Homebrew Magic Items (Jump)

Magic items are gleaned from the hordes of conquered monsters or discovered in long-lost vaults. Such items grant capabilities a character could rarely have otherwise, or they complement their owner’s capabilities in wondrous ways.

Rarity

Each magic item has a rarity: common, uncommon, rare, very rare, or legendary. Common magic items, such as a potion of healing, are the most plentiful. Some legendary items, such as the Apparatus of Kwalish, are unique. The game assumes that the secrets of creating the most powerful items arose centuries ago and were then gradually lost because of wars, cataclysms, and mishaps. Even uncommon items can’t be easily created. Thus, many magic items are well-preserved antiquities.

Rarity provides a rough measure of an item’s power relative to other magic items. Each rarity corresponds to character level, as shown in the Magic Item Rarity table. A character doesn’t typically find a rare magic item, for example, until around 5th level. That said, rarity shouldn’t get in the way of your campaign’s story. If you want a ring of invisibility to fall into the hands of a 1st-level character, so be it. No doubt a great story will arise from that event.

If your campaign allows for trade in magic items, rarity can also help you set prices for them. As the DM, you determine the value of an individual magic item based on its rarity. Suggested values are provided in the Magic Item Rarity table. The value of a consumable item, such as a potion or scroll, is typically half the value of a permanent item of the same rarity.

Magic Item Rarity Table

These listed prices and approximate availability are dependent on the Campaign itself.  There is also the possibility of growth magical items that change as specific conditions are met.

Attunement

Some magic items require a creature to form a bond with them before their magical properties can be used. This bond is called attunement, and certain items have a prerequisite for it. If the prerequisite is a class, a creature must be a member of that class to attune to the item. (If the class is a spellcasting class, a monster qualifies if that monster has spell slots and uses that class’s spell list.)

Without becoming attuned to an item that requires attunement, a creature gains only its nonmagical benefits, unless its description states otherwise.

Attuning to an item requires a creature to spend a short rest focused on only that item while being in physical contact with it (this can’t be the same short rest used to learn the item’s properties). This focus can take the form of weapon practice (for a weapon), meditation (for a wondrous item), or some other appropriate activity. If the short rest is interrupted, the attunement attempt fails. Otherwise, at the end of the short rest, the creature gains an intuitive understanding of how to activate any magical properties of the item, including any necessary command words.

An item can be attuned to only one creature at a time and a creature can be attuned to no more than three magic items at a time. Any attempt to attune to a fourth item fails; the creature must end its attunement to an item first. Additionally, a creature can’t attune to more than one copy of an item.

A creature’s attunement to an item ends if the creature no longer satisfies the prerequisites for attunement, if the item has been more than 100 feet away for at least 24 hours, if the creature dies, or if another creature attunes to the item. A creature can also voluntarily end attunement by spending another short rest focused the item unless the item is cursed.

Cursed Items

Some magic items bear curses that bedevil their users sometimes long after a user has stopped using an item. A magic item’s description specifies whether the item is cursed. Most methods of identifying items, including the identify spell, fail to reveal such a curse, although ore might hint at it. A curse should be a surprise to the item’s user when the curse’s effects are revealed.

Attunement to a cursed item can’t be ended voluntarily unless the curse is broken first, such as with the remove curse spell.

There might also be different special circumstances on how a specific cursed item can be removed.  It might require a quest, bath it in the blood of a beast, or any other story related set of actions to end the connection to that cursed item.

Magic Item Categories

Each magic item belongs to a category: armor, potions, rings, rods, scrolls, staffs, wands, weapons, or wonderous items.

Armor

Unless an armor’s description says otherwise, armor must be worn for its magic to function. Some suits of magic armor specify the type of armor they are, such as chain mail or plate.

Potions

Different kinds of magical liquids are grouped in the category of potions: brews made from enchanted herbs, water from magical fountains or sacred springs, and oils that are applied to a creature or object. Most potions consist of one ounce of liquid.

