Which Magic Items Should You Give Your D&D Party First?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.ค. 2024
- Deciding what magic items to give top your players early on in a campaign is one of the toughest parts of being a DM. You don't want to break your game by throwing a legendary artifact to the players at level 2, but you also don't want to have your players complaining about the lack of loot.
0:00:00 - Introduction
0:01:57 - 1. Scroll of protection
0:04:34 - 2. Flask of endless water
0:07:05 - 3. Folding boat
0:09:17 - 4. Staff of the python
0:11:16 - 5. Glamour leather armor
0:12:52 - 6. Qualls feather tokens
0:15:41 - 7. Ever smoking bottle
0:17:43 - 8. Eyes of minute seeing
0:19:52 - 9. Gem of brightness
0:21:48 - 10. Robe of useful items
0:23:02 - 11. Immovable rod
0:25:08 - 12. Shield of missile attraction
0:26:31- 13. Chimes of opening
0:27:34 - 14. Wand of wonder
0:29:37 - 15. Goggles of the night
So I am going to wade through the Dungeon Master's Guide and pick out my top 15 Magic Items to give to player characters under level 5. These range from offensive wands, to beautiful armor, to a wide array of wondrous items. No matter what type of party your campaign has, at least one of these items is sure to delight.
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Glamour Leather Armor - give it to a druid, and whenever they change into an animal they have the option to have the animal wear a funny outfit and/or hat
I gave my party glamour leather armor, they gave it to the bard and then never used it
@@thecharmer5981 Seems like one of those things that varies by the person. Kind of like the cloak of billowing, the player will either use it every chance they get and love it, or not give a shit about it at all and forget it 15 minutes later
I hate it, I did not expect to read something like this and now I regret looking in the comments 💀
Me: "Yeah, ever smoking bottle can't be abused too much"
Players: Hide the bottle so well it's not feasible to find it in the time from any guest of wind removes some or all fog until the bottle has filled the nearest 60 ft again.
My party has chosen to give this to the grung fighter, who has an insane bonus to stealth and has somehow become the party’s primary thief, while the sorcerer distracts.
“Don’t put them all in one chest.”
I did and my players were so excited that they started laughing at how lucky they were. Then I described the chest the loot was in started laughing. Needless to say the Rogue was more careful after that. 🤣
LOL awesome!
I hope the chest got one good bite on the rogue too!
Lmao incredible
The group chest is a Mimic. Very secure. XD
Barkeeper asks some Adventurers: "Why do wear weapons and armor in a bar?"
Adventurers: "Mimics."
Barkeeper: "Mimics? In here?"
The Adventurers laughed, the Barkeeper laughed, the table laughed...
the Adventurers killed the table.
now im laughing
An important correction for the Staff of the Python: the normal Constrictor Snake has 13hp. The item specifies that it's the giant variant, which still has 12 AC but has 60hp, making this a much tankier item especially in the first couple tiers of play.
Yea staff of the Python is considered broken at Low level x)
Time to make the Wand of Pythons.
@@deanlol "[cr] problems, require [cr] solutions"
Should consider giving the players a custom magic item ... Lesser Staff of the Python ... with a normal constrictor snake, but when it dies, the staff requires a week to recharge
PS, creating custom magic items is part of the fun of D&D
@@AvangionQ that week long recharge would be an excellent feature.
It would make it more forgiving.
The shield of missile attraction curse could actually be really useful, if the party is clever. Put it on your highest AC fighter guarding the squishy casters, boom they're arrow proof.
My campaign that just finished had our Dragonborn Paladin of Helm with the Shield of Missile attraction, Cloak of Displacement, Ring of Regeneration and +2 Full Plate. Not a lot could deal with him, without even considering the Great Weapon Fighter, Sorcerer or Bard.
That can be effective, but my players learned it can backfire immensely. When that fighter gets surrounded, any archers you have become worthless. That won't be an issue for some parties, but more often than not it is the players that will want to rely on missile weapons, not the enemy.
You're forgetting friendly ranged attacks ALSO get attracted. So a Rogue built for ranged attacking, a Ranger or a NPC firing at a target near the person with the curse would shoot the friend as well.
I did this same thing while running an Order of the Lycan Bloodhunter in CoS. Already resist piercing, on top of ranged resistance, so I kept the curse and just drew the arrows to me with my 20 AC.
Imagine facing an army and redirecting a battalion of archers attacks
I'm so glad the Immovable Rod made the list. My group's DM put an Immovable Rod for sale in an item shop, and the crap the rogue in our party did with it convinced my blood hunter to also get one. That is definitely an item that rewards creativity.
In my game the party was sent into a cave to rescue a bunch of miners from some horror inside. They eventually found most of the miners’ bodies, strewn around a pool in the center of a massive cavern inside. The pool was their blood & hanging above was a massive Roper. The last surviving miner was in a corner niche, w both legs broken, but had used an immovable rod to create a barrier to keep the creature out.
After PCs killed the Roper & saved the miner, he gave it to them as thanks.
@@TriMarkC In one of my games, the DM dropped us through a portal into the Abyss placed thousands of feet above the ground, and my character only had an immovable rod. So I used to arrest my fall, and planned to take brief descents by clicking the rod on and off to get down to the ground before we were rescued by our druid.
