Top 10 Weirdest Common & Uncommon Magic Items in DnD 5e
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2024
- In Dungeons and Dragons 5e, there are a lot of magical items that you can obtain to help flesh out your character in a variety of ways. Some of these magic items can come in the form of dangerous, yet powerful objects which can allow you to cast spells, deal extra damage, or make yourself harder to kill. However, not every magical item is so straight forward. In fact, there are some items that are so strange that you might often wonder why such items exist in the first place. So, in this video, we will be going over some of the common and uncommon magical items that come off as weird at first glance and explore some of the possible niche uses for such items.
Video edited by BV
Written by: Zephyr
Managed by: hiru
-The List-
Intro: (0:00)
10. Cloak of Billowing: (0:28)
9. Shield of Expression: (2:00)
8. Orb of Time: (3:09)
7.Bottle of Boundless Coffee: (4:17)
6. Hat of Vermin: (6:08)
5. Pole of Angling: (7:56)
4. Paper Bird: (9:13)
3. Brooch of Living Essence: (11:33)
2. Circlet of Human Perfection: (14:17)
1. Moodmark Paint: (16:09)
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I can totally see Bottle Of Boundless Coffee turning into one of the most popular magic items in our world
especially if it Starbucks coffee
@@erikburzinski8248 no, bad.
(You do you, but its not actually a good coffee, it really gets carried by the additives)
@Benjamin Holcomb I don't drink coffee I just hear a lot of people say Starbucks is good
It's also quite interesting for the precedent it sets as a Common magic item and variants you could make of it.
@@erikburzinski8248 Starbucks is less good and more all-pervasive.
the funny thing about the paper bird is that it can be used to track creatures if you follow it, which actually works better than the locate creature spell. it also lets you know they're not in the same plane of existence as you.
I was thinking the same thing. Of course, it requires that you know the real full name of whoever you're trying to find.
... So I'm picking up those paper birds right away, stat, right now.
You can move 60 feet across all terrains?
You can do the same thing with the spell _Animal Messenger_ except you can put a leash on the animal so that you don't lose your way.
orb of time could theoretically let you track "refreshes at next dawn" types of abilities while in a dungeon. just ask the orb whenever your magic item's ability is ready
The paper bird does not specify that the recipient has to be willing. It does not even provide a saving throw. This paper bird is the single most powerful scrying tool in existence.
Additionally you could just smear some contact poison on the paper before you fold it (with gloves of course). Poisons with this property include the oil of taggit and crawler's mucus which both incapacitate the person touching the item.
Better still, it's a great Glyph of Warding delivery tool.
@@20thoughts unfortunately no since the bird moves
Shield of Expression can easily be used for silent communication as a semaphore. The bandwidth is pretty slow (0.16 bits per second) but if you set up a few pre-set codes with your buddies, you can still communicate some strategies to each other without others knowing what you're communicating.
Exactly my thoughts. Set up expressions with your party. Especially if you're flanking with the holder of the shield. Tongue out and left eyebrow raised =trip enemy on the left...
Cloak of Billowing is awesome! It's a bit silly, but great fun for roleplay! Same as the mentioned Dread Helmet and Armors of Gleaming. The armor has some high level use as well as it counts as magical, thus can't be destroyed that easily.
My favorite obscure magic item is the Hat of Wizardry. Get another cantrip for a DC 10 Arcana check, which should be easy for most wizards.
As for coffee, that's been around since mid 15th century, so it's reasonable to assume it's around in certain parts of most fantasy worlds.
Isn't Coffee almost as Old as Chocolate? And Chocolate is pretty god damn Old xD here in Mexico we had chocolate even before they discover America.
Coffee seems to date back to around the 9th century, it just didn't start spreading everywhere until the 16th century.
I will say, I enjoyed the running gag throughout the video of the Time Orbs as expensive paperweights.
A potential use for the Shield of Expression might be intimidation (if your DM allows it). Kill one member of a group of enemies and use your Bonus Action to change the shield to look like their face screaming in agony. Then claim everyone you slay has their soul eaten by the shield. The survivors will probably be pretty damn horrified!
