and magic items boosting your stats to 18, etc. Just like the ogre item...it's hard to keep myself from using it, and hard to not consider it when creating a character with point buy. I mean, why put points into something if you know you're going to be able too boost it 10 minutes from now?
I don't think it's good item design when they override your ability scores and make them irrelevant. Sure, you can argue that you still have to make the choice to wear such an item and not something else, but I still think your ability scores should always matter. Only min-maxing comes out of items completely overriding ability scores, knowing you can always buff an 8 to 18. Headband of Intellect would be much better granting +2 to Int and would also benefit Wizards as such.
I've never really used this item for long since I don't tend to kill the ogres, but the one defence that might apply here is that with the item, you can't actually increase your intelligence beyond that, and it stops being useful once you go over 18. So you'll never get to hit a +5 ability modifier. Is that valid? Does it make sense?
Sure, that makes total sense from what I think of as a current gamer perspective. But I'm also from old school AD&D times where, as I remember it at least, ability scores for PCs were 3-18. Having any 18 ability score was amazing beyond belief. Having an 18 INT meant you were literally among the most intelligent people on the entire planet. You would never meet someone smarter than you, ever. The only creatures that were more intelligent were basically gods in their own right.
So even the idea of increasing an ability beyond what was "humanly" possible was a huge stretch of the imagination, or one that would come at a dire cost, like permanently reducing STR or CON or DEX by numerous points.
"Expecting" from the get go to increase one or more ability scores to god-like levels seems ridiculous to me. But like I said, I don't have a current gamer perspective.
My ideal situation for an item like this is that once acquired, you find an inscription or an NPC has knowledge that if you decide to put this on...not only will you become vastly intelligent, but you will also feel the physical effects and become as weak as a child and as sickly as a leper, even for weeks after taking the item off.
Rather than, how do I best utilize all of the god-like ability hacks to maximize my party's stats? Boring....
This may have strayed a bit off-topic, but to bring it full circle, rolling ability scores does in fact make the game more fun and immersive in my opinion. Being stuck with a stupid fighter that fails all of his INT saving throws but can just crush any non-magic foes is flavorful. I personally don't see how it's fun to play a character that's smarter, wiser, stronger, faster, etc. than any person you've ever met in your life. It's the entitlement era for sure.
