Correction: According to Crawford, the tattoos can overlap, much like in real life. The areas are literally just flavor.

I actually loved the idea of magical tattoos so much from the Unearthed Arcana that my campaign's first session was all about escorting a tattoo artist to a festival in exchange for a free minor tattoo for each of my players

What I like about the tattoos is that it creates a template to take existing magic items and make them into tattoos based on skin coverage and rarity.

I definitely won’t be holding my players to these specific rules. In classic dnd fashion “the code be more what you call guideline than actual rules”

Couple things regarding Blood Fury Tattoo and weapon attacks: The reason why it doesn't say "melee weapon attack" is because you can trigger the damage with ranged weapon attacks such as from crossbows and longbows. An unarmed strike is a weapon attack, specifically a melee weapon attack. What it isn't is a melee weapon, meaning it can't be used as a medium for things like Magic Weapon and Elemental Weapon spells, or when interacting with features that require a melee weapon in one hand such as the Dueling Fighting Style.

What's interesting about the Blood Fury Tattoo is that it says nowhere its effect is limited to once per turn. As long as you have charges, you can activate it each time you hit, which can melt bosses pretty quickly on a character with a lot of attacks per turn.

I like Mercer's tattoo mechanics much better than what we got officially.

I'd think I'd set the tattoos you could have to be equal to your constitution modifier, minimum of one, instead of atunement slots. The rarity of the tattoo would take up more points of constitution. So at 20 CON, a legendary tattoo would take 3 out of 5 points you have... That way, I could at least try to to keep balance and fun.

Crawford did say on Twitter that tattoos can overlap, and the size chart is not a limit, but for flavor. I think the reasoning behind making them individually attuned, is so no one feels like they HAVE to get them. It was almost a waste before, if you didn’t get as many tattoos as possible if they only took one slot. Not to mention there was a weird gray area when it came to things sharing an attunement slot. Though that said, the irony, to which they were released in the same book as the armorer was is not lost on me. (Also spellwrought tattoos do not return the needle after they have been used!!! What a waste!!!)

These tattoos were such a let down in their final form that I just realised I'm 10+ minutes in and I've barely been paying attention. This isn't a slight on Ted it's just the topic is such a disappointment.

I like the flavor of tattoos, but idk if i like them as magic items? Interesting but strange

I get that they take up an atonement slot for balancing reasons, I was hoping you could have up to 3 without taking all 3 attunement slots. Oh well

Could be fun homebrew to flavor it by having the players have to rescue a wizard/tattoo artist that can perform some of these at the cost of some kind of arcane ink material. And have a lot of the story revolve around this material. And of course having an evil monk with the legendary tattoo that falls off when you beat him.

For my campaign, I decided to link the number of potential tattoos you can have under one attunement slot to your CON mod (minimum of 1). But you have to make a CON save DC 12 + number of tattoos you're attempting to attune to at once. If you fail, you have to start the attunement process all over. Also, you can de-attune without removing the tattoo from your body. So, you can attune to whatever tattoos you think would be most useful at the end of a rest.

Hero forge are really stepping things up!

Barrier Tattoo - This could be useful in situations where the group is at risk of being captured, and want some sort of protection after the enemy inevitably removes their weapons and regular armor. Alternatively, maybe it's not polite to wear armor during one of those high-society parties, and long-sleeved shirts and such are useful for hiding tattoo ink. Granted, not useful for the Barbarian or Monk, or those with Natural Armor, unless their AC is below say 18 when they have the option for the 18 AC one. In that case, I'd homebrew in some Tattoos of Protection, similar to the Ring/Cloak of Protection.

Dm: “but your not wearing armor, how are you not getting hit?” Player: “tattoos son”

I want that blood fury tattoo on my barbarian rogue so badly. Extra damage, self healing and regular reaction sneak attacks, yes please.

When the UA came out my dm let me use both the Coiling Grasp and the Eldritch Claw tattoos and I flavored them as the curse mark wrapped around Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke's arm and played as a knock off version of him lol

i cant wait to get that magic tramp stamp

Yooo 60k nice! I've been around since your Astral Self Monk UA video

I'd prefer minor bonuses without an attunement slot. Something like an increase to movement speed or a simple plus 1 to unnarmed or something similar. The attunement just doesnt really make sense to me. I get for balance reasons, but just narratively it's difficult for me to come up with a reason you'd need to attune to them.