That's devious!
@@DrakeEpsilonwhy did this make me think of tom and Jerry imprinting their face or outline on a frying pan
One of my favorite "magical" items is actually a trinket. I used it in a one shot and I think it's from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. It's a wine flask that refills when interred with a corpse for a whole night. I made my character a Reborn, essentially an undead, so he had a refilled bottle of wine every long rest, which was kinda fun.
I would like to say that the hat of vermin does have a few niche uses, any spells or abilities that need a creature to die will trigger, and things like the necromancer wizards grim harvest or even a hexblades curse being able to pop a cheeky heal for both classes
Perhaps this is why the creature summoned will always try to escape. Because it's used to being killed by the summoner. XD
@@MafiaCow01 too bad it's summoned from/in hat, which you can then close, or place on the ground so it can't escape, or put the hat in a cage
another thing is that the rat from the hat is a pure normal rat meaning detect magic or activate on magic effect prevent will not happen like whit a familiar.
All good items. Personal favorite from the list being the Cloak of Billowing. Sometimes it doesn't need to be a useful magic item to be a memorable one and it hits the mark perfectly.
One of my party members loves his cloak of billowing. We love giving it adjectives depending on his like “his cloak billows angrily”, or ones that make little sense like billowing metaphorically
Coffee has been a thing in one of my games and it allowed you to stay up an additional hour on a long rest while getting all the effects.
So instead of 2 hours of doing light activity it was 3 hours.
Helps with watches with 3 people.
I had the shield of expressions for my owlin because she was mostly expressionless seeming. The point was for her to use the shield to convey her feelings. Eventually she got moodmarking paint but this sufficed in the mean time as dm allowed me to switch out her starter shield for this when I explained why.
As for the orb of time, I had my tabaxi rogue, who often does spelunking adventures into abandoned dwarven ruins and the underdark have this. It allowed him to always keep track of the time of day.
As for the circlet of human perfection. I actually had my drow craft one. He wanted to use it to bypass the usual prejudice he faces but then…he put it away without ever using it one day. He had completed but I used this item as a way to show how he had grown past this stage of his life and fully embracing all aspects of himself and not wishing to hide it for the convenience of anyone else. So this item is very useful for arcs like that. If you can swing it, ask your dm if they will allow you to have this as a starting item but tell no one about it. Let it only be revealed by your character as a character growth arc thing. It’s really effective.
I have a player who absolutely loves cloak of billowing and uses it multiple times in every game and people laugh each time.
Buddy of mine has a dm that allows him to use the coffee as a haste effect for 1-4 rounds depending on a die roll. Once per day though and has the possibility of headache if used too much
Those two effects definitely balance each other out :D
Hiru, you're really sleeping on the Talking Doll. I was looking through Common Magic Items at one point, came across this and thought "oh, that's creepy" and closed the tab. Then I realised its true potential...
It says you can teach it short phrases that are said under specific conditions... so I programmed it to be a security guard!
I put it at the entrance of a shop. If someone tries to leave while carrying an item from the shop that wasn't paid for, then "I saw what you did."
If someone enters shortly after the lock was picked, then "You shouldn't be in here."
If someone picks up the doll, then "Sorry, I'm not for sale."
A really cool item for sure shame it requires attunement, but makes sense
make the shield of expression have a horrified expression on its face and fast magic mouth to say "ah, not the face" anytime you use it to block an attack. that'll throw off your enemies a little. lol
as for the hat of vermin.. you could probably use it and polymorph to create a stronger enemy that would be a larger distraction
the paper bird and missing person thing could be useful to find said person. set the bird loose and follow it. if it gets too far ahead or destroyed just release another one. as long as they're not on another plane of existence it should fly to them (or at least to the building or dungeon that the target is in)
Polymorph would be limited to other CR 0 creatures, though. True Polymorph, the most powerful version, would still be limited to CR 0 creatures, it would just add non-beasts into the mix, like ye olde Human Commoner.
