"Dangerous"?

[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?

[Kristoffer O]

Hah, I see what you are trying to do! No way artifacts will have less drawbacks Especially not for the already great.