@@CountryMusicMann So many people think that kind DM plan is “unfair” and certain death. But really, it gave you lots of time to consider options. Well done!
one of my favorite magic items. ironically enough i've never played a character that owned one, but i've given to players several times.
In rod we trust
One time back in 3.5 edition, a fellow party member got shield of missile attraction.
He then also got an amulet of missile reflection, just in time to fight an army that used mass unit tactics with archers...
It worked _exactly_ how you thought it would. Pretty amazing moment!
So basically like Magneto in X-men: First Class (m.th-cam.com/video/EccZRiEUGlQ/w-d-xo.html)?
What book is the Amulet of Missile Reflection from?
@@AvangionQmagic item compendium probably has it
I changed the folding boat to an animated wooden swan they found. It became a party pet and when they got near water it turn into a swan boat. Fully sentient and could talk to them.
Eventually they came across a lava river they HAD to cross and the boat told them it was magical and could make it. By the time it got to the other side it was to damaged to turn into the small wooden swan and it died essentially. Melting into the lava.
They wasted the wish spell to bring it back. 😂
Was it really a waste, then?
"waste"
They used the spell to bring back a living thing that sacrificed itself for them... Are you really a DM?
That is actually a very asshole move from a DM :v but ok if everyone had fun I guess.
Poor players, all that attachement to the talking wooden Swan... Good DM play though :)
@@MARABOTO03 not at all. The Swan was sentient and knew the risks but wanted to be a helpful item. I find it very intriguing and ingenious.
1. Scroll of protection
2. Flask of endless water
3 Folding boat
4. Staff of the python
5. Glamour leather armor
6. Qualls feather tokens
7. Ever smoking bottle
8. Eyes of minute seeing
9. Gem of brightness
10. Robe of useful items
11. Immovable rod
12. Shield of missile attraction
13. Chimes of opening
14. Wand of wonder
15. Goggles of the night
Out here doing the Lord's work.
no time stamps? :L
Thank you. Just saved me 32 minutes of babble.
Thank you so much
Flask of endless water + shape water + mold earth = no door or lock is safe.
There's also some useful - but not gamebreaking - Comon-rarity items.
Ruby of the Warmage: Turns a weapon (any weapon) into a Focus. A fairly simple effect that just streamlines things for most casters. Though it _does_ have a neat side-effect of allowing 1/3rd casters such as Arcane Tricksters and Eldritch Knights to use it despite the fact that they normally can't use foci, though this isn't a unique effect (most non-class-specific magic foci have this).
Moon-touched Sword: A sword that doubles as a torch that never runs out. Rules-as-written, it can also bypass mundane weapon resistance, which is also handy, but not game-breaking.
(Cantrip or 1st-level) Spellwrought Tattoo: One cast of a spell. Can be game-breaking if it's a powerful (or overtuned) spell, but since the spell is chosen at creation of the item, the DM can control what the party gets. Additionally, it's a consumable resource, so the Party is likely to be leery of using it.
Wand of Pyrotechnics: Create a firework; up to 7 charges, recharges daily. Fun, and potentially useful for signalling, but has little mechanical effect.
Enduring Spellbook: Protects a Wizard's spellbook from fire and water damage. That's it. Extremely useful for a Wizard in a campaign with lots of fire/water hazards, but doesn't mechanically _do_ anything.
These are just a few of the more useful examples. Most Common items are toys with flavourful (or simply fun) but not mechanically relevant effects.
I like how you think I didn’t already forget that they have the magic feather and definitely didn’t have some canyon encounters planned, if not a whole adventure.
Lol we've all been there. "Where did you all get that flying broom?" "Uh...you gave it to us like 4 sessions ago."
@@TheGeekPantheon I am both sides of that conversation. 🤣
Ha you think I need a magic item to get the group to the other side of that ledge...
A thought on Gem of Brightness, even for Darkvision heavy parties - one of the tricks I used to make sure the party still had to worry about light sources is that the ancient civilization they were investigating/plot relevant stored a lot of information/clues/etc in painted murals. Darkvision gave them enough sight via color gradation to see 'okay, yes, there's a mural there' but some runes and clues would be... like green/blue color match in greyscale, so detail would disappear.
In those situations, something like the Gem of Brightness (And the Goggles of minute seeing!) would be consistently useful.
you should not have told me this
Note that the decanter of endless water completely eliminates the danger of fire elementals, which take 1 cold damage per gallon of water splashed on them. 30 damage a turn is quite high for just an action, no rolls. Keep that in mind if you use fire elementals often.
Id have players roll to see how much water would hit, since the water isnt a homing missile.
Lets them still be clever without letting them instantly destroy elementals.
@@notsureicare488 that’s a good solution. You could also have the elemental take less damage if it succeeds on the strength saving throw.
@@shadowxeon3712 Strength, why not Dex Save?
@@Shalakor entirely optional. My thought was that you weren’t going to miss based off of how the item is worded, so the elemental does a strength save to see how much it can endure the hit. Dex would still work wonderfully. You could even say it’s up to the elemental to choose. (Similar to how a grapple can be ended with an acrobatics or athletics check)
Elemental plane of fire here I come
A few big mistakes:
1. Scroll of Protection is single use
2. "You're not gonna be flooding anybody out of a cave" - it has endless water, so they could still use it to do this
3. The snake has 60hp, not 13, and this makes a massive difference
As for #2, it would take months and by then, the goblins/kobolds could have dug to Elysium.
