Loek
2022-09-10, 06:45 AM
Firsts off, let me state that I know that technically 5e is meant for "low(er) magic" settings. Where magic items are rare boons and magic stores are either non-existent or a rare treat/trap.
That said, this idea I have is for those, who like me, like the more magic heavy settings.
And one problem I often run into with higher magic settings, is attunement limits. Which, mostly, are a good idea. It stops/limits item juggling. It prevents too much stacking of bonusses (I'm looking at you 3.5). It makes the choices more meaningful. And finally it gives the artificer another way to show off how great they are with items.
That said, not all attunement items are created equal, creating a whole host of items that (when forced to choose) I'd probably never go for. Which is a shame as those items, while not great/the best are often quite interesting and fun non-the-less.
All that talking aside, let me present my idea of "Pseudo-attunement" which is intended to mitigate some of these issues for medium to high level magic settings.
My suggestion is that there will be 5 types of "attunement" possible for an item. The 3 existing ones and 2 new ones.
No attunement required - As already present in the game - Example: +1 weapon/armor
Pseudo-attunement required - You go through the steps of attunement to get the item to function, but it doesn't take up a attunement slot - Example where this would be a good idea: Masquerade Tattoo
Optional attunement - As already present in the game (item has some functions without attunement, but gets more options/oomph when you attune to it) - Example: Spell Gem
Pseudo-attunement with a requirement - Acts as attunement if you don't meet the requirements, acts as pseudo-attunement if you do - Example where this might work: Barrier Tattoo (Medium) (requirement would be medium armor proficiency)
Attunement required - As is already present in the game - Example: Ring of Telekinesis
Before I go any further, let me say out loud, that I know the main downside of this system, namely that every single item would need to be checked and reorganized into this system.
But, while this would be true if I were, you know, working for Wizards... I'm only a homebrewer, so I'd suggest introducing this system and adding it to items on the fly as they become relevant to the current game. (And hopefully compile the full list along the way, maybe)
This category is already relatively well populated (especially on the low rarity end), some choices are quite good and conductive to having fun with "less optimal" items.
An example I really like in this category is "Earring of Message". A fun, not very powerful, but very flavorful item that anyone can just equip and enjoy.
My goal with this category would be to capture (or release, I guess) all the weaker/RP focused things. The tools and more "day to day" items (if one is thinking in an Ebberon mindset).
This category would be filled with items that are not overly powerful, but shouldn't be passed around to other team members too easily.
For example "+1 Bloodwell Vial" is a good example. (+1 Dragonhide Belt could also be one, but it'd need to use the wording of the vial, were it's not "you" who can't activate it again until the next dawn, but the "property" that can't be used again.
Other examples would be the weaker of the tattoo items (like: Masquerade Tattoo), were the attunement is more of a method to "equip" then anything else. A Masquerade Tattoo is cool, but outside of very very specific situations (deep cover/fool the witnesses/nobody has detect magic to figure out your tattoo is magic) it just isn't worth an attunement slot.
My goal with this category would be to prevent quick swapping of items, to allow features like the fancy magical tattoo needle "equipping" (I'm not a fan, and technically you could just add a section on it without using the word attunement to skip this fix... but meh) and to make making a magic item "yours" impactful without limiting the player too much in what they can use/combine.
This category is rather tricky. But it's also one that should be used more often to make items usable even if you can't/don't want to attune to them.
Going back to the "+1 Dragonhide Belt" (assuming it doesn't go into pseudo-attunement), the bonus to ki ability saves could be un-attuned. While the ki point regaining could be locked behind attunement.
My goal with this category would be to make it possible to use that cool new attunement item you found, at lower power, even if you don't have the time/slots to attune to it.
This category is very conditional. But that's the whole point, as it also is intended to solve very conditional situations. Some boosts/abilities/things are just too powerful in sitiation X, while in situation Y they are very much minor (or even mostly cosmetic).
The Barrier Tattoo is a good example to explain this with. Let me break the item down and explain.
