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Artifacts of the Ages: Rings
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Artifacts of the Ages: Rings
by JD Wiker and Gary Astleford
Credits
Art Direction: Stan!
Layout and Typesetting: Marc Schmalz
Front Cover Design: Jefferson Dunlap
Cover Artist: Clarence Harrison
Interior Artist: Pete Schlough
Ring Scions ...............................................................3
The Broach of Bolan ...............................................10
The Crown of Screams ............................................32
Contents
The Diablatorio .......................................................48
Bodhita, the Open-Hand Medallion ........................62
Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons ® , Third Edition Core Books, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
This product utilizes updated material from the v.3.5 revision.
™
™
The Game Mechanics, Inc
P.O. Box 1125, Renton WA 98057
www.thegamemechanics.com
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used according to the
terms of the d20 System License version 4.0. A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20. D UNGEONS & D RAGONS ®, Dungeon
Master®, and Wizards of the Coast® are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and are used with permission.
Artifacts of the Ages: Rings ©2004 The Game Mechanics, Inc. All rights reserved.
For information on the designation of Open Game Content and Product Identity in this publication, refer to the Appendix.
T HE G AME M ECHANICS and The Game Mechanics logo are trademarks of The Game Mechanics, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or
artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of The Game Mechanics, Inc.
This product is a work of fi ction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Made in the U.S.A.
Additional Design: Rich Redman
Editing: Rich Redman with Marc Schmalz
Creative Direction: Stan!
Proofreading: Vincent Szopa
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Introduction
Welcome to Artifacts of the Ages: Rings —a
sourcebook for magic rings, amulets, crowns,
and other jewelry and gems, for fantasy d20
System campaigns. These are hardly everyday
magic items, however—any more than Tolkien’s
“One Ring” is an everyday magic ring. These
items are special: They have great powers, and
great destinies. In the d20 System, they would be
considered minor artifacts, possessed of mighty
magical abilities, enough to make an ordinary
person into a hero, an ordinary hero into a mighty
king—and ordinary player characters into the kind
of characters myths are made of.
a character in until 9th level, at the earliest. The
be� er the item, the harder it is to get into the
prestige class for using it.
How to Use This Book
Because the jewelry in this book is designed to last
a character throughout most of a campaign, GMs
who wish to use the items and prestige classes in
this book should try to plan ahead. If you are just
beginning a campaign, you can work one of these
items in fairly easily. The player characters could
discover it in a treasure hoard, or their religious
or mystical orders could bestow such items on the
characters. (The quest for the item could be one of
the party’s earliest adventures.) If the campaign
has already begun, you can have an existing ring,
amulet, or other piece of magic jewelry already
in the game begin manifesting proof that it is a
legendary item. Or, you could simply adjust the
item’s defl ection or resistance bonus upward for
higher-level characters.
In either case, your goal as GM should be to
fi nd a ring that fi ts into your campaign—or use
these rules to invent one of your own—and off er
it to your players as incentive to take one of the
associated prestige classes: ba� le scion, spell scion,
faith scion, or swi� scion. If you know your players’
preferences, you should not only be able to fi nd a
player who would thoroughly enjoy uncovering the
mysteries of a legendary ring, but also a legendary
ring that matches that player’s tastes.
What’s in This Book?
In fantasy literature, in the movies, and in our own
imaginations, magic rings, gems, crowns, amulets,
bracelets, and the like all
play larger parts than are
traditionally assigned
to them in fantasy
roleplaying games. Their
owners tend to carry them
throughout their careers.
But in the games we play,
these items usually only last until the characters
use all the charges or fi nd something be� er. And
considering that characters may only wear so many
rings, necklaces, headwear, and footwear, it is even
more important that such items be more valuable,
versatile, and vital to the character’s adventures.
Artifacts of the Ages: Rings gives player characters
reasons to hang onto those magic baubles a bit
longer. The legendary rings found in this book
are powerful enough to be useful still at higher
levels—but they dole out their powers bit by bit,
so that the GM needn’t worry about pu� ing too
powerful an item into the hands of a low-level
character. These items grow in power as the scions
advance in level.
The magic items in Artifacts of the Ages: Rings
off er minor powers to any wearer, but grant
their be� er abilities to those who take one of four
associated prestige classes: the scion classes. The
scion unlocks new abilities of the ring by advancing
in its associated prestige class. In short, the prestige
classes reward the player for keeping these items.
