Parmandur
Book-Friend
Basically he is saying he would not let potions stack. Personally, I would go with the mixing table to discourage downing six potions to solo a dragon.
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D&D 5E Attunement
- Thread starter KarinsDad
- Start date
Basically he is saying he would not let potions stack. Personally, I would go with the mixing table to discourage downing six potions to solo a dragon.
I actually took another look at that table and it's not that bad.
I'm simply thinking about a "one potion at a time" rule instead.
Crothian
First Post
The mixing potion table is one of the great things they brought back into the game.
Our group was talking about fiddling with the attunement rules, so I finally broke down and did a quick-and-dirty analysis of the magic items in the DMG:
- 329 total magic items (includes splitting out the +1/+2/+3 versions of items)
- 50 are consumable, leaving 279 permanent items
- 167 of those 279 require attunement, or 60%
• 37 of 79 are uncommon, or 47%
• 57 of 95 are rare, or 60%
• 41 of 62 are very rare, or 66%
• 32 of 42 are legendary, or 76%
As expected, the more powerful an item, the more likely it requires attunement.
- Of those 167 that require attunement, they are split into the following categories
• 7 of 16 armor
• 19 of 22 rings
• 9 of 11 rods
• 4 of 8 shields
• 13 of 13 staves
• 12 of 15 wands
• 23 of 36 weapons
• 80 of 164 wonderous
• Items usable only by spellcasters have a higher percentage of attunable items (rods/staves/wands = 34 of 39 or 87% vs weapons/armor = 34 of 60 or 57%)
• Wonderous items, most of which are usable by any class, come in at 49%
- The most common boosts in attunable items (not including the complicated and obvious ones, like Holy Avenger, Robe of the Archmagi, etc):
• Provides ability bonus or high static ability (e.g., Amulet of Health, Ioun stone, Belt of Giant Strength, etc)
• Allows casting (by any class) of one or more spells or abilities that mirror spells (e.g., Ring of Invisibility, Eyes of Charming, Boots of Levitation, etc)
• Provides spellcaster with ability to cast spells without expending spell slots or extra spell slots (e.g., Staff of Power, Crystal Ball, Wand of Fireballs, and Ring of Spell Storing, Pearl of Power, Tome of the Stilled Tongue, etc)
• Provides damage resistance or immunity to any class (e.g., Ring of Warmth, Frost Brand, Brooch of Shielding, etc)
• Armor that provides damage resistance or immunity (e.g., Dragonscale armor, Armor of Resistance)
• Allows use of an item without requiring proficiency (e.g., Animated Shield, Dancing Sword, etc)
• Provides movement bonus or alternate move mode (e.g., Boots of Speed, Cloak of Arachnida, Ring of Free action, etc)
• Extra bonus to AC without regard to class, or disadvantage on being attacked (e.g., Ring of Protection, Cloak of Displacement, Ioun Stone, etc)
• Bonus to saving throws without regard to class (e.g., Mantle of Spell Resistance, Necklace of Adaptation, Ring of Spell Turning)
• Does extra damage without requiring a precondition (e.g., Vorpal Weapon, Bracers of Archery, Oathbow, etc)
• Provides Advantage specifically on Stealth or Perception checks, or Initiative (e.g., Cloak of the Bat, Eyes of the Eagle, Weapon of Warning, etc)
So if an item provides a non class-specific boost (like extra damage, bonus to saving throw, ability increase, damage resistance, move bonus, AC bonus, Advantage on Stealth/Perception), it should require attunement. If an item provides a spellcaster with the ability to cast spells without spell slots, it should require attunement. Armor that provides damage resistance requires attunement.
- Items that don’t require attunement follow these guidelines:
o Weapons have specific requirements (Giant or Dragon Slayer, Vicious Weapon, Mace of Smiting, etc)
o Armor has no extra combat effect (Dwarven Plate, Elven Chain, etc)
o Rods and Wands are usable by any class (Immovable Rod, Wand of Magic Detection, etc)
o Wonderous items are utilitarian and without combat effect, disappear after use, or are usable by any class (Bag of Holding, Deck of Many Things, Manuals, Carpet of Flying, Boots of Elvenkind)
- 329 total magic items (includes splitting out the +1/+2/+3 versions of items)
- 50 are consumable, leaving 279 permanent items
- 167 of those 279 require attunement, or 60%
• 37 of 79 are uncommon, or 47%
• 57 of 95 are rare, or 60%
• 41 of 62 are very rare, or 66%
• 32 of 42 are legendary, or 76%
As expected, the more powerful an item, the more likely it requires attunement.
