Artificer

From Sagataflwiki

"I can tell you with no ego, this is my finest sword. If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut." - Kill Bill.

Artificer is an inborn Power, of the Item Creation type. Unlike most (if not all) other Item Creation procedures, the character must use the Power while he is physically creating the item, i.e. weaving an item of clothing, forging a sword, or making a torch.

This means he must have the necessary mundane craftsman skills. Also, the magic does not override the inherent quality of the crafted item, but rather augments it, so each item will be better if the Artificer has crafted it with great skill.

On the other hand, the character doesn't need to unlock the Power, it can be used as soon as it manifests (and it manifests early), and even before the character's Power manifests, the character will feel instinctively drawn or one or more of the craftsman skills he needs to learn in order to use this Power.

Contents 1 Manifestation and roleplaying 2 Power variants and cost 2.1 Power variants 2.2 Cost Factor 2.3 Cost table 3 Power Levels and effects 3.1 Power Level table 3.2 Table entries explained 3.2.1 Minor Privilege and Major Privilege 3.2.2 Enchantments (complex items and triple time) 3.2.3 Grand Work and Wondrous Work 3.2.4 Workshop Prowess I, II and III 3.2.5 Work Fast 3.2.6 Guaranteed Quality I, II and III 3.2.7 Mythic Artificer 3.3 No privileges 3.4 Artificer level 3.5 Using the Artificer Power 3.6 Simple Items 3.6.1 More on Simple Items 3.6.2 More on Mythic Item Level 6 Items 3.7 General rules for Artificer Enchantments 4 Advice 5 Please note 6 Mini-FAQ 6.1 sub-section I 6.2 sub-section II 6.3 sub-section III 7 The world 7.1 World impact 7.1.1 Privilege items 7.1.2 The Ärth setting 8 Mini-Glossary 9 See also

Manifestation and roleplaying

The Artificer Power usually manifests very early, and except for Power Level (PL) 10, Mythic Artificer, the Power always manifests all at once, rather than in degrees.

The player is free to choose any Youth level interval, i.e. 9-12 Years of age or 21-30 Years of age. The most common is the 12-15 or 15-18 interval, and for most player characters and many NPCs, this will be deep in the character's backstory, rather than something that happens during play. Also, very few characters are surprised when their Artificer Power manifests. They'll experience a sense of rightness, even if mixed with a sense of confusion. Or maybe they won't notice it at first, since the Artificer Power creates subtle effects.

An Artificer character using the Power without being aware of it, i.e. after it has manifested but before he consciously accepts the fact, makes subconsciuos choices as to what Enchantments and at what grades he will put into the item, in proportion with how important the item is.

A few Artificers remain in denial throughout their entire lives, but this can be an extreme roleplaying challenge, and many players and GMs will not be able to handle it. Fortunately, if a player (or GM) starts out deciding that the character will remain in denial about having a supernatural Power for his entire life, and then realizes that he (the player or GM playing the character) cannot pull it off, it is easy to change plans and simple have the character accept that he has a Supernatural ability.

That still leaves plenty of room for theological and existential angst, although for the sake of the sanity of the other players, such a period should not be too drawn out. Eventually the character should come to terms with what he is, or else go insane to the point where he is no longer an active participant within the game world.

With Mythic Artificer, the special variant of the Power that is PL 10, there is quite often a "lag" of manifestation, so that if a character has Artificer at PL 10, the Power will manifest at PL 9, and then only after a significant period of time, usually of 1, 3 or 6 Years, PL 10 manifests. Players are free to choose the duration of the lag, or leave it to a dice roll (1d6 Years, e.g., possibly rolled in secret by the GM), or let the GM pre-determine it but keep his decision secret. Even for Mythic Artificer, the full manifestation can very well have occured deep in the character's backstory, rather than being something the player anxiously waits for to happen to his character.

Power variants and cost

Power variants

The Artificer Power comes in two versions, one called Artificer (Gen.) that can be used for all craftsman skills that the character has (and as he learns new skills, he can use Artificer (Gen.) with those too), and another that is specific to one craftsman skill, or with GM permission to two very closely related skills (e.g. torchmaking and candle-making).

This requires GM acceptance for combinations not specifically mentioned in the rules, based on comparision with existing examples (e.g. candle- and torch-making are thematically very closely related in that they're about light-producing consumable objects).

A character can have the skill-specific Artificer Power up to three times, in which case the second and third instance of Artificer have a higher Cost Factor. If more than 3 are desired, pay for the general version of Artificer, but optionally decide that the Power can only be used for a pre-defined list of crats.