I home brewed the spellwrought tattoo to be attunement and kind of act like a magic initiate feat does, allowing the player who is attuned to the tattoo to cast the spell on it once a day, at will if it’s a cantrip tattoo. My players love it and haven’t really abused it, the rogue took booming blade and the divine soul sorcerer took aura of purity (I limited them to 3rd level spells, uncommon tattoo)

Spellwrought tattoos would give a common magic item method for any class to one time cast Find Familiar. Great rewards for Druids or Rangers.

Glad to see you making content through the pandemic been a while since I could sit in watch but your content has Krissy gotten better

With the Eldritch Claw Tattoo would the increase in unarmed strike distance stack with a Way of the Astral Self monks increase in unarmed strike distance when using your astral arms?

I personally like he tattoos. I have changed the spellwrought tattoo slightly to be that cantrip tattoos have infinite use if they are on the skin of a spellcaster. Higher level spells could have multiple uses if more gold and time at the tattoo parlor is put in.

Re: rarity and body coverage. Play a Centaur, two torso's!

With physic being an option for the absorption tattoo if they can get it a bear totem would have resistance to every damage type in the game. Though at that point it wouldn’t change how you normally deal with them by going after mental saves to disable them somehow.

I would suggest using alchemist's supplies for crafting or even applying tattoos.

Eldritch claw tattoo also pretty awesome on a moon druid

I feel like I’m the only one that really likes the tattoos in their final form.

Other people in the comments are complaining that Magic Tattoos SHOULD had different mechanics, but WotC decided to play it cautious and have them be magic items that attach to your skin, so I guess I'm gonna judge them against magic items with similar effects and similar rarities: Absorbing Tattoo: Is basically an upgraded version of the Armor of Resistance. The tattoo version doesn't require armor proficiency/allows you to wear OTHER magic armor, and has a once per day immunity. Makes sense that the Tattoo is one step up in rarity.✔ Barrier Tattoo: I suppose the Uncommon variety can be seen as a downgraded (but less rare) version of the Bracers of Defense. Like the Bracers of Defense it requires attunement can boost your AC from the base 10+DEX up to 12+DEX; unlike the Bracers of Defense it can't stack with Unarmored Defense or Mage Armor. It CAN stack with the Bracers themselves, but that's using two attunement slots to get a not-that-impressive AC of 14+DEX. I'd say it's a decent early game item for Wizards and Sorcerers to save them the spell slot of Mage Armor.✔ The Rare Barrier Tattoo: The thing is there's already a rare magic item that's medium armor you can wear without needing to be proficient, it's called Elven Chain. The Elven Chain gives 14+DEX (max 2) AC, so the Tattoo is technically giving you more, on top of being concealable, but Elven Chain is a non-attunement item. Technically the Tattoo is stronger, but not enough of an added benefit to be worth the attunement slot.❌ The Very Rare Barrier Tattoo: I'd like to point out that to a character that IS proficient in heavy armor, the lack of stealth penalties and strength requirements is something you can get from Mithral Plate an Uncommon, non-attunement item. It IS also fully concealable Full Plate, something you technically can't get anywhere else, but attunement slots are valuable and when you have access to Very Rare items, a flat 18 AC is probably a downgrade for any martial character. But back to Wizards and Sorcerers, they don't have many non-attunement options for upgrading their AC besides the aforementioned Elven Chain, and I think 18 AC with no physical stat requirements at all is enough of an upgrade over Elven Chain to make it worthwhile.✔ Something I'm considering for the Barrier Tattoos is maybe making them not take up attunement slots for characters that ARE proficient in the corresponding armor. I like the idea of a Fighter decked out in magical plate armor also having a somewhat weaker magical tattoo ready for when the situation demands stealth. I don't want to make them non-attunement in general because I don't want to make Elven Chain obsolete. Blood Fury Tattoo: It terms of damage, 4d6 is similar to a Divine Smite with a 2nd level spell slot, AND it heals you. I'd say that yeah 10 uses of that per day is worth the rarity and attunement.✔ Coiling Grasp Tattoo: This is a pretty good attack considering its rarity.✔ Eldritch Claw Tattoo: This is a nice item, the 1 minute of extra reach and force damage makes it worth the attunement✔... but I notice that it's the only way for a Fighter with the Unarmed Fighting style to deal magical damage, and that makes me wish there was a non-attunement option. Maybe even +1, +2, +3 variants on a non-attunement version. Ghost Step Tattoo: Walking through walls for two turns is fun.✔ Illuminator's Tattoo: I'm with Ted on this one, this shouldn't need attunement.❌ Lifewell Tattoo: Like with the Absorbing Tattoo, it provides resistance to a damage type and a convenient once per day benefit.✔ Masquerade Tattoo: This is a weaker but more common version of the Hat of Disguise.✔ Shadowfell Brand Tattoo: Like Ted said, this combines two Uncommon magic items into one rare one. It's nice.✔ Spellwrought Tattoos: Are Spell Scrolls without the class and level requirements. I guess the caveat there is that any Spellcaster can scribe a Spell Scroll of any spell they know, but access to Spellwrought Tattoos is up to DM fiat. ... Except for Artificers being able to make 1st level Spellwrought Tattoos with infusions.