@@Coid it'd add extra hp to the vermin so the point of it being stronger still stands
The Cloak of Billowing and Shield of Expression also have some less obvious secondary use cases in the early game when magic weapons may not be available yet.
You can wrap the cloak around your monk's fist and now they're hitting their foes with a magic item AND their fist. Where the Shield of Expression is a durable shield that can be used as an improvised weapon and is magic.
A shield is an improvised weapon if you take the shield feat. Otherwise it is not a weapon. Wrapping that cloak on a fist would likely cause the hits to be half damage as it would interfere with the power AND the technique.
Scary Shield with Animate Object and Dragon's Breath would be pretty cool. Mass attack shield.
Great list! I feel like a common caveat for many of these items is that they may be much more likely to see use by the DM for NPCs. The brooch of living essence, for example, could be used by players, but it seems more like a tool that a DM could use for story purposes, being a low level magic item that a can hide the true identity of a malicious being. Also, given that most NPC’s aren’t overflowing with magic items, taking up an NPC’s attunement slot isn’t as much of an issue, and if they are not an adventurer or fighter, then this slot might be much more useful to them than a slot for a combat related item. I could totally see a Dolores Umbridge-type social figure wearing this brooch to disguise the fact that she is a demon. The fact that it says you are a humanoid is especially telling that it might be intended more for use by DMs in this way, as I believe nearly all playable races are humanoid, the only real exception being fey creatures and war forged. Even dragonborns, tortles, and lizardfolk count as humanoid. So the vast majority of things needing to hide that they are not humanoid would be things under the DMs control
So about the Hat of Vermin it is one of the few thing that summons an actual beast. That means every spell that targets beast are a viable spell for use on the creatures that come out of the hat. Maybe not all the useful but with Beast Sense you have a makeshift scouting familiar.
With Animal Messenger you have a short range message delivery, message delivery up to about a mile away for the land based and two miles for the bat. Or have a make shift scouting tool with the creatures and the Beast Sense spell.
0:22 idk about you, but I think that Red-Eyes Black Helmet there has a lot of potential
Wait until you see the true power of a Blue-Eyes White Helmet
I've been trying to find a video like this
In my experience, these are the sorts of items that players inexplicably go gaga for. Useless or bizarre magic items are almost as popular as pets! For instance, one of my players wanted a bottle of boundless coffee so badly that she was willing to sell her armor to get the money to buy one. In another campaign, one of the characters was undead and could not speak or make facial expressions, so he communicated with us via hand gestures and liberal use of a shield of expression. As a DM, I like to occasionally give my players a mostly useless magic item to see what they do with it. Invariably, however, they end up assuming that it has some kind of hidden property or plot relevance and they end up obsessing over it hilariously. I have never seen a +1 sword of warning get as much attention as a golden acorn that makes your voice deeper when you hold it.
A lich attuned to the brooch of living essence and the circlet of human perfection can walk the streets of water deep and nobody would bat an eye, unless they were batting their eyelashes at the hunky lich.
The campaign I'm currently in could hard the orbs of time be really useful as the sky is basically permanently black since the Eldritch god reawakened
That circlet of human perfection effect may be a phantasm based : That is, your appearance is all within the mind of whoever see the wearer. Every viewer may see a different person...
Facepaint would be a good interrogation tool, actually. Might give you advantage on insight checks, since you're able to tell how someone's emotionally reacting to what you're presenting to them.
Hat of vermin is a honey pot, remind them they have it and let them try to use it 'right' then haha! roll initiative.
I once had a game where the druid did the whole frog prince scheme using the brooch of living essence... Our whole party became basically royalty... It was fun.
Paper bird is great for RP. You can write a message on a piece of paper, do some origami, and give the prop to one of your players when they receive the message in game
We used Paper Bird in our campaing as a locator by writing the message to a person we wanted to find and following it.