Cost Factor

Take the lowest of Dexterity(Manual) and Intelligence.

Don't modify this value for Artificer (Gen.).

For the skill-specific version, add 2 for the first instance, add 4 for the 2nd instance, and add 6 for the third instance. The first instance is always the one with the highest Power Level, the third instance is always the one with the lowest Power Level. If any modified Cost Factor becomes higher than 16, which is unlikely, treat it as 16.

Then look up the cost in the table below.

Since Artificer is an Item Creation Power, there are no Power Points.

Cost table

Power Levels and effects

Power Level table

The Power Levels of 2.5, 7.5, 8.5 and 9.5 do not exist. Choose the Power Level closest to your vision of the character.

ArtL	Max EL	PL	Effects
1	-	0.5	1 Minor Privilege point every 4 Years (max 2), for Simple I Items.
2	-	1	1 Minor Privilege point every 3 Years (max 4), for Simple I Items.
2	-	1.5	1 Minor Privilege Point every 2 Years (max 6), for Simple I and II Items.
3	2	2	1 Minor Privilege Point per Year (max 9), for Simple II Items, you may make as many Simple I items as you wish, and you get a maximum Enchantment level of 2.
4	3	3	2 Minor Privilege Points per Year (max 12) for Simple II Items, and you get a maximum Enchantment level of 3.
4	3	3.5	You may create as many Simple II Items as you wish, so from now on you can ignore Minor Privilege points.
5	4	4	Once per 6 Years, you get a Major Privilege point (max 3), for Simple I Items, and your maximum Enchantment level is 4.
5	4	4.5	You may perform a Grand Work a number of times equal to your Pagan Alignment level plus two, and you get 1 Major Privilege Point every 5 Years (max 4), for Simple I Items.
6	5	5	Your maximum Enchantment level is 5th, you get the Workshop Prowess I ability, you may perform a Grand Work four times plus two more per level of Pagan Alignment, and you get 1 Major Privilege Point every 4 Years (max 5), for Simple I Items.
6	5	5.5	You may perform a Wondrous Work once, plus once if you have 3 levels of Pagan Alignment, and once more for each 2 additional levels.
7	6	6	Your maximum Enchantment level is 6th, and you get 1 Major Privilege Point every 3 Years (max 7), for Simple I Items.
7	6	6.5	You get 1 Major Privilege Point every 2 Years (max 9), for Simple I and II Items, and may use Grand Work as often as you wish.
8	6+	7	Your maximum Enchantment level is now beyond 6th, and you get the Workshop Prowess II ability.
9	6+	8	Once per level of Pagan Alignment, you may use the Work Fast option, you may also perform one Wondrous Work per level of Pagan Alignment, you get the Guaranteed Quality I ability, and you get 1 Major Privilege point per Year (max 12).
10	6+	9	You may perform two Wondrous Works per level of Pagan Alignment, and use Work Fast one additional time, and get the Guaranteed Quality II ability. You still only get 1 Major Privilege point per Year, but may store 15 unused points.
13	6+	10	At this Power Level, you are not an Artificer, but instead a Mythic Artificer. This gives you a lot of benefits and special abilities, explained below. Exectutive summary: Völund, Hattori Hanzo, and Tony Stark, are examples of Mythic Artificers. You are that awesome.

Table entries explained

Minor Privilege and Major Privilege

At low Power Levels, you can only use your Artificer Power when you spend Minor Privilege points to do so. Each 1 Minor Privilege Point lets you make one Simple I Item (for which you pay the Essence cost). From PL2 onwards, you may make as many Simple I Items as you wish, not being limited by Minor Privilege Points, although you must still pay the Essence cost.

Starting at PL 1.5, you may also make Simple II Items, each such item costing 4 Minor Privilege Points (plus its normal Essence cost). From PL 3.5 onwards, you may make as many Simple II Items as you wish, so for PL 3.5+ you can ignore Minor Privilege Points.

Also, starting at PL 2, you may begin making complex items; these are items that can contain multiple Enchantments, each of your choosing, but limited by Enchantment level. Everything is explained further down.

From PL 4, you begin getting Major Privilege points. These are way cool! They let you make Simple I Items (and from PL 6.5 also Simple II Items) that you do not have to pay Essence cost. Each Simple I Item costs 1 Major Privilege point, and each Simple II Item costs 4 Major Privilege Points.

Please note that there are limits to how many unspent Minor and Major Privilege points you may store up. This is in each case mentioned in a paranthesis, and is higher for higher PLs.

