Games:
Magic Item Slots

This graphic is a sheet for tracking the locations of magic items. It uses my custom slot/effect system.

It's unfair that some ability-boosting items take up valuable slots while others take up slots you probably wouldn't be using anyway. The paladin in my campaign couldn't easily get a bonus to both Charisma and saves because the items that boost these stats are both cloaks. The monk's periapt of wisdom conflicted with the amulet of natural armor. Meanwhile, the wizard had no sacrifice to make to wear a headband of intellect. So I re-arranged the ability-boosters and other standard number-boosters so that they wouldn't conflict. Here's the system I'm using now. It's a little different from the one I posted in 2002 because 3.5 eliminates a slot (by making robe and armor the same slot).

For your own use, you can download a version of the sheet that doesn't refer to my nonstandard slot/effect correlations.

—JoT
November 2002,
November 200
June 2004

Antti responds:

Just a thought I got while checking the updated magic item slots diagram: couldn't lenses be a slot for Wis or Int item? I think it would fit (think of the archetypal smart old professor). It would, in my opinion, fit the flavor.

(Personally, I let characters pretty much decide what slot an ability-boosting item takes, as long as it's not completely dumb, like Shoes of Intelligence or a Hat of Strength).

—Antti
December 2002

I was going to have lenses boost Wisdom, but then I saw the look on the face of the player whose monk was going to have to wear goggles to get his Wisdom boost. Lenses make sense, but they interfere too much with how a player pictures their character. Not everyone wants their character wearing glasses. (I said it could be a mask instead of a pair of goggles, but that didn't fly either.)

I don't let anything go anywhere because I like the flavor of effects being tied to body slots, and I'm mean.

—JoT
December 2002,
November 2003
 

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