II Items) that you do not have to pay Essence cost. Each Simple I Item costs 1 Major Privilege point, and each Simple II Item costs 4 Major Privilege Points.

Please note that there are limits to how many unspent Minor and Major Privilege points you may store up. This is in each case mentioned in a paranthesis, and is higher for higher PLs.

Enchantments (complex items and triple time)

Starting at PL2, you get a maximum Enchantment level. This means you can begin combining Enchantments into complex items, complex items being flexible ones capable of containing multiple Enchantments of your own choosing (from among those available to Artificers), whereas Simple Items can only contain set Enchantments and only one Enchantment each (or if they can contain multiple Enchantments, in a few cases, it is very rigid and pre-determined).

Up until PL7, you are limited with regards to what items you can put your highest available level of Enchantments into. You can only put these into items that you have crafted elaborately, taking 3 times as long as normal, for that item type at that quality level. As an example, at PL4, your maximum Enchantment level is 4th, so you can put 2nd and 3rd level Enchantments into any items (except Simple Items; these can never cotain additional Enchantments), but if you also want to put 4th level Enchantments into an item, that item must be crafted taking much extra time (you can also put lower level Enchantments into such items).

This "triple time" principle is the origin of the notion of the "Thrice-Forged sword". Some blacksmiths would take a very long time making certain very important swords, and people ended up assuming that the smith would forge the blade, then break it, then forge it, break it again, and forge it anew a third time. What's really going on is that the Artificer (a smith, weaver, or any other craftsman with the Artificer Power) takes his time, putting love and care and attention into the item beyond what its quality level warrants.

This limitation ceases at PL7. At that point, the Artificer can put 6th level Enchantments, the most powerful possible, into items crafted taking a normal amount of time.

See also Grand Work and Wondrous Work below.

Grand Work and Wondrous Work

Grand Work can be used a limited number of times during the Artificer's life (except at very high PLs, when he can use it as often as he wishes), and each use causes him to age by 1 OP (the equivalent of 3 Years of aging), although in a subtle and gradual way. His hair doesn' suddenly turn grey or white, and his bear doesn't grow by half a meter.

Wondrous Work can likewise only be used a limited number of times during the Artificer's life, and each use causes him to age by 1d3 OP, plus one more OP (total 1d3+1) if his Pagan Alignment is only 1. Please note that this is an average of 6 or 9 Years of aging per usage, depending on Alignment!

Grand Work does one of two things:

• It enables the Artificer to put a single 5th level Enchantment into the item, even if the item is not crated in triple the normal time (this usage becomes irrelevant at higher PLs)
• It enables the Artificer to craft a single item with a -2 RD bonus to all skills he uses during the process (including skills for raw material processing, provided he does the processing himself or at least supervises it closely, and the Decoration skill), and for the purpose of prerequisites and all formulae, the primary skill or skills used in the process count as being 2 higher (but not for any dice rolls; there, he only benefits from the RD bonus). The Artificer can choose to make this into a Simple Item (paying the Essence cost, or using a Major Privilege), or a regular (i.e. complex) Enchanted item, or not put any magic into the item at all (in which case the item is not magical; it does not detect as magical, and cannot be dis-Enchanted).

Wondrous Work does one of two quite similar things:

• It enables the Artificer to put a single 6th level Enchantment into an item, as above.
• It enables the Artificer to craft an item, as above, but with higher bonuses. The RD bonus is -3, and the primary skill(s) used count as 3 higher.

It is possible to use Grand Work or Wodrous Work, or both, multiple times on the same item. Once to get the bonuses (either Grand or Wondrous Work), and then once more for each Enchantment put in. The cost in aging is expensive, though.

Workshop Prowess I, II and III

Workshop Prowess I makes the Artificer's Strength and Dexterity, and all their sub-attributes, count as 1 higher, for the purpose of prerequisites to use the crafted items only when testing or trialling or demonstrating the items in controlled conditions in a workshop or similar enviroment (the bonuses are in particular never applicable during anything that resembles combat, not even duelling or sparring, but damaging inanimate items, or helples or unresisting living victims, e.g. demonstrating a sword by trusting it through a slave or prisoner, is all right). Strength and Dexterity, and all their sub-attributes, also count as 1 higher for the purpose of calculating how long the Artificer can continue working in the workshop.

Workshop Prowess II functions as above, but the bonuses are doubled (to 2), and also the Artificer's Size counts as 1 higher for the purpose of weapon testing. Thus the Artificer is able to tests (e.g. balance test) a weapon that is too large for him (or his species) to use effectively in combat. A Halfling could test a Human-scale broadsword, for instance.