Enchantments (complex items and triple time)

Starting at PL2, you get a maximum Enchantment level. This means you can begin combining Enchantments into complex items, complex items being flexible ones capable of containing multiple Enchantments of your own choosing (from among those available to Artificers), whereas Simple Items can only contain set Enchantments and only one Enchantment each (or if they can contain multiple Enchantments, in a few cases, it is very rigid and pre-determined).

Up until PL7, you are limited with regards to what items you can put your highest available level of Enchantments into. You can only put these into items that you have crafted elaborately, taking 3 times as long as normal, for that item type at that quality level. As an example, at PL4, your maximum Enchantment level is 4th, so you can put 2nd and 3rd level Enchantments into any items (except Simple Items; these can never contain additional Enchantments), but if you also want to put 4th level Enchantments into an item, that item must be crafted taking much extra time (you can also put lower level Enchantments into such items).

This "triple time" principle is the origin of the notion of the "Thrice-Forged sword". Some blacksmiths would take a very long time making certain very important swords, and people ended up assuming that the smith would forge the blade, then break it, then forge it, break it again, and forge it anew a third time. What's really going on is that the Artificer (a smith, weaver, or any other craftsman with the Artificer Power) takes his time, putting love and care and attention into the item beyond what its quality level warrants.

This limitation ceases at PL7. At that point, the Artificer can put 6th level Enchantments, the most powerful possible, into items crafted taking a normal amount of time.

See also Grand Work and Wondrous Work below.

Grand Work and Wondrous Work

Grand Work can be used a limited number of times during the Artificer's life (except at very high PLs, then he can use it as often as he wishes), and each use causes him to age by 1 OP (the equivalent of 3 Years of aging), although in a subtle and gradual way. His hair doesn' suddenly turn grey or white, and his bear doesn't grow by half a meter.

Wondrous Work can likewise only be used a limited number of times during the Artificer's life, and each use causes him to age by 1d3 OP, plus one more OP (total 1d3+1) if his Pagan Alignment is only 1. Please note that this is an average of 6 or 9 Years of aging per usage, depending on Alignment!

Grand Work does one of two things:

• It enables the Artificer to put a single 5th level Enchantment into the item, even if the item is not crafted in triple the normal time (this usage becomes irrelevant at higher PLs)
• It enables the Artificer to craft a single item with a -2 RD bonus to all the skill rolls he takes during the process (including skills for raw material processing, provided he does the processing himself or at least supervises it closely, and the Decoration skill); also, for the purpose of prerequisites and all formulae, the primary skill or skills used in the process count as being 2 higher (but not for any dice rolls; there, he only benefits from the RD bonus). The Artificer can choose to make this into a Simple Item (paying the Essence cost, or using a Major Privilege), or a regular (i.e. complex) Enchanted item, or not put any magic into the item at all (in which case the item is not magical; it does not detect as magical, and cannot be dis-Enchanted).

Wondrous Work does one of two quite similar things:

• It enables the Artificer to put a single 6th level Enchantment into an item, as above.
• It enables the Artificer to craft an item, as above, but with higher bonuses. The RD bonus is -3, and the primary skill(s) used count as 3 higher.

It is possible to use Grand Work or Wondrous Work, or both, multiple times on the same item. Once to get the bonuses (either Grand or Wondrous Work), and then once more for each Enchantment put in. The cost in aging is expensive, though.

Workshop Prowess I, II and III

Workshop Prowess I makes the Artificer's Strength and Dexterity, and all their sub-attributes, count as 1 higher, for the purpose of prerequisites to use the crafted items only when testing or trialling or demonstrating the items in controlled conditions in a workshop or similar enviroment (the bonuses are in particular never applicable during anything that resembles combat, not even duelling or sparring, but damaging inanimate items, or helples or unresisting living victims, e.g. demonstrating a sword by trusting it through a slave, is all right). Strength and Dexterity, and all their sub-attributes, also count as 1 higher for the purpose of calculating how long the Artificer can continue working in the workshop.

Workshop Prowess II functions as above, but the bonuses are doubled (to 2), and also the Artificer's Size counts as 1 higher for the purpose of weapon testing. Thus the Artificer is able to test (e.g. balance test) a weapon that is too large for him (or his species) to use effectively in combat. A Halfling could test a Human-scale broadsword, for instance.

Workshop Prowess III (gained at PL 10, Mythic Artificer) fuctions much as Workshop Prowess II, with the exception that the bonus to whichever is lower of Strength and Dexterity, is 3 instead of 2. The same bonus applies to all the sub-attributes, and the Size bonus is unaltered.

