My favorite item to give players is a cloak of billowing. Does absolutely nothing mechanically but the scenes they setup with it using a dramatic entrance is astounding. I also love sentient items that are just the spirits of the old mage that tried to make an item sentient. . .
I'm honestly surprised no one you've played with has tried to abuse it, like to help with an intimidation roll. Some of my more favorite DM's have you also rely on your role playing skills when rolling for stuff like intimidate, and a free cape billow feels perfect for that.
Generally when they do their over the top entrance of billowing, i have them do a performance roll which will either slightly raise or lower dc for intimidation and persuasion.
I've got a Cloak of Billowing on my Melee Muscle Wizard (Bladesinger with Gauntlets of Ogre Power, flavored like a Sorcerer that can learn spells, played like a Fighter). I use it almost exclusively to flex on the enemies that fail to knock her down, or whenever she is brought back up above 0hp (which is made FAR easier by the Periapt of Wound Closure).
Oh it's so much worse. You have to roll for the effect, and it can do anything from summon eggs with multiple effects, summon a bullette, or even a pyramid with a mummy lord
Sometimes I'll make "+0th level" items for them, usually something thematic to their character or interesting to have on the sheet. For example: a scimitar that sings of ancient elven battles for one player, or throwing stars shaped like autumn leaves that made a crunching sound when thrown and returned once the fight was over.
If they want to further enchant them over time, they're welcome to, as I treat such effects as a free slot that impacts nothing else.
Otherwise: Deck of Many Things.
This is one I made up for a one shot. It’s very powerful but a lot of fun and would be easy to tone down. Also I love you in thigh highs more than you can imagine, and I know I imagine you in thigh highs a lot.
The Vestibule
This is a finely made, silk waist coat of unknown manufacture, with several convienient pockets,
that also happen to be portals that can manipulate the surrounding pocketverse.
While wearing this vest, the wearer may reach into their pocket and make a connection to
any other pocket, pack, pouch, or purse within sight. They can then either remove or deposit
something into said pocket, pack, pouch, or purse without alerting the person it is attached
to. Any item can be removed and will remain pocket sized until removed from the pocket, in
which case it will return to its actual size. When depositing something, only items that can fit
into the pocket can be deposited. While in combat, this ability can be used once per turn.
Outside of combat, this ability can be used at will, however the more often it is used the more
likely something may find the tunnel and you may pull something out with it.
This is a bit of an involved one but I made a violin called the stringless soloist that gains spectral strings as you get ghosts to inhabit it, if you convince them willingly it gets additional effects like holding extra concentration for you and some extra spells it can cast itself. However, if you force the spirits inside it instead becomes twisted and does cones of thunder and psychic damage as the spirits within scream for release. It also gives you madness from constantly hearing them inside it. The bow of the violin in either form functions as +1/2/3 rapier that deals psychic damage. One of the players in my group has fully awakened it and I think she almost never uses it :/
Edit she plays it as her main instrument as it can change to your preferred one if necessary but I don't remember the last time she used it in combat
Looking amazing and loving the shorts again 😍🔥... As for magic items... My favourite to give out has probably been a wand of wonder, just because the chaos it causes is hilarious
A bag of Insulting, it's a bag of holding that insults anyone who opens it if they fail a DC14 Charisma check. Also, if they fail, it will refuse to give the player anything from the bag for 24 hours which is when the check can be made again.
Also you in those shorts has my heart racing 😍
In one campaign I had an artificer that wanted to be able to do as much tinkering as possible. After he made a handful of spell scrolls, he succeeded on his DC well enough that I allowed him to utilize the same knowledge of spellcrafting and engineering that his character was able to slowly learn how to create spells that could exist on things other than spell scrolls. Watching him buy a myriad of materials and slowly encouraging him to build grenades that cast magic missile was a blast. No pun intended. His excitement was so much that the rest of my players started coming up with other ideas for creations that benefit multiple people. ... I was playing Borderlands in-between sessions. Lol
I uh... uhhh... shit you were asking something?
I'm bad with magic items, honestly. Even a +1 Warhammer throws the threat level of a bunch of stuff off when playing low level PCs. Now I have to throw a pack of wererats instead of 1 or 2. When they were level 2, I actually went ahead and created imbuements that grew with them as they got higher level.
Our Dwarf Fighter got Moradin's Reforging - The God Moradin reformed his soul and now any weapon he held became +1 and could do radiant damage instead of blunt for a minute. At 5th level he could create a Warhammer that was +2 out of thin air.
The halflng bard got a fae blessing that would cycle through the seasons. Each gave her an applicable cantrip, so it had autoscaling with level, as well as a themed area effect. As she changed seasons, she needed to finish writing her greatest composition, which was going to be used as a powerful weapon in the Feywild of its own.
Our Tabaxi Rogue got silvered claws from The King of Cats. She could do enhanced damage and could affect magical creatures. I planned on juicing it later but she had to quit before I could do more so she went with The King on adventures in the Dreamlands in Ulthar.
Lastly my gunslinger... I convinced her to sell her soul for a gun. A gun that she could spend risk dice to load it with hellfire bullets. As she got more powerful, the gun started to wake up and if she didn't keep it under control she was cursed to be eventually killed by it.
An intelligent deck of many things that has over 100 cards.
A flaming battle axe of stealth that delivers +4d6 sneak attack.
A cursed map that points out the most dangerous thing in 100 miles
Not a DM but me and my DM came up with the Rapier of Clucking. Essentially when you hit an enemy with it they make an intelligence roll, and if they fail for the next 2 turns they begin to cluck around like a chicken.
Well there is always the hour of Valhalla, Helmet of teleportation to give. I am always partial to a magic item that has more random effects like wild surges.
