Suggestion: Daedric Artifact drops. Unique, powerful, and temporary.

Loyheta · August 2014

So from my understanding, in the elder scrolls series has had daedric artifacts appearing and vanishing in their world. Some are fun, some are powerful, some are convenient. I have thought of a way that I'd like to see them implemented and a way to balance them.

So first off, they would be temporary. This is because there should only be one on the server at any given time. It can have a half hour or hour long bound time. Once one dropped for you it would be removed from being droppable in the future for you. This is not to say that you can't get all the drops over the course of your character's life. They would be dropped from random enemies, randomly gifted, or sent for certain occasions. For example, Wabbajack staff could be fully random (seems apropriate). You may be sitting around crafting when you hear him whisper to you "entertain me or I will turn you to a sweetroll and feed you to your mother!" then it'd appear in your bag.

Now since this game should try to have fun they should be powerful. Like 5 levels above legendary powerful. Azura's star grant you soul trapping with all kills, maybe even giving you free soul gems every 2 minutes. Ebony Mail giving a poison aura and high fire and magic resistance. Wabbajack dealing random damage of random types, transforming enemies, healing them, instantly killing them, or even turning them into items like food or drinks. Skeleton Key giving you 100% force chance. Et Cetera.

I firmly believe that these shouldn't be restricted. Let people really have fun with it. Let them run into cyrodil with the blade of woe and randomly instant kill people. Blade of woe, umbra, sword of jygglag, etc. There is an extensive list of artifacts to pull from. The key is to make them accurate, make them fun, let people abuse them. They will only have them for a half hour or so before they are gone forever. The gods plucking them and sending it to their next hero. Don't let ESO miss out on the fun of the daedric artifacts. (heck have achievements for them with dyes and titles linked to them. Daedric Artificer or something and a nice dye)

Loyheta · August 2014

This in the wrong thread or does no one have any imput?

dodgehopper_ESO · August 2014

I like the idea of it to a point, but an hour almost seems too brief to really get the enjoyment out of it. You could receive the weapon, and barely have time to kill a few trash mobs with it before you got enjoyment. I do think it shouldn't last forever, but I am not sure what the best amount of time should be. I also think you should perform some service to even have the right to use it. A feat of strength for Volendrung (in this case I suppose all our characters qualify if they beat Molag Bal). Mephala's Blade, Mehrunes Razor, etc though... should probably have more involved to them. Even if it is just beating the current holder of the weapon (Which might in and of itself make a lot of sense).

AlexDougherty · August 2014

There are a couple of problems to my mind.

Firstly is they only drop for you once, then after a while everyone will have got them (except new players) thus rendering them essentially nonexistant.

Secondly, Azura's Star, the Oghma Inifium and the Skeleton Key become problematic. Azura's star is a soul gem, so it can't produce them, not without shattering the lore more. The Oghma Inifium is a skill book, so it disappears anyway. And the Skeleton Key is a support artifact not a game changer.

What I would do is make it harder for they to drop each time you get them. So we could get them multiple times.

Also don't make them overpowered, make them scalable to us (but Artifact quality), with an extra 50% damage/Armour to what we should have at that level. So a level 30 character would get a purple quality Ebony Blade which does 50% more damage than usual. Or a level 40 character would get a purple quality Saviors Hide, which gives 50% more protection than normal Medium Armour.
But give them their usual powers (Ebony Blade would obviously need a rejig)

But leave out Azura's Star, the Oghma Inifium and Skeleton key. these would take too much to make them fun.

Loyheta · August 2014

Well when I say that they only drop once, I mean that specific artifact only drops once. So you could, in theory, get them all. Maybe add a system so you are re-qualified to receive them again.

I only suggest the very short lifespan that way there is only one active at a time on the server. It would really give it added weight and meaning when you came across one.

I still think the skeleton key could work as a guaranteed force lock break. The details would be their work. I'm just trying to throw around ideas so that they may catch some attention and get people thinking.