Might & Magic 7 Artifact Questions

[m_g_]

Some questions:

- What is the limit on the number of artifacts you can loot from enemies?

- I'm using a KKCS party. Which artifacts should I be trying to avoid (reloading the game if I loot them) and which should I definitely keep? I looted dragons/titans indiscriminately in a recent MM6 playthrough and disadvantaged myself somewhat, because I collected a lot of artifacts that were useless to my characters and then hit the cap so I could not obtain more.

- Do magic enhancers stack in MM7 (in other words can I equip, for example, Moon Cloak and Ethric's Staff and benefit from both Dark Magic enhancers)?

I am using Grayface's patch, if this is relevant.

Many thanks

[Avonu]

- What is the limit on the number of artifacts you can loot from enemies?

13
You can get two more from chests in Clanker's Lab and Colony Zod but you must loot them after you reach artifacts limit if you want to have more then 13 artifacts.
Chests in Titan Stronghold and in Lincoln also have artifacts but they are restricted by the limit, so you may find them empty, if you already reached the limit.

- I'm using a KKCS party. Which artifacts should I be trying to avoid (reloading the game if I loot them) and which should I definitely keep? I looted dragons/titans indiscriminately in a recent MM6 playthrough and disadvantaged myself somewhat, because I collected a lot of artifacts that were useless to my characters and then hit the cap so I could not obtain more.

Any artifact which won't work when you choose path (good/evil artifacts). For Knight sword Wallece is a must (it increase Armsmaster skill).
You can also avoid axes, two-handed swords, Hand of Master (as it artifact for Monk), fails and hammers (Cleric would need at least one of them and IMO Mekoring hammer would be the best choise for this class).

- Do magic enhancers stack in MM7 (in other words can I equip, for example, Moon Cloak and Ethric's Staff and benefit from both Dark Magic enhancers)?

Yes and no.
In this case you will have only the highest bonus from items but usually artifacts that increase skill by +1-25 also work with enchanced (normal) items with same bonus and they stacks.
Moon Cloak is Special Item, not Artifact/Relic, and all Special Items bonuses do not stack with bonuses from normal items.

[Arret]

There are really no game breaking artifacts in MM7 (nothing even remotely close to the items in the artifact chest in MM6).

Some of the ones to look out for though would be Seven League Boots, Yoruba (plate), Charele (Spear), Alleria (Bow), Wallace (as mentioned earlier), Puck(sword), and if going dark Ethric's Staff.

[Avonu]

Alleria (Bow)

Alleria?
There was only one bow and it was Ulysses.
Maybe you meant crossbow called Ania Selving?

[Arret]

Oops, yes I meant Ulysses.

Ania Selving isn't bad at all, just not that great with KKCS as armsmaster takes +hit so high anyway the accuracy is wasted.

[m_g_]

Thank you both for your answers.

Regarding the enhancer question, just to be sure I have this correct: I can equip one Artifact/Relic enhancer with one non-Artifact/Relic enhancer and they will stack, but that's the only situation in which these bonuses will stack? So something like (artifact+amulet+ring) would provide the bonus from the artifact and from one of (amulet, ring)?

Regarding artifact selection, what is the appeal of Charele? Is it for offhand wielding for one of the knights? I do not really understand the mechanics of this and would be grateful for an explanation or link.

[Avonu]

Yes, artifacts and relics bonus stack with normal item bonus. So for example you have an armour which gives you +17 to armsmaster and you equip Wallece (which has +10 to armsmaster) and in the end you will have bonus +27 to armsmaster.
However this situation applies only to bonus with numbers, so artifact and ring with for example "of dark magic" (bonus 50% of your current skill points in magic school) will work only from one of them.

Charele is a Trident - it's spear skill weapon - and is wielded two-handed but with Master spear skill you can equip it in one hand and use a dagger (expert skill) or sword (master) for off-hand... or just equip shield.

[Arret]

Master spear allows spear type weapons (tridents/spears/halberds) to be held in one hand (right hand) instead of requiring two hands. In order to make use of this, you need to have something in your left hand, which for knights is almost always a sword at master level.