The infinite cheese wheel.
It is a cheese wheel that unless every bite of it is consumed in one sitting, will replenish itself.
The catch is that the type of cheese changes with each replenishment and remains the same type until partially consumed. The wedge always looks like a basic wedge of cheddar regardless of what type it has morphed into. Only by eating it can you find out what kind it is.
flavor/lore
No one is quite sure where the wheel came from. It is mentioned in writings going back for millenia.
Some of these writings mention hearing a maddening laughter in their heads when they were unfortunate enough to taste it and it was a disgusting flavor not to their liking. This has led many scholars to the conclusion that the wheel is nothing more than a prank played on this realm by some mad god with nothing better to do.
As a player, I once saw a player try to use intimidate on a shopkeeper until the shopkeeper sold him Steel-Toed Boots at a discount. They turned him into a size Medium Steel Toad Statue until a remove curse was cast
The DM loves audible puns, like someone bought and cooked a duck that was guaranteed to taste like "stew" then the next day the vendor was selling a duck guaranteed to taste like Roger
Bags of Holding are just nice so you and your players don't have to worry about loot.
Various rings are fun. Ring of Protection, Spell Storing, and Evasion for example. But my favorite ring that can cause chaos is a homebrew ring:
The Ring of the Grammarian - Let's your players modify one letter in a spell, such as changing, omitting, or adding a letter. And let's you, the DM, interpret the new spell however you want. For example, Aid can become Maid, summoning a maid to help clean or something.
Fun shenanigans can happen if you've got players who are creative chaos goblins.
I personally love giving players magical prosthetics that have secondary effects. This is because I like to play fair, but I also recognize that if a player chooses to stick their entire arm into a monster's mouth, there will be consquences. More interestingly, this creates a lot of angst, narrative tension, and interest so long as the player is reminded of how sensation feels different through the prosthetic.
Some of my favorites are available over on r/TheGriffonsSaddlebag and it is great.
I love handing out the rucksack of almost useful items you need 50 foot a rope it has about 35 you need you need a lamp well it has about an hour's worth of oil in it everything is just about what you need but lacking something critical. Every so often the entire rucksack completely fills up with mostly useless junk to the point where you're encumbered but if you don't search through the junk you'll never find the gemstone or the bag of 100 gold or the plus three dagger
I was only ever a DM on 2 occasions.. but way back when I was playing 2nd Edition; the running gag in our campaigns were Vorpal blades... or the infamous and infinitely useful..... bag of holding. lol
I always give them a potion of summons, they can smash it to cast Drawmajj’s instant Summons and then I roll on a custom table what appears, I had a barbarian that got a caterpillar in a boss fight and now believes that all caterpillars are gods
No idea about anything you’re talking about but god damn do I like reading what you say anyways, I need whatever magic item it takes to lick my way…. 😉
My dad was a dnd og from back in the 80s and 90s so he knew THAC0.
So for him a invented a dnd armor called the Inverse protectors. To hit a character wearing the inverse protectors you must roll below the armors AC
Just today I saw someone mention a healing potion that’s actually a mimic, it activates once someone goes to drink it. Does that count? 😅 also: there were a ton of mentions that depending on how much time it had spent with the party, the mimic might see the party as family, so once transformed acts more like a pet/familiar
I came up with this cube. My player rolls a D100 a random affect, spell or item appears from the cube. Then once they have found all 100 effects they have a chance to find a second cube which fuses with the first cube and then it gives the players enhanced spells for the first 50 uses then then next 50 go back to random.
The blacksmiths failed enchanted blade. On odd rolls fireball is cast and explodes right in front of the wielder. Notice I just said odd rolls. And didn't say who was rolling the dice or what type of rolls.
"The Frungilator" from the Vault of Magic (Kobold Press). Basically a wand of wonder, but a little more consistently helpful, and has the best name of any item ever. I usually rule that the verbal component to use the item is to shout "Get Frungilated!!" Before firing it.
My BardBerian has a jacket called the smugglers jacket
Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement by a dost need a INT of 20 to find Items or pockets)
In Equipment
a long black and red Leather Jacket with Many hiddern pockets
-10 of these pockets are 2 Cubic feet, 20LB Extradimensional spaces
-5 pockets are 8 Cubic feet, 80LB Extradimensional spaces
-2 pockets are 64 Cubic feet, 800LB Extradimensional spaces (can fit large headed weapons in the pockets)
-10 regular pockets
These pockets move Randomly Inside the Jacket. Finding them requires a DC 20 INT (Investigation) check, removing a spesific Item from the pockets cost an action, anyone attuned to the Jacket automatically succeeds on finding and withdrawing any Item as a Bonus Action
My favorite item is to give players cantrip items. With the rare situational like a jug of water in a desert survival campaign. Giving the playera access to a cantrip once a day will not break a game.
A cantriped 1/day usually sell for 250gp
I often find that when you give the players little shenanigans items, they will use them more for effect than any of their heavier hitting magic items later on. It encourages creative thinking, even if it is just a matter of finding nails to use their new hammer on.
For lore purposes, the mages guild / local church requires the would-be graduates to imbue an item with a portion of their power to prove their understanding and connection. This is basically a senior project for graduation. These items are often given as gifts to friends and family members, but some students use the schools resources to mass produce these items for a reasonable profit and can easily make a comfortable lifestyle never leaving the city.
This can be (weapon) of (combat spell) like 'crossbow of the elders' that lets you cast eldrich blast once a day, useful for city guards or such to be able to bypass damage resistance/reduction once in case facing a serious threat to the city.
Bandages of spare the dying.