The main effect of Workshop Prowess is the bonus to Strength (and to the Arm Strength sub-attribute), which lets an Artificer that is not very physically strong, e.g. a woman, function better as a blacksmith. Workshop Prowess is of much less relevance to other crafts. For any Artificer blacksmith that already has sufficient Strength, Workshop Prowess can be ignored.

Work Fast

Each use of Work Fast lets you make one item (mundane, Simple I or II, or complex with multiple Enchantments), making one item (or a batch of consumable or non-reusable items) in 1/4 the normal time, at the cost of 2 OP of Aging.

Guaranteed Quality I, II and III

At PL 8, you get Guaranteed Quality I. You can use this any time you craft an item, where the final Quality is to some extent random, only if you do not skimp on time or ressources, i.e. rushing the job or using inferior raw materials or sub-standard tools or facilities. Any items you make in this way are at least Q3, average quality, even if the randomly rolled quality happens to be less than the minimum; if you roll Q2 or Q1, it is raised to the Q3 (or whatever the higher minimum is).

Furthermore, you can spend Essence to raise the minimum Quality of each such item. Each 0.1 of ES that you spend raises the minimum Quality by 1 point, up to a maximum of Q7 for 0.4 ES. Thus if you spend 0.4 ES, any rolled quality of less than Q7 becomes raised to Q7.

At PL9, you get Guaranteed Quality II, which works as Guaranteed Quality I, except you may raise the minimum Quality as high as Q9, which costs 0.6 Essence.

At PL 10, Mythic Artificer, you get Guaranteed Quality III. The minimum Quality you get for free is now Q5, and for each 0.1 ES you spend, you raise the minimum Quality for that item by 2, up to a maximum of Q11.

Items made with Guaranteed Quality can be made as Simple Items, or complex Enchanted items, or as mundane items. If made as mundane items, they are not magical, do not detect as magical, and cannot be dis-Enchanted. They are simply as good as any other items of that quality level, and visually indistinguishable from them.

Please note that for some types of items, only certain Quality values are possible. Swords better than Q3 can only have odd-numbered qualities, for instnace (e.g. 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13), and some other itme types may have similar rules. The armour Quality rules have not yet been much looked into, but it is possible that the only options above Q3 are Q7 and Q11.

In such cases, when the minimum guaranteed Quality cannot exist, "round" it down to the nearest lower value that can. (Also don't pay superflous Essence, e.g. paying to get a guaranteed minimum Quality of a sword of Q6 or Q8.)

Note also that many craft skills can be used, or are always used, in ways that are deterministic, i.e. where there is no random roll involved to detemine the Quality. In such cases, Guaranteed Quality is to be ignored completely.

Mythic Artificer

For PLs of 9 or less, your Item Creation method is Artificer. That's what you write in the "Method" field on any magic item desription sheet or table.

For PL 10, your Method is instead Mythic Artificer. You get many bonuses, and the Power works differently in numerous ways. Because some of your items detect differently, you must remember to specify that the Method is Mythic Artificer, when writing up magic items you've made.

Even though the examples mentioned are all blacksmiths (or in one case, an engineer who once created something impressive in a cave with a box of scraps), Artificers, even Mythic ones, can be Artificers for any crafts, or even all crafts (i.e. the more expensive Generalist Artificer version). It's just a question of point cost, and the fact that people with Artificer friends are more likely to end up in myth if said Artificer friends can make really good war-gear, rather than, say, really good cloaks or candles.

Here are all the PL 10 benefits, including the many ones accumulated from earlier PLs:

