Living Artifacts

[Alweth]

I'm reposting the Living Artifact idea in its own thread, since it's almost its own feature.

Personal Artifact:  This one would probably be too hard to program, but it would be hilarious and awesome if you could.  Characters that were slain by a high-level mage or caster of some sort would have a small chance of having their soul imbued into an unique artifact named after them (an Executioner's Sword "Alweth").  They would become level 1, would not be able to move, but would be able to see and talk.  They could be picked up and wielded by another player and would share experience with that player (as long as they are online and "playing" their character/item).  As they gained levels they would gain magical effects and special U abilities that they could use to help their wielder.  The type of weapon they would be imbued into and the type of magical effects they got could be random or they could be based on their previous Race/Class.  They would no longer be able to be "killed" since they are an item.  If they logged on when their wielder wasn't playing they could have the option of dropping out of the hand/inventory of that person and waiting/calling for someone else to come pick them up.

[Alweth]

A few more ideas on this:

- Living Artifacts could absord other magical items, destroying the item and gaining all or a portion of that item's power.  There might be a limit to the number of and power of items a Living Artifact could absorb at any experience level.

- Living Artifacts wouldn't have to be weapons; they could also be Rings, Amulets, Crowns, or Rods, maybe.  Though it would probably be coolest to be a weapon.

- Another option is that Living Artifacts could move and attack like a creature, but only at the cost of mana, making them vulnerable to being destroyed when not equipped.  Maybe they could switch back and worth between "Creature Mode" and "Item Mode".

[Crimson]

I have  a few questions about the second thought.

Artifacts can not be destroyed.  That's one of the key features in Angband for artifacts.  

Secondly, what happens if a player carrying one of these artifacts is killed?  Does the artifact also "die" ?  What does that mean for the artifact?

[Alweth]

[quote author=Crimson link=board=wishlist;num=1040102382;start=0#2 date=12/17/02 at 10:05:41]I have  a few questions about the second thought.

Artifacts can not be destroyed.  That's one of the key features in Angband for artifacts.  
[/quote]

Good point.  They should probably just lose experience levels in that case

[quote author=Crimson link=board=wishlist;num=1040102382;start=0#2 date=12/17/02 at 10:05:41]Secondly, what happens if a player carrying one of these artifacts is killed?  Does the artifact also "die" ?  What does that mean for the artifact?[/quote]

I was thinking that, if the Artifact's wielder died, the Artifact would just fall on the ground, but I think it would make sense if the Artifact got some "punishment" for letting its wielder die, so maybe the artifact should lose half of its experience when its wielder dies.  If that were the case it would have the added benefit of making the Artifact unlikely to let a significantly lower-level character wield it.