Workshop Prowess III (gained at PL 10, Mythic Artificer) fuctions much as Workshop Prowess II, with the exception that the bonus to whichever is lower of Strength and Dexterity, is 3 instead of 2. The same bonus applies to all the sub-attributes, and the Size bonus is unaltered.

The main effect of Workshop Prowess is the bonus to Strength (and to the Arm Strength sub-attribute), which lets an Artificer that is not very physically strong, e.g. a woman, function better as a blacksmith. Workshop Prowess is of much less relevance to other crafts. for any Artificer blacksmith that already has sufficient Strength, Workshop Prowess can be ignored.

Work Fast

Each use of Work Fast lets you make one item (mundane, Simple I or II, or complex with multiple Enchantments), making one item (or a batch of consumable or non-reusable items) in 1/4 the normal time, at the cost of 2 OP of Aging.

Guaranteed Quality I, II and III

At PL 8, you get Guaranteed Quality I. You can use this any time you craft an item without skimping on time or ressources, i.e. rushing the job or using inferior raw materials or sub-standard tools or facilities. Any items you make in this way are at least Q3, average quality, even if the rules for making such items result in a random quality level (any roll of less than Q3 becomes Q3).

Furthermore, you can spend Essence to raise the minimum Quality of each such item. Each 0.1 of ES that you spend raises the minimum Quality by 1 point, up to a maximum of Q7 for 0.4 ES. Thus if you spend 0.4 ES, any rolled quality of less than Q7 becomes raised to Q7.

At PL9, you get Guaranteed Quality II, which works as Guaranteed Quality I, except you may raise the minimum Quality as high as Q9, which costs 0.6 Essence.

At PL 10, Mythic Artificer, you get Guaranteed Quality III. The minimum Quality you get for free is now Q5, and for each 0.1 ES you spend, you raise the minimum Quality for that item by 2, up to a maximum of Q11.

Items made with Guaranteed Quality can be made as Simple Items, or complex Enchanted items, or as mundane items. If made as mundane items, they are not magical, do not detect as magical, and cannot be dis-Enchanted. Tehy are simple as good as any other items of that quality level, and visually indistinguishable from them.

Please note that for some items, only odd-numbered Quyality values above 3 are possible, e.g. melee weapons. It simply is not possible to make a Q4 or Q6 broadsword. In such cases, you must spend Essence enough to "land" on an odd number (5, 7, 9 or 11, with the maximum depending on the grade of Guaranteed Quality that you have).

Mythic Artificer

For PLs of 9 or less, your Item Creation method is Artificer. That's what you write in the "Method" field on any magic item desription sheet or table.

For PL 10, your Method is instead Mythic Artificer. You ge many bonuses, and the Power works differently in numerous ways. Because some of your items detect differently, you must remember to specify that the Method is Mythic Artificer, when writing up magic items you've made.

Even though the examples mentioned are all blacksmiths (or in one case, an engineer who once did something impressive in a cave with a box of scraps), Artificers, even Mythic ones, can be Artificers for any crafts, or even all crafts. It's just a question of point cost, and the fact that people with Artificer friends are more likely to end up in myth if said Artificer friends can make really good war-gear, rather than, say, really good cloaks or candles.

Here are all the PL 10 benefits, including the many ones accumulated from earlier PLs:

• Workshop Prowess III
• Guaranteed Quality III
• 1 Major Privilege point per 6 Moons (max 18).
• Regardless of how the Fatigue/Work rules end up being, you can work for a 25% longer period of time at your craft before being hit by fatigue or forced to stop due to weariness.
• Also, if you absolutely want to, you may instead work one session for four times as long (rather than 1.25 times as long) at the cost of 1 OP. You may use this ability as often as you like. Work for 4x10 Hours, age 3 Years, sleep 8 Hours, work for 40 more Hours, age 3 Years, sleep for 8 hours, work for 40 Hours, age 3 Years...
• As many Grand Works as you wish, each costing 1 OP.
• Two Wondrous Works per level of Pagan Alignment, each costing 1d3+1 OP (only 1d3 OP if you have Pagan Alignment 2+).
• All the magic items you create, not just your Simple I and II Items, count as Class C items for the purpose of magic detection and analysis.
• Those of your items that are Item Level 6 count as Item Level 5 or 7 in some situations. They count as Item Level 5 in those types of situations where that would normally be beneficial to the wielder of the item, and they count as Item Level 7 in those types of situations where that would normally be beneficial to the wielder. For instance, usually it is desirable that the Item Level of an item is lower if people are trying to detect it (a lower Item Level means a smaller or weaker blip on the radar), but a higher Item Level is desirable if people are trying to Analyze or Dis-Enchant the item.
• All your non-consumable Simple I Items get 1 Material Properties Enchantment pick.
• Instead of paying 0.1 Essence to get a number of Material Properties Enchantment picks equal to your Artificer Level, and then another 0.1 Essence to get a number of Material Properties Enchantment picks equal to your Dexterity (Manual) plus your level of Pagan Alignment, you now get all those picks for only 0.1 Essence.
• You can make all items covered by your Artificer skill(s) at 1/2 the usual time, both Simple I and II Items, items you wish to put Enchantments into, and normal items.
• You can speed this up further. At the cost of 1 OP, you can reduce the crafting time for any one item (or any one batch of consumable or otherwise batched Simple Items) to a total of 1/10 normal. This can be done as often as desired, also for non-magical items (such items do not detect as magical, even though a kind of magic was used or spent during the creation).
• You can work with all materials that can be used with your Artificer skill(s), without needing to have the Material Familiarity Lore with said material (although for truly exotic materials, the GM may require you to spend 1 or even 4 Hours touching, fondling, sniffing and licking a sample of the material, or demand that you keep the sampe under your pillow during one night's sleep), e.g. Advanced Steel, Meteoric Iron, Adamant, Titanium, Platinium, any real or fantasy material that makes sense for your craft, e.g. a blacksmith cannot work with silk, a weaver cannot work with mithril, and a candle-maker cannot make functioning candles out of earwax. Still, this particular right is mainly of use to blacksmiths.
• Your Artificer level is 13, and not 11 as one might assume by extrapolation.

No privileges

Some Power Levels, especially half-levels, give privileges that may be somewhat complex. If the character has a Power Level (less than PL 10) where he gets one or more privileges, and the player chooses for the character to not have any of them (so as to only get the "straight and simple" effect of Artificer, being able to put Enchantments into items as he makes them), a compensation is given.

This is -1 DP.

The privileges lost are:

• Minor and Major Privilege points
• Grand and Wondrous Work
• Work Fast
• Guaranteed Quality
•  ???
•  ???

For this cost, -1 DP, all privileges are dropped; the player creating the character cannot pick and choose. Also, if buying PL 10, Mythic Artificer, Privileges cannot be dropped.

Artificer level

Artificer Level is a statistic that is sometimes used in the Item Creation rules. A higher Artificer Level is more desirable, and sometimes gives bonuses of various kinds. It tends not to play any role in the creation of Lesser I or II items, though.

Max EL is a short reference for the highest EL that the character can Enchant into items (except if using the privilege from PL4.5 or 5.5), and for the sake of simplicity, here is a shorter version of the table above, including only those PLs that grant access to a higher EL.

Using the Artificer Power

Many Artificers attempt various uses of "magic" when they use their Power, for instance an Artificer blacksmith may chant the Lighting the Furnace song while they ignite the furnace, but then again, many non-Artificer blacksmiths also do this. It is nothing but superstition, and using the Artificer ability to pour Essence into an item (or to use one of the other options from the PL table) requires no ritual activity or rolls. Only the conscious decision of what to do, what Enchantments to put in, how much Essence to spend.

Or the subconscious decision, if the Artificer is still in the phase of denial, about having a supernatural Power.

Simple Items

Where most other Item Creation Methods deal with 5 Enchantment Levels (or 6 for Endowers; they're the only ones that deal with EL1), Artifiers deal with 7, sort of. ELs 2 to 6, plus Simple I and Simple II Items.

Each Simple I and II Item has its own Item Level, often 2 for Simple I and 4 for Simple II, and apart from being Magic Class C ("Exotic"), detects, dis-Enchants and so forth, as any other item of the same Item Level.

The problem with Simple Items is that they are inflexible. They are pre-defined, in terms of which Enchantments they contain (and it's almost always only a single Enchantment), so that the Artificer cannot add more.

That's the obvious benefit of complex items, or the type of items that a "regular" Artificer makes most often (or at least spends most of his Essence on). These can contain any number of Enchantments, up to the Artificer's maximum Enchantment level, altough with the requirement that the item must ahve been made in triple time if the Artificer wants to be able to put in the highest level Enchantment he can (unless he is PL7+).

More on Simple Items

Some Simple Items are classified as Durable. This means that the Simple II version gets a number of picks of Material Property Enchantments equal to the Artificer Level of the Artificer.