• Workshop Prowess III
• Guaranteed Quality III
• 1 Major Privilege point per 6 Moons (max 18).
• Regardless of how the Fatigue/Work rules end up being, you can work for a 25% longer period of time at your craft before being hit by fatigue or forced to stop due to weariness.
• Also, if you absolutely want to, you may instead work one session for four times as long (rather than 1.25 times as long) at the cost of 1 OP. You may use this ability as often as you like. Work for 4x10 Hours, age 3 Years, sleep 8 Hours, work for 40 more Hours, age 3 Years, sleep for 8 hours, work for 40 Hours, age 3 Years...
• As many Grand Works as you wish, each costing 1 OP.
• Two Wondrous Works per level of Pagan Alignment, each costing 1d3+1 OP (only 1d3 OP if you have Pagan Alignment 2+).
• All the magic items you create, not just your Simple I and II Items, count as Class C items for the purpose of magic detection and analysis.
• Those of your items that are Item Level 6 count as Item Level 5 or 7 in some situations. They count as Item Level 5 in those types of situations where that would normally be beneficial to the wielder of the item, and they count as Item Level 7 in those types of situations where that would normally be beneficial to the wielder. For instance, usually it is desirable that the Item Level of an item is lower if people are trying to detect it (a lower Item Level means a smaller or weaker blip on the radar), but a higher Item Level is desirable if people are trying to Analyze or Dis-Enchant the item.
• All your non-consumable Simple I Items get 1 Material Properties Enchantment pick.
• Instead of paying 0.1 Essence to get a number of Material Properties Enchantment picks equal to your Artificer Level, and then another 0.1 Essence to get a number of Material Properties Enchantment picks equal to your Dexterity (Manual) plus your level of Pagan Alignment, you now get all those picks for only 0.1 Essence.
• You can make all items covered by your Artificer skill(s) at 1/2 the usual time, both Simple I and II Items, items you wish to put Enchantments into, and normal items.
• You can speed this up further. At the cost of 1 OP, you can reduce the crafting time for any one item (or any one batch of consumable or otherwise batched Simple Items) to a total of 1/10 normal. This can be done as often as desired, also for non-magical items (such items do not detect as magical, even though a kind of magic was used or spent during the creation).
• You can work with all materials that can be used with your Artificer skill(s), without needing to have the Material Familiarity Lore with said material (although for truly exotic materials, the GM may require you to spend 1 Hour, or even 4 Hours, touching, fondling, sniffing and licking a sample of the material, or demand that you keep the sampe under your pillow during one night's sleep; this does not cause you to gain the Lore, so you cannot teach others how to work with the material, not even if they also are Mythic Artificers. They must spend a brief amount of their own time on exporing the material), e.g. Advanced Steel, Meteoric Iron, Adamant, Titanium, Platinium, any real or fantasy material that makes sense for your craft, e.g. a blacksmith cannot work with silk, a weaver cannot work with mithril, and a candle-maker cannot make functioning candles out of earwax. This particular bemefit is mainly of use to blacksmiths, although some settings may contain interesting materials, such as treant resin or the web silk from certain species of spiders that can be made into cloth.
• Your Artificer level is 13, and not 11 as one might assume by extrapolation.

No privileges

Some Power Levels, especially half-levels, give privileges that may be somewhat complex. If the character has a Power Level (less than PL 10) where he gets one or more privileges, and the player chooses for the character to not have any of them (so as to only get the "straight and simple" effect of Artificer, being able to put Enchantments into items as he makes them), a compensation is given.

This is -1 DP.

The privileges lost are:

• Minor and Major Privilege points
• Grand and Wondrous Work
• Work Fast
• Guaranteed Quality
•  ???
•  ???

For this cost, -1 DP, all privileges are dropped; the player creating the character cannot pick and choose. Also, if buying PL 10, Mythic Artificer, Privileges cannot be dropped.

Artificer level

Artificer Level is a statistic that is sometimes used in the Item Creation rules. A higher Artificer Level is more desirable, and sometimes gives bonuses of various kinds. It tends not to play any role in the creation of Lesser I or II items, though.

Max EL is a short reference for the highest EL that the character can Enchant into items (except if using the privilege from PL4.5 or 5.5), and for the sake of simplicity, here is a shorter version of the table above, including only those PLs that grant access to a higher EL.

Using the Artificer Power

Many Artificers attempt various uses of "magic" when they use their Power, for instance an Artificer blacksmith may chant the Lighting the Furnace song while they ignite the furnace, but then again, many non-Artificer blacksmiths also do this. It is nothing but superstition, and using the Artificer ability to pour Essence into an item (or to use one of the other options from the PL table) requires no ritual activity or rolls. Only the conscious decision of what to do, what Enchantments to put in, how much Essence to spend.

Or the subconscious decision, if the Artificer is still in the phase of denial, about having a supernatural Power.

Simple Items

Where most other Item Creation Methods deal with 5 Enchantment Levels (or 6 for Endowers; they're the only ones that deal with EL1), Artifiers deal with 7, sort of. ELs 2 to 6, plus Simple I and Simple II Items.

Each Simple I and II Item has its own Item Level, often 2 for Simple I and 4 for Simple II, and apart from being Magic Class C ("Exotic"), detects, dis-Enchants and so forth, as any other item of the same Item Level.

