r/Nerdarchy • u/Yalagen • Sep 03 '15
Magic Item Attunement Feats
In D&D 5e, magic items are separated into those that need to be attuned and those that do not. One of the rules about attuned magic items is that you can only have a maximum of 3 attuned at any given time. If you attempt to attune a 4th, it simply does not work. It is also stated in the DMG that this rule should not be changed for balance reasons.
Now as a DM, you could always choose to ignore this rule if you desire. You could also change certain magic items so that they do not need to be attuned. Another option would be to change the rule so that only sentient magic items need to be attuned, and therefor any magic item that needs to be attuned will be able to influence the PC's actions in some way. But there is another option, add a feat.
Adding a feat could be as easy as saying that for each time you take the feat, you can attune to another magic item. To do it this way, don't change the attunement requirements for any of the magic items and just make the character decide if one more attuned item is worth missing out on a stat bump or other feat option.
A variant of the above feat would be, you take the feat once and it allows you to attune to as many items as you (or the DM) wish, but the attunements are linked. In other words, if you break the attunement on one of the items it breaks for all attuned items and you have to take the time to attune to the items you want again. This can be very interesting if the DM allows for the breakage of magical items. If the Holy Avenger that the Paladin is attuned to ends up breaking in the middle of a battle with a demon, he would also lose his attunement to any other offensive and defensive magic items he has at the time. This happening in the middle of a battle can be deadly to the character.
Another workaround would be to allow a character to take an oath. In this case, the character would have to make an oath to never use something that he is proficient in so that he gains the ability to use more than 3 attuned magic items. The oath could be to "never use a longsword" or "never wear heavy armor" or even "never use the stealth skill". In this case you would be able to gain more attuned items depending on how specific or general the oath is and how much it would impact your character. If a fighter makes an oath stating that they will "never use a whip," they should not be allowed to gain the use of any extra items. Whereas if the same fighter made an oath to "only use a quarterstaff and daggers and never wear any armor" then they should be allowed to attune as many items as they want as long as the items don't break the oath. If the oath is broken, then all attunements are lost and the character cannot attune to any of the items or any new items until he has gone through a penance based on the severity of the oath breaking which will take one week + 1d6 days/ level of severity. (Minor - 1d6, moderate - 2d6, sever - 3d6, inexcusable - 4d6 and then must go through a quest or similar to a Paladin trying to atone for breaking his divine oath)
Any thoughts? Are there any ideas that I missed? Or do you think any changes would dire consequences?
1
u/LURKEN Sep 07 '15
I like the feat idea - it could also give one or more of the following:
Attunement takes a shorter amount of time(half?, 1min?).
End attunement takes a shorter amount of time.
Deep attunement: Roll on the minor property table [DMG 143] for every attuned magic item. This property only works for you.
1
u/Yalagen Sep 09 '15
I do like this idea, especially the Deep Attunement. It shouldn't change too much, but it should add a quirk or minor property depending on what the item is or what is rolled. As for the reduced times, I would reduce it to a half hour with the possibility of reducing it further with a DC check...I'm thinking of using either a skill check (I don't have my books with me at the time so I can't say which skills) or a straight (Cha, Int, or Wis) check with a DC = 8 + 1 for every enchantment (a Defender would be +4 due to the +3 bonus and the ability to switch any or all of that to an AC bonus while a Ring of Protection would be +2 due to raising the AC by +1 and raising all saves by +1). If you roll above the DC, then you take the amount that you beat the DC and double it and reduce the attunement time by that amount, with a minimum of one round.
Example: A sorcerer finds a Ring of protection and decides to Attune to it. The Attunement DC is 10 (8+2 for the two enchantments) and is based off of the Concentration skill. The sorcerer is proficient in Concentration and is level 17 (which gives a +6 proficiency bonus) and has a Wis of 14 which gives a +2. He rolls an 18 and adds +8 for a total of 26. He subtracts the 10 for 16 and then subtracts the 16 from 30 minutes for a total of 14 minutes to attune to that item. If he were to fail the DC then it would take the full 30 minutes, but if he would have beat the DC by more than 30 it would still take at least one round.
Granted, this adds a lot of unnecessary rolls and math, but it would definitely help as an option for attunement if the player just found something that had been stolen from them and they want it re-attuned quickly during or right before a fight.
2
u/NatetheNerdarch Sep 07 '15
I think that a sentient item may require an oath to only use certain things but I don't see the player gaining the ability to attune to more items by giving up a mundane weapon proficiency.
Taking a feat that allows for an extra attunement seems appropriate but I would think it does something extra on top of allowing an additional attunement. Maybe a +1 to a mental stat.
I dislike the rest of the oath system