How many Ioun Stones can you use at once? Also, do they work with other head gear?

[dcollins]

From Rhialto the Marvellous by Jack Vance (c) 1984, Part 3, Section 9:

"A quick question before you go," spoke Gilgad. "Where does one find IOUN stones?"

Morreion looked at him without comprehension. At last he gave his attention to the stones, which swirled with a swifter motion. In comparison, those of the archevault Xexamedes were listless and dull. These danced and curveted, and sparkled with different colours. Closest to Morreion's head moved the lavender and the pale green stones, as if they thought themselves the most loved and most privileged. Somewhat more wayward were the stones glowing pink and green together: then came stones of a pure proud pink, then the royal carmine stones, then the red and blue; and finally, at the outer periphery, a number of stones glittering with intense blue lights...

Morreion gave a slow thoughtful nod. "Curious! So much which I seem to have forgotten..."

 

[Romnipotent]

Ya, but was he blinded?

he had cover, he couldn't see them he was hiding behind the stones

a note of interest: in Dragonstar play a Talarn (Ioun Stone makers) Psion/Wilder what ever, sit around as a kid making stones for power points (each stone still has enough for 1 power point)

yeah, anyway, back to golf ball head psions

 

[Pseudonym]

They seem to have dissapeared in 3.5, but in 3.0 and earlier, you could get burned out grey ioun stones for 25 GP. Those were perfect for the continual light/flame trick, especialy usefull for archers and those who need both hands free to cast.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Just a quick aside (I know most of you here wouldn't make this mistake), but when a player of mine heard that you can have as many Ioun Stones as you can afford equipped at the same time, he jumped to the conclusion that he get several of the "+1 to AC" variety and improve his AC by several points. As elsewhere in the rules, like bonuses don't stack. So he could equip them all, sure, but he would only get the bonus from, at most, one of them.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Actually, a bunch of burned out ioun stones would be a great investment (if they still float). Just paint the active ioun stones the same colour and your enemies won't know which one(s) to grab!

 

[darthkilmor]

Didnt there used to be something about only using 3 ioun stones at once?
or am i getting pen and paper dnd confused with some video game that had ioun stones?

 

[Robbert Raets]

There's been some confusion over this, so I think various sources are/have been contradicting each other or themselves.

24 seems a bit much, unless Ioun Stones are a lot smaller than I imagine.

 

[Storyteller01]

Kind of off topic, but...

Wasn't there a magic crown that could have been confused for Ioun stones? The crown itself was invisible, but the inset stones weren't.

I think it was a FR/Myth Drannor item.

 

[Stockdale]

I'm gonna chime in with Darthkilmor. I recall reading somewhere (3.0 DMG ?) that it was two or three stones. I further recall (and I might be wrong) that they did take up the head slot for magic items.

 

[Knight Otu]

Nope, definitely not the 3.0 DMG (unless it is not mentioned in the ioun stone writeup). I also dug up the german AD&D book for magic items (part of the DMG), and also doesn't say anything about a limit.

Only thing I remember are similar items in the computer game Betrayal in Antara, where you could only have one.