One of the best parts ofDungeons & Dragonsis finding loot as you traverse a dungeon or buying some from your favorite magic supplier. Magic items have the advantage of not being tied to character classes or species abilities, giving you a way to introduce mechanics and abilities that enhance your character in unique ways.
While flaming swords and whips made from tentacles are ways to add a cool factor and a source of improved damage, non-weapon magic items can often have more beneficial uses or be used in many more situations. While there are uses for any magic item, the best ones are both iconic and handy in dire straits.
10Alchemy jug
Uncommon
The Alchemy Jug is a ceramic jug that contains multiple stoppers, allowing anyone to summon one of many types of liquid up to a certain amount each day. The liquids range from mundane types such as honey and oil to more useful types like acid, poison, and fresh water.
While seemingly ordinary, this magic item is best in the hands of creative players who can think of endless situations where they would need any kind of liquid. You can use acid to weaken a lock, pour poison into an enemy’s wine, use oil to ignite a fire, or drink honey to stay fed in the wilderness.
9Bag Of Holding
The Bag of Holding is a classic adventure tool, acting as a pocket dimension able to hold up to 500 pounds of items inside 64 cubic feet. If you are using encumbrance rules, this is the quickest and easiestway to hold itemswell above your normal limit, carrying a well-stocked armory, kitchen, and all kinds of adventuring gear in one handy sack.
In extreme cases, you can even hide inside the bag for ten minutes at a time, sticking your head out every so often for air. If you find one lying on a dungeon floor, you can turn it inside out to see what kind of loot it was holding. Just be careful, as a Bead of Fireball might be a part of the bag’s contents.
8Carpet Of Flying
Very Rare
While there are many ways to be able to fly, from casting spells to choosing certain species for your character, the Carpet of Flying is the most versatile way to provide flight to the whole party. With this item, you can scout overhead while traveling, avoid cliffs and high drops, and transport incapacitated creatures or heavy loot.
Even the smallest size available is worth using frequently, as it can support most creatures as well as their items while being faster than any other size at 80 feet per round. The largest carpets can support entire adventuring parties, and are able to travel much faster and safer than most other forms of transportation.
7Daern’s Instant Fortress
Rare
A statuette able to transform into a full-sized tower including a battlement, arrow slits, and multiple floors, Daern’s Instant Fortress is theultimate mobile base. Because you can use the tower over and over without consequence, it is always available whenever you need a tower at a moment’s notice.
This is best used as a place to sleep safely at night during long travels or more creatively as a 20-foot ladder if you have the space to summon it. The only downside is that damage to the tower is only repaired with a Wish spell, meaning it won’t last long to a sustained siege or over a long period of use.
6Deck Of Many Things
Legendary
One of the most iconic magic items and both the boon and bane of many campaigns, the Deck of Many Things contains some of the most powerful rewards and consequences available. These range from instantly becoming lost on another plane to dropping thousands of gold’s worth of gems at your feet.
With the intricate rules of the deck, you can only draw a specific number of cards when you first attempt it, stopping you from just taking one card at a time over and over. This means that for each person, the deck becomes a gamble of risk and reward that can spice up any session.
In a full deck there are 12 beneficial cards and 10 harmful ones, putting the odds of drawing a good card in your favor.
5Immovable Rod
A fairly simple magic item, the Immovable Rod is what it sounds like. You can press the button on the rod to freeze it in place, supporting up to 8,000 pounds, and even defying gravity. While simple, the immovable nature of the rod can allow creative players to use this rod in infinitely complex ways.
By placing it against a door, you can create an improvised drawbar. Pressing it while falling can save you from death, or it can be used to pin certain creatures to the ground. In the right hands, the Immovable Rod can be used to accomplish incredible feats and stump DMs in the best ways.
4Iron Bands Of Bilarro
Resembling a rubber band ball made of metal, the Iron Bands of Bilarro can be thrown to expand and trap a creature in its iron web. You only need to beat your target’s AC in order for them to become restrained, requiring a DC 20 Athletics check to escape from once every 24 hours.
This is a powerful tool to trap creatures in, as escaping from the net is nearly impossible for most creatures, and the ball can be retracted and reused over and over. Either immediately taking a creature out of the fight or stopping an escaping bandit, the bands are a tool that should always be carried by at least one party member.
While the Dimensional Shackles also act as a restraint, they must be used on incapacitated creatures.
3Ring Of Invisibility
Legendary, Requires Attunement
A legendary magic item for good reason, the Ring of Invisibility does as named, turning its wearer invisible. The creature attuned to it can do so as an action, has no limit to duration, and can be turned on and off as many times as they desire.
This makes the ring stronger than the fourth-level spell, Greater Invisibility, which requires a spell slot and only lasts for a minute. With unlimited invisibility, a creature attuned to this ring can spy on villains during secret meetings, infiltrate forts unseen, or make themselves an easily missable target during any combat encounter.
2Robe Of Useful Items
Like the Jug of Alchemy, the Robe of Useful Items is able to produce one of many random items represented on patches across its surface. When you first find the robe, it contains a number of random items that make each robe unique and potentially more useful than others.
Although you don’t get unlimited uses, what makes the robe potentially better than the jug is the types of items you can summon. These include a Looney Tunes-esque hole you can create on the ground or walls, a third-level spell scroll, 100 gold pieces, and evena riding horsecomplete with saddle.
1Sovereign Glue
Like the Immovable Rod, Sovereign Glue is a tool that is best used in the hands of creative players with a penchant for mischief and mayhem. Able to coat up to seven square feet of surface area in one flask, Sovereign Glue sticks two objects together permanently, only breaking by the use of Universal Solvent, Oil of Etherealness, or a Wish spell.
This can allow you to permanently close the gates to a castle, glue a sleeping dragon’s tail to the floor, or fully repair any crack or tear. Mostly, Sovereign Glue makes a great tool for pranks, such as gluing a king’s crown to his head or coating the seat of a chair with it.