The scion classes—ba� le scion, spell scion, faith
scion, and swi� scion—work slightly diff erently
from item to item. One ba� lering’s prestige class
requirements might allow a character to get into
the class as early as third level; another, with
correspondingly greater powers, might not let
For the GM
Artifacts of the Ages: Rings makes use of prestige
classes in the truest sense: Taking one of these
classes makes a character someone special in the
grand scheme of things. Consequently, you, as the
GM, must be prepared to utilize these prestige
classes—and the legendary rings that go with
them—in your campaign. If you’re not prepared
to do so, then you should make it especially clear
to your players that these prestige classes aren’t
available to them.
On the other hand, if you’re willing to take this
plunge, the characters in your game can wield
magic rings that more or less automatically scale
to the level of the characters’ power—running the
gamut from minor magic item to minor artifact.
And you can use the very existence of these
weapons to make your campaign world that
much more a magical place, full of adventure and
mystery—which is what fantasy roleplaying games
are ultimately all about.
Web Enhancement
Additional material for use with Artifacts
of the Ages: Rings and any discovered
errata can be found at The Game
Mechanics’ website
(www.thegamemechanics.com).
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Chapter One: The Basics
Legendary rings use a very simple system to
allow their abilities to improve along with their
wearers’ abilities. A character wearing a legendary
ring is eligible for one of the ring scion prestige
classes, which in turn allows the character to begin
unlocking the ring’s advanced abilities, simply by
taking levels of the prestige class.
Without taking the prestige class, the legendary
ring is simply a magic item, usually with a small
defl ection or resistance bonus (+1 or +2, or as high
as +3 for truly powerful legendary rings). At each
level of the prestige class, though, the scion can
utilize another ability of the item. These abilities
might be simply an increase in the ring’s defl ection
or resistance bonus, but more commonly they
grant the scion access to a suite of combat-oriented
feats, special abilities tied to the item’s purpose, or
perhaps magical enhancements to the character’s
own skills and abilities.
In every case, the ring scion prestige classes
simply describe which of an item’s abilities the
scion is now eligible for. The legendary ring
entries (found in Chapters 2 through 5) list what
those abilities are. Thus, every ring scion prestige
class is diff erent, even though there are only four
variations to the scion prestige class.
Ring Scions
Ring scions come in as many varieties as there
are legendary gems, jewels, and rings. But they
distill down to one of four distinct types, based on
the intended owner of the item. Each legendary
artifact in Chapters 2 through 5 utilizes one of
these four prestige classes:
The ba� le scion prestige class is for ba� lerings:
legendary rings made for fi ghters, barbarians, and
rangers (and the occasional monk or paladin).
The spell scion is for spellrings: legendary
rings made to be wielded by arcane spellcasters,
such as wizards and sorcerers, and sometimes
bards.
The faith scion is meant for characters who
wield legendary rings of divine power, faithrings.
Faith scions o� en begin as clerics, druids, and
paladins.
And, fi nally, the swi� scion prestige class is
for those who wield swi� rings: legendary rings
that make use of or improve the wearer’s stealth,
speed, or just good old-fashioned dexterity. This
includes rogues and monks, in most cases, and
sometimes bards as well.
Rules and Restrictions
In addition to meeting the prerequisites of the
prestige class (some of which are dictated by the
rings themselves, as shown in Chapters 2 through
5), characters who take one of these prestige classes
have certain other rules and restrictions to follow.
Unbreakable
Under ordinary circumstances, legendary rings
cannot be destroyed. Any a� empt to smash,
crush, melt, or otherwise damage such an item
automatically fails. However, each ring, jewel, gem,
or other item described in this book includes an
explanation of how the item may be destroyed. The
destruction process should never be an easy task
to undertake; it should be the result of an arduous
quest, perhaps involving a journey to where the
item was originally created.
When an item of this sort is destroyed, it might
merely be broken into multiple pieces—pieces
which can be reassembled, under the proper
circumstances. Whether a given item can be
reconstructed is in the GM’s hands. Destroyed
items might still function in some lesser way, if
the GM so desires. The wearer retains her levels
in the scion prestige class, but must succeed at
a special level check in order to use her class
abilities for the prestige class. This level check
is 1d20 + scion level against a DC of 11 + the
caster level of the ability the character wishes to
use. Obviously, the former scion cannot, in this
fashion, access abilities that require the weapon to
be intact, or in contact with the scion. Defl ection
and resistance bonuses, for example, do not
operate, nor do abilities that activate when the
wielder successfully a� acks or deals damage with
the item.