@@thomasdahlberg5920 yeah, I mean it would be one thing if they were talking about the 1st through 3rd edition version of the decanter that stays on until the command word turns it off, but the 4th through 5th edition versions of it have to be reactivated every round (6 seconds).
Just for reference though, a decanter that never turns off, in geyser mode, produces enough water in 24 hours to fill a chamber 75' long by 75' wide, 10' deep.... (or fill an olympic sized swimming pool to 65% capacity). So outside of flooding a varmint / pest burrow or flooding a large home basement or a single large room, it would in fact take weeks or months to really have an effect on any decent sized dungeon or what not.
@@22steve5150 It can produce 5 gallons of water per second (300gal/min). You're not going to be drowning anyone, but that's not what I said. A dungeon full of goblins (or most other sentient creatures) aren't going to sit back and think "nah, they'll get bored before its completely flooded in 24 hours". If someone started dumping hundreds of gallons of water into their home, they're going to want to stop it, and come out.
@@MCHelios618 That's true depending on the type and size of the dungeon in question, but most of them should have pretty good drainage or else they'd already be flooded or partially flooded during rainy season, be it manmade floor drains or cracks and fissures into cave complexes below or underground streams that pass through here or there. Depending on the layout the result could be nothing more than a couple of rooms having ankle deep water before natural drains prevent the water from progressing any farther, and the denizens of the dungeon may never even know that there was an attempt to flood it, either being too far in to ever see any water or if near the entrance just assuming it must be raining up topside and some water is seeping down.
@@22steve5150I'm sure the inhabitants aren't just going to stand there and be very slowly drowned
On the note from the begging about giving a +1 sword flavor, I will always remember how much I enjoyed all of the unique magic weapons with lore in Icewind dale vs the +1shorswords I got in Bauldersgate, despite there being no mechanical difference.
True. But gods I hated the railroading of IWD.
@@PalleRasmussen it’s a prewritten adventure, it’s meant to be railroady
@@nateperkins9860 so is BG and SoA, they are not railroady. In IWD there is only one option; go there, follow this path, kill everything you meet.
Boring.
@@PalleRasmussen I would say all are similarly railroady and since IWD is shorter it feels like more railroading
It’s not railroad it’s linear. There is a difference
I think shield of missile attraction would be a blessing to the party tank, meant to soak up all the hits and probably have resistance against that damage.
I was thinking the same thing. I'd take that for my Dragonborn Totem barbarian.
@@brettcardon4552 wait until your own party starts shooting arrows to your back. You engage enemy, Rogue of party shoots an arrow to the engaged enemy to get sneak-attack, arrow is attracted to you instead and rogue does all his sneak-attack into your barbarian.
@@tarksurmani6335 knowing our group, that is exactly what would happen. 😂
@@tarksurmani6335 easy enough, don’t stand within 10 feet of the enemies- well, don’t stand…. Uhhhhhh, well, don’t stand within 10 feet of the enemies others are shooting.
wait for the first bar fight. every thrown drink goes to the cursed.
Pole of Angling :While holding this 10-foot pole, you can speak a command word and transform it into a fishing pole with a hook, a line, and a reel. Speaking the command word again changes the fishing pole back into a normal 10-foot pole.
Nothing really special, but hey, having a 10 ft pole is always nice, and having the ability to just start fishing somewhere can help with survival or flavor for the campaign. Again there really isn't anything exceptionally special about this, but talking around a campfire over some fried fish, and helping to explain away getting food easily with survival, this is the tool I think any seasoned Ranger would want. Plus you never know when you might need a 10 ft pole right?
And if you've ever watched HxH you'll know how OP a fishing rod is as a weapon.
A 10-foot pole? Think of all the things you could touch with it!
That 5' fishing pole would be useful if you're crawling through a tight winding tunnel, when you couldn't get through with a 10' pole...
In general, you can give players non combat items and basic utility items right away.
Bags of holding, handy haversacks, light sources, dark vision upgrades for the PCs that don't have dark vision, food and water sources, and figurines, statues, and totems that turn into mounts or non combat familiars.
Any of these can be handed out in the first or second encounter loot. AC and attack boosting items should be held back until the party reaches tier 2 levels, or until they all have their first ASI.
My homebrew setting revolves around an adventurers academy. PCs can start as students of the academy, or they can start as non students the students meet on their final exam quest and then bring back to the academy.
Students start with all the stuff their race, class, and background give them. Plus they get a bonus feat, a bonus skill proficiency, a bonus language, and a tool proficiency. Basically students get everything variant human gives them on top of their race, class, etc...
Variant human and custom lineage are banned for these campaigns. No double feats at level 1.
Non students start the game with a +1 weapon, armor, or equivalent wondrous item.
By level 4 the students will have earned a +1 weapon and the non students have audited classes enough to get the benefits of variant human.
Honestly, i give every table a bag of holding by the third session so we have a mechanical reason to ignore encumbrance. Smart parties will always do some crazy shit with it down the line too, which just makes it even more fun.