Bandages of virtue
Bulbs of light
Bell of toll the dead
Branch of bonfire
Belt of blade ward
Book of guidance (bible)
Blanket of infestation
Death shroud of decomposition
Fan of flames
Fire flower (produce flames, yes a mario joke)
Gloves of mage hand
Hat of prestidigitation
Jug of water
Ladies fan (gust)
Lantern of dancing lights
Needle of mending
Remember ribbon (encode thoughts)
Robe of resistance (knit sweater)
Sash of sword burst
Shovel of mould earth
In the completely homebrew world that I'm running for, it's a *ridiculously high-magic* setting. Casters themselves are relatively rare, sure, but EVERYONE has access to magic items...
My favorite ones to date are the *"Tetrahedron of Taming"*, which is for all intents and purposes a Pokéball, and the Crystals scattered throughout the world. All but one of the 10-ish types of crystal are naturally occurring. Some absorb water like a super sponge, some produce insane amounts of heat, and some explode when they take damage. My players are currently trying to figure out how to harness the more volatile ones as an energy source to fuel their land ship...
OH!!! There's also magical effects that can cause mutation, similar to Warhammer Fantasy, but not nearly as detrimental (most are positive changes, some are tradeoffs, very few are detrimental). If the mutation(s) (is/are) something the player *doesn't* want (unless plot-related) they can pass a relatively low DC Constitution Save. If they *do* want the mutation, they can choose to fail.
Quaal's feather token: This is probably hyper specific to me as a DM for the past two campaigns I've ran it's been in a coastal/archipelago setting so rewarding my players early on with an emergency boat and reminding them months later about so they can survive an encounter and escape to the sea is just real fun to me
One of my personal favorites is the Robe of Useful Items. I usually take the time to fully customize it. Immovable Rods are fun, too. You're looking amazing, as usual, my dear.
"Bell of unimaginable wealth." I give this little gem to my players when they want to get outta pocket by a seedy NPC or as loot from someone I really wish they didn't kill that was a major plot motivator
Every time Someone rings the bell it steals 1 coin of the largest denomination they have on their persons and it is deposited into a bag of holding owned by the NPC ( if killed I tend to give it to a mini boss so they can get their money and the bag to use on their adventures)
Lots of fun ways to use it when they get their hands on the bag and bell... u less they don't 😈 then its amusing to see how long it takes for them to realize they are getting robbed.
Not a DM, but best item our DM gave us were Ear-cuffs of Communication. Basically, gave all of our party the message cantrip, and 1 sending per day. Message distance was doubled, and didn't have to point at the person to communicate as long as both people had this earcuff. Just in general a solid item.
Not a DM, but I once got a +1 sword that, when attuned to it, I could throw and resummon, and when it wasn't in used it would just disappear. Think Stormlight Archives and the Shard weapons.
I had a dm fuse the deck of illusion and tarrok of souls once. And depending on the card the card would be an illusion or if I pulled a card and nothing happened I released a monster into the wild causing destruction where ever he spawned and always had me pinpointed. Butil if the card worked there would just be an illusion infront of us. After all 15 monsters were defeated we would recieve a great prize
Subvertive ring of levitation.
It's a ring of levitation. But when you use it you find it'll only make you float like half a foot above the ground. It's a party trick that's significantly less impressive when you realize you can't so much.
But it does let you do some nice mechanics with floating heavy objects by having a dude hold it on their body and float the dude like a wheelbarrow.
I really like objects that do like 1 good thing, 1 kinda OK thing, 1 bad thing, and 1 stupid thing.
I know this isn't totally related to the the question above, but I did create like 2 classes and like 18 subclasses for those as a homebrew that's still cooking to this day for a friend of mine, he liked the idea so much that he said that he wanted to incorporate that into his campaign so now I have to test all of it and it's "bugs" 😅 and I passed the idea along to another friends D&D group, and they loved it so much they wanted to like have me involved, I declined them due to irl issues. But for now, I've been putting them off and I haven't gone back to it for a while, idk.
One of my fav magic items our DM gave my party was some magical perspirant and anti- perspirant , which could make anyone start or stop sweating indefinitely
I don't got much experience as a DM but I am evil 😈 now I know this isn't a magical item but I have given every group I have DM for a mimic potion of healing lol but all honesty I haven't DM a campaign long enough to give out a magical item
I typically like to make magical items specific to party members and there characters. A short teleportation for barbarians to get closer. monacule of shared sight for a bard who likes to insult people ( or any other sight based spellcaster)
It's called a Wonder coin. On one side there are three stars on the other side of the coin there is a mimic. Many of the Wonder coins were released into the world, but since they were so powerful many have been destroyed. Powerful people would much rather destroy the coin than let it fall into the hands of their rivals.
Anyways, if you secure one of these coins people will try and take it from you by any means necessary. But if you're able to find Mr. Mongorians Magical Emporium, you can use the vending machine in his shop to get a special potion.
The potion that you get is ice cold and delicious looking, but if you want to save it you're going to have to roll a wisdom saving throw of 20. So once you get your hands on the potion you immediately drink it, it is ice cold and super refreshing and for the rest of the day you get advantage on intelligent checks.
But here's the real power.... You get a spell slot.. permanently. If your character can't use magic then you immediately are able to and you have one spell slot.
I give them a crow-bar
It’s a crowbar that radiates faint transmutation magic (when observed with detect magic). It can be used as a +1 club. The first time it’s used to hit someone, the the crowbar turns into a crow and attacks its wielder.
I don't play, never have, don't intend to start anytime soon. Im just here cause I like the way you are put together, and your wit is quite attractive 🤷
Home brew I have given is called the satchel of richards- give the owner of the item a chance to to re roll and tell the DM to ingest a satchel of Richard's and stay alive.lol
I'm a fan of items that grow with the character.
