# The most epicest artifact?



## Empath Negative (Aug 21, 2012)

What's the single most powerful artifact in D&D 3.5?


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## the Jester (Aug 21, 2012)

In my campaign, it's _Cleaver,_ the only remnant of the ancient Monty Haul days of my campaign.

_Cleaver_ hasn't appeared since the 2e days, but in 3e terms it's something like a _+27 throwing returning longsword_ with an additional ability to cleave incoming attacks in twain, including e.g. lightning bolts or fireballs.

Cleaver was the tool of a family of power-mad individuals who went from universe to universe enslaving gods. The Steel family.

They are long dead, but _Cleaver_ was too potent to be destroyed. It was locked away (for all time?) by a coalition of gods.


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## Dozen (Aug 21, 2012)

The Ruby Rod of Asmodeus might be a canditate. The damn thing sprouts 20d6 direct damage spells at will, makes attackers bow down for you so you can smash their skulls in, produces an antimagic field once per day, and it counts as a +6 greatclub in addition.  Oh yeah, and the one who wields it becomes the ruler of the Nine Hells. Good luck getting it from him though, he has it for a reason. That is, being the single most powerful entity in existence after the Greater Deities.


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## Sekhmet (Aug 21, 2012)

Dozen said:


> The Ruby Rod of Asmodeus might be a canditate. The damn thing sprouts 20d6 direct damage spells at will, makes attackers bow down for you so you can smash their skulls in, produces an antimagic field once per day, and it counts as a +6 greatclub in addition.  Oh yeah, and the one who wields it becomes the ruler of the Nine Hells. Good luck getting it from him though, he has it for a reason. That is, being the single most powerful entity in existence after the Greater Deities.




He was made a deity in 4e.


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## Dozen (Aug 21, 2012)

Sekhmet said:


> He was made a deity in 4e.




O-kay... So?


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## Sekhmet (Aug 21, 2012)

[MENTION=6698275]Dozen[/MENTION] 







			
				Dozen said:
			
		

> *being the single most powerful entity in existence after the Greater Deities*



Well, he's a greater deity now. 
I was being informative not argumentative.

 Should be noted that none of of the deities, demigods, or unique devils/demons are the strongest things in existence, the  Devastation Scorpion or  Devastation Beetle  can kill most of them without any real problems; and it's just a mindless vermin.


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## Advilaar (Aug 21, 2012)

Many Artifacts are situationally epic.

For instance, if you are facing psionic foes, there is The Annulus. It automatically makes powers harder to manifest. Dimension anchors in a radius. Gives a daily nuke power.

Once per year it can utterly destroy any psionic being in a 100 ft radius, even a god. It can also destroy psionic artifacts. Of course things of that nature destroy the Annulus.


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## grodog (Aug 25, 2012)

I would probably go with The Codex of the Infinite Planes or the Crook of Rao, myself, but you can always change up an artifact or relic to make them more or less powerful than as written.

The Origins of Greyhawk Artifacts and Relics details a list of artifacts and relics from the Greyhawk setting, many of which originally appeared in the 1e DMG and 2e Book of Artifacts.  Might be useful for ideas 
(This is basically the same list Erik Mona and I published in Dragon 299's "All Oerth's Artifacts" (and the material cut from that article before publication appears @ Canonfire! - Artifacts of Oerth Article: B-Sides and Errata).


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## Celebrim (Aug 25, 2012)

Empath Negative said:


> What's the single most powerful artifact in D&D 3.5?




I don't know about 3e, but if they translate faithfully from 1e, likely candidates are:

Heward's Mystical Organ
The Machine of Lum the Mad
A full set of The Teeth of Dahlver-Nar


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## RUMBLETiGER (Aug 25, 2012)

The Head of Vecna.


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## Derulbaskul (Aug 26, 2012)

_Codex of the Infinite Planes_.

When you can reshape reality, re-order the planes and basically do whatever you want, clearly you're in possession of the most powerful of items.


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## Shemeska (Aug 26, 2012)

Derulbaskul said:


> _Codex of the Infinite Planes_.




That was my first thought as well.

There's also the Last Word (if you'd qualify it as an artifact), and the bladed staff lodged into the ground within one of the cube's of Acheron that looks way too similar to the blade pattern on the Lady of Pain (and which the module 'Doors to the Unknown' states is beyond the scope of the adventure and is left a mystery that just keeps hurting you more if you try to mess with it).


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## green slime (Aug 28, 2012)

RUMBLETiGER said:


> The Head of Vecna.




 Ah yes, I remember the epic tale of the Head of Vecna. Truly epic.


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## Samloyal23 (Aug 30, 2012)

NEVER attach the Hand and Eye of Vecna to a flesh golem...


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## RUMBLETiGER (Aug 30, 2012)

Samloyal23 said:


> NEVER attach the Hand and Eye of Vecna to a flesh golem...




...because that would be a waste.  Attach it to yourself!

But the head of Vecna, that you convince others to try attaching.


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## Samloyal23 (Aug 30, 2012)

Apparently there is no artifact that makes people avoid saying things like "most epicest", a typo within a grammatical error... 

Are there any you would not be afraid to use in real life? Most of them seem really gratuitously dangerous to be around...


