Artificer
From Sagataflwiki
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.
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.
Contents |
Manifestation and roleplaying
Usually very early. 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 may NPCs, this will be deep in the character's backstory, rather than something that happens during play. Also, very few characters are surprised when the 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 lives 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.
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 instance of Artificer has a Cost Factor 1 lower, and an eventual third instance has a CF 2 lower. If more than 3 are desired, take the general version of Artificer, giving access to use with all craftsman skills.
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 3 for the 2nd instance, and add 4 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.
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 levels table
As usual, levels not listed on the above table cannot be bought. Choose the level closest to your vision of the character.
Each non-empty Power Level of Artificer give privileges, rights or boths. Privileges are things that can be done a few times per time unit, or a few times total, or that give an influx of Marked Essence per time unit. Rights are things that can be done as often as the Artificer wishes, but note the special rule about creation time for items contaiining the highest level Enchantment that you have access to.
New PL table is to replace old one (further down) but is not finished yet.
| ArtL | Max EL | PL | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.5 | ||
| 2 | - | 1 | P: Every 3 Years, you get 1 Minor Privilege point, that lets you spend the normal Essence cost to create one Simple I Item. You may store up to 3 such Minor Privilege points. |
| 2 | - | 1.5 | P: Instead, you get 1 Minor Privilege point every 2 Years, and for 1 such point you may spend the Essence cost to create one Simple I Item, or for 4 points you may spend the Essence cost to create one Simple II Item. You may store up to 6 such Minor Privilege points. |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | R: If you craft an item elaborately, spending 3 times as long as it would normally require to make an item of that type and that quality level (called a triple time item), you may put as many 2nd level Enchantments into it as you wish. You may also make as many Simple I Items as you wish (at normal creation time).
P:You get 1 Minor Privilege point per Year, and may store up to 9 such points, spending 4 points to create a Simple II Item. |
| 2.5 | |||
| 4 | 3 | 3 | R: You may put 3rd level Enchantments into items created at triple time, and may put 2nd level Enchantments into normal items.
P:You get 2 Minor Privilege points per Year, and may store up to 12 such points, spending 4 points to create a Simple II item. |
| 4 | 3 | 3.5 | R: You may create as many Simple I and Simple II Items as you wish. This renders Minor Privilege points irrelevant. |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | R: You may now put 4th level Enchantments into triple time items, and put lower level Enchantemnts into normal items.
P:Once per 3 Years, you get 1 Major Privilege point, and may store up to 3 of these. Each Major Privilege point lets you create 1 Simple I Item without paying Essence for it. |
| 5 | 4 | 4.5 | P: 3 to 5 times during your lifetime you may perform a Grand Work. Each such Grand Work ages you by 1 OP. A Grand Work either gives you bonuse that last for the entire crafting period of an item (in the form of a -2 RD bonus to all pertinent skill rolls, and making the primary task skill or skills count as 2 higher for the purpose of prerequisites and all formulae), or else it lets you put a single 5th level Enchantment into an item (without this item needing to be crafted at triple normal time). You may use your Grand Work multiple times on the same item, for instance once to get the skill bonuses, and twice to put two different 5th level Enchantments into it. You get two uses of Grand Work, plus one more per level of Pagan Alignment that you have. |
| 6 | 5 | 5 |
|
| 6 | 5 | 5 |
R: You may now put 5th level Enchantments into triple time items, and lower level Enchantments into normal items. R:For the purpose of prerequisite, and fatigue or work-time calculation, your Strength and Dexterity and all their sub-attributes now count as 1 higher, when working with your tools, or testing equipment under controlled coditions in the workshop. Most importantly, you do not get this effect during any kind of combat, not even duels or training. This is mainly of use for blacksmiths, especially female ones, who may fall short of the Strength or Upper-Body Strength prerequisites of some weapons and thus not be able to test them, or who may benefit from the bonus in that it lets them spend more time working at the anvil or bellows per day. The Dexterity bonus will be useful in much fewer cases, if any. P: You may use Grand Work six times during your lifetime, plus two additional times for each level of Pagan Alignment beyond one. The best use is to get the skill bonus, but if you are in a hurry you can use Great Work to put 5th level Enchantments into an item not made at triple time. P:You still only get 1 Major Privilege point per 3 Years, but you may store up to 5 of these, and spend them to create Simple I Items with zero Essence cost. |
| 6 | 5 | 5.5 | P:You may perform a Wondrous Work once per lifetime, plus once more if you have 3 levels of Pagan Alignment, and once more for each two levels beyond that. A Wondrous Work ages you by 1d3+1 OP (only 1d3 OP if you have 2 or more levels of Pagan Alignment) and can be used either to put a single 6th level Enchantment into an item (which does not have to be made at triple time), or to get a bonus that lasts for the entire crafting period of one item, of -3 RD to all pertinent skill rolls, and making the primary task skill or skills count as 3 higher for the purpose of all prerequisites and formulae. |
| 7 | 6 | 6 | R:You may now put 6th level Enchantments into triple items, and put 5th level Enchantments into normal items.