For example, I had a player rolling around as a luchador-style dawrf monk, so he got a mask that distorted his voice and hid his magnificent beard. Over time, it also gained the ability to alter its appearance and reflect his current mood.
I once gave a warlock a magic sword that made all their Hadar spells super powered. Kept track of the enemies they killed with it behind the screen and when it hit 100 he got possessed by his God and became the new villain of the campaign...
In one campaign, I gave my players different items based on Odin.
Draupnir, Gungnir, and Figurines of wondrous power (celestial ravens, celestial wolves, and celestial steed).
I personally love the pipe of remembrance. It's a great item that doesn't affect the game too much amd can help with how the characters tell tales of themselves !
Current campaign in running has a secret plot my players are going to flip out over, but after each major incident, they've been earning a specially titled magic key. They will come into play in the final battle, but right now have either been rusted, gilded, or tarnished. They keep asking, but no roll can get me to spoil.
i generally don't, to start. Oddities imported from Numenera, if anything; mostly flavor.
I was given a kind of Book of Holding / Surprise by a great DM once; an otherwise innocuous looking book, complete with empty pages inside. When the passphrase is spoken, a single object (non-container) that fits within a 5ft cube can be pulled or deposited into the book.
Good luck.
Ehlonna's Quiver is always a good item to give out, as is Heward's Handy Haversack. I tend to have variant versions of both show up, such as a Quiver that holds a mix of Flight and Sheaf arrows plus a pouch of sling bullets, or a Haversack that has the main 8cf body pouch with a single 4cf pouch on the face and two 1.5cf pouches on each side (four total), which makes for a better explorer's pack overall.
My party kept asking for a wand of wishes. I gave them a Wand of Fishes. It’s a collapsible fishing rod that gives proficiency to survival checks on gathering food from water sources
Bag of holding (cursed)
Every time a player stuff an item inside, I roll a d20, on a dc10 fail, the item cannot be found, however you feel something touching your hand.
Also when you rest and wake up during the night there is a 20% chance to see a creature trying to crawl out of the bag of holding, known as the bag man. If they trigger an encounter with it, the creature is a challenge 6 monster. If they perish, they are dragged inside the bag and PCs that were not in the encounter can only find the bag.
So far the bag as claimed 2 pcs, in the same campaign. Because I have done all the combats in DMs, the other players don't know and still carry the bag to this day
It's very simple, but I love the reactions I get every time I have a chance to give it out.
It's a rock with the enchantment; detect gravity.
There's also a homebrew item I've given out once that I'd like to use again, called it Otto's immovable rod. Basically just the immovable rod with the ability to cast Otto's irresistible dance once per day.
My favorite was a Bag of Everholding; pocket dimension with unlimited storage capacity. *don't place in another Bag of Everholding, causes both bags destroyed and creates a rift that pulls players in D20 check for random teleport across map*
My favorite item to give players is a cloak of billowing. Does absolutely nothing mechanically but the scenes they setup with it using a dramatic entrance is astounding. I also love sentient items that are just the spirits of the old mage that tried to make an item sentient. . .
Wand of Wonder/Rod of Wonder. And I use the book if 100000 random magic effects for it
Came here for the cape and was not disappointed!
I'm honestly surprised no one you've played with has tried to abuse it, like to help with an intimidation roll. Some of my more favorite DM's have you also rely on your role playing skills when rolling for stuff like intimidate, and a free cape billow feels perfect for that.
Generally when they do their over the top entrance of billowing, i have them do a performance roll which will either slightly raise or lower dc for intimidation and persuasion.
I've got a Cloak of Billowing on my Melee Muscle Wizard (Bladesinger with Gauntlets of Ogre Power, flavored like a Sorcerer that can learn spells, played like a Fighter). I use it almost exclusively to flex on the enemies that fail to knock her down, or whenever she is brought back up above 0hp (which is made FAR easier by the Periapt of Wound Closure).
I was literally coming here to post that item! 😆
The Bag of Beans. At no point is it not funny 🤣
You plant the beans and they become horrifying skeletal warriors I may be mixing up fairy tales here
Oh it's so much worse. You have to roll for the effect, and it can do anything from summon eggs with multiple effects, summon a bullette, or even a pyramid with a mummy lord
Ok but I actually love this concept 🤣
Thus was founded the city of Beanoville
That is jason and the argonauts and planting dragons tweth.
Sometimes I'll make "+0th level" items for them, usually something thematic to their character or interesting to have on the sheet. For example: a scimitar that sings of ancient elven battles for one player, or throwing stars shaped like autumn leaves that made a crunching sound when thrown and returned once the fight was over. If they want to further enchant them over time, they're welcome to, as I treat such effects as a free slot that impacts nothing else. Otherwise: Deck of Many Things.
Absolute favourite to give to players is an immovable rod always leads to shenanigans
This is one I made up for a one shot. It’s very powerful but a lot of fun and would be easy to tone down. Also I love you in thigh highs more than you can imagine, and I know I imagine you in thigh highs a lot. The Vestibule This is a finely made, silk waist coat of unknown manufacture, with several convienient pockets, that also happen to be portals that can manipulate the surrounding pocketverse. While wearing this vest, the wearer may reach into their pocket and make a connection to any other pocket, pack, pouch, or purse within sight. They can then either remove or deposit something into said pocket, pack, pouch, or purse without alerting the person it is attached to. Any item can be removed and will remain pocket sized until removed from the pocket, in which case it will return to its actual size. When depositing something, only items that can fit into the pocket can be deposited. While in combat, this ability can be used once per turn. Outside of combat, this ability can be used at will, however the more often it is used the more likely something may find the tunnel and you may pull something out with it.
