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 As some of you have noted, I’ve really taken to writing artifacts with evocations for 3e. It’sthe most engaging activity I’ve had with this game since I wrote for my first campaign 4years ago. After having now made 8 complete artifacts and working on my 9th with ideasfor more! I thought I’d share what I’ve learned a"out making artifacts and what my processis.

I want to "e clear that this is #$ process. $our process may "e totally different and that’sgood% &ut for people who want to write evocations and are stuck, perhaps some directionwill aid you.

1. The Base: What am I making?I really like to start with the item itself. Am I making a staff' A sword' A "reastplate' Along"ow' (unchucku' )hatever it ends up "eing, I need my "ase first. It gives me myflavor, and whether it’s a weapon or armor will help give me direction and focus. *his stepcan easily come later, "ut it’s where I need to start every time.

2. The Concept: Why is it special?

*his step and the ne+t step are interchangea"le "ased on what strikes me first. )hat canthis item do' *his is not the place to list its specific powers or plan out the evocations. It’sa very highlevel description of the artifact’s specialness. If you are making a Staff thatGrows Food and Makes Poison, then the Staff is your -tep , and Grows Food and Makes

Poison is your -tep /. 0eus’ *hunder"olt is a -pear that Electrocutes Foes. &am.1oncept.

3. The Materials: What is it made of? As I said "efore, this step can come "efore *he 1oncept if you want. 2ne feeds the otherin whichever direction helps you the most. or this you will reuire the 3rd 5dition 5+alted1ore"ook. *urn to page 6/ or press 1trl and search for &lue 7ade. *here’s only /appearances in the "ook and the first one to appear is the correct one!.

*his is the list of #agic #aterials and what their properties are. *his is my favorite part ofdesigning the Artifact, "ecause in 3e you are encouraged to com"ine different materials toget different effects% &lack 7ade for talking with spirits, or reen 7ade for stealing 5ssence%2richalcum for power or sorcery, with some -oulsteel to make it deadlier.

If you did this step after 1oncept, pick materials that match your theme. If you are pickingthis first, then derive your concept from the a"ilities of the material. ersonal rule of thum",I wouldn’t com"ine more than 3 materials in a single artifact, and anything more than /

should "e in small amounts.

. The !ame: !o" "hat do I call it?(ow you might "e wondering why this step comes here and not later. or me, I can’t writeanything without the name of my artifact first. It’s where you really tie together the first 3steps, and it’s the statement that hooks your potential owner the 1!. *he name should"e evocative of the artifact’s 1oncept and &ase. #aterials can "e incorporated into thenaming as well, "ut mostly the materials are for reinforcing the 1oncept. or this, I turn tothe greatest 5+alted naming tool of all time and the only tool I ever use when naming "othartifacts A(: their evocations.

*hat’s right, I use a *hesaurus. ;ere’s an e+ample<

#y very first artifact was a short spear. It was made of =ed 7ade and 2richalcum. Its

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concepts were ire and -orcery, derived from the listed materials. -o, what did I do' Iwent to *hesaurus and found synonyms for ire and for -orcery>#agic. *hus was "orn*orrid 2men. *ada%

*he name gives direction to all of the evocations and hooks people reading it. (ow, youcan go a different route entirely and give your artifact a proper noun name, like Aritus the

?nstoppa"le orce, or &eloved Adorei. *hat’s cool too. &ut when you think a"out it, even&eloved Adorei is using my method. *he weapon is alive, thus it has a name, and itspurpose is focused on affection. *hese things are its 1oncept and thus feed the name andits future evocations.

2n reuest, I@m also including two resources from 5+alted writer 5ric #inton on namingthings. Iambs and Dactyls: Exalted Nomenclature and Name Your Own Homebrew Charm in 30

Seconds which are e+cellent resources as well%

#. $tt%nement: What do &Insert '(alt here& get o%t of it?=eading the e+amples in the "ook you’ll notice that every artifact has 5vocations of

BArtifact (ameCD "efore the evocation list which descri"es a special "onus that comesmerely from attuning to the weapon.

irst of all, this is the place where you specify if only certain e+alts can gain the "enefits ofthese evocations which is most often the case, "ut you’re welcome to make thee+ception! and per "ook rules, that should almost always include -olars "ecause they areuote>unuote the "est at evocationsD!. :ragon"looded are up there so they could "eadded to this list. &ut I always like to include the e+alt types that synch with the materials Iuse. If it’s made of -tarmetal and 7ade, then I’ll give an attunement "onus to -olars,-iderals, and :ragon"looded. (ot too tricky.