- Of those 167 that require attunement, they are split into the following categories
• 7 of 16 armor
• 19 of 22 rings
• 9 of 11 rods
• 4 of 8 shields
• 13 of 13 staves
• 12 of 15 wands
• 23 of 36 weapons
• 80 of 164 wonderous
• Items usable only by spellcasters have a higher percentage of attunable items (rods/staves/wands = 34 of 39 or 87% vs weapons/armor = 34 of 60 or 57%)
• Wonderous items, most of which are usable by any class, come in at 49%
- The most common boosts in attunable items (not including the complicated and obvious ones, like Holy Avenger, Robe of the Archmagi, etc):
• Provides ability bonus or high static ability (e.g., Amulet of Health, Ioun stone, Belt of Giant Strength, etc)
• Allows casting (by any class) of one or more spells or abilities that mirror spells (e.g., Ring of Invisibility, Eyes of Charming, Boots of Levitation, etc)
• Provides spellcaster with ability to cast spells without expending spell slots or extra spell slots (e.g., Staff of Power, Crystal Ball, Wand of Fireballs, and Ring of Spell Storing, Pearl of Power, Tome of the Stilled Tongue, etc)
• Provides damage resistance or immunity to any class (e.g., Ring of Warmth, Frost Brand, Brooch of Shielding, etc)
• Armor that provides damage resistance or immunity (e.g., Dragonscale armor, Armor of Resistance)
• Allows use of an item without requiring proficiency (e.g., Animated Shield, Dancing Sword, etc)
• Provides movement bonus or alternate move mode (e.g., Boots of Speed, Cloak of Arachnida, Ring of Free action, etc)
• Extra bonus to AC without regard to class, or disadvantage on being attacked (e.g., Ring of Protection, Cloak of Displacement, Ioun Stone, etc)
• Bonus to saving throws without regard to class (e.g., Mantle of Spell Resistance, Necklace of Adaptation, Ring of Spell Turning)
• Does extra damage without requiring a precondition (e.g., Vorpal Weapon, Bracers of Archery, Oathbow, etc)
• Provides Advantage specifically on Stealth or Perception checks, or Initiative (e.g., Cloak of the Bat, Eyes of the Eagle, Weapon of Warning, etc)
So if an item provides a non class-specific boost (like extra damage, bonus to saving throw, ability increase, damage resistance, move bonus, AC bonus, Advantage on Stealth/Perception), it should require attunement. If an item provides a spellcaster with the ability to cast spells without spell slots, it should require attunement. Armor that provides damage resistance requires attunement.
- Items that don’t require attunement follow these guidelines:
o Weapons have specific requirements (Giant or Dragon Slayer, Vicious Weapon, Mace of Smiting, etc)
o Armor has no extra combat effect (Dwarven Plate, Elven Chain, etc)
o Rods and Wands are usable by any class (Immovable Rod, Wand of Magic Detection, etc)
o Wonderous items are utilitarian and without combat effect, disappear after use, or are usable by any class (Bag of Holding, Deck of Many Things, Manuals, Carpet of Flying, Boots of Elvenkind)
Sword of Spirit
Legend
Glad to see there appears to be an underlying logic behind what requires attunement.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
It's only as practically worthless as the DM makes it. If you aren't planning on firing off magic missile or other force damage spells at them, don't give them the brooch. Or, since they have one now, add more force damage to your encounter mix. In other words, as DM, you are the one ultimately making that magic item useless.
Yes (I could do that) and no (I shouldn't have to do that).
Let's take the example of Magic Missile (and ignore other force effects for the moment).
Not only would the players have to encounter a spell caster, but the spell caster would also have to target the PC with the brooch and not any of the other PCs (in my game, 6 other PCs for a total of 7). So, the caster is going to cast one of his minor spells as opposed to casting a major spell, and he is going to target the PC with the brooch in order for the game to be "more fun" for that player, even though that PC might not be the most logical target.
You are correct. As a DM, I could create elementals that use force effects instead of the more typical fire, cold, lightning, etc., I could create NPC area effect spells that use force. I could once every four or five sessions throw a cult of low level magic users at the party to fling magic missile at all of them. I could do those types of things. But I shouldn't have to go out of my way to make the campaign revolve around a single magical item. My point is that the game has an EXTREMELY situational magic item in the game that in many campaigns requires extra work on the part of the DM for it to even be a hair useful, and the game designers gave that item an attunement requirement. That's bad item design, not bad DMing.
With regard to handing out an item that is not very useful to the party, I do that once in a while and unlike you, I do not view that as a bad thing. A +1 glaive. Nobody wants to use a glaive (at least in my group at their current level with their current magic items and racial/class makeup), but there it is. Now the players have to decide whether one of them wants to use it (or at least minimally carry it), or if they want to see if they can track down someone willing to buy it. I don't exclusively tailor magic item acquisition to items that the party will find useful.
If the game system was like 3E where crafting magical items was relatively easy, then I could see giving the brooch attunement because otherwise, most or all of the PCs might be walking around with a brooch. But in the 5E model based on how hard it is to craft items, and many spells do force damage, and how many monsters do force damage, and how useful magic missile is, it's a design flaw.
billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him)
I'm going disagree with that being bad design. D&D has always had situational items - lots of them. Just like it has always had situational spells and powers for monsters and PCs. If you're going to include something, anything, it's up to you as the DM to make it useful or deal with the consequences of having something that's comparatively useless. If you don't want to include some reasons for that brooch of shielding to be useful - then get rid of it from your game. Then it won't matter if it requires attunement.