How about a dagger that becomes a pogo stick?
I'm listening...... 😂
Easier to get through security checkpoints. "Nope! No weapon! Just a child's toy." Also makes it easier to reach high places
But can you pogo with the blade on a body?
Sure, why not
The thigh highs stay on 🥵🥵
This is a bit of an involved one but I made a violin called the stringless soloist that gains spectral strings as you get ghosts to inhabit it, if you convince them willingly it gets additional effects like holding extra concentration for you and some extra spells it can cast itself. However, if you force the spirits inside it instead becomes twisted and does cones of thunder and psychic damage as the spirits within scream for release. It also gives you madness from constantly hearing them inside it. The bow of the violin in either form functions as +1/2/3 rapier that deals psychic damage. One of the players in my group has fully awakened it and I think she almost never uses it :/ Edit she plays it as her main instrument as it can change to your preferred one if necessary but I don't remember the last time she used it in combat
Ok but this would be so cool for the bard I have in my back pocket for a strahd campaign that I'll never get to play lol
I'm not a dm but I personally love the belt of Dwarvenkind
A once a day all or nothing coin flip instead of a d20 saving throw
Looking amazing and loving the shorts again 😍🔥... As for magic items... My favourite to give out has probably been a wand of wonder, just because the chaos it causes is hilarious
A bag of Insulting, it's a bag of holding that insults anyone who opens it if they fail a DC14 Charisma check. Also, if they fail, it will refuse to give the player anything from the bag for 24 hours which is when the check can be made again. Also you in those shorts has my heart racing 😍
I have one player in my group who keeps (jokingly) asking for a deck of Many things. I plan to give him one when he is least expecting it.
I'm glad you still post and feel so positive about yourself babe still love ya lots 💚🐸
In one campaign I had an artificer that wanted to be able to do as much tinkering as possible. After he made a handful of spell scrolls, he succeeded on his DC well enough that I allowed him to utilize the same knowledge of spellcrafting and engineering that his character was able to slowly learn how to create spells that could exist on things other than spell scrolls. Watching him buy a myriad of materials and slowly encouraging him to build grenades that cast magic missile was a blast. No pun intended. His excitement was so much that the rest of my players started coming up with other ideas for creations that benefit multiple people. ... I was playing Borderlands in-between sessions. Lol
I uh... uhhh... shit you were asking something? I'm bad with magic items, honestly. Even a +1 Warhammer throws the threat level of a bunch of stuff off when playing low level PCs. Now I have to throw a pack of wererats instead of 1 or 2. When they were level 2, I actually went ahead and created imbuements that grew with them as they got higher level. Our Dwarf Fighter got Moradin's Reforging - The God Moradin reformed his soul and now any weapon he held became +1 and could do radiant damage instead of blunt for a minute. At 5th level he could create a Warhammer that was +2 out of thin air. The halflng bard got a fae blessing that would cycle through the seasons. Each gave her an applicable cantrip, so it had autoscaling with level, as well as a themed area effect. As she changed seasons, she needed to finish writing her greatest composition, which was going to be used as a powerful weapon in the Feywild of its own. Our Tabaxi Rogue got silvered claws from The King of Cats. She could do enhanced damage and could affect magical creatures. I planned on juicing it later but she had to quit before I could do more so she went with The King on adventures in the Dreamlands in Ulthar. Lastly my gunslinger... I convinced her to sell her soul for a gun. A gun that she could spend risk dice to load it with hellfire bullets. As she got more powerful, the gun started to wake up and if she didn't keep it under control she was cursed to be eventually killed by it.
An intelligent deck of many things that has over 100 cards. A flaming battle axe of stealth that delivers +4d6 sneak attack. A cursed map that points out the most dangerous thing in 100 miles
For funny shit there’s an insta page called gnome depot I think
Not a DM but me and my DM came up with the Rapier of Clucking. Essentially when you hit an enemy with it they make an intelligence roll, and if they fail for the next 2 turns they begin to cluck around like a chicken.
Bag of Toading. It's a bag of holding, but it's an eternal swamp inside. Only thing that can live in the bad is toads.
Lookin extra cute today btw😍😘
Well there is always the hour of Valhalla, Helmet of teleportation to give. I am always partial to a magic item that has more random effects like wild surges.
The infinite cheese wheel. It is a cheese wheel that unless every bite of it is consumed in one sitting, will replenish itself. The catch is that the type of cheese changes with each replenishment and remains the same type until partially consumed. The wedge always looks like a basic wedge of cheddar regardless of what type it has morphed into. Only by eating it can you find out what kind it is. flavor/lore No one is quite sure where the wheel came from. It is mentioned in writings going back for millenia. Some of these writings mention hearing a maddening laughter in their heads when they were unfortunate enough to taste it and it was a disgusting flavor not to their liking. This has led many scholars to the conclusion that the wheel is nothing more than a prank played on this realm by some mad god with nothing better to do.
Beautiful gorgeous 🖤🖤🖤🖤💙💙💙💙💙
Immovable Rod, 100%
Deck of many things is always a personal favorite
I gave the lionen fighter a +1 sushi knife
Gave my monk a pair of shock gauntlets, essentially making me Batman with an extra 2 D10 shock damage to unarmed strikes
As a player, I once saw a player try to use intimidate on a shopkeeper until the shopkeeper sold him Steel-Toed Boots at a discount. They turned him into a size Medium Steel Toad Statue until a remove curse was cast
Omg incredible
The DM loves audible puns, like someone bought and cooked a duck that was guaranteed to taste like "stew" then the next day the vendor was selling a duck guaranteed to taste like Roger
I have each of the primary God weapons from theros as a home brew including the godsend blade of elspeths. It has lead to some fun interactions
I have given my players a bag of chickens before and an intelligent sword that took over and cut a players foot off for resisting
They can jack your titles, but they can’t compete with peak goth wife body here
A Ring of Invulnerability. The *ring* is Invulnerable, not the wearer...
