Headband of fashion awareness, while wearing this headband you are acutely aware that you should not be seen wearing it in public?

awaken a animal and give them this and then make them a wizard

Most magic items don't have to look exactly like the picture in the book. Other than unique items such as The Wand of Orcus, magic items can look like anything you want. When running a game I like to consider where the item came from to determine it's aesthetic. A headband of intellect from the tribes of the north would probably not even be metal but actually braided leather with a gem set in the front. One from Thay would probably be tiny bones wired together into the band with a raven skull in the front.

If one wanted The Wand of Orcus to look like a fairy princess wand, that could be done as well. It would not be right, but it could be done. 

If a zombie asks for brains, give them this.

The zombie will finally be satisfied.

I have a question, Say you have a character with very low intelligence- if they were to wear this headband to learn a new skill such as sailing or a new language, would they retain the information after the headband is removed?

Does this allow you to multiclass into wizard if your base intelligence is below 13?

I don't think so, since you'd drop down to your previous int score if you un-attune to it. 

But then again, DnDbeyond lets it work, so maybe? You'd be pretty reliant on it though, since if you ever lose it you become a pretty dumb wizard. 

Or maybe it's like a paladin oath, where if you lose the headband you forget how to magic? 

Might be fun to play with, with a lot of risk in that kind of shenaniganery.

I could imagine putting this on my size changing snake companion name Jörmungandr. * 0 *

I do believe this should be set as a rare item. You can get someone with an eighth intelligent put this headband on and then he's your a magic user. Any item that can increase one's ability that far from the 8 to 19 automatically should be a rare item.

Learning a skill takes time. You can’t just, “I know Kung Fu!” like on the TV show, Chuck. Once you learn a skill, you can retain it, but without this item, your base Int score would decrease, so while you’d get the bonus for the skill, you’re still using your base Int score to roll without the item. This would also only apply to Int-based skills.

And if you plan on using this to multiclass, just keep in mind that you can lose an item, at which point you might lose all those levels if your base Int is too low.

Flavour is free

chain thong made me laugh tho

Quote from TashLlew >>

it may make you intelligent, but you'd look like an idiot wearing that! It's like a kinky princesses chain-thong for your head.

Hehe... I suppose the question is:   Once you're wearing it...  do you conclude the trade off is worth it or not?

No, an ASI affects your intelligence. If it is less than 19 then you can consider it 19 while wearing the headband.

Even if you do let the ASI affect your Intelligence it would play out as such (Lets say Int 13 for the example):

• ASI improves your Intelligence to 20 (While wearing the headband).
• As your Intelligence is now above 19, the headband has no effect.
• Your intelligence reverts to its non headband state (WITH the ASI applied), so your Intelligence is now 14 (Was 13)
• Your Intelligence is now less than 19, so the headband sets your Intelligence to 19

It’s 19 until removed. Adding ASI does nothing to effect the ability score unless it would bring your Int score above 19 without wearing the headband.

So if you’re Int is at 16 and you’re wearing the headband- your Int becomes 19. If you add 2 ASI to you Int (making the base without headband 18) - then your Int remains at 19.

If you use another ASI to increase your Int to 20 (from 18 while not wearing the headband), then your Int is 20 and effective renders the headband moot.

If you can spend 1d6 x 100 gp to be smarter than an aboleth, a species which has a shared genetic memory spanning all the way back to the dawn of their creation, then why doesn't every wealthy noble or merchant have 19 INT? They can pay an adventurer 1000gp to kill some souped up bandits, but they don't have a headband of intellect? If we say that "magic items are more difficult to acquire than simply paying gold", then why isn't it a higher rarity? The fact that it's "uncommon" means it's still a problem that you can solve by throwing money at it, even if that cost ends up being several times the price. Is there any price you wouldn't pay to be a genius? What if your rival was willing to pay to become one? You've already lost the moment you decided not to buy it.

This item is dumb. It should be Very Rare or even Legendary. 

I guess it depends if magic items in your world are being actively made or not. Many DMs run games where the art of creating certain items has been lost to time (hence why they're neat rewards, and why they make sense as loot in dungeons, caves, hoards etc). 

But you're totally right - if these were literally made in every city for the low price of 50gp (or even the max recommended of 500gp) every crime boss and mid-level adventurer would have one. 

Mine seems to be broken. Wearing, but there is no button to attune and the score isn't changing. The item isn't even tagged for attunement... Will try in different browser or something... 

Quote from Ashoken >>

Mine seems to be broken. Wearing, but there is no button to attune and the score isn't changing. The item isn't even tagged for attunement... Will try in different browser or something... 

 

 

 The attunement section should be all the way at the very bottom of your character's inventory tab, so once you've got the item equipped, ya gotta scroll down to actually attune to it.

Quote from MrSkeltal_01 >>

If you can spend 1d6 x 100 gp to be smarter than an aboleth, a species which has a shared genetic memory spanning all the way back to the dawn of their creation, then why doesn't every wealthy noble or merchant have 19 INT? They can pay an adventurer 1000gp to kill some souped up bandits, but they don't have a headband of intellect? If we say that "magic items are more difficult to acquire than simply paying gold", then why isn't it a higher rarity? The fact that it's "uncommon" means it's still a problem that you can solve by throwing money at it, even if that cost ends up being several times the price. Is there any price you wouldn't pay to be a genius? What if your rival was willing to pay to become one? You've already lost the moment you decided not to buy it.

This item is dumb. It should be Very Rare or even Legendary. 

Uncommon means it is uncommon, *for a magic item.* Magic items themselves are rare af, world dependant of course, but it is absolutely not something you can get just by throwing money at it.

Even in the optional rules for buying magic items in Xanathars, it explicitly says it's possible the item you seek won't even be available, and there is no guarantee of success no matter how much money you throw at it.

True, you could make a “sound board” using magic mouth.