To reduce the likelihood of my player abusing the bag of holding on bag of holding tricks to create a spatial rupture, I added a natural magical resistance to this effect so the characters have to make a strength roll of dc 15 to burst the bubble…and so must be in range
My favorite magic item moment was when my players were in a hard fight, and the rouge said "I use my Robe of Useful Items and pull out a... *rolls dice* A DOOR! I pull out a 10 foot iron door and hit the nearest enemy with it!"
I can't remember the exact details but. We once used an immovable rod as grappling hook.
If I remember it right, we tied a rope around it I animal formed into a gecko and clung to the rod then our strongest member threw me up the cliff and when I reached the right height gecko me smacked the button and everyone was able to climb up safely XD.
That's awesome!
Many uses in past game: make it ne swallowed by a flying dragon, used to block the closing of a castle drawbridge, to act as an axis to hold a swinging rope to wich we attached a boulder in order to destroy a trapped door
For players without dark vision, a caster with the Cantrip Light can cast the spell on stones/pebbles picked up off the ground. They can be placed in a spell scroll container with a cap on one end that can be opened or closed (flashlight) or even thrown ahead into dark areas, then picked up again as you walk by. Being rocks/pebbles and a Cantrip there is an endless supply. Just has to be recast every hour.
Had that cantrip on one of my lore Bards...
Had a part in a homebrew one-shot that involved a well. Tossed a copper piece down the well that was litup so we could see to the bottom. DM wasn't expecting that, lol
I love using simple spells/cantrips as liberally as possible.
I'd argue the Shield of Missile Attraction is almost entirely good so long as your party doesn't include an archer. It's a great way for your high health high AC resistance fighter to soak damage that would have targeted the rest of the party.
Also be careful if you have a monk, missile snaring is one of the coolest monk abilities, you don't want to take those away from them.
Idk, you could multiclass or feat the monk to get shield proficiency, then they always get to throw the arrows!
@@valentinegodek4681 Of course, half the other Monk class features die when wielding a shield, so you'd need to be okay with that.
@@chaonis24601 I really wanted to get this for a monk character I had years ago. The intention isn't for them to hold the shield, just to have the curse so that they have more opportunities to catch and return missile attacks.
29:39 You shouldn't be scared of giving it to a party, the party should be scared of what's coming up if you give it to them.
Request: when making a list video, please insert time stamps for each list item.
This video has chapters on. You should be able to see the chapter list and that has timestamps. This is the 2nd vid of his I have seen so not sure if that is standard for him.
@@DESERTP1 yes, now it does have time stamps! 👍🏼I could have sworn that when it was initially uploaded, it did not. If I was wrong, then my apologies!
Immovable Rods, Robe of Useful Items and Feather Tokens are my favorite magic items.
I love immovable Rod. It was my favorite item at 1st level. And saved the entire party at lvl 10 when we finished the campaign
how was it used?
My traumatized dm would never touch the decanter of endless water with a 50 ft pole. Shape water is a monster. I actually trained proficiency with smiths tools so I could use xanathars to make the thing myself.
Why would they not touch it may I ask? My character has it and I feel like it's something i should bust out every now and then but I havent had many opportunities yet :c
@@alyssasowell774 a 5x5x5 ft cube of water weighs about 7.5 thousand pounds and you can move it as a cantrip. With 2 effects you can levitate the monolith of water and make it invisible by dropping opacity. Then when the enemy is in position freeze it and drop the levitation to drop nearly 4 tons of ice on them.
This wouldn’t work. Like at all.
@@rathorrath401 why not
@@wysp272 "dropping the opacity" doesnt mean it can be invisible. Water still has it's properties... this is a cantrip, it wouldnt have the power to make something invisible.
If you cast it multiple times, you can have no more than 2 of it's non instantaneous effects active at a time, you can dismiss it's effect as an action.
The water would move up 5 feet, then you'd have to cast the spell again, which is an action, which is 6 seconds, and the water would just fall down.
Try holding a cup of water at 5 feet, then turning it over, and see how long it takes to hit the ground.... if it's less than 6 seconds, or the time for an action, then automatically you can't do this.
Basic logic.
And im all for "rule of cool" but spells have limitations in their power, not their creativity. And this just doesn't make any sense on several levels...
You'll probably argue, that's cool, but this idea is such a reach, im surprised the DM didn't just laugh
From one Chaotic Good DM to another happy to have stumbled upon your channel.
I love giving out powerful potions early on. They have such a huge impact on everything, especially morale. Potion of invis makes the sneaker better once. Gaint's strength give the fighter a one time awesome story. Watch them swoon over a superior healing potion or the only restoration potion in town.
2 of our party can fly, we are in the arctic north, and have 2 lines tied off to the front of my folding boat, which the rest of the party is riding in, as we travel over the snow with alacrity. We even developed a tactic of launching the boat ahead of us into any fight we see, and then diving into the ongoing battle. Got surprise a couple of times with that trick. Big fun in our level 9 party, and still getting lots of use out of this item I got at 2nd level.
i was considering taking the flask of endless water for a new character, but reading "30 gallons of water" produced over 6 seconds, coming out of a regullar stoppered vial... i had to do the math... it comes out at 86.261,19 psi... the human body can withstand around 58 psi. moreover, water is used to cut steel, with a smaller* nozle, at +/- 55k psi. i could not unsee these numbers and accept a simple 1d4 force and maybe go prone.