The problem with Simple Items is that they are inflexible. They are pre-defined, in terms of which Enchantments they contain (and it's almost always only a single Enchantment), so that the Artificer cannot add more.

That's the obvious benefit of complex items, or the type of items that a "regular" Artificer makes most often (or at least spends most of his Essence on). These can contain any number of Enchantments, up to the Artificer's maximum Enchantment level, altough with the requirement that the item must ahve been made in triple time if the Artificer wants to be able to put in the highest level Enchantment he can (unless he is PL7+).

More on Simple Items

Some Simple Items are classified as Durable. This means that the Simple II version gets a number of picks of Material Property Enchantments equal to the Artificer Level of the Artificer.

Consumable Simple Items, such as candles and torches, and non-reusable Simple Items such as arrows, come in batches, meaning that for low the Essence cost, the Artificer gets a batch, a certain quantity of items, most often equal to his Artificer Level. For instance, an Artificer I Torch Simple Item costs 0.1 ES, but results in a number of such torches equal to the Artificer Level of the Artificer. Artificer II Torch costs 0.3 Essence, and gives the same number of torches, but the torches are much better.

Please note that non-Simple arrows, meaning arrows Enchanted by an Artificer as complex items, and arrows Enchanted via other mehods (such as Endowing), are reusable. It is only the Simple Item arrows that can be used only once, before the magic disappears.

Also note that Simple Items cannot be made using the Temporary Enchantment rules. The same goes for non-Simple consumable items, or itms that are non-reusable in spite of not being Simple, such as Artificer III Torches and Candles.

More on Mythic Item Level 6 Items

Please note that these items functions as Item Level 5 or 7, respectivly, depending upon what typically be best for the wielder of the item in the given situaton (Detect Magic, Analyse Magic, dis-Enchant), not on what would actually be best for the wielder in the specific situation. One can imagine rare tactical situations in which it would be desirable for the wielder of a Mythic Level 6 Item that it is as easy to dis-Enchant as an Item Level 5 Item, but that's just too bad. It will always be as difficult to dis-Enchant as an Item Level 7 Item, because that is what would generally, usually, typically, be preferable.

General rules for Artificer Enchantments

Most importantly, perhaps, Artificer items are never blatantly magic, except in some cases due to their material properties (massive Durability, or great Vibrance). It is always subtle, and with constant-effect magic. No flaming swords, nor swords that glow blue in the presence of unsavoury beings such as lawyers or orcs.

Artificers do not put new properties into items. Never! They only make the items better at fulfilling their mundane function. A sword kills people. An Artificer broadsword kills people better. It may be better at piercing armour, or do more damage, or be easier to swing, or be faster to swing, but it cannot wreathe its blade in flames or icy cold, nor heal the wielder.

All this is handled, via the rules simply not making such Enchantments accessible to the Artificer Power.

Advice

The Artificer is one way that a character can have the right to spend his Essence, but note that at low PLs, there's a severe brake on how quickly it can be spent. Assuming each Simple I Item costs an average of 0.13 Essence, and the Artificer has 4.0 Essence, then at PL 0.5 where the Artificer may only make one Simple I Item per 4 Years, it will take him 120 Years to spend all the Essence that he can (the last 0.1 cannot be spent).

There's nothing wrong with buying Artificer at low PL, as long as the player is aware that it won't let him spend all his Essence within a normal Human lifespan. Low-level Artificer is best taken in addition to some other Power (such as Charm-Making), or some learnable ability (Endowing, or those spells that cost Essence) so that the character has more ways to spend Essence. That's also more flexible.

A lot of emphasis is on black-smithing and the cration of war-gear, i.e. weapons and armour, but other options are bow-making, or arrow-making (fletching), or wood-carving (for making sticks and staves), making fuel-burning lamps, or candles and/or torches, or making clothes. In particular, clothes and jewelry (made via Goldsmiting or Gem-Carving, or at higher levels of technology, actual Gem-Cutting), can be made extremely pretty via the Vibrance Enchantments. Clothes can also give some bonuses, especially to Temperature Tolerance, or sacks or backpacks of (slightly) reduced encumbrance

An example of an Artificer that is less glamorous than the Magic Smith, but still able to produce adventuring-useful gear, is one that makes magic torches, magic clothes and magic staves and sticks (and other wood-carved objects). Such a character can do much to equip an adventuring party for travel and dangers, and even be a member of the party him- or herself (since many such items are quick to make, and so can be made in borrowed workshops during brief pauses from travelling).

