I have a few homebrew magic items that require attunement. Attuning automatically equips them, and unequipping unattunes them - is that the way it's supposed to be or did I set something up incorrectly? I feel like I should be able to do one without the other; I just have to be touching the item during attunement, not necessarily have it equipped. And shouldn't I still be attuned to them after unequipping?
Yeah you need to have the item equipped; D&D Beyond assumes that attuning to the item means activating its effect(s), since most magic items have to be in someway usable in order to benefit from them.
What exactly equipped means though depends on the item, for example an equipped sword doesn't have to mean it's one of your held weapons, it just means it's available for you to use, so could be in a scabbard at your hip for example. If you have options to choose from you need to tell your DM which ones you're actually holding and actively using on a turn so they know what you're doing (and can make sure you followed the rules for drawing/stowing etc. if they enforce those).
If a magic stone communicates telepathically with you then it could be "equipped" while in a backpack etc., equipped in this sense really just means "about your person" as opposed to "left it at home".
Put another way; you could think of equipped as "ready to use" and attuned as "activated". Held/holding is separate.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
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Ah, that's helpful, thanks! I will just keep track of what's held and what's not.
Though to be honest, that would be a helpful thing in the app (some sort of checkbox for which items are actually being held) since this equipped/attuned functionality is built the way it is.
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I have a few homebrew magic items that require attunement. Attuning automatically equips them, and unequipping unattunes them - is that the way it's supposed to be or did I set something up incorrectly? I feel like I should be able to do one without the other; I just have to be touching the item during attunement, not necessarily have it equipped. And shouldn't I still be attuned to them after unequipping?
Yeah you need to have the item equipped; D&D Beyond assumes that attuning to the item means activating its effect(s), since most magic items have to be in someway usable in order to benefit from them.
What exactly equipped means though depends on the item, for example an equipped sword doesn't have to mean it's one of your held weapons, it just means it's available for you to use, so could be in a scabbard at your hip for example. If you have options to choose from you need to tell your DM which ones you're actually holding and actively using on a turn so they know what you're doing (and can make sure you followed the rules for drawing/stowing etc. if they enforce those).
If a magic stone communicates telepathically with you then it could be "equipped" while in a backpack etc., equipped in this sense really just means "about your person" as opposed to "left it at home".
Put another way; you could think of equipped as "ready to use" and attuned as "activated". Held/holding is separate.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Ah, that's helpful, thanks! I will just keep track of what's held and what's not.
Though to be honest, that would be a helpful thing in the app (some sort of checkbox for which items are actually being held) since this equipped/attuned functionality is built the way it is.