D&D 5E Has anyone else expanded on attunement in their campaigns?

[Mort]

One of the new mechanics for 5e (well it wasn't in 3e, honestly can't remember if 4e had it) is the attunement mechanic.

The mechanic is pretty basic, it limits the number of items (of note, but all require attunement) players can drape themselves (usually to 3)

That's really all there is too it except for artifacts (which often have interesting side effects), cursed items (which are, well, cursed) and a few published items.

But magic items should be interesting, they're not cookie cutter, factory assembled objects after all. With attunement, you are literally, bonding with the item!

So I've had attunement - mean something:

For example, one of the first attunable items the group found was a ring of protection, a fairly, simple straightforward item, but it requires attunement. The ring bore the seal of Greyhawk (the city) on it. When the player attuned to it, he got an overwhelming sense of loyalty to Greyhawk from the ring. I informed the player that he just knew the ring would not take kindly to any acts against the city of Greyhawk (the mechanic was that any overt act against the city would trigger a hold person against the attuned character from the ring).

The campaign died out before anything interesting came of this mechanic, but we're restarting a new campaign next month and I think I'll try it out again.

Has anyone done anything similar? How'd it work out?

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[Li Shenron]

Yes but not recently. In 3e we often had magic items "grow" with the character and develop new features depending on what the character did and lived. But those typically were not working if another character got hold of the item.

In a way, it was super-attunement before attunement was an official rule of the game.

But the reasons behind were probably different. First, we wanted LESS magic items instead of the typical Xmas tree. Second, we wanted to decimate magic item reselling. Third, we wanted more narrative incorporated into magic items. And fourth, we wanted to avoid the problem of gaining too powerful items from fallen foes.

 

[Mort]

Yes but not recently. In 3e we often had magic items "grow" with the character and develop new features depending on what the character did and lived. But those typically were not working if another character got hold of the item.

In a way, it was super-attunement before attunement was an official rule of the game.

But the reasons behind were probably different. First, we wanted LESS magic items instead of the typical Xmas tree. Second, we wanted to decimate magic item reselling. Third, we wanted more narrative incorporated into magic items. And fourth, we wanted to avoid the problem of gaining too powerful items from fallen foes.

Were you using Weapons of Legacy, or did you homebrew the mechanics?

I picked up Weapons of Legacy when it came out, loved the concept but never took to the way the book executed it.

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[mcmillan]

13th age uses a similar idea you described, where every true magic item (as opposed to consumable items like potions) has a quirk associated with it https://www.13thagesrd.com/magic-items/#Magic_Item_Personalities_Quirks

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

One of the new mechanics for 5e (well it wasn't in 3e, honestly can't remember if 4e had it) is the attunement mechanic.

The mechanic is pretty basic, it limits the number of items (of note, but all require attunement) players can drape themselves (usually to 3)

That's really all there is too it except for artifacts (which often have interesting side effects), cursed items (which are, well, cursed) and a few published items.

But magic items should be interesting, they're not cookie cutter, factory assembled objects after all. With attunement, you are literally, bonding with the item!

So I've had attunement - mean something:

For example, one of the first attunable items the group found was a ring of protection, a fairly, simple straightforward item, but it requires attunement. The ring bore the seal of Greyhawk (the city) on it. When the player attuned to it, he got an overwhelming sense of loyalty to Greyhawk from the ring. I informed the player that he just knew the ring would not take kindly to any acts against the city of Greyhawk (the mechanic was that any overt act against the city would trigger a hold person against the attuned character from the ring).

The campaign died out before anything interesting came of this mechanic, but we're restarting a new campaign next month and I think I'll try it out again.

Has anyone done anything similar? How'd it work out?

Sent from my SM-G930V using EN World mobile app

Just a question for you. Do you mean your homebrew system requires all magic items to be attuned to before using, or you think the core 5E rules say all magic items require attunement to use? There are quite a few magic items that do not require attunement, some of which sound like they should. Also, you do not mention this either, but a character cannot benefit from two of the same magic item that require attunement.

 

[Mort]

Just a question for you. Do you mean your homebrew system requires all magic items to be attuned to before using, or you think the core 5E rules say all magic items require attunement to use? There are quite a few magic items that do not require attunement, some of which sound like they should. Also, you do not mention this either, but a character cannot benefit from two of the same magic item that require attunement.

The items that require attunement are no different, at least I hadn't changed that part.

Right, you can't attune 2 of the same item. Frankly, I don't think there should be two of the same item to attune.



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[Li Shenron]

Were you using Weapons of Legacy, or did you homebrew the mechanics?[/URL]

No, we were doing it before WoL came out.

But there wasn't really any new "mechanics". All we did was to keep an eye on the total equipment value by level, and instead of finding (or buying) new magic items to keep up with that value, we added new magical properties to already owned items.

You could have called it a mere "merging" process of many items into 3-4 max per character, plus rigging the random magic treasure tables to have the new magical properties mirror the story.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

The items that require attunement are no different, at least I hadn't changed that part.

Right, you can't attune 2 of the same item. Frankly, I don't think there should be two of the same item to attune.



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For some of the more unusual items that require attunement, sure. But even some simple magic items, like a ring or cloak of protection, require attunement. So will the adventuring party in your world only ever be able to find one of each? Now, if you have five rings of protection, but each one has some odd quirk or extra ability that makes it unique from the others, I can see you getting away with there not being more than one of each item in your world. But if not, there may end up being some party strife as they argue over who gets what item.

 

[snickersnax]

How about the Doctor Strange attunement system. Magic items choose their wielders, not the other way around. The DM can give a player hoping to win the affection/attunement of a magic item a charisma check. That way charisma can continue to take over the world

 

[snickersnax]

Jack the Giant Killer of 18th century fairy tale fame has 4 magic items (which would all require attunement in 5e): sword of sharpness, boots of speed, cap of knowledge, cloak of invisibility