Losing Legendary Rings
Legendary rings, as explained below, should
never become permanently lost. Fate has ways
of bringing these items back to their rightful
owners As the GM, it is your job to ensure that the
legendary ring and its scion do not stay separated
for long (unless, of course, the purpose of the
adventure is to recover the ring). The ring should
turn up, by default, at the end of an encounter, or
should be near enough at hand that the scion need
only make a reasonable eff ort to reclaim the item.
If a legendary item is lost for a long period, the
former scion may have to undertake a quest to
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Chapter One: The Basics
4
recover it. Such a quest could involve visiting the
place where the item was created or making some
sort of sacrifi ce related to the item’s purpose or
powers. GMs should be creative in coming up with
the specifi cs of the quest.
When a scion permanently loses a legendary
item, her levels in the scion prestige class are
replaced by levels of another class. The wielder’s
levels in the item’s associated prestige class
convert to levels of fi ghter, barbarian, paladin,
or ranger (in the case of ba� le scions); wizard or
sorcerer (in the case of spell scions); cleric, druid,
or paladin (in the case of faith scions); or rogue,
bard, or monk (in the case of swi� scions). The
choice of which class the levels convert to is up
to the player, with the restriction that the chosen
class must be one in which the character already
possesses at least one level. If the character should
somehow later recover the item, the player, if
she so desires, can instantly and immediately re-
convert all the converted levels back to the scion
prestige class again (no more, and no less—even if
the character has gained levels since then).
a diff erent alignment), or the item’s description
specifi es penalties for advancing in another class,
then the only drawback to pursuing a diff erent
class is that the scion is not gaining new powers
with the item.
Gaining Additional Legendary Rings
If the wearer of a legendary ring somehow gains
another of the same type (a faith scion who
acquires another faithring, for example), he may
not adopt its associated prestige class, nor may he
transfer the benefi ts of his faith scion levels to the
new weapon. But if he were to acquire a faithblade
or faithstaff (as described in Artifacts of the Ages:
Swords and Staves ), he could begin advancing as a
ba� le scion for that item, assuming that he meets
the requirements.
The level of commitment that a legendary item
demands from its wielder does not allow him to
split his a� ention between two or more such items
simultaneously. Thus, the owner of two legendary
rings must choose the commitment on which he
wishes to focus with each new character level, by
virtue of his prestige class selection.
The Battle Scion
A ba� le scion is someone who has received a
legendary ring devoted to improving the fi ghting
prowess of its wearer. While characters of any class
can eventually qualify for the ba� le scion, those
who fi ght professionally—fi ghters, barbarians,
rangers, and paladins—are ideal for the ba� le scion
prestige class.
No two ba� le scions should be identical, by
virtue of the items that grant them access to this
prestige class. One might wear his family’s signet
ring, which provides him with the abilities he
needs to uphold the family’s honor. Another ring
could be the legacy of an entire race, embodying
all their virtues (or their vices). Or perhaps the ring
Ex-Scions
If the wearer no longer meets the prerequisites
of the scion prestige class, she loses the ability
to access the special abilities of her legendary
ring. She retains the basic features of the prestige
class (Base A� ack Bonus, base saves, and even
spellcaster levels, where appropriate), but the ring
supplies only the magical abilities it grants to any
wearer. The ex-scion may not progress in levels of
the prestige class until she corrects the problem
and once again meets the prerequisites of the class.
This restriction does not prevent a ring scion
from taking levels of another class, or from using
the abilities of the legendary ring while she does
so. Unless the new class in some way violates the
scion prestige class prerequisites (such as requiring
Table 1–1: The Battle Scion
Will
Save Special
1st +1 +2 +0 +0 Bonus feat
2nd +2 +3 +0 +0
3rd +3 +3 +1 +1
4th +4 +4 +1 +1 Bonus feat
5th +5 +4 +1 +1
6th +6 +5 +2 +2
7th +7 +5 +2 +2 Bonus feat
8th +8 +6 +2 +2
9th +9 +6 +3 +3
10th +10 +7 +3 +3 Bonus feat
Base
Attack Bonus
Fort
Save
Ref
Save
Class
Level
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