(e+t is to figure out what the actual "onus will &5. (ow, I don’t always figure out this part"efore the evocations, "ut as much as possi"le I try to make the attunement "onus feedinto the powers of the evocations, where a specific playstyle "enefits the user. ore+ample, in my ;eartfeast a+e, if you know a specific Intimacy in the foe you get a seriesof passive "enefits which are decent "ut relatively minor. ;owever, all of the evocations ofthe a+e gain an additional "igger "enefit if the user knows this particular intimacy. -o aconcept that is introduced in the Attunement "onus is played upon throughout the artifactand points the playstyle of the user who wants to take advantage of the a+e and it’spowers.I wouldn’t put any attunement "onus cost a"ove 3 additional motes, and even then it

should "e pretty strong to warrant it.

). '*ocations: +igh,le*el-

-o you want to write a "unch of powers for your weapon. reat% -tart =5AEE$ high level.$ou know your 1oncept already. &reak that down a "it. Is it "road enough to turn intomultiple powers of varying levels' 2r is your concept "est as a capstone' &e wary a"outfalling into the trap of making your 5ssence 3F capstone evocation the whole purpose ofthe weapon, otherwise its preceding evocations will feel useless.

It’s important that your first few evocations "e your "read and "utter. $ou should "e

encouraged to use those evocations relatively freuently. I usually do this in / ways. ! Imake the first or second evocation give a "onus or a counter that future evocations relyon. /! *he evocations need to grant something on their own so that it’s not useless to use

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without the future powers. (o one wants a speed "ump.

 An e+ample of these rules are with my warfans Affa"le 1rag Eeaves. *hey "uild a differenttype of elemental charge each round depending on where your initiative stands. *hesecharges give small "onuses at various levels, "ut otherwise are Gust counted. *he first /evocations affect the "attlefield, "ut also swap charges "etween the two types to help you

manage your levels. *he pinnacle evocation uses eual amounts of those charges for a"ig effect. *he pinnacle power cannot function without using the first ones, "ut if youhaven’t learned the pinnacle power yet, you should never feel like the first two evocationsare useless.

-o "ack to my point, using your 1oncept write a few words to descri"e what powers yourartifact should have. ;elps with stealthD, rants "onus armorD, ;its "etter, reveals anintimacyD. #y target num"er for evocations is "etween 3H "ut it o"viously varies "ased onyour need. 7ust make sure that each evocation is useful enough to stand on its own. *he1 using it might go many sessions "efore raising enough essence to unlock greaterpowers%

 All Evocations, for weapons, at least, more or less seem to be based off of adding certain bonusesor battlefield conditions as a reward for successful attacks, which can chain their effects together,

and culminate in major advantages.

Three dot Artifacts seem to be based around comparatively minor, small-scale and relativelynarrow benefits, that lay the groundwork for some fairly significant but relatively focused power

move, such as Adorai's magic cutting, oonlit !untress' bonus "nitiative and stacked stealth

benefits, #hining "ce irror's free$ing an enemy in place, and #pring %a$or's unleashing loads of poison damage at once. They're useful &possibly a bit situational, but largely need to overlay an

already e(isting fighting strategy rather than creating a major one of their own, and their majoreffects hone down on specific opponents.

)e only get one e(ample of a four dot weapon, but it seems to be largely based around creating theconditions for a significant additional tactical approach, and then providing various enhancements

to that approach or benefits to wielders who are able to apply it well. *richalcum !unting !awkwants you to be fighting from a higher position than an opponent &as well as taking on monsters

that are really dangerous to you, and it will give you means and significant incentives to go do

that. " couldn't say whether or not its familiar making power says anything comprehensive, e(ceptmaybe that it suggests that a higher power of this kind of Artifact is some kind of major e(pression

of the thesis established by the prior cascade. +our-dot weapons don't just supplement you, theydirect you into some specific, but powerful, path of fighting.

