Magic items are an integral element of Dungeons & Dragons, synonymous with the types of valuable and sought-after loot adventurers can encounter in their travels. Magic items come in all shapes and sizes, offering fun minor effects, unique utility, or potentially helping a character in combat by improving their defenses or offensive capabilities. When examining the various magic items of D&D, one of the most common traits an item may have is that item requiring "attunement."
To help newcomers to Dungeons & Dragons better understand their magic items, we're going to be explaining everything you need to know about attunement in D&D.
What Is Attunement?
Attunement is a special magical bond that can be formed between a creature and a magic item. If a magic item requires attunement, only the attuned creature can benefit from that item's effects. For example, a Ring of Protection provides a creature wearing it with an additional +1 bonus to their armor class. While an attuned creature would gain this bonus, if they were to remove the ring from their finger to lend it to a friend, that creature wouldn't gain the benefits of the ring until they'd attuned to it.
It's important to note that even if a party plans on sharing a powerful magic item, no more than one creature can be attuned to a given item at the same time. Additionally, regardless of how much magical gear an adventurer may have in their possession, a creature is incapable of attuning to more than three items at once. This means that if a character has over three attunable magic items, they must choose to use the three that they think will be best suited to a given scenario.
Players should also bear in mind that when it comes to attuning to different magic items, common sense should be used. For example, while a character can potentially attune to up to three magic items, a single character can only be attuned to one pair of magic boots at a time.
How To Attune To An Item?
To attune to an item, a character must spend a short rest (one hour) practicing with the item at hand or studying it. Upon concluding that short rest, a character becomes attuned to that item, gaining an understanding of its functionality and any command words it may have. It should be noted that a character is only capable of attuning to a single magic item throughout one short rest, so if a character is aiming to attune to several magic items, additional time must be spent to do so.
Artificers And Attunement
Fully added to D&D's fifth edition in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Artificer class is an option based around the creation and use of magic items. While creatures are normally only capable of attuning to three magic items at once, for those interested in creating a character that makes use of even more magic items, Artificers can increase this threshold as they gain levels. At level ten, an artificer gains the ability to attune to up to four magic items, at level fourteen, they can attune to up to five, and upon reaching level eighteen, an artificer can attune to up to six different magic items.
Source: Read Full Article