Have an entire line of warforge with moodmark paint built in for communication purposes. It is kinda surprising that wasn't placed in there in the first place.
Step 1: Buy as many paper birds as possible
Step 2: Send them all over time to the big bad, at all hours of the day, all with the message "Your cart warrenty has expired!"
We got a magic potion that had an effect on it to trigger detect magic and that was it. We called it a +1 Potion of Water.
Another use for Paper Birds is if you know the BBEG's name and you knw he uses them to communicate back and forth.
So step one is of course learn the name of BBEG or a LT.
Step 2 buy or make some Paper Birds.
Step 3 cast Explosive Runes onto the Paper Bird then say a name.
Step 4 sit back and watch the havoc you cause in the BBEG ranks, that is assuming they never find out you know their names.
I'd get the hat of vermin just to look dapper 😤 You could also do a simple re-flavor it to summon a rabbit (just use the rat's block) or pigeon (bat).
I have a feeling that logs learned how to speak after he learned how to read, based on how he pronounces brooch.
I have used a cloak of billowing and used the fly spell to bolster troops and villages as a wizard
Okay the Paper Bird just takes some thought to break (and the right situation).
Think on this you just have to have a name of creature, just the name and nothing else, for this item to work. It also makes ABSOLUTLY no distinction that it has to be the targets actual given name, you don't need the full name either nor do you need a description of the target.
There is no save associated. The bird when given a target just takes off and heads in that direction.
If the Paper Bird does get delivered then that piece of parchment will still exist. It technically cannot be use as a Scrying target because at no point is it a creature but you can use it for the Locate Object spell.
So say you have to find a super thief the Pink Panther. PP is super slippery and no one knows where they are, no problem Pink Panther is a name of a creature. Write a message, say the word and let the bird fly. Just before cast Locate Object targeting the parchment. Now you have 10 minutes to keep track of what direction it flies. If the bird stops then you know where it stopped and can go investigate that area. You will also know if the bird got destroyed.
Heck you don’t even need to know or can cast a spell. You just need two Paper Birds, two maps, some straight edge and some pencils.
Separate into two different groups by some distance. Both groups send off the bird and mark the direction on the map. Get back together and transfer the line from one to the other. Where the lines meet, that is where the target was located. Okay sure there is no guarantee that the target will be at the convergence point but it gives you a concrete destination where the target was. That means you can search the location for clues or even send off another bird to get another direction to head towards.
Two handy uses for two of the items on this list:
*Hat of Vermin* - Give it to someone during a stealth mission (IE: the Rogue). As they are sneaking, they make a noise, alerting some enemies to come closer to their hiding spot. The person then pulls a rat from the hat and releases it. The rat will scurry off away from the player, likely right past the enemies. So long as the sneaky person doesn't move, there is a high chance the enemies will assume it was "just a rat" and return to their posts.
*Paper Bird** - Trying to track someone down, either a kidnapped princess or find the BBEG's tower in the woods? Write a message to them and then cast Locate Object on the bird. Now you have what is oebstensively a waypoint marker that is actively moving directly in the most immediate path. If the bird reaches it's destination (or close to), you now know the location of the target. If it's destroyed en route, you go to where it's last signal was, realize this isn't the place and make a new bird.
Knowing my players the message would probably be: "fuck you" to the BBEG or "hello there" to whoever was kidnapped...
The wand of conducting is weirder than most these and also has a chance to go womp womp womp woooomp (sad tuba sounds) and crumble to dust.
Wait is Paper Bird what that character was using that show called Community? During that episode when they played DnD to try and reconcile a son and dad?
I add most of these features as auxiliary effects on homebrew magic items
Where can i order 1 circlet of human perfection? Is it available in amazon?
7:46 use it for a magic trick weird that you can’t summon a bunny
I thought the same, but there's no bunny, rabbit, or hare stat block. Could always reflavor it to summon a bunny using the rat's stats or a bird in place of the bat.
Woundn't the "Circlet of Human Perfection" kind of be an unlimited "Disguise Self" or "Alter Self" spell? Sounds very useful to a Bard or even a Rogue!