Potions are consumable magic items. Drinking a potion or administering a potion to another character requires an action. Applying an oil might take longer, as specified in its description. Once used, a potion takes effect immediately, and it is used up.

Mixing Potions

A character might drink one potion while still under the effects of another or pour several potions into a single container. The strange ingredients used in creating potions can result in unpredictable interactions.

When a character mixes two potions together, you can roll on the Potion Miscibility table. If more than two are combined, roll again for each subsequent potion, combining the results. Unless the effects are immediately obvious, reveal them only when they become evident.

Potion Miscibility Table

Rings

Magic rings offer an amazing array of powers to those lucky enough to find them. Unless a ring’s description says otherwise, a ring must be worn on a finger, or a similar digit, for the ring’s magic to function.

Rods

A scepter or just a heavy cylinder, a magic rod is typically made of metal, wood, or bone. It’s about 2 or 3 feet long, 1 inch thick, and 2 to 5 pounds.

Scrolls

Most scrolls are spells stored in written form, while a few bears unique incantations that produce potent wards. Whatever its contents, a scroll is a roll of paper, sometimes attached to wooden rods, and typically kept safe in a tube of ivory, jade, leather, metal, or wood. A scroll is a consumable magic item. Whatever the nature of the magic contained in a scroll, unleashing that magic requires using an action to read the scroll. When its magic has been invoked, the scroll can’t be used again. Its words fade, or it crumbles into dust.

Any creature that can understand a written language can read the arcane script on a scroll and attempt to activate it. Scrolls are the most sought-after item for Wizards to allow them to copy that spell into their spell book and expand out their repertoire.  Note that by copying a spell from a scroll to a spell book, that scroll is destroyed in the process.

Scroll Mishaps

A creature who tries and fails to cast a spell from a spell scroll must make a DC 10 Intelligence saving throw. If the saving throw fails, roll on the Scroll Mishap table.

Scroll Mishaps Table

Staffs

A magic staff is about 5 or 6 feet long. Staffs vary widely in appearance: some are of nearly equal diameter throughout and smooth, others are gnarled and twisted, some are made of wood, and others are composed of polished metal or crystal. Depending on the material, a staff weighs between 2 and 7 pounds.

Unless a staff’s description says otherwise, a staff can be used as a quarterstaff.

Wands

A magic wand is about 15 inches long and crafted of metal, bone, or wood. It is tipped with metal, crystal, stone, or some other material.

Weapons

Whether crafted for some fell purpose or forged to serve the highest ideals of chivalry, magic weapons are coveted by many adventurers.

Some magic weapons specify the type of weapon they are in their descriptions, such as a longsword or longbow.

Wondrous Items

Wondrous items include worn items such as boots, belts, capes, gloves, and various pieces of jewelry and decoration, such as amulets, brooches, and circlets. Bags, carpets, crystal balls, figurines, horns, musical instruments, and other objects also fall into this catch- all category.

Wearing and Wielding Items

Using a magic item’s properties might mean wearing or wielding it. A magic item meant to be worn must be donned in the intended fashion: boots go on the feet, gloves on the hands, hats and helmets on the head, and rings on the finger. Magic armor must be donned, a shield strapped to the arm, a cloak fastened about the shoulders. A weapon must be held in hand.

In most cases, a magic item that’s meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or the: magically adjust themselves to the wearer.

Rare exceptions exist. If the story suggests a good reason for an item to fit only creatures of a certain size or shape, you can rule that it doesn’t adjust.

When a non-humanoid tries to wear an item, use your discretion as to whether the item functions as intended. A ring placed on a tentacle might work, but a yuan-ti with a snakelike tail instead of legs can’t wear boots.

Multiple Items of the Same Kind

Use common sense to determine whether more than one of a given kind of magic item can be worn. A character can’t normally wear more than one pair of footwear, one pair of gloves or gauntlets, one pair of bracers, one suit of armor, one item of headwear, and one cloak. You can make exceptions; a character might be able to wear a circlet under a helmet, for example, or be able to layer two cloaks.

