Artefacts

Headnote: The rules are kind of broken and messy. Use with caution.

An "Artefact" is catch-all term in Exalted for a magic item. There are two main kinds of Artefact in Exalted: Lesser ones (which are simply made of some special material and can be crafted mundanely), and Greater ones (which require the full Enchanting rules to produce).

Lesser Artefacts
There are special materials in the world of Exalted that have special properties. Some of these materials are rare and expensive, but if they are used (with mundane crafting skills) to create tools, weapons, or armour then they produce objects that are sometimes referred to as "Lesser Artefacts". To buy one in game, use the base Ob of buying that item and add the Resources Ob penalty. To get one at character creation, multiply it's rps cost by the listed rps multiplier instead (round up). Lesser artefacts always count as gear.
 * For example, a superior quality red jade axe would cost 20 + 30 = 50 rps, or require an Ob 5 + 6 = 11 Resources test. While run of the mill oricalchum plated mail would cost 110 rps, or an Ob 15 test. Yikes!

Buying just the material (for personal crafting), requires an Ob of 1 or 2 plus the appropriate +Ob penalty.
 * For example, buying enough steel to make a sword is an Ob 2 test. Buying enough moonsilver to make some armour is an Ob 9 test.

The Materials Table
Notes: §: This is a magical material. All weapons and armour made of this material may harm and defend against all spirits and fêy. When the object is used by an exalt of the appropriate type, all relevant tests are automatically open-ended. Repairing magical materials is done at +1 Ob. Tools made from a magical material are mundanely unbreakable. !: Minimum Add is 1.
 * If the weapon is ranged then buff it's range up by 1 category instead (e.g. a hunting bow gains the range of a crossbow).
 * If the weapon is ranged then buff it's range up by 2 categories instead (e.g. a hunting bow gains the range of an elven bow).

Footnote: Lesser artefacts basically covers all of the grounds for traditional "Sword +1" type weapons that you might see in an OSR game. The magic comes from the material itself though, not the craftsmanship.

Greater Artefacts
Greater artefact are things created with the full Enchanting rules, inspired by things from the original Exalted rulebooks, or things that confer channeling-like powers or “Evocations” when used. A greater artefact can be made of any material, but if it is made with one of the rare materials above then the greater artefact will also confer those properties to the user. Optional: If you half the final price, and spend that many rps, then you may have the artefact promised to you, but not in your possession yet. This means that you must go on a quest to find it, the nature of which is left to the GM.
 * If you want an artefact to confer a new trait-like effect: Design it with the Trait Burner (MB pp 68-76) and then add its pts cost to the Enchantment Ob. Though remember that you can't add Call-Ons.
 * If you want an artefact to confer a special power/evocation: Add the Ob of the power to the Enchantment Ob. Then, when used, the evocation grants it's effect a maximum of once per session for free. Multiple uses in one session requires an Essence test of the original Ob of the power.
 * If you want to purchase a greater artefact during character creation: Work out the rps cost of the base item and add the square of the Enchantment Ob in rps and round down to the nearest even number.

Half of the rps spent on a greater artefact is always factored as gear, the other half is factored as property.

Warning: Starting the game with a greater artefact should still be discouraged though! As Luke says, “GMs must be downright stingy”. The resource points cost is appropriately expensive for this reason.

How Many?
There is no "Attunement" in Exalted Wheel, but should it ever come up: A character can only use a number of artefacts (lesser or greater) at any one time equal to their current Will exponent.