Some of the properties won't work at all, and always remember that similar skill bonuses do not stack together. Once you are wielding these items be forewarned - many of them are still bugged. Use a Pure Ability potion to meet the requirements. In many cases you will get a message saying that a stat is too low.
These items are different than standard magical items - they are MUCH more powerful and might have ability requirements to use them. Unless you are jinxed, you can only get each artifact once (not true for all items, but generally). The Black Chests are scattered throughout the game - I marked most of them on the maps that I put together. A disarm score of 15 or higher is capable of opening one of these chests without setting off the trap about half of the time. These traps will usually kill parties that don't disarm the traps. First of all, mostly all Black Chests are trapped. There are a few things about these items that I would like to tell you about. These are really powerful items that can be found in Black Chests.
Artifacts and Black Chests The game has a large set of artifacts that can be found over the course of the game.