Paired Items

Items that come in pairs – such as boots, bracers, gauntlets, and gloves – impart their benefits only if both items of the pair are worn.

Activating An Item

Activating some magic items requires a user to do something special, such as holding the item and uttering a command word. The description of each item category or individual item details how an item is activated. Certain items use one or more of the following rules for their activation.

If an item requires an action to activate, that action isn’t a function of the Use an Item action, so a feature such as the rogue’s Fast Hands can’t be used to activate the item.

Command Word

A command word is a word or phrase that must be spoken for an item to work. A magic item that requires a command word can’t be activated in an area where sound is prevented, as in the silence spell.

Consumables

Some items are used up when they are activated. A potion or an elixir must be swallowed, or an oil applied to the body. The writing vanishes from a scroll when it is read. Once used, a consumable item loses its magic.

Spells

Some magic items allow the user to cast a spell from the item. The spell is cast at the lowest possible spell level, doesn’t expend any of the user’s spell slots, and requires no components, unless the item’s description says otherwise. The spell uses its normal casting time, range, and duration, and the user of the item must concentrate if the spell requires concentration. Many items, such as potions, bypass the casting of a spell and confer the spell’s effects, with their usual duration. Certain items make exceptions to these rules, changing the casting time, duration, or other parts of a spell.

A magic item, such as certain staffs, may require you to use your own spell casting ability when you cast a spell from the item. If you have more than one spell casting ability, you choose which one to use with the item. If you don’t have a spell casting ability-perhaps you’re a rogue with the Use Magic Device feature – your spell casting ability modifier is +0 for the item, and your proficiency bonus does apply.

Charges

Some magic items have charges that must be expended to activate their properties. The number of charges an item has remaining is revealed when an identify spell is cast on it, as well as when a creature attunes to it. Additionally, when an item regains charges, the creature attuned to it learns how many charges it regained.

Magic Item Resilience

Most magic items are objects of extraordinary artisanship. Thanks to a combination of careful crafting and magical reinforcement, a magic item is at least as durable as a nonmagical item of its kind. Most magic items, other than potions and scrolls, have resistance to all damage. Artifacts are practically indestructible, requiring extraordinary measures to destroy.

Homebrew Magic Items

The following magic items are all ones that can be found in the game, many have already been found, but do exist somewhere.  All these items can also be found in D&D Beyond so any of them can be easily added to the character sheets in D&D Beyond if ever needed.

Amulet of the Monotone Voice

Wonderous Item, Common (requires attunement)

There are many instances where a person is unable to speak, from physical damage, lack of proper vocal cords, or any other reasons.  This amulet will allow the wearer to speak what is on their mind.  The sound of the voice will very clearly emanate from the wearer’s mouth even if they never open it up.  The voice will be in a medium normal speaking volume in a generic genderless voice that is only able to deliver their worded content in a strict monotone.  No matter high excited, angry, or any other emotion that the wearer might be feeling or displaying physically, the voice will never vary in loudness, tone, and delivery.

While wearing this amulet the wearer has an advantage on all roll’s verses Insight checks, or any magic that would cause the user to tell the truth.  In fact, even under a Zone of Truth the user has a 50% chance of being able to tell a lie anyway.

This magic item must be attuned to for it to function for the wearer.

Blight Oil

Oil, common

Crafted by: Blight Seed x5 (Alchemist)

This bottle contains enough oil to cover up to 10 square feet of surface area. Once this oil is rubbed into the surface of vegetation, it will soak half a foot into it. Vegetation soaked in this oil becomes as soft and malleable as wet clay and retains any physical manipulation done to it.

The oil dries after 10 minutes, causing the vegetation it was rubbed on to become solid again.

Bracer of Elemental Demise

Wonderous Item, Common (requires attunement)

Created by a loving Djinni mother for her half-breed son.  Knowing that she would not be able to remain in this world and to protect him, she created a magical item to help him survive in the rough world.

