The Pathfinder RPG is designed to be a game of details, explanations, and options. A GM confounded by how a bead of force works need only look to something that creates a similar effect, like resilient sphere, for an explanation of a comparable function. One purposeful gap in the rules exists for artifacts, however. This wiggle room allows a necessary flexibility for exciting items without existing analogs, concepts that buck established guidelines, or ideas that simply prove too elaborate to quantify. There’s a place beyond Golarion where people besides villains and heroes might find the power of artifacts to hand-wave certain game elements useful, though. The place is at the game table, and the people are GMs.
There’s a certain suspension of disbelief that even the most intricately plotted and deliberately planned RPG session requires. Sometimes a player doesn’t show up and so her character just seems to vanish. Sometimes new rules present innovations too tempting for established characters to ignore. Sometimes players and GMs just don’t want to concern themselves with the details of encumbrance, tracking rations, using alignment, speaking in character, or countless other conventions. Artifacts might serve as a way for a GM to grant PCs an in-game explanation for out-of-game concerns.
Although all of the artifacts in this book are optional in that it’s up to a GM to decide whether or not to include them in his game, the following four artifacts are called out as special cases. These artifacts exist for GMs to address some of the real-world concerns of running a game, and are therefore presented without histories or ties to Golarion. Consider these to be utility artifacts, boons a GM might grant at an early level and that further mark PCs as special inhabitants of the campaign world. They probably shouldn’t be utilized or sought after by NPCs, as they aren’t meant to be campaign MacGuffins, but should rather serve to ease some of the occasional challenges presented by the realities of RPGs and their players. Additionally, since these artifacts are meant to be rarities and have no set gold piece values, their impact on game balance and certain particulars of how they work should largely fade into the background.
Again, the following artifacts should not be considered a canonical part of Golarion’s history or something of which even the greatest scholars of that world are necessarily aware. Rather, they are artifact-level utility items meant to make running and playing the game easier and to present additional options and explanations for issues hand-waved in many games, should GMs seek to experiment with them.
（Figurine of the Concealed Companion／）
出典 Artifacts and Legends 7ページ
オーラ 強力・変成術； 術者レベル 15レベル
装備部位 なし； 市価 —； 重量 1ポンド
In its natural form, a figurine of the concealed companion looks like nothing more than a fist-sized hunk of distinctly colored clay. When taken up by a character who possesses a deep contention with another creature and brought into contact with that companion creature, the creature vanishes and the clay transforms into a miniature replica of the creature sculpted from colored stone. Only creatures bound to a character via the animal companion, familiar, or mount class feature can be affected by a figurine of the concealed companion. Once a character has bound a creature to the figurine, he can toss down the figurine and speak a command word, causing the creature to return to its natural state and size. At any time while the creature is in its natural form, the creature’s owner can speak the figurine’s command word and cause the creature to transform back into a miniature. While in figurine form, a creature does not age, perceive the passage of time, or need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can be kept in this form indefinitely. If the creature bound to the figurine is killed, the figurine of the concealed companion returns to its unshaped, clay form and can be bonded to another creature.
Neglected familiars, animal companions too large to fit through narrow passages, and mounts in constant need of stabling all present challenges that can make a class feature a burden. With this figurine, players now have a way to keep animal companions safe when they’re not needed, get mounts through tight areas, and explain where their unmentioned familiar has been for the past dozen sessions.
（Hourglass of Transfiguration／）
出典 Artifacts and Legends 7ページ
オーラ 強力・全系統； 術者レベル 20レベル
装備部位 なし； 市価 —； 重量 —
Whoever breaks this crystalline hourglass blacks out for 24 hours. During this time no power can reawaken her, as she is gradually swapping places with another version of herself from some other place—a parallel dimension, an ideal concept of the gods, an impossibly distant time, or the like. If a PC breaks the hourglass, that PC’s player may completely recreate her character, rerolling statistics, changing race and classes, altering feat and skill selections, and otherwise changing any choice she made regarding her character, as major or minor as she pleases. The PC’s possessions remain the same, however. After 24 hours, the character reawakens, revised and affected as if by the heal spell. Her memories are nearly identical to those of her previous self, though her age and certain choices might result in numerous minor differences. This effect is permanent and the character’s previous incarnation cannot be restored except by finding another hourglass of transfiguration.
Sometimes players get bored with their characters or find new options they didn’t have access to when they first built their PC. Although overuse can devalue the significance of a player’s choices, an hourglass of transfiguration can give players seeking new options renewed investment in a game.
（Scar of Destiny／）
出典 Artifacts and Legends 7ページ
オーラ 強力・召喚術； 術者レベル 20レベル
装備部位 なし； 市価 —； 重量 —
This scar appears on specific individuals at birth, or as a result of powerful but unexplained magical confluences. Anyone with this mark is untethered from reality, and might step out of existence at any moment for indeterminate periods—possibly forever. All of that individual’s possessions vanish with him, though occasionally specific items—seemingly of the mark bearer’s choosing—are left behind. When and if an individual reappears, he is unharmed and has no knowledge of where he was, and only a vague idea of how much time has passed. Such individuals typically reappear near others who bear the mark.
This artifact-level scar affects all the PCs in a party from the point of character creation. When a player can’t make it to a session, it gives the GM a way to remove the character from the game（or multiple games） without having to play the absent PC, having another player run the character, or having that character fade mutely into the background. For some parties the Scar of Destiny requires less suspension of disbelief than the other challenges of absent players, though this is not the case for all.
（Sliver of the Amalgam Mind／）
出典 Artifacts and Legends 7ページ
オーラ 強力・占術； 術者レベル 20レベル
装備部位 なし； 市価 —； 重量 —
This tiny, clear crystal is part of a great otherworldy device that shattered long ago. Alone, the splinter—hardly longer than a fingernail—has no power. If brought into contact with another splinter, however, both turn the same color. Should these slivers then be inserted into the skin of sentient individuals, those bearing the shards can telepathically communicate with any other creature pierced by a shard of the same color within line of sight. This telepathy allows those participating to hear only what others bearing the slivers wish them to hear, and to broadcast only what they wish. A bearer has complete control over this telepathy and can block it out or only broadcast to specific individuals as she wishes.
Players often converse around the game table and occasionally act on information their characters have no way of knowing. This artifact gives PCs a reason to know those things they so often shouldn’t.
