D&D 5E Dissapointed with Attunement

DocSER · Oct 14, 2012

Jeff Carlsen said:
Without the coolness it becomes an obvious balance mechanic with little story connection. It's only half an idea.

The playtest is designed to let us provide feedback as they "bake" the ideas. I agree with what seems to be a consensus that this idea has potential but needs more work (on the time, on the process, on the limits, etc.).

My suggestion would be to consider some basic rule for all or most items but to have many items require their own specific attunement processes. This could allow for the simplicity of a system for most items (which may be a simple, time-based system) but the mechanical niche for items to have their own process for race-based, class-based, sacrifice-based or quest-based attunement. In this way, this thread becomes a treasure trove of ideas.

For a racial item (Axe of the Dwarven Lords), attunement may only be possible for dwarves -- or there may be some level of attunement only possible by dwarves.

For a class item (Staff of the Magi), attunement may only be possible for one or a few classes (wizard, warlock, sorcerer).

For some items, a sacrifice may have the appropriate flavor. For a Stormbringer like item, sacrificing/locking a hit die is an interesting idea.

For some items, you may need to complete a series of specific questions (usually left to the DM to integrate into an ongoing campaign). The Rod of Seven Parts may require specific quests to unite the various segments.

The rules are flexible enough that I will likely do this myself regardless of the system rules.

Gorgoroth · Oct 14, 2012

..

howandwhy99 said:
The Axe of the Dwarven Lords works differently for dwarves than it does for other races. Why? It's attuned to them. Being an artifact it aids non-dwarves as well, but in dwarven hands it packs a wallop.

I didn't see that Axe in the Magic Items.pdf, is it somewhere else? Or are you extrapolating that this axe will be in there?

because...you know: Me wants it

(see my avatar pic)

howandwhy99 · Oct 14, 2012

Gorgoroth said:
I didn't see that Axe in the Magic Items.pdf, is it somewhere else? Or are you extrapolating that this axe will be in there?

because...you know: Me wants it

(see my avatar pic)

Yep, it's extrapolation. They didn't include an outright artifact that I'm aware of (other than the belt of storm giant strength, which could feasibly be produced en masse in my game, if only because there are a number of storm giants, not just one.)

I'm thinking that narrowing treasure to specific classes, races, and whatnot is at least one of the rationales for attunement. Others are probably the golf bag syndrome and a lot of trading out.

Personally, I like when a warrior uses the best weapon and armor for the situation. Plate mail isn't your friend in a swamp and arrows stuck versus skeletons - even if you titled your class Archer. Being flexible is part of the game or specializations wouldn't have have any drawback.

ForeverSlayer · Oct 14, 2012

So what's to keep the DM from saying "Okay, it's ten minutes later"?

Unless you have a DM that has random encounter charts set up for every one minute then I find 10 minutes just a waste of time. I could see making it hours but not 10 minutes.

Steely_Dan · Oct 14, 2012

Yes, i'm another one for 1 Turn (10 minutes, pfft) is not enough to awaken abilities in a magic item, it should be deeper than that.

Li Shenron · Oct 14, 2012

The more I think about attunement, the more I think it's a nice concept but also the more I think the rules should just say "this item requires attunement, whatever that means in your DM's opinion".

Because every suggestion for a strict rule so far, including my own, at some point they break down and suck.

The best of them however is still [MENTION=61749]Jeff Carlsen[/MENTION] original proposal of just giving each item its own unique attunement process, but clearly this is a bit space-consuming in printed books.

ForeverSlayer · Oct 14, 2012

Li Shenron said:
The more I think about attunement, the more I think it's a nice concept but also the more I think the rules should just say "this item requires attunement, whatever that means in your DM's opinion".

Because every suggestion for a strict rule so far, including my own, at some point they break down and suck.

The best of them however is still @Jeff Carlsen original proposal of just giving each item its own unique attunement process, but clearly this is a bit space-consuming in printed books.

I agree with you 100% but I can hear exactly what the opposition would say.

They would say that it's unfair because one item's attunement process may be short while another is long so the person with the long attunment would have to wait.

zlorf · Oct 14, 2012

Likewise - using it now, DM controls when the character becomes attuned, whether it take, minutes, hours, days or weeks.
The problem im finding with alot of these rules it that they provide only one option, set a default rule, but have some alternative options/suggestions.
Some rules don't work well if you play 1 a month compared to weekly or if your introducing the game to new players compared to season campaigners. Provide options which still make players and DM's still feel they are official rules..yes you can house rule alot - but i feel that having them there in black and white makes it look like at least someone has throught about how it works in with the whole system.

Cheers
Zlorf

Alarian said:
We've used attunement in our campaign for many years. The 10 minute thing though makes it almost useless. In our campaign, attunement takes anywhere from 1 day to several months depending on the power of the item with most items falling into the 1 week or less category. Not all items require attunement (i.e. a +1 sword wouldn't, but a +1 sword that shoots a magic missile once a day would).

I like the new rule a lot, but it definitely needs some tweaking still.

PinkRose · Oct 14, 2012

I see the 10 minute attunement of use in the Organized Play.
It keeps a player from swapping out 10 different magic items in a given combat.
For home games, as people have mentioned DMs can hand wave, or fast-forward, or make it a quest and several game sessions just to attune an item.
But there needs to be a hard and fast default for the RPGA and organized play.
And while 10 minutes isn't much, it also isn't too little.

I'm A Banana · Oct 14, 2012

DocSER said:
For a racial item (Axe of the Dwarven Lords), attunement may only be possible for dwarves -- or there may be some level of attunement only possible by dwarves.

For a class item (Staff of the Magi), attunement may only be possible for one or a few classes (wizard, warlock, sorcerer).

For some items, a sacrifice may have the appropriate flavor. For a Stormbringer like item, sacrificing/locking a hit die is an interesting idea.

For some items, you may need to complete a series of specific questions (usually left to the DM to integrate into an ongoing campaign). The Rod of Seven Parts may require specific quests to unite the various segments.

Question:

How is "attunement" then different from saying "prerequisite" or "you can only use this item if..." or "if you do X, this item gains the following ability..."