Attunement slots narrative

[Jerrykhor]

Attunement slots is a game mechanic. How does one talk about that in-character? How does a character explain that they are out of those slots without sounding gamey, in the same way that talking about the number of hit points is?

[Kane0]

The same way you have TV, radio and Wireless on radio waves. There is a limited amount of bandwidth you can cram things into before they all interfere with each other and you end up with static.

[Elbeyon]

Only so many items can attach to the soul/mind/person at once. They've got a limited capacity.

[Greywander]

Only so many items can attach to the soul/mind/person at once. They've got a limited capacity.
My takeaway from this is that I need to enslave more souls to attune more magic items. Which is actually both brilliant and horrifying.

[Rfkannen]

The way I think about it is that attuning to an item requires putting part of your soul in it, and replacing it with the items magic.

You have to connect spooky magic stuff, and you only have a limited amount of spooky magic stuff

[OldTrees1]

Magic Items are Jealous and Envious.

If a magic item feels taken for granted or valued at less than its imagined worth, it will act spiteful.

Maintaining your relationship with these items in a safe manner results in the attunement slots.

Sidenote: I might grant a player +1 attunement at the cost of 2 spiteful actions per long rest and 1 per short rest.

[Blacky the Blackball]

Bear in mind that attunement slots are an in-character thing in the game. It's not just an arbitrary out-of-character limit on items carried: the character has to actively spend an hour or so attuning to an item (if it's that kind of item) before they can use it.

I like the old Magic of Incarnum idea that the various magic item "inventory slots" that existed in 3e corresponded to the body's Chakras (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra). So I kind of imagine that the three item attunement limit in 5e runs on a similar principle. You have three somethings (the name for them might vary from culture to culture) and you can ritually bind a magic item to each of them. It's totally an in-character action to do so, and characters can talk about how many items they are attuned to without it being even slightly meta-gamey.

[SociopathFriend]

My takeaway from this is that I need to enslave more souls to attune more magic items. Which is actually both brilliant and horrifying.

I mean- you could pull that off with minds as well. Dominate Person allows you to basically use their items so long as you don't mind doing it with a different pair of hands so to speak.

[Knaight]

"Using these things is exhausting."

"I can't handle another item."

"I'm only able to cope with three of these."

"This [object] is easy; no focus required."

It's more like spell slots than hit points here - the mechanic has an in world representation, it's tied to magic and thus has more flexibility in weirdness than it otherwise would, and it can work fairly cleanly.

[Davrix]

I've always role-played the idea. There is no "limit" on items the players can attune to.

However once they have 3 if a player tries to attune a 4th I usually go along the lines of...

"You feel the magical arcane energies in your items start hum and react to each other. Small bolts of energy begin to crackle over your items and cascade along each other. You take 1D6 lighting damage Do you wish to continue attuning?

Its my go to line but I've mixed it up at times

[ProsecutorGodot]

You can only focus so much energy into harnessing the power within them.

The Artificer UA offers an insight, since it allows the attunement of more items, referencing that the items are at least a little bit linked to your soul.

[Arkhios]

My takeaway from this is that I need to enslave more souls to attune more magic items. Which is actually both brilliant and horrifying.

This point of view puts Artificers under a completely new light... since they can attune themselves with up to 6 magic items.

...shudders!