Can you share this tattooed monk homebrew? I loved that class in 3.5 and I wouldn't mind playing one again.

The thing about the size of tattoos isn't a limit, it is just to show how big they are. Jeremy Crowford confirmed that they can overlap, and the only limitation is attunement.

CREME BRULEE Tattoo on Gelatios Cube and Oozes. ;D

Perfect feature for the canvas that is the naked barbarian/monk. The real magic can be the laws broken every day by the brazen hero.

"start 2021 off with a bang" phrasing.

So, what exactly do I need to make a spell wrought tattoo? It says I need a special type of needle, which melds onto the skin of the person you're tattooing. Does the needle vanish completely after the tattoo used? Do I need proficiency in arcana? What exactly would I need to bring to my DM to have my character start making tattoos during their in game down time? Like, what are the game mechanic rules I need to follow to start doing this? I am playing a witch type of character and I want to unload with spell scrolls and tattoos.

I'm not sure a wizard would use an attunement slot for a rare (15+dex max2) barrier tattoo, when he can get for NO ATTUNEMENT a elven chain shirt, giving him 14+dex(max2) (and profienci with chain shirt so he can continue casting his spells). So at the cost one 1 attunement you gain 1 AC and not wearing armor, might as well grab a ring or cloak of protection instead, you'll get teh same +1 to AC but also +1 to your saving throws. I see those tattoos usefull for monks, who cannot even wear that elven chain shirt, but the monk can only really benefit from the very rare 18AC tattoo, untill he reach level 8 (where he should have a dex+wis modifier = to 8) and if you find a very rare item before level 8... your DM is pretty generous... About the spellwrought tatoo you forgot about the infamous unlimited familiar chain. Since anyone cna use that tattoo, and any beast can receive a tattoo (we often tattoo various beast to identifie them in real life) SO technically if you have a artificier able to craft infuse those tattoo, you could tattoo your familiar witht the familiar spell, then the familiar familiar with a familiar tatoo etc... creating a chain of familiar owning a familiar with a familiar who control a familiar etc... and use them to ready action and help every party member on every attack they deal, every round. I know adventurer League already have a provision against this The provision was created for the simulacrum spell and about familiar as well. for exemple, the Adventurer League provision state that : - if your familiar, your simulacrum, animal companion (and I asume the new artificer defender woul dbe included here) or any NPC under your control attune to a magic item, it counts as one of your magic item attunement. - if your simulacrum cast simulacrum, it count as one of your simulacrum, so the first simulacru disapear as per the spell - if your simulacrum cast Wish and roll the backlash where he can never cast wish again, then you cannot cast wish ever again Meaning if your familiar would cast familiar, it would probably act just like if you casted find familiar a econd time. But you can still provide a familiar to your entire party. Then I would give the party member without a concentration option (except barbarian... because rage) a concentration spell like Bless or protection from evil and good or shield of faith, so they can benefit the party without costing them any ressources, they just need to concentrate on Bless.

I'm working on a Magic Tattoo that gets more powerful it becomes the more it sperds across your body and to get the final form you must attune to it

oh lord ted an artificer that specializes in spell tattoos! That is cool but also kinda scary.

How would those tats work with a Monk? Do they stack with unarmored defense?

I really hope you get 100k by your birthday :)

the audio/video isn't synced for me? love the vid, just tryna call it out if you havent seen yet

Magic Tatto Barrier is FANTASTIC for pets! Homculus Servant and the B.Smith's guardian. Both can get higher AC with this. which helps their survivabilty considerably. And if they die.. well the needle is there. be sure to grab it; is very possible to be lost froever though

I'm most likely going to assign each rarity a number value (common=1, uncommon-2 and so forth) and just say that you can attune x number of points for one attunement slot. Try and make them more appealing for the players by not let them be too overpowered.