Consumable Simple Items, such as candles and torches, and non-reusable Simple Items such as arrows, come in batches, meaning that for low the Essence cost, the Artificer gets a batch, a certain quantity of items, most often equal to his Artificer Level. For instance, an Artificer I Torch Simple Item costs 0.1 ES, but results in a number of such torches equal to the Artificer Level of the Artificer. Artificer II Torch costs 0.3 Essence, and gives the same number of torches, but the torches are much better.

Please note that non-Simple arrows, meaning arrows Enchanted by an Artificer as complex items, and arrows Enchanted via other mehods (such as Endowing), are reusable. It is only the Simple Item arrows that can be used only once, before the magic disappears.

Also note that Simple Items cannot be made using the Temporary Enchantment rules. The same goes for non-Simple consumable items, or itms that are non-reusable in spite of not being Simple, such as Artificer III Torches and Candles.

More on Mythic Item Level 6 Itms

Please note that these items functions as Item Level 5 or 7, respectivly, depending upon what typically be best for the wielder of the item in the given situaton (Detect Magic, Analyse Magic, dis-Enchant), not on what would actually be best for the wielder in the specific situation. One can imagine rare tactical situations in which it would be desirable for the wielder of a Mythic Level 6 Item that it is as easy to dis-Enchant as an Item Leevl 5 Item, but that's just too bad. It will always be as difficult to dis-Enchant as an Item Level 7 Item, because that is what would generally, usually, typically, be preferable.

General rules for Artificer Enchantments

Most importantly, perhaps, Artificer items are never blatantly magic, except in some cases due to their material properties (massive Durability, or great Vibrance). It is always subtle, and with constant-effect magic. No flaming swords, nor swords that glow blue in the presence of unsavoury beings such as lawyers or orcs.

Artificers do not put new properties into items. Never! They only make the items better at fulfilling their mundane function. A sword kills people. An Artificer broadsword kills people better. It may be better at piercing armour, or do more damage, or be easier to swing, or be faster to swing, but it cannot wreathe its blade in flames or icy cold, nor heal the wielder.

All this is handled, via the rules simply not making such Enchantments accessible to the Artificer Power.

Advice

The Artificer is one way that a character can have the right to spend his Essence, but note that at low PLs, there's a severe brake on how quickly it can be spent. Assuming each Simple I Item costs an average of 0.13 Essence, and the Artificer has 4.0 Essence, then at PL 0.5 where the Artificer may only makew one Simple I Item per 4 Years, it will take him 120 Years to spend all the Essence that he can (the last 0.1 cannot be spent).

There's nothing wrong with buying Artificer at low PL, as long as the player is aware that it won't let him spend all his Essence within a normal human lifespan. Low-level Artificer is best taken in addition to some other Power (such as Charm-Making), or some learnable ability (Endowing, or those spells that cost Essence) so that the character has more ways to spend Essence. That's also more flexible.

A lot of emphasis is on black-smithing and the cration of war-gear, i.e. weapons and armour, but other options are bow-making, or arrow-making (fletching), or wood-carving (for making sticks and staves), making fuel-burning lamps, or candles and/or torches, or making clothes. In partiocular, clothes and jewelry (made via Goldsmiting or Gem-Carving, or at higher levels of technology, actual Gem-Cutting), can be made extremely pretty via the Vibrance Enchantments. Clothes can also give some bonuses, especially to Temperature Tolerance, or sacks or backpacks of (slightly) reduced encumbrance

An example of an Artificer that is less glamorous than the Magic Smith, but still able to produce adventuring-useful gear, is one that makes magic torches, magic clothes and magic staves and sticks (and other wood-carved objects). Such a character can do much to equip an adventuring party for travel and dangers, and even be a member of the party him- or herself (since many such items are quick to make, and so can be made in borrowed workshops during brief breaks from travelling).

Finally, note that PL 10, Mythic Artificer, does much more to define who and what the chracter is, that´n lower Power Levels do. Mythic Artificers are rare. Generalist Mythic Artificers even more so, to the point where the first such Artificer in the Ärth setting may well be a player-created one.

Please note

Super-Brief Glossary

OP = Oldness Point. 1 OP is the same as 3 Years of aging for a Human (for a longer-lived species, 1 OP is more than 3 Years of aging).
ES = Essence. An average person is born with 3.0 Essence, a typical Artificer with a bit more (maybe 4.0), and a typical spellcaster with a bit more again (such as 5.0 to 7.0 ES).
PL = Power Level. The level of a Power that the character is born with.
ArtL = Artificer Level, a statistic from which certain bonuses and benefits are derived
EL = Enchantment Level, usually a number from 2 to 6.
CF = Cost Factor, a statistic that determines the cost that a character pays for a given trait, such as an inborn Power.

See also

Enchantment
Essence
Essence traits
Lesser item