I suggest that transmuted artifacts are added back to the loot table. It will still be technically max one artifact of a kind.
I also suggest that artifacts in crystal chests not looted also gets added back to the loot table, or not generated until chest is opened.
Players who are willing to spend 10-15 transmutation scrolls should get a chance of getting the artifact they want. It also removes the confusion from players getting a ring, thinking it’s a bug. It will also create a more consistent drop in line with other transmutations without breaking the uniqueness of artifacts. If however all artifacts are available to the player, such as using Ring of Wealth, then it can become a ring.
The problem with that is adding artifacts back into the pool will also influence what artifacts get dropped by future transmutes. It would create the possibility of something like: horn of plenty -> unstable spellbook -> horn of plenty. In fact, when fairly late in a game the chance for that might be very high.
It’s also not possible to guarantee a player won’t go back to open a previous crystal chest, especially now with things like the skeleton key.
The alternative is to simply have transmute fail when the game is out of artifacts, which is something I’ve got the impression players would dislike more.
Yes, those are valid concerns. One alternative is to only reroll them once all artifacts have been generated, also increasing an “artifact reroll counter”. All artifacts will also internally keep a copy of this counter.
If a chest is opened contaning an artifact where artifact.counter < current counter, then discard it and generate/drop a new artifact.