I like the tattoo system, it's not perfect but the bonuses are really good for a majority of them. Obviously, it'll take a little homebrewing to be perfect, but I'm not against that. I'm definitely making them require a specialist in order to apply though, and maybe have 2-3 separate attunement slots for specifically tattoos. I definitely hope future content books include more options, they're a great system.

I’m disappointed in the spellwrought tattoo because it’s a on time use (even the cantrips! Which defeats the whole point of cantrips). I get a one time use for high level spells but 3rd to 1st level could have been made once a day. They’re are plenty of races that get once a day low level spells and they’re are plenty of feats for similar effects so I just don’t get why it can’t function the same way? like was it really that much of a balance issue?

Do you have to concentrate on the spells from a spellwrought tattoo? I can't find anything official wording saying yes or no.

My DM has ruled that, because you can't write a spell scroll for a spell you don't have, then you can't CREATE a needle for a spell you can't cast. My artificer loves keeping an extra cure/ buff spell handy thanks to replicate magic item.

The barrier tattoo stacks with the barbs unarmed defense, so, dump dex, max con, you can have 23 ac

In my game, magic tattoos are purely hag magic (and have been playing that way for years), and so not generally available to PCs unless they make a deal with a fey creature. Their powers are unique and usually come with side-effects.

The barrier one isn't very good in general due to its rarity and needing an attunement slot. As a DM I'd have to ignore the rarity of these things. Plus they don't give +1, +2, or +3 like actual armors, so they'll use an attunement slot and STILL be worse than actual armor which can get +s with no attunement. The druid thing is the only actual use I can think of them for, because sorcs can do a 1 level dip to hexblade and have max AC with 14 dex (and they'll usually do a 2 level dip to sorlock) and wizards can do a 1 level cleric dip to get full plate or medium armor as well, and those dips also give Shield proficency which wizards/sorcs can use freely.

I wish the can trip tattoos were permanent. Keep all common can trip tattoos at base level of damage and the rarity increases as the damage increases.

Can't help but think that this should have been the book to introduce the tattoo monk.

Would fit an alchemist artificer thematically.

Just out of curiosity... would the AC tattoo stack with unarmoured defence? Because if so... that'd be a handy way for some classes to gain AC without armour.

The barrier tattoo might work with other unarmored skills. Since this is more like the mage armor spell which doesn't stop a barbarian's 10+Dex+Con unarmored defense.

Rune Knight Giant Might + Unarmed Fighting Style + Eldritch Claw/Maul + Crusher feat + Sentinel feat. + Cage Fighter feat (my group combined tavern brawler & grappler into 1 great feat)

I don’t think you avoid components entirely with the Spellwrought Tattoo since I read it as needing the component at the time the spell is cast into the tattoo.

Surprised you didn't mention Mercer's use of stat tattoo's. iirc it's a +1 with no attunement.

Since most characters have 4 limbs I would rule the attunement differently since they would be limited to 1 legendary, a few common/uncommon, or 2 rare/very rare and not easily removable but that's just me as a DM

Me this whole video: Tattunement Also, on that last tattoo, the one where you were talking about using a Raise Dead spell without using any diamonds. Could you potentially have this spell and use it if you weren’t a caster? For instance, a fighter using this tattoo to Raise their party’s cleric?

Bloodfury tattoo on gloomstalker 5 assassin X maybe with crossbow expert for more fun, if you get surprise auto crit on 4 attacks 32 d6 bonus damage.

There's nothing preventing a future Tattooed Monk subclass having a benefit where they can either not count a certain number of magic tattoos as taking up attunement slots, or gaining extra attunement slots that can be used only for magic tattoos. Really, I think the size condition is what they should have focused on instead of the attunement condition: instead of saying "hand or foot" or "limb" or "torso" or "torso and limbs" space, they should have just had it be percentage of body coverage. Some creatures have more arms than others, some have more legs. Do centaurs with magic tattoos get more space for spellwrought tattoos? And why would a tattooed goliath or firbolg have the same potential magical power as a tattooed halfling, let alone human? Making it percentage instead would have, I think, solved these problems.

Have a very rare barrier tatt for my main sorlock I play and it has saved her so many times.. I’m an idiot for dumping dex let’s be honest as after a while even dark ones own blessing wasn’t keeping up with the ass beating I was taking most combats lol

I am not using the needle attunement. De-attunement just causes the tattoo to fade away.