When the wearer is reduced to zero hit points their body disintegrates into a warm breeze, leaving behind only equipment they were wearing or carrying.  They reappear a random distance away and in a random direction from where they were reduced to zero hit points.  They are transported a distance equal to 2d6 x 10 in feet.  When they reappear, they are at one hit point and have nothing on them except this bracer.

This function can be used only once per long rest.

Broken Sword of Weal and Woe

Weapon (dagger), Common (requires attunement)

Originally the dagger of a soldier named Benny.  After a disastrous battle with Benny bravely defending all is friends and fellow soldiers, Benny was the last survivor to face the enemy.  He swore that no more of his friends would die, and he dove into the opposing group.  He was able to kill all the enemies but himself had endured numerous wounds, most of which were fatal.  The next day Benny and the rest of the military unit was found by those that had managed to flee the ambush.  There was Benny on top of all the dead bodies, slumped over with nothing but this broken dagger in his hands.

Once per long rest, the owner can freely cast Augury to see what fortunes await them in their endeavors.  This dagger, while broken is still able to function as a normal dagger in combat and gives the user the capability to have advantage in the first strike in a combat if the user has been surprised.

Proficiency with a dagger allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.

Enchanted Vial

Wonderous Item, Common

Some creature parts have powerful, yet fleeting, magical energies within them. The motes from elementals for example hold traces of their former essences in them but disperse rapidly upon the destruction of their original form.

An enchanted vial is inlaid with several runes designed to keep any magical resource within from dissipating while the lid is closed and is often the only way of transporting certain parts back to a workshop for crafting.

Items that require an enchanted vial to be harvested are fragile by nature and must be stored inside an enchanted vial quickly to prevent degradation. Any attempt to harvest a material that has an enchanted vial as a requirement must be initiated within one minute of the death of its creature.

This tool can be used a maximum of five times afterwards it disintegrates into powder.  At each attempted use, roll a d20 and if a 1 is rolled, the vial is immediately destroyed.

Healing Pill

Wonderous Item, Common

You regain 1d4 hit points when you swallow this pill.  If more than one is swallowed, then all after the first do 1d4 damage instead.

Eye of Elemental Protection

Wondrous Item, unknown rarity (requires attunement by an Item auto attunes to the nearest person once acquired during the first long rest.)

A small golden statue made of what appears to be gold with four different arcane symbols with a vertical oval above them all.  This small magical item comes with five charges that renew up to 1d6 charges every day at dawn.  It has two different functions.  It can allow the user to cast an Absorb Elements for one charge or a Protection from Energy for three charges.

Note that the Absorb Elements can be up cast for the cost of additional charges.  One charge for each level it is being up cast.

Long Sword +0 (Ember)

Weapon (long sword), Rare (requires attunement)

While this is only a +0 weapon, it still counts as a magical weapon for overcoming damage resistance.  It has the following powers:

• Sheds light in a 20-foot radius upon command
• On a critical hit, it deals an additional 1d6 fire damage
• Once per long rest, as a bonus action the owner can cast Fire Bolt as the spell for 2d10 fire damage and +6 to hit.

Ember was created over 600 years ago when the time of nobles and barons’ rules over the area.  Little is known of its origin.  A flame symbol is etched along the blade neat the hilt.

Proficiency with a long sword allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.

Mask of Painful Faces

Wonderous Item, Common (requires attunement)

This mask has the bearing of a face in pain when in its normal state.  The magic item allows the wearer to create the illusion of them being someone else but only their face changes.  This illusion can be changed only once per short rest.  All the faces that are created will appear to be in some sort of pain or mental struggle.  None of the faces will appear at peace.  It is not able to change the user’s gender, nor will the wearer’s clothing be altered in any way.  The wearer’s voice can be altered, but all the voices will be gravely and sound like the person’s throat has been damaged.

Unlike most illusion spells, if the user is touch in any way, the effect will not be disabled or change at all.  In fact, there is a distinct chance the person touching the user might still be fooled by the illusion.  With a DC 20 to make the determination that there is in fact an illusion on the user.  However, if the wearer is attack and takes any form of physical or magical damage, the image will flicker, but still not revealing the exact features.  Once the user has taken five or more hits, the mask will cease functioning until a short rest is taken.