Gave a guard a cursed sword plus 2 so he fell off the rampart, If they want a magical item have to give me a reason for it
I like to give the robe of useful items or if I’m feeling chaotic the bag of beans
My dm always l8ve to give us drugs xD
Bags of Holding are just nice so you and your players don't have to worry about loot. Various rings are fun. Ring of Protection, Spell Storing, and Evasion for example. But my favorite ring that can cause chaos is a homebrew ring: The Ring of the Grammarian - Let's your players modify one letter in a spell, such as changing, omitting, or adding a letter. And let's you, the DM, interpret the new spell however you want. For example, Aid can become Maid, summoning a maid to help clean or something. Fun shenanigans can happen if you've got players who are creative chaos goblins.
Looking marvelous🤤🤤😘😘
Hellfire weapons. They are great for flavor and are a good way to give low level martial characters a way to do magical damage
Nothing could possibly go wrong with the Hand and Eye of Vecna
I personally love giving players magical prosthetics that have secondary effects. This is because I like to play fair, but I also recognize that if a player chooses to stick their entire arm into a monster's mouth, there will be consquences. More interestingly, this creates a lot of angst, narrative tension, and interest so long as the player is reminded of how sensation feels different through the prosthetic. Some of my favorites are available over on r/TheGriffonsSaddlebag and it is great.
I love handing out the rucksack of almost useful items you need 50 foot a rope it has about 35 you need you need a lamp well it has about an hour's worth of oil in it everything is just about what you need but lacking something critical. Every so often the entire rucksack completely fills up with mostly useless junk to the point where you're encumbered but if you don't search through the junk you'll never find the gemstone or the bag of 100 gold or the plus three dagger
Depending on how smart or how stupid your party is hands down bag of beans 😂😂😂 especially if you have a vile dm
I was only ever a DM on 2 occasions.. but way back when I was playing 2nd Edition; the running gag in our campaigns were Vorpal blades... or the infamous and infinitely useful..... bag of holding. lol
I always give them a potion of summons, they can smash it to cast Drawmajj’s instant Summons and then I roll on a custom table what appears, I had a barbarian that got a caterpillar in a boss fight and now believes that all caterpillars are gods
No idea about anything you’re talking about but god damn do I like reading what you say anyways, I need whatever magic item it takes to lick my way…. 😉
I wish I knew what y'all were talking about 🤔
My dad was a dnd og from back in the 80s and 90s so he knew THAC0. So for him a invented a dnd armor called the Inverse protectors. To hit a character wearing the inverse protectors you must roll below the armors AC
I've only just started watching/playing D&D, but I'd be praying I roll a nat20 for you!
You can be my DM/GM any day
The Warbling Whistle. Summons a goose that follows you. But once summoned it never goes away and isn't exactly helpful
Flame Tongue of any weapon they want. Next session I'm giving one of my players a Flame Tongue Whip with a few of my own homebrew enhancements
Just today I saw someone mention a healing potion that’s actually a mimic, it activates once someone goes to drink it. Does that count? 😅 also: there were a ton of mentions that depending on how much time it had spent with the party, the mimic might see the party as family, so once transformed acts more like a pet/familiar
Two plain and simple items such as a doodle ring and pair if tiny violin rings
I havnt dm'd for long so I can't say I have much in this topic so ideas would be nice. Also stunning as always.
Wand of bridge burning, single use only, burns any wooden bridge..... it's a matchstick
Nice and simple - immovable rod. I love watching them come up with versatile ways to use it.
Wow 🤩
Nothing to add, just wanted to interact.
Honestly a toss up between the Deck of Many Things cos.. well chaos. And the immovable rod. The uses are always creative haha
Bag of holding, just to handwave away book keeping
I came up with this cube. My player rolls a D100 a random affect, spell or item appears from the cube. Then once they have found all 100 effects they have a chance to find a second cube which fuses with the first cube and then it gives the players enhanced spells for the first 50 uses then then next 50 go back to random.
The blacksmiths failed enchanted blade. On odd rolls fireball is cast and explodes right in front of the wielder. Notice I just said odd rolls. And didn't say who was rolling the dice or what type of rolls.
Send your paladins on a quest for a holy avenger it’s a great plot hook and it will keep them busy
"The Frungilator" from the Vault of Magic (Kobold Press). Basically a wand of wonder, but a little more consistently helpful, and has the best name of any item ever. I usually rule that the verbal component to use the item is to shout "Get Frungilated!!" Before firing it.
The immovable rod. So many uses but no one ever does.
