D&D 5E Why do Armblades need Attunement?

[doctorbadwolf]

The trouble is that Attunement is a rather overloaded mechanic in 5e - it's essentially doing triple duty.

• Reducing the "Christmas Tree Effect" by limiting how many items a character can be adorned with.
• Providing a 'cool down' period before being able to make use of an item, so that a single item can't easily be passed around to reap disproportionate benefits.
• Providing limits to what kind of characters can use a particular item.

All of which are useful things to have in the system, but you don't necessarily want them all inextricably interlinked.

I disagree. I think the only problem with attunement in 5e is that a decent number of items require it that shouldn't.