[RPG] Can the helpers reuse a Crystal Ball repeatedly

attunementdnd-5emagicmagic-items

The Crystal Ball has very little text – it requires attunement, and anyone attuned can cast Scrying with a set DC while touching it. Obviously, this has limitations, such as when Scrying fails, you can't scry on that person for 24 hours! But someone else can…

What if my helpers each attune to my Crystal Ball to use it after I fail to scry on an Ancient Gold Dragon? It has legendary resistance, so it's actually impossible to scry on with the first try without attacking the dragon first or something else.

Can we do this 24 (or 25, I haven't checked) times before the next day on the same person, or will something stop us besides the Scrying spell, like attunement or magic item rules?

Best Answer

You can not use it 24 times a day, due to attunement rules.

For attuning to a magic item one must spend a short rest:

Attuning to an item requires a creature to spend a short rest focused on only that item while being in physical contact with it. [...]

Hence, if a Scrying fails and one of your companions wants to try, they must spend a short rest to attune to it. The time needed before attempting to cast another Scrying is then 70 minutes: 10 minutes of casting and 1 hour for the short rest. Your group can cast the spell from the Crystal Ball 21 times per day, not 24.

Pay attention that a person does not need to spend a short rest to unattune, once another creature tries to attune to the same item the first attunement ends (emphasis mine):

A creature's attunement to an item ends if the creature no longer satisfies the prerequisites for attunement, if the item has been more than 100 feet away for at least 24 hours, if the creature dies, or if another creature attunes to the item. A creature can also voluntarily end attunement by spending another short rest focused on the item, unless the item is cursed.

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