Doesn’t this HEAVILY rely on the stopper size? I like the idea of the thin lightsaber water nozzle, but that’s by no means the standard flask, as you don’t even need to double the opening’s radius to cut the psi in half
it does... a water cannon for riot control has a nozle of about 2 inches, it can shoot up to 530 gallons a minute, and it needs to be controlled and not fired too close otherwise it can be severely damaging or lethal. and it is very hard to keep standing when blasted with one and people do get hurt a lot with that.
smaller nozle + close enough volume = higher pressure = more damage
300 gallons per minute is a pretty standard sort of industrial pump of the sort you'd use to drain a pond. Without constraints, the water will immediately spread out to a wider area than the nozzle you're pushing it through, so it's not going to come out at 90 PSI. Even a few inches away from the nozzle you're probably looking at 20 PSI and less if you're further away. I mean you're talking about like the amount of water that comes out of an unplugged fire hydrant, it could certainly knock you over if you weren't expecting it but it's not going to be seriously harmful unless you somehow shove your face right against the mouth of the flask.
I convinced my DM to put this in the game but then while I was buying it, he realized it was super OP. We were in a campaign where we encountered a lot of fire elementals. So yeah. 30 unavoidable damage (+ potential for 1d4 bludgeoning) for a bonus action seemed unfair.
But I may give it to my PCs when I run Waterdeep Dragon Heist...
In the earlier editions I would give my players Heward's Handy Haversacks, a Decanter of Endless Water, and Murlynd's Spoon. As a DM, I'm normally not interested in kerping careful track of food and water for the party.
In earlier editions the Decanter of Endless Water was actually useful as a weapon against Vampires because the "geyser" setting was considered moving water, and would do extra damage to Vampires.
To be fair, even the modern-day vampire has a weakness to running water - that's a unique use of a Decanter that survives to this day, by my ruling.
Remember, DMs (and beware, oh players) that the chime of opening makes noise. Like as in "oh now the guards might just have to make a relatively easy perception check" or even "that alerts anything nearby"
I just dealt with a leaking foundation and roof, we vacuum easily 160 gallons out of our house over the course of 12 hours. And that was quite literally a living hell I never want to relive...
30 gallons of water in the span of six seconds is... just so much....
I love the Immovable rod. So many fun applications for it, it's a good item to throw at a low level party to gauge how resourceful they are and decide what kind of items you want to risk giving them in the future.
When it comes to one-use items, don't be stingy. Give them the protection from aberrations scroll, hell, give them a wish! They will love it and it will give you a good chance to exercise your GM muscles! These will be the things they talk about for years afterwards!
I had a support Sorcerer who was essentially a neat freak in the party, so they carried tons of bars of soap and tons of vials of perfume to make sure they, and the rest of their party, were always clean and fresh everywhere they went. Plus they had shape water and control flame to give amazing spa bath massages and heated saunas (DM allowed). The Decanter of Endless Water was something all of the party was happy to get when my Sorcerer got a hold of it, lol.
Not from DMG, but at level 1 I gave my party a modified, even more cursed, version of The Monkey’s Paw with 5 wishes still intact on it. It also magically reappeared in their inventory if they tried to leave it behind or get rid of it (stuck with it), and it was activated even if not provoked intentionally - it’d grant a wish if the PC that owned it used the words “I wish…” or a derivative like “I really wish…” in any context at any time no matter what, how or where.
And yes, the wishes could be strong enough to literally destroy my entire world’s universe and/or campaign. Of course, I didn’t tell them what it was or that that’s what it did, and yes, they learned the hard way (said “I really wish…” to an NPC, “…that this gem wasn’t attached to me anymore”).
They were given it as a reward (because they asked for one) from a CR26 (secretly CR40), 60ft tall, black furred, monkey-like demon (actually the second oldest entity in existence / an old deity of chaos disguised and self-inflicted with amnesia and modified memory to think he is a demon until he “dies” in which case he’ll revert back… just for fun).
Good times 😌
Great list.
I just started running Strixhaven, which is essentially half a campaign (I'll withhold ranting), so I need to fill it out. I've decided to include these items at a magic shop on campus and have it be things they can work toward buying. Really adds to the magic school part. I think I'll have the Quaal's feather tokens as individual trading cards for sale to tap into the collector aspects of Magic the Gathering particularly.
Thanks.
I would suggest having all common magic items available for relatively cheap, ~50-100gp(depending on if consumable or not), as a way to make the world seem more magical. It will let the players customize themselves without getting overpowered. But, I totally agree with a lot of video suggestions too.
Decanter of endless water.
That bring some good old memories of my time in 2nd edition where I really mess up my DM games. I also had an item to levitate and we where 2 caster able to cast levitation.
At this point, why have a horse. Let’s always fly.
Need some cloud to make some lightning spell. Just put a coat, fly up and create a cloud.
Being attack by small mob in a dungeon. Just spray them and push them back until they can’t move. They will be easy kill.
No fireball left but you have a lightning spell. If you know in advance where you need to fight. Soak it in water and lightning the water. Everyone with there foot in that puddle of water take lightning damage.
Man I could go on for quite some time.
