Ioun stones instead of motes? Custom Ioun stones in general?

[jelricle]

I was surfing forgottenrealms.fandom.com/ when a thought occurred to me:  Why were motes implemented as ammo, rather than as Ioun stones? 

The rule of cool would really support the latter (imho) Heck, I think Ioun was even a compatriot of Pelor!    :-D

Is it too difficult to mock up custom Ioun stones?
Or is it that the time limit cannot be overcome? (Don't they last for, like, an hour?  Who goes an hour without ever resting?)

Have we ever considered special Ioun stones?

Just idle curiosity (and Ioun stones are cool!

[chirality]

"Ioun" as a deity is a lame retcon, imo. luckily nwn and hg was around before they came up with that...

what do you mean by "implemented as" ioun stones? how exactly would you implement this in NWN? it's not 4e so the concept of ioun stones existing as "head slot" items doesn't exist and shouldn't apply. in 3e they are just a thing that goes around your head and basically serves as a piece of gear that don't even occupy an item slot (which is pretty much what hg's motes do, except they were "implemented as" using the ammo slot). ioun stones exist in PoA/HG, as an item that you activate a special power which gives a temp buff and creates a cute little vfx around your head.

pelor motes being implemented as a temporary buff wouldn't work, because the whole point of them is to be equipment, and being implemented as head slot wouldn't be great either, because the point of motes in hg is equipment that exists as a "free inventory slot" which is already true to to the theme of pre-4e ioun stones anyway.

the poa "ioun stones" you can find on hg have a duration because they're implemented as an actual spell buff. in that sense they are the same as any other item with a spell buff as a special power that you can activate from inventory. i would like to see more LL+ gear like the AA scrolls etc along this line, and i'm sure everyone agrees that having to swap gear to use equipment special buffs is annoying, but that starts going into another thread's subject

real ioun stones aren't limited to being used "one at a time" unlike hg's motes, so in that respect having motes implemented as 3e ioun stones would definitely be a hard no balance-wise. then again, just like all your questions and my responses, i'm not a dev and only speculating so

(edit: "i'm just a dev" should have been "i'm just a player, not a dev" lol)

[Paradoom]

I dont see any problem having 10 pelor ioun stones on me at the same time. None!

[jelricle]

I meant the NWN implementation of Ioun stones. They don't take up any slots, unless you consider the Ioun stone itself to be a slot, since you can only have one active at a time. 
It is cool seeing them whirl around your toon, imho, even if they only last an hour.

I was imagining Pelor's mote (and other motes) being a special Ioun stone in the mod, rather than a sling bullet (or bolt or arrow)

Even if we cannot change the existing motes, I think new Ioun stones would be cool in the game.
The existing Ioun stones are a bit lame. I guess you might use one of them if you are missing full buff of dex, con or str. (I cannot imagine caster's not being fully buffed in int, wis or cha, depending on their required ability; I suppose a fighter might want the +2 bump in one of those for saves, or skill check)
Maybe UR Ioun stones that gives +4 to an ability? or UR 5% and BUR 10% immunity to some damage type? Or one that gives +2 for each type of armor, in case you are not at the +20 for one of them?

Yah, definitely hard "no", balance wise, to have multiple Ioun stones at once.  I was just speculating on what powers would be cool on Ioun stones, as is.