How do you determine and Artifacts Rating?

[psychoph]

What methods do people on the forums use to determine the power of an artifact?  Last night I was finishing up character creation and artifacts cmae up, mostly Weapons, I tried using the rules from Savant and Sourcer but we all got pretty damn confused in the end.  


First off the power level determines bonuses that you can give to an artifact liek power 3 coudl give +10 dmg, does that mean you can split it between dmg, rate, speed, accuracy, and so forth, or that it shodul go into Dmg only?  I was lookign at a Dire lance and it has a total of about +17 over a Lance, the 17 was gained by adding the difference between the dire lance stats and the lance stats in the player's guide.  It coudl be less because I forgot that speed and rate are for different combat systems and so the +2 there i might have counted double so it woudl be more like a +15.  The Dire lance is only a 2 artifacts.  taking the rules I woudl take resources 1 add it to the power, which i am guessing is 3 since it isn't near the realm of power 4 and you come out with a power 2, average all the other crap, which cause it is a weapon is never really over 2 or 3 you get about a 2.  My problem is thta as far as the book shows a power 3 gets +10 not +15.  


We had another problem which was magical material.  Do magical materials add on top of the artifcacts stats when attuned or does the attunement cost give you the bonus stats above the normal weapon. Example a Dire Lance works like a Lance until it is attuned for 5 motes of essence and then you get the +2 speed the +2L, the +2 rate and so on?  Or is it when you attune it as a solar you get +1 accuracy, defence and rate on top of the Dire Lances stats in the players guide?

 

[Flagg]

Re: H9ow Do you determine and Artifacts Rating?

What methods do people on the forums use to determine the power of an artifact?

I don't go by the WW guidelines when introducing new Artifacts. They're to byzantine for my tastes. I also don't like "script immunity". I think the ST should determine the plot, not the Artifact rules.


I take a look at a new item, and decide what impact it's power would have on my game, on a scale of 1-5. Presto.


-S

 

[psychoph]

By power you just mean what it does?  So you just kind of use a personal arbitrary system no hard and fast rules just how you see it working in the current campaign.

 

[Flagg]

By power you just mean what it does?

I gauge what impact it's likely to have on my stories. If I think it will be a major factor, or change the plot considerably, I'll rate it high. If it's not going to make much of a forseeable difference, I rate it low. It's completely subjective.


-S

 

[riven5]

Regarding your first query-  In the examples it gives below the area on artifact traits/ratings, it shows a Daiklave.  From the example it states that a daiklave (Which is based on a mundane sword) gives the mundane sword extra bonuses which include +1 damage, +3 speed, +1 to accuracy and +2 to defense.  So clearly you can split that bonus between all of the relevant stats.


On the second note, you are getting mixed up on attunement.  Commitment and attunement are two different things.  You can commit essence to an artifact of any kind of MM.  That's simple commitment, no problem there.  If you've got the essence committed, that artifact is up and running, working for you.  Attunement, however, is a bit different.  Attuning with an artifact affords you the MM bonus of the artifact.  If you are an Exalt of the appropriate type (IE a Lunar using a Moonsilver dire lance) then attunement occurs naturally.  It just...happens.  No big deal.  


The MM bonus and true attunement only occurs when you practice with the weapon for a little while.  If you're an Exalt of the inappropriate type (Terrestrial trying to use a Moonsilver dire lance) then you've got to commit twice the essence and do a wits+lore roll, difficulty 3 as you attempt to harmonize your anima with the artifact.  If you fail, a buncha bad crap happens.  If you succeed, you get the attunement (MM) bonus.