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## Celebrim (Aug 31, 2012)

Samloyal23 said:


> Are there any you would not be afraid to use in real life? Most of them seem really gratuitously dangerous to be around...




Granted, most of the time using an artifact in D&D is about as useful as reading the Necronomicon in Call of Cthulhu, but depending on how the DM statted them out, some of the lesser known artifacts could really be quite useful.

Anything with at least one major malevolent power simply outright kills you eventually (well, in 95% of the cases, and its not worth finding out which case this is).  So basically, you are looking for items without a major malevolent power.

Johydee's mask duplicates the powers of a hat of diguise, renders you immune to all gaze attacks, grants immunity to all forms of mind control, grants immunity to all forms of magical detection, grants two minor, and one major benevolent power and has no negatives except possibly a side effect (and some of those can be useful).  Hands down its one of the most useful artifacts in the game if you could ever get your hands on it.

The Mace of Cuthbert is a +5 mace of disruption that grants three minor and two major powers, and again, only has a side effect.  Since the item is good aligned, its likely thats side effect isn't particularly heinous.

The Axe of the Dwarven Lords got a full official write up in the module of the same name.  If you are a dwarf, its an amazing item.  Otherwise, if you aren't a dwarf, well, learn to love yourself with a beard and get a step ladder for high places.

The Cup and Talisman of Al'Akbar got a full write up in a 1e module.  Even if you don't use the published stats, the artifact is one of the few that explicitly states that good aligned characters that use them do not suffer from its malevolent effects.  They are both extremely useful items and a welcome addition to any party.

On the other side of the alignment wheel, the Iron Flask of Tuerny the Merciless is extremely useful if you are evil, as it offers quite a bit of useful abilities with relatively few drawbacks if you are merciless yourself.


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## Scrivener of Doom (Aug 31, 2012)

_Codex of the Infinite Planes_ or the _Last Word_ for the reasons already stated. I honestly believe that they're of an order of magnitude so much more powerful than other artefacts that is difficult to even consider the others at all (IMO only, of course).



Samloyal23 said:


> Apparently there is no artifact that makes people avoid saying things like "most epicest", a typo within a grammatical error...  (snip)




I prefer "most epicest" - which I assume to be a deliberate error - to the misuse of "unique". No, folks, something is not more unique, really unique, less unique, most unique: it is either unique or it isn't.


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## Celebrim (Aug 31, 2012)

Scrivener of Doom said:


> _Codex of the Infinite Planes...for the reasons already stated. I honestly believe that they're of an order of magnitude so much more powerful than other artefacts..._



_

What is the basis of this statement?

The write up of the Codex in 1e DMG, the 2nd edition Book of Artifacts, and in the 3e epic handbook clearly indicate that it is emmensely powerful, but not necessarily more so than the other very high end artifacts.  Which write up are you looking at?_


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## Shaghayegh (Sep 9, 2012)

Scrivener of Doom said:


> I prefer "most epicest" - which I assume to be a deliberate error - to the misuse of "unique". No, folks, something is not more unique, really unique, less unique, most unique: it is either unique or it isn't.




{Cringing}

This is right up there with rouge instead of Rogue... 

I always thought having the Invulnerable Coat of Arnd would be useful. I do not think it had anything major in the way of drawbacks and gave you good over protection.


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## Jack Simth (Sep 10, 2012)

Scrivener of Doom said:


> I prefer "most epicest" - which I assume to be a deliberate error - to the misuse of "unique". No, folks, something is not more unique, really unique, less unique, most unique: it is either unique or it isn't.



Eh, to an extent it can be.  Technically, all physical objects bigger than about a single molecule are unique in some manner, as it's pretty much impossible to make two objects truly identical - and thus, basically everything is unique.

However, most people don't care about the specific angle of a single hydrogen atom in their mass manufactured water bottle, and won't consider the water bottle unique.

So one could make a measure of uniqueness based on just how many aspects there are to the object that are not found in other objects, and how significant those aspects are to the observer.


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## grodog (Sep 14, 2012)

Shaghayegh said:


> I always thought having the Invulnerable Coat of Arnd would be useful. I do not think it had anything major in the way of drawbacks and gave you good over protection.




That artifact originally appeared in the Greyhawk campaign adventure "Dark Druids"---written and DM'd by Rob Kuntz.  Skip Williams' PC recovered the artifact, at least for a short time, IIRC....


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## Jack Simth (Sep 14, 2012)

Scrivener of Doom said:


> Except that's not the meaning of the word "unique". Find another word.



Ah, but if Unique is so binary, then everything big enough to see with the naked eye is unique.

Plus, of course, there's the little issue that language is fluid, and even Merriam-Webster has integrated partial uniqueness into their definitions:







			
				Merriam-Webster said:
			
		

> 3  : unusual <a very unique ball-point pen> <we were fairly unique, the sixty of us, in that there wasn't one good mixer in the bunch — J. D. Salinger>


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## Scrivener of Doom (Sep 14, 2012)

Jack Simth said:


> Ah, but if Unique is so binary, then everything big enough to see with the naked eye is unique.
> 
> Plus, of course, there's the little issue that language is fluid, and even Merriam-Webster has integrated partial uniqueness into their definitions:




Unique is binary. Always has been and always will be.

Merriam-Webster is not authoritative; it's an American dictionary not English. OED FTW.


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