[guymc]

Myself, I don’t love Attribute-adding items because they are (forgive me) metagaming, not roleplaying. Anything that is generically referred to and functional only as a reference to the system rather than the setting is a suspect that the GM should watch closely. It encourages playing the rules rather than the game.

I agree that the best magic items are ones that are described within the game world in the terms those characters would use, with the actual game-rules effects largely defined by the GM.

An example: The adventurers combat a band of bandits, who almost beats them because the somewhat-corpulent bandit leader moves more deftly than a man his size would be thought to do, and swings a sword as if it was part of his own body. There is no obvious wizard in the bandit group. After some investigation with magical sensory enhancement, the source of the unusual skill appears to be the ring the bandit was wearing — a silver ring with a band of lapis encircling it that looks like an elongated bolt of blue lightning.

When wearing the ring later, the bearer gets into combat and fails a combat roll — and is told by the GM that no, the roll was successful after all. It may take a bit for the bearer to figure out the magnitude and scope of the effect. Does it just help the bearer in combat? How does it affect other actions? Is there any tradeoff for the enhancement, or occasional glitch in how it works?

The effect of the introduction of such a ring to a campaign is far more entertaining than to find a “Ring of +2 DX”. It may also be less unbalancing because there may be things about the ring the character doesn’t know until circumstances reveal them. For example, a character may miss an attack roll with a main-gauche, revealing that the enhancement only applies to the hand and arm on which the ring is worn.

Let a paid NPC analyze the ring magically, and you may get the information only in the setting’s context, not the game’s. “This band reeks of elven magic. The wearer will be more adept in combat, or at any task where hands and eyes must be sharp. There may be more, but my vision of these things grows cloudy...”

And for magic attribute-enhancement items the player characters make themselves? I’d advise GMs to apply similar appropriate limitations on them which may not be discovered immediately. These differences can be subtle and very specialized (like the one-hand-only limit on the ring mentioned here). They could be capricious and even a bit funny. (Imagine the ring only increasing DX when outdoors under sunlight. In the labyrinth by torchlight or at night — no help. Now imagine discovering that when suddenly All the Orcs in the World (TM) pour down the corridor.

Rules that treat magic like a science or manufacturing (certainly a viable option) can still remain interesting and surprising if the GM is clever and flexible. For games with a GM, I like situations where game rules give me both “the rules” and guidance as to how the rules can be implemented creatively.