TES games have some of the longest playtimes in existence, it's safe to say that we're going to be playing skyrim for a long time.

Throughout the game, going into dungeons should be rewarding - especially through unique artifacts that can be found. In Oblivion, you could find some good items in dungeons - but never anything truly unique and interesting. "Another glass longsword with +10 fire damage, great I'll add it to the pile of those i have in my house, oh boy."

And so eventually, with a high level character, i ceased going into dungeons altogether, except for quests. But if I knew I could find something like The Staff Of Worms in a dungeon, It would completely change my perception of the average dungeon.

So, give us uniqueness! Not just visually, or higher stats, though those are always welcome. But special effects as well in some cases, makes all the difference.

Some examples of what I'm talking about:

-Staff of the Everscamp. Picking that up in a dungeon then finding out firsthand what it did would be interesting and hilarious...I'd love to see an equivalent item.
-Staff of Worms, as aforementioned. One of my favorite quest rewards from Oblivion, it brought us a spell you couldn't use via other means anywhere else.
-Wabberjack
-Skull of Corruption
-Scales of Pitiless Justice - kudos for whoever at Bethesda thought of this one. An item that provides bonuses that doesnt even need to be equipped - it was a much appreciated quest reward, and objects like that, that could be found in high level dungeons, would be quite the incentive.
-The Fork of Horripilation - Not terribly useful, but hilarious. And laughter is good for you
-Dusk/Dawnfang - An awesome reward from the shivering isles, with interesting features.

Thoughts? Complaints? Slander?

Post any ideas for artifacts you'd like to see in Skyrim below.

Yes.

All that i have to say.

Yes, and more.
Morrowind was good, but more would be better.

In Oblivion looting dungeons became boring because you always knew it wouldn't be unique, where in Morrowind you know that there could be something unique.

At playthrough # 2 I quit going in dungeons all together in Oblivion. I don't want Skyrim to be like that...

My favorite thing in TES is collecting items that are unique looking, espically swords. I demand more of them in Skyrim.

I definitely agree, it would be nice to get some unique loot from dungeons. It wouldn't have to neccesarily all be incredible weapons and armor, but anything besides generic loot and I'd be happy. Dungeons would also be more interesting if they weren't all the same and boring like in OB. But they only had one guy working on dungeons in Oblivion and for Skyrim they have eight( or something like that ).

I want my Ice Blade of the Monarch.
I miss it....

Yes to all. I want lots of cool rewards for dungeoneering. And more dungeon tilesets, but thats not really relevant. I just want motives to explore.

I'm proud of this poll so far.

I love finding unique artifacts with special powers or that even just look cool, for display.

The Staff of Worms is one of my most prized treasures.

Why would they need to waste time and resources creating unique stuff when they can just create a larger variety completely new weapons. (spears, katanas, tantos, broadswords, basket-hilt claymores, etc)

I'd rather just have a lot of weapons in general, rather than these ridiculous "unique" weapons.

They're not exactly unique if they're too numerous now are they?

Other than that, yes to everything.

But the problem is that all of the artifacts you listed with the really unique effects are also not incredibly useful. Also Oblivion had 47 artifacts, while Morrowind had 59 with it's two expansions. People just don't seem to realize how many artifacts Oblivion really had and each artifact had a unique skin/coloring and some had completely unique models such as Umbra.

Yes, I doubt I'll do any actual exploring but anything to take power away from quests.

I really love finding unique artifacts with unique skins. I like my characters to equipment that doesnt look like everyone elses.

I think Morrowind had enough - too many and they stop feeling special.

What they need to do is get some TRULY unique artifacts. Not just "weapons and armor with really good stats and custom textures/models" unique, more like http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29931 unique. Essentially, less Spellbreaker or Volendrung style artifacts, and more Azura's Star or Skeleton key style artifacts, some truly unique items that you do things other than either hitting with or getting hit

I would like more artifacts of the type you don't typically carry around and use, but are so heavy you use them when you're at your house. I.e. the magic repair pyramid. Put your items under it for a week, and they'll be fully fixed. Probably not everyone is going to be an armorer, and armorers might have a limit on their fixing skill (like in FONV). Even if you find a good armorer, it won't be free, but neither will the magic pyramid since it has cost in terms of time. There could be collectors seeking out such pyramids, and if you get them all you get the extremely useful stuff like Skeleton key. Are you really willing to trade the pyramids for the key? Which are more valuable to you?

Agree, none of the weapons except the special staffs was better than a self enchanted one. Unique armours either had bad stats or clashed with the rest of your armor.

Has to check out the unique artefact mod, that sounds fun.

I think there should be some kind of unique item placer, every time a new game was started, the unique items are randomly placed at specific points around the world. that way you wouldn't know where to go to get the best items and such.

You forgot unique models... but in OB I really missed FINDING (Not through quests, gotta be hand placed and well hidden) artifacts I want a bit more than Morrowind some with just a slightly different aperel and a normal enchantment but also some completely godly artifacts with an apperence extremely unique and a special effect...

For the gamblers amongst us, how about a Magic Hat? Just like Presto in the D&D cartoon, you essentially "summon" a cool spell, some random monster to help you, or something .... else. Every time you use it, it provides a random effect. It can either help you, or harm you, or amuse you, but you have to choose to use it's power and take the risk. You gamble in the heat of battle.

Seriously, though, I would rather Bethesda put their efforts into creating a Magic Item Creation Kit inside the modding software that let you attach any spell, behavior, poison, or magical behavior to any item you built and then assign to those functions any kind of dice rolls (skill checks) against your player's stats to create any number of numerous affects on any given weapon. So that we could all Mod our own coolest weapon to add to Skyrim as a Mod.

Something like that would be like the gift that keeps on giving ... just like their modding software is...

I didn't see Duskfang mentioned I really liked that sword even if I had to keep putting it in my hotkeys.

More useful unique effects, wabbajack was just wierd There could be an epicly huge axe with knock back effect and armor disintegration at the same time, the knock down effect being unique to the axe. I would use this weapon

Ah, completely forget about that - I replaced it in my game with my modded version of it, "Shadowfang"...got infinitely stronger bit by bit the more lives it took haha.

But I agree, dawn/duskfang was awesome, I'll add it to the list.

I would love a permanently upgrading version of duskfang, especially if it started off very weak.

I want the artifacts to be equal to the lore that they are a part of. Volendrung for example. In MW and OB it was not nearly as powerful the in-game books said it would be. The weak priorety of dmg and generally useless enchantments(OB) or no enchantment(MW) made it rather useless.
I also want it to be more akin to MW in the way you acquire them. Some have to be earned, others can you find by accident. Not just do-this-for-me-and-I-give-you-an-artfact thing they had in OB.