P:You get 1 privilege point every 2 Years, and may store up to 7 of these. Each privilege point lets you create one Simple I Item at no Essence cost. |
| 7 | 6 | 6.5 | R:
P:You still only get 1 privilege point every 2 Years, but now you may store up to 9 of them, and for 4 privilege points you may create one Simple II Item at no Essence cost. P:You may now use Grand Work an unlimited number of times, each use costing 1 OP, and giving you a -2 RD bonus to all pertinent skill rolls, and making your primary task skill or skills count as 2 higher for the purpose of prerequisites and formulae. |
| 8 | 6+ | 7 | R:You may now put 6th level Enchantments into items you have crafted at normal (not triple) time.
R:Your Strength and Dexterity and all their sub-attributes now count as 2 higher, for the purpose of prerequisites and fatigue or work-time calculations, as per PL 5.0. Please note that a difference in 2 points of Strength is somewhat startling, especially with regards to the sex of the Artificer, and since there it is incongrous with visible muscle mass. A Strength 2 woman hammering away at the iron for half a day, day after day, will be a puzzle. P: |
| 8 | 6+ | 7.5 | R:
P: |
| 9 | 6+ | 8 | R:Once in your lifetime, per level of Pagan Alignment, you may Work Fast, completing an item in 1/4 the normal time (or a batch of items that normally comes in batches). This may be an item with Artificer Enchantments put into it, or a Simple I or II Item, or a mundane item (in which case a batch may be larger than the relatively small batch sizes dictated for consumable Simple Items, e.g. 36 arrows or 18 candles). Each use of Work Fast costs 2 OP.
P:One Wondrous Work per level of Pagan Alignment, each costing 1d3+1 OP (1 OP less if you have Pagan Alignment 2+) |
| 9 | 6+ | 8.5 | R:
P: |
| 10 | 6+ | 9 | R:Two Wondrous Works per level of Pagan Alignment, each costing 1d3+1 OP (1 OP less if you have Pagan Alignment 2+)
P: |
| 9.5 | |||
| 12 | 6+ | 10 | This Power Level, the highest, is called Mythic Artificer, and differs from the preceding Power Levels in many regards (executive summary: it's more awesome).
Völund the Smith, Tony Stark, and Hattori Hanzo, are examples of people born with this power level (but that's not to say that all Artificers are blacksmiths and/or men; it's just that people with Artificer friends are more likely to end up in myth if said Artificer friends can make really good war-gear). Below, all PL10 benefits are spelled out, including the many ones accumulated from earlier PLs. R:Your Strength or Dexterity, whichever is lower, and all its prerequisites, now counts as 3 higher for cetain purposes, as per PL 5 and PL 7. The other one still only counts as 2 higher. P:Regardless of how the Fatigue/Work rules end up, 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. R:As many Grand Works as you wish, each costing 1 OP. -2 RD all skills, primary skills count as 2 higher. P:Two Wondrous Works per level of Pagan Alignment, each costing 1d3+1 OP (only 1d3 OP if you have Pagan Alignment 2+). -3 RD all skills, primary skill(s) count as 3 higher. R: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. R: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. R:All your non-consumable Simple I Items get 1 Material Properties Enchantment pick. P: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. R: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. R: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 1/10 normal. This can be done as often as desired, also for non-magical items. R: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. R:Your item creation method is not Artificer, but instead Mythic Artificer. This has implications for Item Levels and for Magic Class classification, so remember to fill out the Method field correctly on all magic item forms. R:Your Artificer level is 13 (not 11 as one might assume by extrapolation). |
Please note that the Artificer must always pay the Essence cost of each Enchantment or Simple item, they are never free. Thus a privilege simply gives the Artificer the right to create a more powerful item than those he can normally create.
