During our last sessions, several of the players expressed unhappiness with the current Attunement rules and pushed on our DM to change them. Basically they felt it was not right that a 1st level character and a 17th level character were limited to the same attunement. They proposed a change by implementing on of two homebrew rules.... that characters get additional "slots" rather than the 3 listed in the 2024 rules, 1 per 5 levels seemed to be the consensus suggestion or that stopping and restarting attunement of items be an action not requiring a short rest (RE attunement only, attunement to a new item would remain the same).
Thoughts? Suggestions? How do you handle attunement in high level characters in your game?
The decision to hard cap magic items like this was a deliberate design choice to both limit how many modifiers, additional actions, etc. a player had to keep track of at a time and to keep player performance within a certain threshold. This doesn't mean you can't go with a more robust system, but the DM should keep in mind this is going to mean in all likelihood that the players will have more solutions to various obstacles at hand and that their combat performance is going to shoot up sharply.
At the end of the day players can like it or not but there's no "right" way for it to be- on the narrative end of things magic systems can legitimately just play the "X thing is an immutable law of how the setting works" card, and as I said there was a specific mechanical design philosophy behind the hard limits. It works for a lot of people just as the prior editions without attunement worked and continue to work for a lot of people.
There's a feat in the Tal'Dorei Reborn book, Mystic Conflux, that gives an extra attunement slot (plus one free casting of identify per day)
You could try giving your players access to that, or even just giving it to them all for free, and see how much a fourth slot impacts your game before deciding on whether to increase the number further
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
High level characters may have the same number of attunement slots as low-level, but they have much better items in most games. They also have items that don't need the slots.
I’d say don’t change it. In addition to the points made above, it forces you to make choices about your character. No one can do everything well; that philosophy extends to items. You can’t have everything you might like to have.
As characters advance in power, their focus should be on finding a few key items of very rare or even legendary power, rather than hoarding every green and blue item in the book.
The decision to hard cap magic items like this was a deliberate design choice to both limit how many modifiers, additional actions, etc. a player had to keep track of at a time and to keep player performance within a certain threshold. This doesn't mean you can't go with a more robust system, but the DM should keep in mind this is going to mean in all likelihood that the players will have more solutions to various obstacles at hand and that their combat performance is going to shoot up sharply.
At the end of the day players can like it or not but there's no "right" way for it to be- on the narrative end of things magic systems can legitimately just play the "X thing is an immutable law of how the setting works" card, and as I said there was a specific mechanical design philosophy behind the hard limits. It works for a lot of people just as the prior editions without attunement worked and continue to work for a lot of people.
We altered the rule for our table to coincide with PB, so it scales per level. It works for us because the dm changes stats anyway 2014. And 2024 MM is insane at higher levels CR22+ and throw some minions in balance.
I would suggest letting your party put on as many magic items that normally require Attunement as you would like. Or maybe ramp it up for 1 extra slot for every 3 levels.
I'm glad they did away with magic item "slots"... "one helmet or hat..one cloak... one necklace or amulet... two rings..." because just when you think you're filled up with items suddenly a splatbook comes out with magic earrings, magic anklet charms, magic eyebrow piercings....
I wouldn't have a problem with changing the attunement rules from 3 to level/5... but something tells me your players wouldn't be excited by going from 3 to 3.
There's a feat in the Tal'Dorei Reborn book, Mystic Conflux, that gives an extra attunement slot (plus one free casting of identify per day)
You could try giving your players access to that, or even just giving it to them all for free, and see how much a fourth slot impacts your game before deciding on whether to increase the number further
Its a great feat. Not broken but gives just a little help
My Friday group is expressing the same frustration. The biggest factor seems to be those still-useful low level items that demand the same attunement requirements as the powerful late game stuff.
What I'm thinking of doing for my next high level game is this: Once you reach level 10, you have the option to attune to 4 magic items instead of 3, but only if two of those items are of Common or Uncommon rarity.
If your problem here is high level characters and common/uncommon attunement required items, why not just create ( homebrew) a non attunement version of the item if having it is not considered unbalancing?
My Friday group is expressing the same frustration. The biggest factor seems to be those still-useful low level items that demand the same attunement requirements as the powerful late game stuff.
