Using the full library of D&D 3.5e books, which magic items, if any, can grant a player a +1 to an ability score?
+1 Bonus Ability Score Magic Items in D&D 3.5E
dnd-3.5emagic-items
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Best Answer
There are no items that grant a +1 enhancement bonus to any ability score. I have looked.
Ultimately, a +1 enhancement bonus to an ability score would welcome a lot of min-maxing in ability score point-buy (and, to a lesser extent, rolling or arrays). It would allow you to fairly trivially take an odd number for a score (saving points, especially since the following even number will have increased marginal cost for scores of 13 or higher), and get that last point with a cheap magic item. In short, such items allow characters to pretty easily boost their less-valuable ability scores, mitigating any weaknesses those lower scores would have caused (those scores important enough to get enhancement bonuses anyway, probably a primary score along with Constitution, don’t really change much since characters tend to try to get the largest enhancement bonus possible from them). It also lowers the effective “cost” of ability score requirements, for those who aren’t meeting them naturally (which I might buy would improve the game, but YMMV—Wizards, at least, didn’t seem to think so).
There are, however, the consumable manuals and tomes that, when read, grant a permanent inherent bonus to an ability score. Those are made with wish, and like wish itself, they can grant bonuses from +1 to +5.
But those inherent bonuses, as well as the ability score bumps every 4 levels, are far more valuable than the 1,000 gp of a hypothetical +1-enhancement bonus item, and thus are less “abusive” as alternatives to having the scores you need.