 +ive dot Artifact weapons seem to be based around providing some enhancement or resource as aresult of successful attacks, that either serve as a major enhancement to the weapon or modification

of the battlefield in their own right, or can be spent in order to power a number of other powerfulattacks. At the highest level, the Artifact fully e(pends its associated resource &probably reuiring it

to have been built up to a fair degree on some tremendously powerful attack with a major

destructive scope, but then demands some kind of significant undertaking in order to make that power available again. +ive dot Artifacts don't so much create a tactical avenue as they create

major conditions that build up around a wielder successfully using them, and can bend storiesaround the need to engage in actions that make their most story-bending powers available.

 " would say that this kind of broad outline would serve as a fairly comprehensive basis fordeveloping the Evocations of any kind of weapon at each level. Also a bit of a consideration for why

one might forego a higher level Artifact a five dot one is undeniably more powerful, but might

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demand so much in terms of management in battle and fulfilling its needs that one can happily

forego it for a trusty, reliable, and relatively straightforward three dot Artifact &the five dot one canalso be heavily dependent on its attack associated resource, which might give opponents a means to

deny a lot of its benefits.

. /ormatting: The Icing

-o you have your highlevel ideas for powers now and you want to write them. (ow again,your mileage may vary, "ut I like to name them first. I love a good poet, and anyone who’swritten -idereal -utras can pro"a"ly come up with some cool evocation names telling astory through them. ;owever, if you’re me, you Gust use our favorite e+alted naming tool and do variations on the concept and the artifact name. ;ell, *orrid 2men’s evocations all AEE synonyms for ire #agicD. (o Goke.*ime for some formatting% :o what I do and 1opy>aste%

Fancy Evocation Name

1ost< Hm #ins< 5ssence *ype< -impleeywords< (one:uration< 2ne -cenerereuisites< (one

I keep all of my Artifacts in a google doc and I Gust copy this format and change the wordsand num"ers. It’s consistent with the "ooks, it has all the information you need, and itlooks nice too% I see a lot of folks ignore the keywords and I think they are very important,so don’t forget them.

2pen with some flowery words "ecause flowery words are cool and helps descri"e whatyou’re doing. &ut try not to do the confusing thing and #IJ your flowery words with yourmechanics. If you have more than a sentence of flavor, separate it from your mechanics "ya paragraph.

If your power affects Withering or Decisive attacks call them out and "old them. It helpsthe reader find them uickly in the te+t and keeps them from glossing over the fact that it’sdifferent this is also why you use keywords like :ual or ?niform!.

)hen the mechanics you’re discussing are significantly different, separate them "y

paragraphs so it doesn’t "ecome a huge "lock of te+t. *his is especially important whenlisting an effect gained "y taking advantage of something set up "y a previous charm. 1allit out, "ut separately.

0. Mechanics: The Meat

I’m no master of mechanics, "ut practice has made me "etter. -ome "asic 1ost rules I’vefigured out I am not a dev or writer for 5+alted, so this is an interpretation, not *he )ord!.

• ost dice adders are !"# motes in cost$ I% it&s not attac'(de%ense"ability related) it can be

chea*er$

• I% it lasts %or a scene) more o%ten than not it should cost +", motes and a will*ower included

in the cost

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• Counterattac's or thin-s that -rant automatic successes to decisi.e dama-e usually ha.e a

will*ower in the cost$ I% it doesn&t) raise the mote cost abo.e /

• *-rades to *re.ious e.ocations should only list the added cost and *ut it in 1*arentheses2

If you’re trying to figure out how many dice to add to something, I think of it this way. lat

num"ers are fine, "ut never change as you level up. *his can make a weapon feel too

powerful early on, or not powerful enough later on. *hat doesn’t mean don’t use them, "ut

keep that in mind when deciding. I almost (5K5= use A"ility or Attri"ute scores. If you

want to use a num"er that changes, you have / solid options<

• Essence starts small at ! and ran-es bi- u* to /$ It&s more -ranular and is directly

re*resentati.e i% your *ower le.el$ ddin- or subtractin- / to anythin-) howe.er) is 4E5Y