| ArtL | Max EL | PL | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | 1 | You may spend Essence to create one Lesser I item every 3 Years. Unused privileges accumulate for up to 9 Years, after which they are gradually lost (i.e. you may save up a maximum of 3 such privileges). |
| 2 | - | 1.5 | You may instead spend Essence to create one Lesser I Item every Year, and one Lesser II item every 6 Years. Unusued privileges accumulate for 12 Years, after which they are gradually lost. Each of the two privileges is to be kept track of seperately. |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | You may create as many 2nd level Enchantments as you desire, and in addition you get the privileges as for PL 1.5. Note that you still pay the Essence for Lesser I and II items, so only use the privilege for creating Lesser items of 3rd EL or higher, and create lower EL items the normal way. |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | You may create as many 2nd and 3rd level Enchantments as you desire, and in addition you may create one Lesser II item every 3 Years, with this privilege accumulating for 21 Years. This supersedes the privilege for PL 1.5. (Please note that Lesser I items are almost never higher than EL3; if you do find an exception, you may use your privilege on it.) |
| 4 | 3 | 3.5 | Once per 3 Years, you may create one Lesser I item that you don't pay Essence for. This privilege accumulates for 12 Years, after which it is gradually lost. |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | You may create as many Enchantments of 4th Enchantment Level or lower, as you wish, and retain the privilege from PL 3.5. You may also create as may Lesser I and II items as you wish, even if they are EL5 or EL6 (and you can make them without using the Grand Work or Wondrous Work privileges from PL4.5 or PL5.5).This removes the need for any lesser privileges, except that from PL3.5. |
| 5 | 4 | 4.5 | You may create two Grand Works in your lifetime, these being 5th level Enchantments. You age 1 OP (Oldness Point) per Great Work, and this is visible (to the extent that 1 OP, being the equivalent of 3 Years of natural aging, is) but gradual. Your hair doesn't abruptly turn grey. |
| 6 | 5 | 5 | You may create as many Enchantments of 5th Enchantment level or less, as you wish. |
| 6 | 5 | 5.5 | Once in your lifetime, you may create one Wondrous Work, this being a 6th level Enchantment, but you age 1d3+2 OP (i.e. between 9 and 15 Year of aging), visibly but gradually. |
| 7 | 6 | 6 | You may create as many Enchantments as you wish. |
| 7 | 6 | 6.5 | Once per Year, you accumulate 0.1 (ear-)Marked Essence, that may only be spent on Lesser I or Lesser II items. You may accumulate 0.7 of this Essence. This is instead of the privilege of PL3.5. |
| 8 | 6 | 8 | Instead, once per 6 Moons, you accumulate 0.2 such (ear-)Marked Essence, for Lesser I and II items only. You may accumulate 2.0 of this Essence. |
| 9 | 6 | 10 | All your 6th level Enchantments count as 7th level in situations where it would typically benefit the wielder of the item (e.g. when hostiles are trying to dispel them), but only as 5th level in situations where that would typically benefit the wielder of the item (e.g. for the purpose of detecting that the item is magical). Indicate that an Enchantment's Enchamtnent Level behaves in this way by putting an asterisk next to it. Please note that this Power Level is very high, thus very expensive, and the benefit is not great. Players should think carefully before paying for Artificer PL10, even though it is in many ways the epitome of truly mythic craftsmanship. |
Power Levels not mentioned are not available.
Some Power Levels, especially half-levels, give privileges that may be somewhat complex. If the character has a Power Level where he gets one or more privileges, and the player chooses to forego all 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.
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.
Simple reference table
| PL | Max EL | Lesser | ArtL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2 | ? | 3 |
| 3 | 3 | ? | 4 |
| 4 | 4 | ? | 5 |
| 5 | 5 | ? | 6 |
| 6 | 6 | ? | 7 |
The Lesser column indicates whether the Artificer is free to make as many Lesser items as he wishes. - means the Artificer is limited in the number of Lesser I items, and possibly II items, he can make. I means that he is free to make Lesser I items, but can make a limmited aount of Lesser II items. II means the Artiicer has no restrictions on Lesser items.
Please note that the above table leaves out some Power Levels, and also does not mention any of the nifty privileges that are gained at included or excluded Power Levels.
Privilege summary table
Put here a table that summarizes the privileges had at each Power Level, with maximum redundancy. Leave out anything that isn't a privilege.