I could totally see the Circlet of Human Perfection being used by an ogre in order to trick people and sneaking into some fancy party. And the group of adventurers has to figure out which person at the party is the ogre without commiting any social faux pas in the process
My guess is the Circlet of Perfection could technically be used to make you look like any humanoid, but the people who make them usually only care about making themselves more attractive, so that's what it's stuck with.
10ft pole is actually the sleeper best item in dnd.
I like this channel too
Would hat of vermin trigger the sentinel feat ? When an enemy attacks the Summoned creature
Dragon Lance had several references to Tar bean tea!! Aka coffee
Ever since I started playing Disco Elysium I've felt like there should be a way to add or subtract a set sum to your roll if you have done certain things or wear certain items.
The circlet of human perfection is weird because it's part of an adventure module, and is specifically worn by a monster.
Ones I want to use Cloak of Bilowing, Dread Helm, Bottle of Boundless Coffe, Pole of Angling, Ciclet of Human Perfection, Moodmark Paint.
Can I use a Cloak of Bilowining, a Dred Helm and a Ciclet of Human Perfection all at once?
I once found a magic coper ring who’s enchantment made it unsustainable… a wonder!
Come again?
HAHA i'm actually using the unlimited coffee right now. i've been using it as roleplay after i heal somebody if they want coffee. long term plan, use it on downed enemies with good berries to gain trust and start building a minion army.
I’ve begged multiple DMs for the cloak of billowing. I just NEED it as a player
You could use the moon mood paint for an interrogation to know if someone is lieing.
I could see the #1 item being invaluable for people who want to play, but cant speak in real life.
Use the paper bird to find a missing person by following it to them
Hello Editor :)
My wizard has a hat of vermin, it's fun flavor. I have used it for distractions
My rule for coffee/caffeine is that it lets you ignore 1 exhaustion level for 8 hours
I really like some weird and kind of useless items in my games. Its mostly for fun with no really application otherwise. I don't like the ones where you have to comment resources like attunement slots because it kind of ruins the fun. I had this one game where someone had a Umbrella of Folding which was an umbrella that could open and close when you speak the activation word. Another player found out that if you spoke fast enough it could fly. So dumb, so much fun.
Isn't there something like a cube of warmth that is perpetually 90 degrees?
Tells time is a magic clock that lost the minutes marker.
I want that bottle of coffee so bad
Artificers can enjoy making these common magic items.
My players absolutely love the cloak of billowing, easily their favorite useless trinket
Player: this item is useless!
Dm: if you don’t want the cloak give it back
Player: No this is my cloak!
The paint could be used for interrogation
I once DMed a session and one of the things I rolled for a common item was a butter knife that could only be used by a ginger. One of the PCs tried to hold it in-between his butt cheeks and and it slipped out. Another PC tried to catch it into his pants and he rolled a Nat 1...
If I was runninh the circlet of human perfection I'd make it so that it makes the person wearing it into whatever form they'd find most attractive, letting them choose between what they would find attractive for themself or what they would find attractive in others. Then at least it could be a cool ring of trans-your-gender at least. I'd also maybe say that a person can change their form at the end of a long rest if their desires in attractiveness change, if such a thing were ever to matter.
Circlet of Human Perfection is sorta really bad. It is loaded because of the DM makes a mistake with it, it can start some discussions about hate and privilege at you normally fun and fun loving table.
The item sorta says that it changes age, gender, skin color, hair to make you perfect. There is no way this can be kosher if you think about it. So your 40 year old black male character with dreads puts on the item and the dm (thinking of Marylin Monroe) says that they instantly they become a pale skinned, blonde haired green eyed young female. And everyone at the table just gets quiet because this is the perfect form.
And it can go other ways too but this is so problematic on so many levels - you really have to be careful with this really bad item!
(I recommend that you say it only makes the character a prettier version of your self but the wearer can change any one of the attributes when they put it on. Also, D&D used to have a stat called Comeliness as a proposed new stat for tables - it did not stick.)
