Random Artifacts

[Domino]

I think we need random artifacts.  Some of the reasons why are already posted over in the General Discussion threads.  Problem is the random artifact generators I've seen realy suck.  You're just as likely to get an armor of resist everything at 50' as you are a weapon of slay troll at 6350'.

What I had envisioned for random artifacts is more of a rip-off of the AD&D system of creating ego objects.  First you would have a base object type be it gloves of free action or a whip defender etc.  The artifact would retain these powers and further the TYPE of the object could limit how powerful it would be allowed to get.  So a pair of Witan boots could have more enchantments than a less sturdy pair of soft leather ones might be able to handle etc.  This would make it far less likely that some level 3 or 4 character stumbling around at 300' finds an obscenely powerful object since the rarer base types don't occur there.  Then depending on the depth where it is created the artifact could be allowed to make a check against a simple table for more powers.

So think of something like this.  Someone finds a dagger at 300', it turns out to be an artifact.  Now when the dagger was initially rolled it became a slay orc.  It would keep this bonus but since it is an artifact it could make another check against basic powers.  

As an example figure we could divide basic powers something like this:  

cursed, aggravates, low resists (fire, frost, acid, electric), stealth, free action, see invisible, permanent light, slow digestion, brandings (fire, frost, electric, acid), common slays: animal, orc, troll, giant or an extra roll on this table.

So back to our artifact.  Since it is a dagger it can have a maximum of (pulls random number out of the air...) 5 extra powers but because it was generated at such a low depth, only 300', it will only have 2 extra powers and further these can only be taken from the basic table (there would need to be several tables to adjust for depth and type).  Now this doesn't mean it WILL get 2 extra powers, it just means it CAN get 2 extra powers. So our rng makes a roll, checks the table and lo it does get an extra roll on that table.  It makes another roll pulls up slay orc..such is life (this dagger truly hates orcs).  The third roll pulls up an extra roll again, but because it has already filled one of the 2 available extra powers it ignores this roll and pulls up perma light instead.  So our base dagger ends up as a weapon of Slay orc that provides light.  Very useful for a level 4 character at 300' but not overwhelmingly powerful. Obviously this idea would need some fleshing out to determine what powers should go on what tables and which depths would be allowed to gain which powers but I realy think it could work well.  It would also mean that artifacts generated at lower depths could be guaranteed to gain several useful powers instead of finding the equivalent of narthanc all the time.