Finally, note that PL 10, Mythic Artificer, does much more to define who and what the chracter is, that´n lower Power Levels do. Mythic Artificers are rare. Generalist Mythic Artificers even more so, to the point where the first such Artificer in the Ärth setting may well be a player-created one.

Please note

Even though levels of Pagan Alignment beyond the first give benefits to Artificers, it is perfectly possible for a charater to have the Artificer Power even though he instead has levels of Alignment to Divine or Satanic, or even if he has levels of Satanic Corruption. The player is free to choose. Artificers with more than 3 levels of Pagan Alignment get the full benefits of this, provided they can be created in the first place (since such a character will have to be a non-mortal being in some way).

Also, it must be emphasized once again, that at low Power Levels there is a severe brake on how many magic item the Artificer can make, and also that Minor Privilege Points does not let the Artificer make Simple Items without paying their Essence cost. The lower PLs are merely concerned with letting the Artificer spend his Essence at all (an opportunity that the vast majority of the population of any world does not have). Only at medium PLs does he start getting free stuff, in the form of an very slow trickle of Major Privilege points, that is less slow at higher PLs. Still, even at PL 10, it's one Simple I Item for free every 6 Moons, or one Simple II Item for free every 24 Moons (note that 2 full Years is almost 26 Moons).

When making an older Artificer, with a PL high enough to get Major Privilege points, it may be a good idea to briefly define some of the Simple I and II Items he has made with these points, and which NPCs he has given them to.

...Or to which PCs; If the player of the Artificer and the player of the other PC can justify for the GM that their characters have been friends for a long time, or if they are relatives, the receiving PC only has to pay 1 Perk Point per Enchantment Level in the item, with Simple I and II Items cointing as whatever Item Level they are. If there is no faimail connection through blood, marriage, fostering or apprenticeship, and no justification for a close, long-term friendship, then the receiving PC must pay the full Perk Point cost of the item, as per the normal Magic Item Owner Perk rules (which costs somewhat more).

Also, look into combinations of Enchantments when making complex items. Simple Items are rigid and inflexible. They are what they are, and they're nifty, but nothing really special. Complex items, on the other hand, can contain combinations of Enchantments that synergize, often in perfectly logical and obvious ways.

Consider a quarterstaff. It has a Fleetness penalty, but that can be reduced to zero, making the staff easier and more comfortable to carry, and also enabling the wielder to function slightly better in combat. As soon as the Fleetness penalty is reduced to zero with one Enchantment, the quarterstaff begins giving a very small bonus to Hiking through Hill Terrain (the same way any stick or light staff does, because these have no intrinsic Fleetness penalty). This bonus to Hiking can be increased, making it easier for the wielder to travel through difficult Hill terrain. The quarterstaff can also be Enchanted with a bonus to Hiking Endurance. That's three Enchantments, all fairly minor and reasonably low EL, but still all very useful, and all pertinent to the staff. In addition to this, a number of other effects can be put into the quarterstaff, making it a better defensive or offensive tool in combat, such as giving it general or purpose-specific Extra Blows, a Damage Bonus, an RD bonus to some or all uses, or enabling it to parry some or all ranged attacks with no RD penalty. Just for fun, finish with a level or two of Vibrance, to make the staff pretty, shiny and impressive.

The Sagatafl Enchantment rules offer many ways in which items can be made better at their mundane purpose, or at things closely related to their mundane purpose, and Artificers have, barring Enchantment Level issues, access to most of these Enchantments, if not all.

Mini-FAQ

sub-section I

Q:
A:

Q:
A:

Q:
A:

sub-section II

Q:
A:

Q:
A:

Q:
A:

sub-section III

Q:
A:

Q:
A:

Q:
A:

The world

Artificers are users of what one might call Folk Magic. They're not learned, except insofar as certain crafts, such as blacksmithing, are seen as learned in general, and that a few individual craftsmen happen to also have a strong scholarly inclination.

The use of Artificing is very subtle, and the fact that Artificer items detect as Magic Class B (or in some cases Class C - Simple Items always do, and for Mythic Artificers, all their items do), or do not detect at all in the case of non-Enchanted items (i.e. items made with Guaranteed Quality or other such choices that costs the Artificer Aging or Essence but which does not put magic into the item), means that it tends to slip under the radar of the more scholarly robe-and-pointed-hat type wizards that are common in many worlds. Their basic Detect Magic spell can only detect Class A items, and many have the belief that Class B items are always weak and unimportant (Shovels of Stable-Cleaning and Axes +3 vs Trees), and so very, very rarely bother casting the more thorough Detect Magic spells, and even more so for the elusive Class C items.

