5e Are Ioun stones supposed to need attunement?

[Yardiff]

Now the headband of intellect becomes the most valuable item in the world.

Wizard's player: Cool, an item that raises INT, I guess I'll take that.
Every single other player at the table: Now wait a minute…

Pointless for a wizard who already has an int of 18+.

 

[CleverNickName]

Personally I think attunement is fine, the limit of 3 is like you know really limiting. Use attunement but drop the number limit completely.

I wrote a feat that increases the number of magic items you can attune.

ARCANE ATTUNEMENT
Prerequisite: Int 13+
You may be attuned to 2* additional magic items.

*We experimented with 1, 2, and 3...this one seemed to be the most balanced.

 

[CapnZapp]

I came up with a ritual that allowed one attunement slot to hold multiple ioun stones. Its in my Bazaars of Port Nyanzaru thread!

Edit to add text:
Congenio's Ritual 2500 sp
Over the course over a tenday, you join the temple's elder in retreat, in an attempt to unlock the mystical energies of Ioun stones. As a prerequisite you must permanently devote one of your attunement slots to Ioun – it can no longer be used to attune any other item than Ioun stones. Then make three DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) ability checks, each taking 8 hours of time. Each success means one extra Ioun stone can share the attunement slot you devoted to Ioun.

 

[5ekyu]

In an earlier game, I based it off Tier plus Con mod. Con was nobody prime stat. But it really made so little diff that in the current game where we used DDB it just made sense to go to just 3 since that is supported.

I myself do not like (understatement) orphan limits, caps that dont tie back to a character trait. But it's not worth losing or complicating our online resource and ease of play for this.

 

[CapnZapp]

I have three separate printings of the DMG (first edition, first errata, and gift set) and each one says they require attunement.

Cheers!

This answers the thread.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Here is a thought: maximum attunment slots = 3 +/- Int modifier.

It's a common complaint that Int doesn't do enough...

And it could do a bit more, but this is too much.
And actually int is a lot more useful than many think. Knowledge skills are used in our game quite frequently.

 

[S'mon]

Just to confirm I got home today and my 1st print DMG does indeed say "Requires Attunement!" I can only think my mistake must have come from referring to https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Ioun Stone#content which omits that.

 

[CapnZapp]

Yes it is omitted from certain sources, which likely is the source of the confusion.

Or rather, the original source of confusion is likely the formatting in the DMG...

 

[CapnZapp]

I would have linked directly to "Congenios Ritual" that I mentioned previously but I'm on mobile...

 

[the Jester]

Personally I think attunement is fine, the limit of 3 is like you know really limiting. Use attunement but drop the number limit completely.

Why bother with having it if you're discarding the whole reason attunement exists in the first place?