This is a dreamy/chatty idea, so I put it here instead of ideas forum.
I sometimes wonder how those artifacts were made. I can't enchant anything over +15 and can never add resistances to things. OK, it is only a game, but I like to imagine a greater depth to the game (that probably doesn't exist yet).
One answer is that all artifacts come from a scroll of artifact creation. Not entirely satisfied. And who writes the scrolls, makes the rods, staffs and wands?
In Middle Earth powerful creatures could invest their own powers into a physical object. Such a work could not be repeated again. When Sauron's ring was destroyed, his power was also destoryed with it. When Sauron lost control of the ring, he was weakened.
The only game example of this is where mimics can invest their powers into a polymorph ring. (The whole mimic thing is an interesting one). Maia and Valor could appear in different forms. Morgoth and Sauron also had this ability although Morgoth later lost that (I read the Silmarillion recently, it added a bit of interest to the game). The only non-maia to change form is Beorn, who turned into a bear in The Hobbit. There is nothing to suggest that no other creatures could change form.
Back to investing powers perminently into physical objects. This would be kind of fun, spending skill points on physical objects I suppose, although the gameplay isn't so easy. I guess the end result would make you a little more powerful unless you lost the object that you made, in which case you would lose your investment. People queuing up to spend all their "magic device" points before they suicide? If you were to die or suicide, the item(s) could also be destroyed. A scroll of identify would almost never cost you a skill point. Attempting to add a resistance to an item would be very likely to cost one or more skill points. Something workable might be possible.
Anyway, thanks for daydreaming a little with me.
Anyone welcome to use the ideas. No expectations.
Lightman