It's worth noting that the size of the tats is self limiting. I wouldn't allow 2 legendary tats on 1 pc.

For the barrier tattoo would that conflict with mage armor? Technically the tattoo isn’t armor but what are your thoughts?

Even if you get 2 legendary tattoos, you cannot attune to both of them. The side retirement of your body won't let it happen period. Legendary requires 2 limbs and your whole torso. So first legendary tattoo takes up your torso, so no more room for a second legendary. I think at most you can get 1 very rare (taking up the other 2 limbs) and an uncommon (scalp). Unless your head is considered a "limb" for spacing requirements for a rare... Then you'll be fully tatted up. So I don't see why (in my own campaigns) you can't allow them all to be one attunement slot.

OK Eldridtch claw is just creating monkey D Luffy

I am currently playing a level 6 monk and I plan to ask my dm for a reflavoured insignia and the claw tattoo. Didn't know about them.

High magic game, spellwrought tattoo, revivify tattoo for everyone.

Another re-hash of stuff from earlier additions. Tattoos have been around since at least 2nd ed.

I'm so salty that the killed tattoos. Cause our skt campaign if we ever picked it up again my character is so illegal now. Cause I have 5 tattoos on My monk.

The whole point of of the area of the tattoo was to limit how many tattoos you could have on that 1 slot.

It disappoints me that a large chunk of the magic items we got in Tasha's are Wizard spellbooks or a rather underwhelming Magic Tattoo. It really bums me out since we could've gotten some really cool magic items for a bunch of different classes.

Don’t get me wrong, these are pretty cool but it could of been much better.

Honestly making them each a separate attunement is a good thing, otherwise you would force anyone trying to optimize their character to pack as many tattoos as possible.

I'd keep the old all tattoos are a single atunement.

blood thirsty tattoo gave me wrathful healing weapon enchantment of 3.5.

The way he talks about these are like just anyone can get them, especially when talking about spellwrought ignoring materials or having an arm full of shields I don't know a single dm that ever just let's their players have whatever they want, and I can't see these costing less than, say, the diamond cost of a revivify.

I am very much not a fan of items and abilities that have a static DC. Wildshapes should adjust abilities based on your states and proficiency, items like the coiling tattoo should scale based on your PB and or stats. Static DC's feel far too limiting

I like the idea of magic tattoos, but I would rather homebrew them. The fact that Wizards is pandering to indecisive players by making the tattoos extremely temporary goes against the theme of them being tattoos in the first place. Not enough things in this game are permanent. If they can be removed, it must be through a magic ritual that functions like laser tattoo removal and burns the tattoo off. That way players can’t be so frivolous with deciding things like this.

I'm kinda dissapointed with the tattoo attunement. Before you could basically mix and match tattoos to create one magic item that was only limited by body space. Now they're no different from regular magical items. There's no reason to treat these any different from normal magic items.

Nice

Was expecting something like Critical Role Magic tatts. I don't like this

I think Tattoos were handled pretty poorly. I think they deserved their own section of magic items. Most of the "magic items" that are tattoos had the same attunement text. They could have stated "unless otherwise noted: the pin turns into the tattoo... etc, etc.". I think there should have been more information about where and how you get these tattoos. Is there a magical tattoo artist? Would a sample magical tattoo parlor had been too much to ask for? They are a neat idea - but very weakly fleshed out... like many of the new optional rules proposed in this book. I think there should have been a way for these to be counteracted - damage to the skin, removal of a limb, covering it up? Its just seems like a free magic spell - no requirements or anything. It SHOULD have been unremovable... like a tattoo.... Should have been tied to a wizard that applies them, with a price or material component (other than a needle). So many missed opportunities. I think this is one of the things I was most disappointed with. Here's a new type of magic item.

Just ignore the attunement. 🤷‍♂️

So Nice 💘💘💘💘💘💘

huh, did not know you were Jewish

They're bad, not worth using. On top of a really obnoxious and nonsensical mechanic of the tattoo just being a weird needle that absorbs into your skin and disappears if you unattune to it. Completely kills the vibe of a magic tattoo imo, which is the feeling of permanence and ritualism. They were almost worth using in the UA with the tattoos counting as one item overall. Much like that piece of garbage "Custom Lineage" which has the sole redeeming factor of being another option for a bonus feat. Racial balance is trash. Elves are overtly better than other races with some that come close such as Tiefling, and Firbolg is half decent.