Conditional recharge like daily or by event can be really fun. Could be the power recharges 10% per crit roll, or recharges only after an unasked good deed, or only after being wounded, or getting lost or getting wet and touched to the ground while wet. If the recharge is a mystery, it becomes a fun detective game.
I have something I like to call the chaos chart. It has at least 200 unique things that could happen. It ranges from a chess piece popping out to an ancient dragon descending from above. It had alot of wacky stuff. There's also a homebrew item similar to the moses staff(thing that turns into a snake pet)
Had a group one time with an eversmoking bottle and a broom of flying.
We used it to do some sky writing and impress some natives.
We got invited to a festival and they gave us the information we needed to continue our journey. Pretty cool idea on the part of that character.
Now realize, I have really not played past 1-2 edition, and I mostly made up my own magic items.
One I normally gave a starting group was a "Dagger of Cure Light Wounds +2". Usable three times a day, one hour cooldown between uses. Cures 1D8 damage +2. Under those rules, "Identify" only told you the class of spell, in this case "Reverse Necromantic". If they did not realize that meant "healing", most pass it off to a magic user.
And it is funny to see them use it in combat, then stab and heal a monster. Had one group throw it away after that, convinced it was really a cursed item.
This was a real life saver in 1st and 2nd edition, as characters were much more prone to die. And hilarious, as most wondered at my sanity in creating a magic dagger that healed people when stabbed with it. I just shrugged and said "Hey, it's magic".
I could see a mad magic user creating that healing sword, I mean a wizard created owlbears.
This was enjoyable. I appreciate the in-depth aspect of the presentation and the general chill attitude of the host.
I think I might check out more videos, when I'm able to - this channel has a lot of growth potential.
I was surprised when I was able to get an immovable rod for my aasimar shadow monk. I was so happy that I had an opportunity to do cool shadow teleports to do some shenans with it. Instead of using it that way, I was forced to use (and ended up losing it) to help save my party.
Our party was dealing with temporal rifts that we had to travel through/explore. We ended up finishing that arc of the of campaign by being trusted back into our regular timeline in a hurry. When that happened, we got brought back over a maelstrom of all places. Myself and our storm sorc could fly, but I ended up using the immovable rod to hold up my non-flying teammates while we got them to safety. I do believe that if it wasn't for that rod, I think one or more members of our group would not have survived that encounter. I love that thing.
I have had an idea floating around my head for a one shot with a haunted Immovable Rod who is salty about how many times he has been left behind in pretty much the exact way you said. And sometimes his button wiggles loose, so weird! Not going to say how you can fix it, you'll have to play. ;)
Maybe if it is really upset and feeling like you're ignoring it the button will slam down in your bag of holding. If you want to keep moving and not leave all of your stuff behind you are going to have to make it feel appreciated and acknowledged.
@@TheGeekPantheon I love it!
@@TheGeekPantheon bag of holding is an extradimensional space, the rod, nor anything else inside of it could affect anything on the outside.
I run a homebrew system instead of DnD, but it's close enough, so I'll share mine too. "The Litmus Spoon" - looks like a regular pewter spoon, but when you use it to stir a beverage or dip it in a sauce/stew etc., it will detect poison and drugs. It changes color to cobalt blue when a psychoactive drug is present (love potion, opium...), and black when the substance is poisoned. The color will fade after washing/wiping the spoon clean.
Very useful, but it may be difficult to use it stealthily at a formal dinner when everyone is using fancy silverware.
One note about the Scroll of Protection: Like normal scrolls, it only works once. So if you have a campaign centered around a specific creature type, don’t worry too much about giving a Scroll of Protection from that creature type to the party
How does a scroll of protection break an entire arc? Is that entire aberration zone literally only one fight???
Wizards 😂
The final boss is just flailing angrily as the party hides inside their barrier and shooting arrows and magic at him.
@@corbentimms9443It cannot be written down into a spellbook because it isn’t a Spell Scroll.
The Scroll of Protection is only one time use as well.
@@GamerGrovyleDepending on the creature they could just make a Charisma check and ignore the barrier. Once they do this they are in fact immune to the Scroll’s Protection.
Of course depending on on the creature. A Zombie is likely not making it through but a lot of Devils, Vampires, and other monsters could just do that.
(Or just leave.)
Scroll of protection can't break much balance as it is single use. Can't see it as a huge problem.
That’s what I was thinking too.
@David G. Reeves Yea this is the 3rd video I see on the subject that talk about it in the same terms like they can use it any number of times... So in a campaign of aberration that would definitely be a scroll of aberration ... that they will never use cause what if the next encounter we need it =P
It also prevents TPK.
I once used the immovable rod to acrobat my way down from a flying ship by just swinging and clicking
The Wand of Wonder is by far my favorite magic item. I’m so happy you included it on this list!
These sound great the way you've described them and I would definitely try and scale some things up or down a bit to help them fit my setting whilst keeping gameplay fun 👍
Great video! Keep 'em coming. I love listening to ER.
In a recent campaign, my half-orc monk found a wand of wonder. We entered the final boss area; on my turn I targeted the boss with the WOW and rolled a 100. It was petrified. it was fun.
I feel like the Shield of Missile Attraction would be great for a party tank who might actually WANT to take the arrow instead of the squishy wizard.