This item must be attuned to function.  Once attuned the mask will not fall off, or can it be removed until the attunement has been ended by the wearer.  The mask itself has 10 hit points and no armor class, so it is easily destroyed even when worn.

Monocle of Verisimilitude

Wonderous Item, Common (requires attunement)

Originally owned by an old hanging judge from hundreds of years ago, this monocle helps the wearer to discern the difference between lies and the truth.  It allows the user to have advantage on all Insight checks when trying to see if the target is telling the truth or not.  This function can be used as many times as the wearer’s proficiency bonus.  This is reset after a short rest.

A side effect of attuning to this object causes the user to grow a long and thin mustache that end in sharp tapered tips, no matter the gender of the wearer.  When using the special function, a single eyebrow is caused to be raised as if pondering some great fact, as well as causing the user to immediately reach to one of their mustaches ends and twirl it.

Potion of Cure Lycanthropy

Wonderous Item, Uncommon

The encroaching madness, the changes to personality, extra body hair, all of these are possible symptoms of an infection of Lycanthropy.  This potion will cure any lycanthropic infections if it is consumed within a month of the infection being inflicted.

Ring of Biting Retort

Ring, Common (requires attunement)

A ring made by someone who has an overabundance of mocking humor.  Resembling a mouth with a set of sharp teeth this ring does not look pleasant in any way.  Made of some sort of silverish metal, it never seems to be tarnished or able to get dirty in any way.

By wearing and attuning to this ring, the wearer can heal an individual 1d4, but takes 1 point of damage every time it is used.  To active the healing action, the wearer must first insult the recipient of the healing as meanly as possible.  Once the insult has been hurled the ring takes a bite of the wearer’s finger doing the damage and then spitting blood onto the healing target.

The ring may heal as many times as the proficiency bonus of the wearer per short rest. The ring cannot be used to heal the wearer of the ring.

Spirit Paper

Wonderous Item, Common

Spirit paper is a versatile tool that resembles a square of bleached papyrus. The secrets of its production were only recently discovered, and reverse engineered from secrets brought back from distant necromantic cults. By performing a small ritual with the spirit paper shortly after slaying certain creatures, a copy of that creature’s soul is bound to the spirit paper for later use. These copies are not a true soul and are more akin to an echo. These echoes do retain all the memories from its original body, and a few crafting techniques utilize these echoes to grant an item a low level of sentience or to mimic the abilities of their incorporeal reflections.

Using spirit paper is often the only way to harvest anything useful from creatures with incorporeal forms. Any harvesting attempt made for a creature part that has spirit paper as a requirement is done using a Wisdom (Religion) check rather than the usual check and is rolled separately for each item. Once a sheet of spirit paper has been used successfully to harvest an item, it cannot be reused, even if the item it contained is released.

Unlike most harvestable materials, materials that require spirit paper to be harvested dissipate very quickly after the death of its creature. Any attempt to harvest a material that has spirit paper as a requirement must be initiated within 1 minute of the death of the creature and takes 10 minutes to successfully complete.

Each Spirit paper can only be used once.

Stick of Fancy Nature Lights

Weapon (club), Common (requires attunement only and only usable by Druids)

Within some deep forest hundreds of years ago, a Great Druid carved out different wooden sticks and clubs to help those newly ordained with their concentration and spell casting.  Some of these objects have spread out as hereditary objects used by Druids ever since that time.  When a Druid uses this object as a focus for any spell casting, the craved head on the object will lean back and belch forth a bright green flame that will remain lit above the object until the spell duration ends.

While wielding this object, a Druid will gain advantage on all concentration checks when taking damage.  When this object is used as the component for the Shillelagh spell, the caster will have advantage on their first attack using this object.  This is available every time that spell has been cast using this object as a component. 

Proficiency with a club allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.