Do You Have An Ioun Stone?

[T. Foster]

Never had a character who had one. Never that I can recall played in a party with anybody who had one or DM'd for anybody who had one. In other words, in all my years of playing D&D I don't recall ever seeing one in play. However, having fairly recently read the Jack Vance story "Morreion," where they originate (and where fwiw they're consistently spelled in all caps -- IOUN stones) that may change -- not for typical/standard/low-mid level play, but I'm liking the visual of high level wizards with clouds of these things following them around.

(The Vance story, btw, originally appeared in the anthology Flashing Swords #1 (1973 - oop), and was later reprinted in Rhialto the Marvelous (1985 - oop), and the collection Tales of the Dying Earth (2000 - in-print))

 

[Shade]

My current character had a dusty rose stone for awhile (until it was stolen).

I've given a few out as a DM. There's a fun one in Spells & Spellcraft that allows you to randomly determine its power for the day.

 

[drothgery]

Never used 'em. They usually cost too much more than their slotted counterparts to be worth it.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

I use them all the time.

But I just put them on a chain and call it a slotless amulet. The whole flying around your head thing is just dumb.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In 30 years of gaming, I've only seen a couple of PCs with Ioun stones, and neither of them was mine.

I sure do want one, though!

(I like gemstones in general- jewelry design is a hobby.)

 

[Warren Okuma]

I have a character with several, but they're all the dull grey ones that don't do anything. He's a psionic artificer, and he uses them as objects on which to hang other spells, with the Spell Storing Item artificer infusion. Always accessible, so he doesn't have to pull them out of his belt, and they're fairly difficult to target, especially since he has a half-dozen of them floating around.

I don't see them very often in games, since I've always thought of them as kinda goofy. If I have an NPC show up with one, it's usually a powerful mage, and they're intended as a "Don't screw with this guy" kind of warning.

Even though it's probably wrong, I always just pronounced it ion. Never read the source material they come from, and that's how I started pronouncing it when I was a kid.

Yeah, I love the dull grey ones... then I cast continual flame on it and cast continual flame on my gloves as well. Neat stuff.

 

[BlackMoria]

I had a D&D 3.0 wizard character that had 10 of them.

1 x +1 to caster level
2 x absorb spells of 8th level or lower
7 x spelling storing

My character crafted them during the campaign. Of course, it would be more expensive in D&D 3.5 since the price of ioun stones (particularly the spell storing ones) went up in price.

The players would refer to my character as 'Gem Head'

 

[Holy Bovine]

One character on mine in 25 years of gaming had an ioun stone. It was the pale green one form 1E that added a level of experience. Even I, as a player, thought it was stupid.

Never used them in my games as i find the idea silly. I do like the weapon gems in Magic Item Compendium though...

 

[Shadowdancer]

Some characters do, some don't. The ones that do, it is primarily the dusty rose one that gives an AC bonus.

 

[Set]

25gp, market purchase, grey ioun stone. The candle.

Same. I've used that one a lot. Apparently, putting Continual Flame on a dull grey stone was a rules abuse, because they got rid of them in 3.5.

I had to buy a new addition so they could screw up Damage Reduction and require everyone to carry a golf bag full of different weapons, make my warhorse occupy a 10' wide square (gosh, he's *fat!*) and get rid of my hands-free floating Everburning Torch?