This means that there is much room for doubt, within many people, as to whether a particular craftsman's items are magical or not. Old Mamma Henfield weaves really good cloaks. They're comfortable to wear, warm when the weather is cold,, and not too stiffling when the weather is warm. But are they magical?

Dunno...

The effects themselves are also very subtle. They are all permanent, in the form of bonuses and constant effects, rather than something that the wielder must or can activate as a conscious action, and which may require ressource management ("Is this tactical situation critical enough to warrant that I spend one of my sword's Weekly charges of Fire Weapon I?").

World impact

The world-builder's choice to include Artificing (and other forms of Folk Magic, especially Charm-Making) means that the world will feel more magical, more mystical. Magic becomes more than spellcasting and Tower Mage-enchanting.

Magic items also become more common. The Endowing method strongly encourages the creation of few Essence-rich items (via the deliberate effect of the Open and Close Enchantments), ideally each Endower creates a single item, almost always for his own use, and in almost all such cases, one of the primary functions of the item, if not the only primary function, is to be a Focus for spellcasting.

This, magic items being more common, makes it more reasonable for player characters to start with them, especially once with Perk Point cost discounts for being non-rare, such as the ubiquitous Cloak of Comfort, quite possibly the only magic item of any interest whatsoever to "adventurer" player characters that warrants the -50% PP cost discount in a typically extrapolated world (even the rather non-rare Silver Daggers, being made with Endowing and the Ärth setting most likely containing only a few hundred of them at the default time period, warrants only the -30% PP cost discount, similar to most common Focus items.)

Privilege items

The fact that Artificers, at medium and high Power Levels, get to make "free" items that they do not pay Essence for, must be considered and analyzed.

The quick glance suggests that world impact is quite tolerable, with the average Artificer making, as a very rough and ready guess (to the point of being almost rectally extracted), 15 Simple I Items in his lifetime for free, beyond those that he pays Essence for.

Higher Power Levels get many free item privileges, over a Human lifespan (and even more so if the Artifier's lifespan is extended, although this is rare unless he can Endow, or is also a Charm-Maker or has a close friend who is (or who can Endow. And of course not all Artificers are Human. There may be Dwarven Artificers, and Elven or half-Elven Artificers, with lifespans several times longer than that of a Human).

In fact, in settings where Elves, or similar species, routinely live for thousands of Years, Artificer privileges may be a problem. This must be looked into, but is probably not an important issue for specie such as Dwarve which in many settings life only 1.5 to 4 times as long as a Human, nor for enhanced Humans (e.g. via Tree Magic, or with traces of Elven blood) that similarly have lifespans 1.25 to 8 times longer than that of a normal Human (especially since enhanced Humans and Humans with Elven blood are expected to be rare in most settings).

The Ärth setting

As hinted at above (and further above as well), there are many kinds of Artificers in the Ärth setting, both the traditional such as blacksmiths (stereotypically male) and wise-weavers (typically female, typically called weaver-witches by those whose requests for Artificed items fo clothing they reject), to slightly more exotic ones like torch/candle-makers (which in itslf is also a very common combination, also sometimes found in a further combo with Lamp-Making).

Artificer items are often nicer. Many have the Artificer Benefits. Many have Material Quality Enchantment picks. If an Artificer has some spare picks that he might as well spend on an item, Vibrance is a popular choice, making for some very shiny items indeed.

The Ärth setting has almost certainly never had a generalist Mythic Artificer, and even Völund the Smith (called Wayland in Anglo-Saxon mythology) was not necessarily PL10 although obviously he was of high PL.

Players are, of course, free to choose, within their point budgets. If a player wants to create and play a PL10 generalist Artificer, then let him, and see what happens. It will mostly likely be a lot of fun, and make for a very different campaign.

Mini-Glossary

ArtL = Artificer Level, a statistic from which certain bonuses and benefits are derived
CF = Cost Factor, a statistic that determines the cost that a character pays for a given trait, such as an inborn Power.
EL = Enchantment Level, usually a number from 2 to 6.
ES = Essence. An average person is born with 3.0 Essence, a typical Artificer with a bit more (maybe 4.0), and someone with typical or high spellcasting potential a bit more again (such as 5.0 to 7.0 ES).
OP = Oldness Point. 1 OP is the same as 3 Years of aging for a Human (for a longer-lived species, 1 OP is more than 3 Years of aging).
PL = Power Level. The level of a Power that the character is born with.

See also

Enchantment
Essence
Essence traits
Lesser item