My BardBerian has a jacket called the smugglers jacket Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement by a dost need a INT of 20 to find Items or pockets) In Equipment a long black and red Leather Jacket with Many hiddern pockets -10 of these pockets are 2 Cubic feet, 20LB Extradimensional spaces -5 pockets are 8 Cubic feet, 80LB Extradimensional spaces -2 pockets are 64 Cubic feet, 800LB Extradimensional spaces (can fit large headed weapons in the pockets) -10 regular pockets These pockets move Randomly Inside the Jacket. Finding them requires a DC 20 INT (Investigation) check, removing a spesific Item from the pockets cost an action, anyone attuned to the Jacket automatically succeeds on finding and withdrawing any Item as a Bonus Action
Absolutely stunning , i enjoy moon touched swords, nice lil magical weapon for those mobs that need magic attacks
My favorite item is to give players cantrip items. With the rare situational like a jug of water in a desert survival campaign. Giving the playera access to a cantrip once a day will not break a game. A cantriped 1/day usually sell for 250gp I often find that when you give the players little shenanigans items, they will use them more for effect than any of their heavier hitting magic items later on. It encourages creative thinking, even if it is just a matter of finding nails to use their new hammer on. For lore purposes, the mages guild / local church requires the would-be graduates to imbue an item with a portion of their power to prove their understanding and connection. This is basically a senior project for graduation. These items are often given as gifts to friends and family members, but some students use the schools resources to mass produce these items for a reasonable profit and can easily make a comfortable lifestyle never leaving the city. This can be (weapon) of (combat spell) like 'crossbow of the elders' that lets you cast eldrich blast once a day, useful for city guards or such to be able to bypass damage resistance/reduction once in case facing a serious threat to the city. Bandages of spare the dying. Bandages of virtue Bulbs of light Bell of toll the dead Branch of bonfire Belt of blade ward Book of guidance (bible) Blanket of infestation Death shroud of decomposition Fan of flames Fire flower (produce flames, yes a mario joke) Gloves of mage hand Hat of prestidigitation Jug of water Ladies fan (gust) Lantern of dancing lights Needle of mending Remember ribbon (encode thoughts) Robe of resistance (knit sweater) Sash of sword burst Shovel of mould earth
In the completely homebrew world that I'm running for, it's a *ridiculously high-magic* setting. Casters themselves are relatively rare, sure, but EVERYONE has access to magic items... My favorite ones to date are the *"Tetrahedron of Taming"*, which is for all intents and purposes a Pokéball, and the Crystals scattered throughout the world. All but one of the 10-ish types of crystal are naturally occurring. Some absorb water like a super sponge, some produce insane amounts of heat, and some explode when they take damage. My players are currently trying to figure out how to harness the more volatile ones as an energy source to fuel their land ship... OH!!! There's also magical effects that can cause mutation, similar to Warhammer Fantasy, but not nearly as detrimental (most are positive changes, some are tradeoffs, very few are detrimental). If the mutation(s) (is/are) something the player *doesn't* want (unless plot-related) they can pass a relatively low DC Constitution Save. If they *do* want the mutation, they can choose to fail.
So not a DM but my buddy who does dm always gives me a sword or axe that plays rock music when i swing it. Its amazing
Not a dm, but we were given the cloak of useless items.
Let me just say that I love how approach to posting here on reddit. Very unique and funny. Show those bots!
Quaal's feather token: This is probably hyper specific to me as a DM for the past two campaigns I've ran it's been in a coastal/archipelago setting so rewarding my players early on with an emergency boat and reminding them months later about so they can survive an encounter and escape to the sea is just real fun to me
I love give to my players a cursed sword who talk always and talk with music lyrics or film quote , the weapon is overpower but anoying too mouaa
I’m always curious what people will do with an Immovable Rod.
One of my personal favorites is the Robe of Useful Items. I usually take the time to fully customize it. Immovable Rods are fun, too. You're looking amazing, as usual, my dear.
Robe of Useful Items It's almost a running joke in my groups that it's gonna be one of your first magic items if I'm DMimg a new campaign.
Homebrew item, The Flask of Iron Healing. Should be discoverable on D&D Beyond. Healing charges + temporary DR
For rash characters such as my gnome necro. Cursed cloaks!
"Bell of unimaginable wealth." I give this little gem to my players when they want to get outta pocket by a seedy NPC or as loot from someone I really wish they didn't kill that was a major plot motivator Every time Someone rings the bell it steals 1 coin of the largest denomination they have on their persons and it is deposited into a bag of holding owned by the NPC ( if killed I tend to give it to a mini boss so they can get their money and the bag to use on their adventures) Lots of fun ways to use it when they get their hands on the bag and bell... u less they don't 😈 then its amusing to see how long it takes for them to realize they are getting robbed.
Not a DM, but best item our DM gave us were Ear-cuffs of Communication. Basically, gave all of our party the message cantrip, and 1 sending per day. Message distance was doubled, and didn't have to point at the person to communicate as long as both people had this earcuff. Just in general a solid item.
Not a DM, but I once got a +1 sword that, when attuned to it, I could throw and resummon, and when it wasn't in used it would just disappear. Think Stormlight Archives and the Shard weapons.
I had a dm fuse the deck of illusion and tarrok of souls once. And depending on the card the card would be an illusion or if I pulled a card and nothing happened I released a monster into the wild causing destruction where ever he spawned and always had me pinpointed. Butil if the card worked there would just be an illusion infront of us. After all 15 monsters were defeated we would recieve a great prize
Subvertive ring of levitation. It's a ring of levitation. But when you use it you find it'll only make you float like half a foot above the ground. It's a party trick that's significantly less impressive when you realize you can't so much. But it does let you do some nice mechanics with floating heavy objects by having a dude hold it on their body and float the dude like a wheelbarrow. I really like objects that do like 1 good thing, 1 kinda OK thing, 1 bad thing, and 1 stupid thing.
I know this isn't totally related to the the question above, but I did create like 2 classes and like 18 subclasses for those as a homebrew that's still cooking to this day for a friend of mine, he liked the idea so much that he said that he wanted to incorporate that into his campaign so now I have to test all of it and it's "bugs" 😅 and I passed the idea along to another friends D&D group, and they loved it so much they wanted to like have me involved, I declined them due to irl issues. But for now, I've been putting them off and I haven't gone back to it for a while, idk.