The Barrier Tattoo (Medium) basically has 5 aspects:
It's a magical item (which means rare/hard to create/expensive)
It requires attunement
It's a half plate armor
It has 2 minor advantages over half plate (Can't be taken from you easily (situational and RP) ; Can be hidden (RP))
It has 1 medium advantage over half plate (Doesn't have disadvantage on stealth)
It has 1 major advantage over half plate (Can be worn without armor proficiency)
I'd say that the costs (money/time/luck/situation) asociated with "being a magical item" is a good balance vs the half plate and the minor/medium advantages.
And the ability to ignore proficiency is weighed against the attunement.
So my solution would be to make it a magical item, that someone who is proficient with medium armour can wear normally (using pseudo-attunement to equip it), while someone without that proficiency would need to invoke the "deeper magic" (or some such) in the ink and attuneme with it to make it work for them.
Heavy armour (Barrier Tattoo (Large)) can be a massive boost for a wizard, while it's mostly an aesthetic choice for a paladin or fighter. Similarly, the ability to cast a spell would be more useful to a non-caster.
My goal with this category would be to make it possible to balance items based on who is using it.
This category is the "it didn't fit in any other category" dump. Anything too powerful (without a lesser ability that can be used to make it an optional attunement item) would go in here. Some cursed items would also go in here, if the loss of the attunement slot is part of their "cost".
There isn't much to say here, except that anything that goes in here should be really cool/defining/powerful/singular. And also, that I think it'd be a failure if more than say 25% of all items landed here, as that is soo much stuff that will get crowded out in favor of the optimal.
An example on how to move items down from this category: The above mentioned "Ring of Telekinesis" could easy get the mage hand cantrip on top of it's normal functioning. Making the mage hand the non-attunement part and the current functionality the attunement part.
My goal with this category would be to keep it as empty as possible, finding smaller things that can be added to an item to move it to the Optional attunement or pseudo-attunement with requirement categories. Keeping this category only for the really big things and the boring but strong items.
All this together (and a massive amount of work going through various items etc), should make it so that players get to play with more items, less commonly used/desired items, and generally make it easier for the group to be happy about that new magical doodad they found/bought/stole/made.
Because 3 of the 5 categories still (optionally/situationally) use attunement, the artificer should still have plenty of use out of their extra slots.
Anyhow, please let me know what you think. What aspects I forgot to take into account. Or maybe even how you'd handle this instead.
I look forward to hearing your all thoughts on this.
That said, this idea I have is for those, who like me, like the more magic heavy settings.
And one problem I often run into with higher magic settings, is attunement limits. Which, mostly, are a good idea. It stops/limits item juggling. It prevents too much stacking of bonusses (I'm looking at you 3.5). It makes the choices more meaningful. And finally it gives the artificer another way to show off how great they are with items.
That said, not all attunement items are created equal, creating a whole host of items that (when forced to choose) I'd probably never go for. Which is a shame as those items, while not great/the best are often quite interesting and fun non-the-less.
All that talking aside, let me present my idea of "Pseudo-attunement" which is intended to mitigate some of these issues for medium to high level magic settings.
My suggestion is that there will be 5 types of "attunement" possible for an item. The 3 existing ones and 2 new ones.
No attunement required - As already present in the game - Example: +1 weapon/armor
Pseudo-attunement required - You go through the steps of attunement to get the item to function, but it doesn't take up a attunement slot - Example where this would be a good idea: Masquerade Tattoo
Optional attunement - As already present in the game (item has some functions without attunement, but gets more options/oomph when you attune to it) - Example: Spell Gem
Pseudo-attunement with a requirement - Acts as attunement if you don't meet the requirements, acts as pseudo-attunement if you do - Example where this might work: Barrier Tattoo (Medium) (requirement would be medium armor proficiency)
Attunement required - As is already present in the game - Example: Ring of Telekinesis
Before I go any further, let me say out loud, that I know the main downside of this system, namely that every single item would need to be checked and reorganized into this system.
But, while this would be true if I were, you know, working for Wizards... I'm only a homebrewer, so I'd suggest introducing this system and adding it to items on the fly as they become relevant to the current game. (And hopefully compile the full list along the way, maybe)
This category is already relatively well populated (especially on the low rarity end), some choices are quite good and conductive to having fun with "less optimal" items.
An example I really like in this category is "Earring of Message". A fun, not very powerful, but very flavorful item that anyone can just equip and enjoy.