The intended behavior is that you replace your low level items. The major purpose of attunement is to limit buff stacking (and thus enforce bounded accuracy) without having a complicated (and abusable) item slot system.
Also I took a look and for the DMG the list was pretty small once you cut out all the weapon repetitions and mostly stuff that gave notable buffs or uses attunement to limit class usage
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During our last sessions, several of the players expressed unhappiness with the current Attunement rules and pushed on our DM to change them. Basically they felt it was not right that a 1st level character and a 17th level character were limited to the same attunement. They proposed a change by implementing on of two homebrew rules.... that characters get additional "slots" rather than the 3 listed in the 2024 rules, 1 per 5 levels seemed to be the consensus suggestion or that stopping and restarting attunement of items be an action not requiring a short rest (RE attunement only, attunement to a new item would remain the same).
Thoughts? Suggestions? How do you handle attunement in high level characters in your game?
The decision to hard cap magic items like this was a deliberate design choice to both limit how many modifiers, additional actions, etc. a player had to keep track of at a time and to keep player performance within a certain threshold. This doesn't mean you can't go with a more robust system, but the DM should keep in mind this is going to mean in all likelihood that the players will have more solutions to various obstacles at hand and that their combat performance is going to shoot up sharply.
At the end of the day players can like it or not but there's no "right" way for it to be- on the narrative end of things magic systems can legitimately just play the "X thing is an immutable law of how the setting works" card, and as I said there was a specific mechanical design philosophy behind the hard limits. It works for a lot of people just as the prior editions without attunement worked and continue to work for a lot of people.
There's a feat in the Tal'Dorei Reborn book, Mystic Conflux, that gives an extra attunement slot (plus one free casting of identify per day)
You could try giving your players access to that, or even just giving it to them all for free, and see how much a fourth slot impacts your game before deciding on whether to increase the number further
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
High level characters may have the same number of attunement slots as low-level, but they have much better items in most games. They also have items that don't need the slots.
I’d say don’t change it. In addition to the points made above, it forces you to make choices about your character. No one can do everything well; that philosophy extends to items. You can’t have everything you might like to have.
I dislike house rules that give class abilities away to everyone. Extra attunement slots is an artificer’s thing. YMMV of course.
As characters advance in power, their focus should be on finding a few key items of very rare or even legendary power, rather than hoarding every green and blue item in the book.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
Our game has an additional slot that can only be for an Uncommon or Common item.
We altered the rule for our table to coincide with PB, so it scales per level. It works for us because the dm changes stats anyway 2014. And 2024 MM is insane at higher levels CR22+ and throw some minions in balance.
I would suggest letting your party put on as many magic items that normally require Attunement as you would like. Or maybe ramp it up for 1 extra slot for every 3 levels.
You will quickly see why it is in place.
I'm glad they did away with magic item "slots"... "one helmet or hat..one cloak... one necklace or amulet... two rings..." because just when you think you're filled up with items suddenly a splatbook comes out with magic earrings, magic anklet charms, magic eyebrow piercings....
I wouldn't have a problem with changing the attunement rules from 3 to level/5... but something tells me your players wouldn't be excited by going from 3 to 3.
Pantagruel666, I thinkn they meant 3 + 1 per 5 levels, and they are not my players, not the DM of this game.
I'm sure they did, but maliciously misunderstanding is a key DM skill.
I suppose as a capstone Feat you could award an extra slot. But really, how many games get that far?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
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"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Its a great feat. Not broken but gives just a little help
My Friday group is expressing the same frustration. The biggest factor seems to be those still-useful low level items that demand the same attunement requirements as the powerful late game stuff.
What I'm thinking of doing for my next high level game is this: Once you reach level 10, you have the option to attune to 4 magic items instead of 3, but only if two of those items are of Common or Uncommon rarity.
If your problem here is high level characters and common/uncommon attunement required items, why not just create ( homebrew) a non attunement version of the item if having it is not considered unbalancing?
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
The intended behavior is that you replace your low level items. The major purpose of attunement is to limit buff stacking (and thus enforce bounded accuracy) without having a complicated (and abusable) item slot system.
Also I took a look and for the DMG the list was pretty small once you cut out all the weapon repetitions and mostly stuff that gave notable buffs or uses attunement to limit class usage