"Dangerous"?

[Endoperez]

It doesn't cause feeble-mindedness any more. That's been replaced by insanity.

As for what it does, Flying, Etherealness, Luck, +8 Defense and it can be used to cast Send Lesser Horror.

[Meglobob]

The manual says,"Extra attack, luck, ethrealness, fly, cursed, fear+25, spelld lesser horror, dangerous, automatic call horror at start of battle, curses weilder, slight chance of horror mark"

A couple of points here, its got alot of powerful effects, so you could make a temporary powerful SC but it would be a good idea to pull the rest of the equipment off him at some point and just lose the gift?!?

If you gain horror marks, the automatic horror at battle start is going to attack the gifts weilder, so you need to be able to easily defeat horrors.

You could just equip a expendable character and just use the send horror spell each turn until horror attacked.

It costs 40 blood slaves, is it worth it?

Also why have so many of the unique artifacts got drawbacks?

[Kristoffer O]

> Also why have so many of the unique artifacts got drawbacks?

Because I bought the rpg Powers and Perils sometimes in the 80's!

---

OK, that was not entirely fair!

Named Items (unique artifacts) in that game came with a drawback. It could be anything from not being usable unless under certain circumstances to lethal effects like cunsuming the bearers will or life force.

In literature the same phenomenon is also not unheard of. The One Ring and Stormbringer are clearly not beneficial to the bearer.

All in all I find it fitting and fun, and it makes it more difficult to make an uber SC or something similar. I actually dislike powerful items without drawbacks. Too easy to make winner strategies that way. Less fun thematically. Less fun incidents with insane commanders

[Jazzepi]

I'm glad many of the powerful items have interesting drawbacks.

Jazzepi

[Kristoffer O]

We have a Winner!

[Meglobob]

Kristoffer O said:
> Also why have so many of the unique artifacts got drawbacks?

Because I bought the rpg Powers and Perils sometimes in the 80's!

No this is more than fair enough.

I bought book of traps 1,2 and 3. The next 2 entire groups of adventurers died in hideous fashion. I finally relised I was being too harsh, when in a constantly shifting maze, filled with trap, after trap the 3 remaining members of my adventuring party commited suicide rather than take another step.

I was then promptly sacked as gm for a year...and I only got the gig back after selling my books of traps at auction at a roleplaying convention...

[Kristoffer O]

Sounds like a fair sacking

But you should have kept the book (hidden).

[Meglobob]

Kristoffer O said:But you should have kept the book (hidden).

Nah thats no fun, one of my favourite tricks was to descibe the setting then pick up a book of traps and 'accidently' let a bit show above the GM shield, no traps there of course. Another was put a perfectly mundane item in a treasure hoard and leaf through, encyclopedia magica, whenever they examined that item.

[jutetrea]

I find it well worth its weight in gold (slaves). I just throw it on a throwaway summoned unit, not even a high MR special. It makes a banelord pretty brutal in and of itself. I'd equip it with generic items, nothing I'd be too afraid to lose. If you lose it, shrug. Maybe one of the enemy mages is now horrormarked. Or even one of their brutal SCs that will even be more nasty... for a limited time.

If you're lucky it goes away and you can rinse, repeat.

Its a tad annoying when the unit's insane at a critical juncture, but usually survivable.

Its definitely a fun toy, just don't get too attached to either the item or the unit.

[Saulot]

I'm a big fan of the old-school dnd methodology that KO is using, that great power comes at a price. As that flavor goes, most artifacts were designed to be used by a deity of one sort of another, and in anyone else's hands were too much for them.
Something to consider:
Perhaps in this vein pretenders or the demon lords may suffer less drawbacks from the artifact class items?