Also: don't let your players get away with having 'not a care in the world' because they have Darkvision. Give them a color based puzzle. >:D
like disadvantage on perception should already fuck with them a bit.
just mount it on an easel and set in front of the party. LOL
Very fun video. I subscribed. I will for sure use this and share it with my GM.
I love all of these. I'm running my first dnd campaign with my friends and I want it to be as fun as possible! Thanks so much great video!
Great video! Really helped me on my level 3 party and I've got no idea what items to start slowly dropping to them :D
Robe of Useful Items is I think the best creativity-inducing item in the game. Since you can preload it with items (heck, you could even give items that aren't on the list), you can give a wide range of benefits to the party that they can use as they find a need for them. 100% agree with your assessment and glad it made the list!
First video of yours I've seen and I liked it because it sounded like you actually spoke from experience. Usually on these D&D videos, it feels like someone's just rattling off the book text and how broken it can be, but here it really felt like you knew what you were talking about.
This is so useful, thank you so much. This makes me think you’re a really thoughtful and fun GM :)
You can also alter the items as listed for your scenario. So the rod of the python could be 13hp or 60hp or whatever....the endless water could have properties unique to your campaign. I.e. I have used it once where water from the decanter never evaporates and another time the opposite where it evaporates as soon as it hits the ground....players are creative and make really good use of the changes. I usually change items in subtle ways so experienced players still have to figure the items out.
I really like giving my players consumable items. They get something, that can really help them out in a pinch, but they have to be careful when to use it, because the supply is limited. Also reduces inventory clutter somewhat
Good video on this topic. I really like your explanations you include with each item.
Best shortlist of dmg items I’ve found (or made) yet!
I have always wanted to get 2 immovable rods. Not for any combat use. Simply to hang a hammock wherever I want no matter where the party is. Haha
23:02 I was running a module that gave my party 2 immovable rods really early on, and the sorcerer once used them to climb 200 feet in the air, leave one up there, gradually lower himself to the ground, and then teleport an NPC up to the first rod with vortex warp, causing him to take 20d6 fall damage.
Unfortunately said NPC inexplicably had over 100 max HP at level 3 so it didn't kill him, but it was certainly interesting
Thx u so much this video was super helpful I’m going to DM my first game and knowing magic items that won’t brake the game definitely helps
I know this is an old video, but thank you for this. I'm a new DM teaching myself to play, trying to hook my friends early with a spicy item that won't break the game. This list is exactly what I was looking for. Fantastic picks, all very well thought out with consideration for the players. Again, thanks a ton!
goggles of night is something i thought of within 15 seconds of this ! For me, this is a go to move to give someone that does not have night vision/low light vision / dark vission. whatever.. such a great little gift .
i make my own robes of useful items at times. i made one that was the "robe of edible desires" where it was the same except each patch was just food/water stuff
with endless water, that might be a good way to make lightning attacks into Area of effect damage.
I was thinking the same thing when I heard about that
Loved the video, great recomendations, thanks!
Glad you enjoyed!
My favorite thing I've ever given my players was the alchemy jug. Didn't give them any information about it, just gave them the jug. Figuring it out became an ongoing deight for many, many sessions. It's just a 1 gallon, 12 pound ceramic jug, but it can produce up to a certain amount of one of many liquids off a list each day, like 8 gallons of fresh drinking water, 8 ounces of acid, or 2 gallons of mayonnaise. I let them get an appropriate or appropriately ridiculous amount of whatever (nonmagical) liquid they wanted (the genius who asked it for liquid gold got about 1 GP worth, so not a moneymaker). Repeated interparty conflict ensued on whether it ought to be used each day for fancy booze, utilitarian stuff like lamp oil, or ridiculous experiments and/or goofs. It was a ton of fun for low level characters setting up fire or grease traps, getting drunk and lost, making friends, and shenanigans involving 2 gallons of mayonnaise.
Honestly I just love giving the party weird and mysterious little things that do basic utility cantrip level stuff, if they can figure out how to use it.
Decanter of endless water has some potential:
The party travels up the mountainside next to the largest bandit camp in the realm.
At only 3rd level, the party has no chance of taking this small army on directly.
The bandit leader has had one of the party members' families killed, so they are strongly motivated to do something about it regardless of how much stronger the bandits are.
Still climbing, they find a caldera, valley or other geological formation where water could collect uphill from the camp.
The decanter of endless water is attached to a tree stump or wall, using glue and/or rope to affix it firmly.
One of the party has magic mouth, they cast it as a ritual, with instructions to repeat the word "geyser" anytime the decanter is inactive. The ritual magic mouth will make the decanter spew 30 gallons of water every minute, indefinitely.
The party then simply leaves to do other, more level appropriate adventuring, for two months.
After two months they return to find 2.5 million gallons of water (about four and a half Olympic swimming pools) has gathered uphill from the camp.
Perhaps there is even a new stream flowing downhill towards to camp.
You can barely see some tiny figures collecting water for the bandit camp, from the new stream, at the base of the mountainside.
The party now uses any destructive means available to them to destroy the part of the mountainside holding back the water.
*BOOOOOOMMM*
*water rushing sound*
More than two million gallons of water crash down the mountainside and totally destroy the camp.
Almost certainly killing a large majority of the people within.
The party feels a pang of guilt, the destruction before them is beyond anything they have witnessed in their lives, and they set it up at level 3.