My goal with this category would be to capture (or release, I guess) all the weaker/RP focused things. The tools and more "day to day" items (if one is thinking in an Ebberon mindset).
This category would be filled with items that are not overly powerful, but shouldn't be passed around to other team members too easily.
For example "+1 Bloodwell Vial" is a good example. (+1 Dragonhide Belt could also be one, but it'd need to use the wording of the vial, were it's not "you" who can't activate it again until the next dawn, but the "property" that can't be used again.
Other examples would be the weaker of the tattoo items (like: Masquerade Tattoo), were the attunement is more of a method to "equip" then anything else. A Masquerade Tattoo is cool, but outside of very very specific situations (deep cover/fool the witnesses/nobody has detect magic to figure out your tattoo is magic) it just isn't worth an attunement slot.
My goal with this category would be to prevent quick swapping of items, to allow features like the fancy magical tattoo needle "equipping" (I'm not a fan, and technically you could just add a section on it without using the word attunement to skip this fix... but meh) and to make making a magic item "yours" impactful without limiting the player too much in what they can use/combine.
This category is rather tricky. But it's also one that should be used more often to make items usable even if you can't/don't want to attune to them.
Going back to the "+1 Dragonhide Belt" (assuming it doesn't go into pseudo-attunement), the bonus to ki ability saves could be un-attuned. While the ki point regaining could be locked behind attunement.
My goal with this category would be to make it possible to use that cool new attunement item you found, at lower power, even if you don't have the time/slots to attune to it.
This category is very conditional. But that's the whole point, as it also is intended to solve very conditional situations. Some boosts/abilities/things are just too powerful in sitiation X, while in situation Y they are very much minor (or even mostly cosmetic).
The Barrier Tattoo is a good example to explain this with. Let me break the item down and explain.
The Barrier Tattoo (Medium) basically has 5 aspects:
It's a magical item (which means rare/hard to create/expensive)
It requires attunement
It's a half plate armor
It has 2 minor advantages over half plate (Can't be taken from you easily (situational and RP) ; Can be hidden (RP))
It has 1 medium advantage over half plate (Doesn't have disadvantage on stealth)
It has 1 major advantage over half plate (Can be worn without armor proficiency)
I'd say that the costs (money/time/luck/situation) asociated with "being a magical item" is a good balance vs the half plate and the minor/medium advantages.
And the ability to ignore proficiency is weighed against the attunement.
So my solution would be to make it a magical item, that someone who is proficient with medium armour can wear normally (using pseudo-attunement to equip it), while someone without that proficiency would need to invoke the "deeper magic" (or some such) in the ink and attuneme with it to make it work for them.
Heavy armour (Barrier Tattoo (Large)) can be a massive boost for a wizard, while it's mostly an aesthetic choice for a paladin or fighter. Similarly, the ability to cast a spell would be more useful to a non-caster.
My goal with this category would be to make it possible to balance items based on who is using it.
This category is the "it didn't fit in any other category" dump. Anything too powerful (without a lesser ability that can be used to make it an optional attunement item) would go in here. Some cursed items would also go in here, if the loss of the attunement slot is part of their "cost".
There isn't much to say here, except that anything that goes in here should be really cool/defining/powerful/singular. And also, that I think it'd be a failure if more than say 25% of all items landed here, as that is soo much stuff that will get crowded out in favor of the optimal.
An example on how to move items down from this category: The above mentioned "Ring of Telekinesis" could easy get the mage hand cantrip on top of it's normal functioning. Making the mage hand the non-attunement part and the current functionality the attunement part.
My goal with this category would be to keep it as empty as possible, finding smaller things that can be added to an item to move it to the Optional attunement or pseudo-attunement with requirement categories. Keeping this category only for the really big things and the boring but strong items.
All this together (and a massive amount of work going through various items etc), should make it so that players get to play with more items, less commonly used/desired items, and generally make it easier for the group to be happy about that new magical doodad they found/bought/stole/made.
Because 3 of the 5 categories still (optionally/situationally) use attunement, the artificer should still have plenty of use out of their extra slots.
Anyhow, please let me know what you think. What aspects I forgot to take into account. Or maybe even how you'd handle this instead.
I look forward to hearing your all thoughts on this.