Worst artifact in the game?

[Selkie]

For me the Iron Crown of Beruthiel takes some beating. I love ESP as much as the next @ but -3 strength and dexterity and -5 constitution is brutal. Even for a non-melee mage it's hard to make a case for it because the resulting loss of HP will make you too fragile.

A hard leather cap of telepathy is better.

Any other candidates?

[Sphara]

For me, the worst artifacts that aren't actually harmful, are Long Sword 'Elvagil', Cloak of Thorongil, Gauntlets 'Paurnimmen' and Amulet of Carlammas.

They are all obviously good finds early on, but do usually get replaced soon after. There are lots of exceptions to this, ofc. Spellcasting character for instance, can rely on Elvagil defenses for a lot longer time than a warrior. Paurnimmen activation is very nice, Carlammas +3 CON can be a game changer etc etc.

[Selkie]

Originally Posted by Sphara

For me, the worst artifacts that aren't actually harmful, are Long Sword 'Elvagil', Cloak of Thorongil, Gauntlets 'Paurnimmen' and Amulet of Carlammas.

They are all obviously good finds early on, but do usually get replaced soon after. There are lots of exceptions to this, ofc. Spellcasting character for instance, can rely on Elvagil defenses for a lot longer time than a warrior. Paurnimmen activation is very nice, Carlammas +3 CON can be a game changer etc etc.

Well for a low level character even the worst artifacts might be better than nothing... except the ones I'm thinking of.

For instance, Saruman of Many Colours just dropped the Zweihander Mormegil 3d6 (-15, -15). It slows your character by -10, aggravates, and drains experience. Even my early level characters would give this a swerve.

It weighs 25lb, to boot. Useless.

[DavidMedley]

Is that supposed to be Gurthang after (spoiler alert) Turin killed himself upon it?

[sffp]

There are the obvious negate all stats, aggravate etc which are obviously not worth wearing.
But then there are the boring. I had a Level 7 character that found a (RandArts) artifact amulet way too early and I was super excited. All it did was Resist Chaos. This was not particularly useful at 200 feet.


More interesting to me are the artifacts that have negative side effects but are worth wearing. I've never found anything "of Nazgul" worth wearing.

But I'll wear Wormtongue's boots.
I'll definitely wear rings of the mouse

[Sphara]

I've made a lot use of Nazgul launcher in the early game. It doesn't drain that much if you switch to it only when you need it.
But yes, for the majority of the time, I ignore them too.

[Sky]

i've found sooo many randart rings whose sole ability was Aggravate. Not terrible per se, but then you realize that you just lost one of the possible rings of power of that randart set to RNG.

[Pete Mack]

Early Nazgul weapons are excellent. They have big archery pluses, AND give SI at a time--and equipment slot!--it is hard to come by. It is just ideal as a swap.

[PowerWyrm]

Beruthiel is clearly not the worst artifact since it's not permacursed so it can be used as a swappable source of telepathy if you don't have one. Some are clearly worse (Camlost, Mormegil).

[Sky]

randarts will obviously have some occasional cursed artifacts that aren't designed to a theme, and don't have any use, but what i find super irritating is when an otherwise excellent randart becomes completely unusable because it prevents teleportation. i remember finding the mother of all dragon armors, and yet for the fact that you cannot phase while in it, made it something whose sole purpose was to mock me.