Luckily they know from experience that these bandits were cold blooded killers, not likely to take prisoners for ransom.
So they can be fairly sure no innocents were killed.
A lot of the loot from the camp is broken or scattered around the local countryside by the wave of water.
Before climbing down the mountainside, the party retrieves the endless decanter, and have a particularly satisfying drink.
Then they set off down the mountainside to terrorise the few bandits still able to fight.
It's essentially a natural disaster in your hand, any settlement that is downhill could be flooded and wiped out.
I absolutely LOVE The Robe of Useful Items. Most of the characters I play are whimsical, and the robe allows for a very Looney Tunes type gameplay/roleplay, pulling mundane items out of thin air. *POOF!* Great stuff!
Worth noting that for someone intending to play a tank character the missile attraction shield is purely a huge benefit. It's an automatic irresistible taunt vs ranged enemies to protect allies within the same range paladin auras cover... That's AMAZING and tank players from other games trying d&d are often frustrated by the lack of a good taunt mechanic so this is a game changer for them
Very cool. I like your presentation and ideas.
Just a dang good video. I dunno what else to say except thank you.
I love the goofy ones. Cloak of billowing, ever smoking pipe, and the circlet of human perfection (the last one can be quite handy in the right situation).
I think a circlet of ugliness would be more balanced. Useful for disguise, but if you forget to change back before going shopping, the prices will be very steep.
Bag of Tricks. The Gray one I believe. My party has three players and we're playing in Salt Marsh. There's a Locatha Ranger, A Blind Fighter Variant human and a Custom Lineage Human Bard. We were at level four when I got a hold of the Bag.
Now, It's got some decent animals you may pull. Dire Wolf and Giant Elk come to mind. If you're lucky as a DM, You party will have lousy rolls when they need them. I've pulled Dire Wolf and Giant Elk once each.
*They were in non-combat situations...*
Pulled Dire Wolf the first time my character was testing the bag. went back to the inn and slept, causing her to learn the disappear sometime within a long rest (specifically at Dawn).
Pulled a Giant Elk on our way to a mining cave. Didn't realize the threat we were facing was from within the cave. Had it give a guy a ride back to town.
Did Pull a Boar though in a combat situation. Helped quite a bit. Now I'm waiting for my chance to pull The Panther.
The mushroom bag, the item that’s a category below Magic Item that provides enough safe to eat mushrooms for one person as a base. The maintenance cost is… organic detritus
Pair it with a Druid/nature cleric and suddenly you have a neat paradigm ideal for healing/cure spells.
I'm not a DM, but am enjoying writing a Level 1 (they're now level 2) solo campaign, so this is helpful.
I did recently use a non-magical item that totally threw off the DM yesterday. Some of the group members received gifts in the shape of toys, and I kept mine a secret for a few sessions. The DM was so excited when I pulled it out!
It was an action figure.
As a grognard DM who only just started 5th edition, this is super useful. Thanks man.
This is excellent, thank you very much!
Great list!!! I'm using that!
Rule of cool moment: If fighting a red dragon (or one with a fire breath attack) allow them to use a reaction to open the flask of endless water to have a tug-o-war with the fire and water (not sure how to determine who wins, but still cool)
The downside is the super hot steam that envelopes everything.
DM would likely rule less damage than pure fire...but it's still a hindrance.
I like the concept of items that don’t have “limited” charges, but it has a chance of failing which increases every time it is used. For example, a compass that tells you a creatures alignment if they aren’t unaligned, every time it is used a d100 is rolled and a 1 is a failure. Each time the compass is used the failure threshold raises by 1 to a maximum of 99. On a fail, the dm either rolls 2d3(one halve of a d6) to determine the alignment displayed or the dm decides what it says.
Screw it, I gotta say that's a clever channel name there
The Flask of Endless water is pretty cool and balanced, until you set up a fight against a fire elemental and remember. They take 1 damage for every gallon of water poured on them.
That’s probably a good thing accidentally, let your party have that “AHA!” Moment when they realize they can do something clever
That cursed sheild actually sounds op for a tank. Resistance + basically a free constantly renewing taunt on all ranged attackers.
The Decanter of Endless Water was the first magic item I gave my players, and they've used it more than every other magic item they've gotten other than their custom weapon I gave them all later on. They've never used it to knock anyone prone.
I take more powerful magic items that have a huge downside.
Tattered bag of tricks - it's a regular bag of tricks, but one creature is super OP (giant boar), three are useless, one blows up (volatile goat, 1d10 damage on spawn), and three are moderately strong and hostile to the player.
When they cast it in battle and it's a giant boar, it's an absolutely epic moment.
I had a player use the decanter geyser effect with a halfling character as a janky fly spell...there were athletics, acrobatics, and ride checks involved, and it often had hilarious results :D
I mean for some groups a PC getting the cursed shield of missile attraction would be a good thing. Helps the squishy casters get targeted a lot less.
Hey good on you deep diving this. Not enough people support the GM side of things and I personally learned a lot.
I literally asked myself this exact question maybe 2 hrs ago and voila, your video shows up on my suggested. It was meant to be
Great video. My most memorable D&D moment is when a swarm of butterflies saved our lives.
got so much inspirations for creating my own magic items now :)