The easy, and I would say obviously correct, way to deal with this is to just say that all skin colors, hair colors, genders, etc. can be attractive, and then roll a few dice to determine what form the circlet chooses.
Why not just say it changes each time? Or it assigns a different beautiful appearance? It says the circlet chooses, so it could just choose a different appearance for each person.
@@TheLetterJ0 Thank you for reading but there are a few issues even with this. How many skin tones are there? I had to look that up too - 110. On the bright side only 6 general eye colors but they have shades and let’s not add Heterochromia (rare but still). And what about the epicanthal folds - maybe they should count for eyes selection unless you want to see those with them (often appearing with East Asians and indigenous Americans) I don’t know - not count. I hope you see what I mean.
It is more then just a notion but more then that - there is the fact that the magic says that THIS is perfection. That is a bit of an issue no matter how you cut it. I am certain they did not mean that in that way but it is there.
I really wish this had fallen into the memory hole. But to be clear, this is not the worst thing in D&D but is is going to be a bit problematic in the end unless you as DM makes some smart re-writes. But thanks for reading.
@@leodouskyron5671 Even if we accept that there are 110 possible skin tones, it would be ridiculous to try to use all of them. Especially since they're probably all basically indistinguishable from a couple on either side of them, unless you have them right next to each other.
Look up the Von Luschan's chromatic scale. While it is by no means perfect, it still gives a more granular listing of skin tones than most people could come up with. You could easily shave a third of those colors off, map the remainder to a d20, and still have enough granularity to make everyone happy.
But this is all beside the real point. You seem to think that magic and the DM are specifying that one particular body is perfect. But that is not what the item does at all. Yes, it does have "Perfection" in the name, but there's no reason to believe that is meant to be taken literally. All the item description says is that it turns the user "into an attractive human." Not "the most attractive human" just "an attractive human." They don't even have to be exceptionally beautiful, just "attractive."
There's really no reason to read into it anymore than that or to pass any judgement on the designers who made it or any DMs who use it.
And honestly, now that I think about it more, if I was a DM who gave my players access to this item, and if I didn't have some sort of plot reason why the circlet should choose any particular form, I would probably just put together a selection of pictures of various attractive celebrities that cover a wide range of appearances, and then randomly hand them out whenever someone used the circlet. I think most people would just be very amused if I told them that they suddenly looked like Shakira or The Rock or Sean Connery, and might even have some fun making jokes about it or injecting that person's character into their disguise.
I want a real cloak of billowing
The bottle of boundless coffee, aka, the immersion breaking bottle. Coffee?? Seriously??
There's an Arabia-expy to the South of the Sword Coast in Forgotten Realms. They have trade between Waterdeep and there.
I gave to to an overly energetic, slightly insane goblin artificer NPC and my players loved it. Only problem is now the rogue wants a flask of neverending nacho cheese...
Why is it immersion breaking? A typical high fantasy D&D world has magic, casters who can wield it, and all manner of bizarre creatures. I normally don't whip out the "it's fantasy" card, but given their obvious advantages over our world, discovering coffee is very bottom of what I don't even think could be called a contrivance.
These items are mostly totally useless: the Cloak effect can be done with a *cantrip*; the Shield can be done with a normal shield, custom-designed to look scary, and cantrips; the Orb isn't as good as a clock or watch, or if you don't have timepieces in your world, Keen Mind. ETC. Even the Paper Bird isn't as good as a cantrip or a pigeon. The Brooch, Circlet, and Paint have limited usefulness, so there's that. Still, if I got one of these instead of an actually useful Item, I'd be pissed. They might be okay if the DM gave out free items to start the game, but they're a waste otherwise. IMO you're better off creating your own flavor thru other readily available and non-magic-item means.
You should get a rebate for every typo and error your editor let's slip through
Myrlunds spoon. it provides a medium character with a thin gruel three times per day it provides a full nourishing meal, but tastes of wet cardboard.