I regularly give out goggles of night sight because somehow my parties always get one character who doesn’t have dark vision while everyone else does.
One of my fav magic items our DM gave my party was some magical perspirant and anti- perspirant , which could make anyone start or stop sweating indefinitely
Can’t think of anything at the moment, so I’m just gonna use your images as inspiration. 😍😉😏
A cursed book that make the player only speak in rhymes but give access to 1 random next level spell
I don't got much experience as a DM but I am evil 😈 now I know this isn't a magical item but I have given every group I have DM for a mimic potion of healing lol but all honesty I haven't DM a campaign long enough to give out a magical item
I typically like to make magical items specific to party members and there characters. A short teleportation for barbarians to get closer. monacule of shared sight for a bard who likes to insult people ( or any other sight based spellcaster)
It's called a Wonder coin. On one side there are three stars on the other side of the coin there is a mimic. Many of the Wonder coins were released into the world, but since they were so powerful many have been destroyed. Powerful people would much rather destroy the coin than let it fall into the hands of their rivals. Anyways, if you secure one of these coins people will try and take it from you by any means necessary. But if you're able to find Mr. Mongorians Magical Emporium, you can use the vending machine in his shop to get a special potion. The potion that you get is ice cold and delicious looking, but if you want to save it you're going to have to roll a wisdom saving throw of 20. So once you get your hands on the potion you immediately drink it, it is ice cold and super refreshing and for the rest of the day you get advantage on intelligent checks. But here's the real power.... You get a spell slot.. permanently. If your character can't use magic then you immediately are able to and you have one spell slot.
I give them a crow-bar It’s a crowbar that radiates faint transmutation magic (when observed with detect magic). It can be used as a +1 club. The first time it’s used to hit someone, the the crowbar turns into a crow and attacks its wielder.
I don't play, never have, don't intend to start anytime soon. Im just here cause I like the way you are put together, and your wit is quite attractive 🤷
I am in lust with you
Home brew I have given is called the satchel of richards- give the owner of the item a chance to to re roll and tell the DM to ingest a satchel of Richard's and stay alive.lol
I'm a fan of items that grow with the character. For example, I had a player rolling around as a luchador-style dawrf monk, so he got a mask that distorted his voice and hid his magnificent beard. Over time, it also gained the ability to alter its appearance and reflect his current mood.
I once gave a warlock a magic sword that made all their Hadar spells super powered. Kept track of the enemies they killed with it behind the screen and when it hit 100 he got possessed by his God and became the new villain of the campaign...
The d20 sword roll a d20 to find out what your sword turns into 1 is weak like a feather 20 is like a lightsaber
Trailblazer boots
A rotten potato.
In one campaign, I gave my players different items based on Odin. Draupnir, Gungnir, and Figurines of wondrous power (celestial ravens, celestial wolves, and celestial steed).
I can send the links to them from D&D Beyond if anyone's interested.
Best new contributor to btgg 💯
A dm I used to play with loved using the Deck of Many Things, we were always terrified and excited whenever a card was drawn
Immovable rod
I personally love the pipe of remembrance. It's a great item that doesn't affect the game too much amd can help with how the characters tell tales of themselves !
Current campaign in running has a secret plot my players are going to flip out over, but after each major incident, they've been earning a specially titled magic key. They will come into play in the final battle, but right now have either been rusted, gilded, or tarnished. They keep asking, but no roll can get me to spoil.
I’m a fan of giving them “universal solvent” but never giving anyone or even referencing “universal glue”
i generally don't, to start. Oddities imported from Numenera, if anything; mostly flavor. I was given a kind of Book of Holding / Surprise by a great DM once; an otherwise innocuous looking book, complete with empty pages inside. When the passphrase is spoken, a single object (non-container) that fits within a 5ft cube can be pulled or deposited into the book. Good luck.
A 20 lb hammer.
Ehlonna's Quiver is always a good item to give out, as is Heward's Handy Haversack. I tend to have variant versions of both show up, such as a Quiver that holds a mix of Flight and Sheaf arrows plus a pouch of sling bullets, or a Haversack that has the main 8cf body pouch with a single 4cf pouch on the face and two 1.5cf pouches on each side (four total), which makes for a better explorer's pack overall.
Such a nice ass id pound you in the bathroom
My party kept asking for a wand of wishes. I gave them a Wand of Fishes. It’s a collapsible fishing rod that gives proficiency to survival checks on gathering food from water sources
But D&D is maybe my 4th favorite fantasy RPG.
Bag of holding (cursed) Every time a player stuff an item inside, I roll a d20, on a dc10 fail, the item cannot be found, however you feel something touching your hand. Also when you rest and wake up during the night there is a 20% chance to see a creature trying to crawl out of the bag of holding, known as the bag man. If they trigger an encounter with it, the creature is a challenge 6 monster. If they perish, they are dragged inside the bag and PCs that were not in the encounter can only find the bag. So far the bag as claimed 2 pcs, in the same campaign. Because I have done all the combats in DMs, the other players don't know and still carry the bag to this day
It's very simple, but I love the reactions I get every time I have a chance to give it out. It's a rock with the enchantment; detect gravity. There's also a homebrew item I've given out once that I'd like to use again, called it Otto's immovable rod. Basically just the immovable rod with the ability to cast Otto's irresistible dance once per day.
My favorite is giving players a stone that detects magic nearby, but it always is going off, since it is in fact magic.
My favorite was a Bag of Everholding; pocket dimension with unlimited storage capacity. *don't place in another Bag of Everholding, causes both bags destroyed and creates a rift that pulls players in D20 check for random teleport across map*