6OOD in 3rd Edition) so be care%ul and thin' about the hi-h le.el -ame be%ore throwin-

this at e.erythin-$ It doesn&t belon- e.erywhere$

• Intimacy stren-th is a %a.orite o% mine) because the ratin-s -o %rom inor at # to De%inin- at

+$ It starts stron-er than Essence but %inishes a little wea'er$ ore than that) you can -et thehi-her stren-th at lower le.els) but throu-h more e%%ort$ It re7uires -ame wor' and not time

s*ent and this adds dynamics to your strate-y$ I usually recommend usin- Intimacies where

*ossible) but I&.e absolutely used Essence and you should consider both o*tions when

*ic'in- your modi%iers$

:ecisive attacks are easily very "rutal in 3rd edition, so I tend to "e very reluctant to A::

dice to :ecisive attacks and I pretty much never add automatic successes "eyond to

them. ;owever, a fun mechanic can "e to transform damage dice I(*2 automatic

successes. *his still gives you a "onus without greatly modifying the curve. $ou don’t add

dice and it’s still powerful.

1harms. 5+alts have them, and you need to remem"er that they do when designing your

artifact, "ecause they will ?-5 them with your artifact if they can. *his can include multi

attack charms. what happens to your artifact’s a"ility if it’s applied H times to a target in a

single round. :oes it "reak it’s power' ut a limiter on the gain. :oes it make it too

e+pensive' #ay"e that’s a good thing. :oes it e+actly copy a power an e+alt has easy

access to' #ay"e it’s not a good evocation idea. *his is Gust worth keeping in mind when

designing.

1apstones< *he final evocation should not only "e the most powerful, "ut should realiLe

the vision of the artifact. *he "est ones "uild on earlier evocations without replacing them.

-ometimes, they should come with a reset condition, "ut that should "e "ased on how

great it is. If it’s something that will easily decide a maGor "attle, it’s pro"a"ly good enough

to reuire a cooldown>reset condition. #y favorite evocations upgrade the previous ones to

make them "etter in some way, "ut I do love me my upgrade evocations. It should "e

noted that the capstone usually helps me determine the Artifact rating 3H dots! of the

weapon. Is it’s power huge and showy, or is it more internal and restrained' *his is a tricky

process, and I usually Gust default to artifact 4 for most of mine. 5asier to scale them "ack

a level than raise them.

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. Backstory: Tie it all together

#any people write this first, and that’s fine. &ut sometimes in the course of writing

evocations, I come up with stuff that changes the way my story goes. I’m a writer "y ho""y

so most of my artifact stories are knocked out in a"out /M minutes Gust "efore I post them,"ut you should take some time and think a"out where your artifact came from. 5very detail

is not important. )ho made it does not ;AK5 to "e important. &ut "uild on the legend of

your artifact and its impression on history, even secret history.

)ho made it' )hat drove them to make it' )hat trials did they face in finding the

materials' )hat processes did they go through to forge this mighty tool of the chosen'

)hat happened to it afterwards' :id it fall into o"scurity, or get passed along from hero to

hero'

1. 'diting: o it

=ead over your artifact a few times from start to finish. :oes it read well' :o the

mechanics make sense' :oes it flow from evocation to evocation' :oes your attunement

"onus Give with your artifact or is it Gust ar"itrary' :oes your theme call for some special

rule to learn some of the evocations'

Is it cool enough that $2? would use it'

 At the end of the day, only you and your # can decide if an artifact is going to "e via"le.*he forums are temperamental and frankly, it can "e hard to get much feed"ack on artifact

"alance. I suspect this will change once we hopefully! get =5AE rules on artifact

"uilding>designing in Arms of the 1hosen. &ut I recommend B35C *he Artifact and

5vocation )orkshop thread for posting your artifacts. And post them you should% )e can

all only "enefit from more homemade material.

*his is my process for making artifacts. I hope this was somewhat helpful for folks.

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