Charele has no bonus attributes, but the extra damage from it is enormous and has decent boost to +hit.

Due to how recovery time works, you don't have any extra recovery time from wielding a spear type weapon and an offhand versus using only a spear (but of course there is a lot more +damage and +hit when using more than 1 weapon).

[ShadowLiberal]

Yes, artifacts and relics bonus stack with normal item bonus. So for example you have an armour which gives you +17 to armsmaster and you equip Wallece (which has +10 to armsmaster) and in the end you will have bonus +27 to armsmaster.

Actually only Artifacts skill bonuses stack together, for some reason Relics don't stack (stupid I know, I've wondered if it was a bug or if it's supposed to be that way).

[Flodarien]

Master spear allows spear type weapons (tridents/spears/halberds) to be held in one hand (right hand) instead of requiring two hands. In order to make use of this, you need to have something in your left hand, which for knights is almost always a sword at master level.

I thought that Spear didn't require mastery to gain its one-handed attributes. I could be wrong there, or just thinking of MM6.

[Arret]

You are thinking of MM6, where there is a bonus when using a one handed weapon as a two handed weapon. In MM7-8 you must hit master level.

[Avonu]

Yes, artifacts and relics bonus stack with normal item bonus. So for example you have an armour which gives you +17 to armsmaster and you equip Wallece (which has +10 to armsmaster) and in the end you will have bonus +27 to armsmaster.

Actually only Artifacts skill bonuses stack together, for some reason Relics don't stack (stupid I know, I've wondered if it was a bug or if it's supposed to be that way).

It's not true - just tested it. My darkside Archer had Ring of Disarming (+25), Old Nick (relic, +5) and put on Hareck’s Leather (relic, +5) and had at the end +35 to disarm trap skill. Removing any of this item lowered disarm skill by item bonus.

Same case with lightside Knight - Plate Armor with armsmaster (+17), Wallece (artifact, +10) and Hero's Belt (special item, +5) had +32 to armsmaster skill.

Game version: GoG

BTW - what is max limit for armsmaster skill enchant for items in MM7-8? I think +17-18 is max in MM7 and +12 in MM8 (half of max item bonus). I never seen any item above these limits.

[BoardGuest808888]

IIRC they be same in 7 & 8, the max limit would be around 25.

Thing is, it is extremely rare for anything enchanted with Armsmaster to go that high.

[ShadowLiberal]

Yes, artifacts and relics bonus stack with normal item bonus. So for example you have an armour which gives you +17 to armsmaster and you equip Wallece (which has +10 to armsmaster) and in the end you will have bonus +27 to armsmaster.

Actually only Artifacts skill bonuses stack together, for some reason Relics don't stack (stupid I know, I've wondered if it was a bug or if it's supposed to be that way).

It's not true - just tested it. My darkside Archer had Ring of Disarming (+25), Old Nick (relic, +5) and put on Hareck’s Leather (relic, +5) and had at the end +35 to disarm trap skill. Removing any of this item lowered disarm skill by item bonus.

Same case with lightside Knight - Plate Armor with armsmaster (+17), Wallece (artifact, +10) and Hero's Belt (special item, +5) had +32 to armsmaster skill.

Game version: GoG

BTW - what is max limit for armsmaster skill enchant for items in MM7-8? I think +17-18 is max in MM7 and +12 in MM8 (half of max item bonus). I never seen any item above these limits.

Maybe it was fixed in the GOG version, I've read they fixed a few things such as the no music looping bug in that version.

In the original, which is my version, it's definitely bugged.

As for max armsmaster (and dodging plus unarmed) skill from items, you can find/buy items with up to +12 enchantments, items you enchant yourself can go up to +25 in those skills. For all other skill items, you can find and purchase items of up to +25. It's probably for balance reasons that items you find/buy are limited to +12 unarmed/dodging/armsmaster

[Evernight]

I can confirm that the original version did not stack +skill equipment but rather gave you the highest bonus.