D&D: Dust To Dust – Five Magic Dusts
They say that all we are is dust in the wind. But, you can prove them wrong by scattering handfuls of these five magic dusts in your wake.
Magic dusts are a weird concept. It’s like seasonings, but for magical effects. It’s one of those magic items that existed in D&D 1st Edition because someone had to come up with a magic item and thought, “I dunno, magic dust maybe?” Probably deriving it from Pixie Dust. At any rate, in the ensuing editions, Magic Dusts multiplied, though now there are fewer. That’s why we’re here to show you some D&D magic dusts that would be easy to bring back to 5E.
Dust of Decoy
This magic dust takes the shape of a “snake monster” when you pour it out. Its sole purpose is to draw attention and make attacks (that do no damage) until someone realizes that it’s harmless. Well. Mostly harmless.
Unless you’re using a bite attack. In which case this dust is lethal. If you hit it with a bite attack, you make a saving throw or DIE IN ONE ROUND choked by the dust. Other regular attacks make it seem like the creature has taken damage, even though it hasn’t.
Leech Dust
Leech dust, as you might have guessed from the name, is magical dust that has the ability to absorb blood, leeching it out of a victim’s flesh, veins, and even bone marrow. When you throw it, it explodes into a cloudkill like effect, but it immediately weakens your enemies, worsening round by round–first it’s half strength and dexterity, then you become unable to take actions other than moving, then you are paralyzed, and after four rounds, you die.
Dust of Fertilization
Just be careful what kind of tree you fertilize with it
This isn’t just fertilizer. It’s magical fertilizer, so presumably you have to harvest it from like Unicorns or Pegasi or something, because when you sprinkle this dust on any plant, it gains a year’s growth in a single week. Sprinkle this on a field and you’ve got enough to feed a town. More and you can start ruining economies.
Dust of Dullness
This dust attacks the senses of a living, humanoid creature. Depending on what you roll you might affect sight, taste, hearing, touch, smell, or the sixth sense. You can pretty much guess what the regular senses do, but with the sixth sense dulled by the dust, you become immune to psionic powers for a while.
Rust Dust
Rust dust, besides having an extremely fun name to say, is also good for attacking the metallic items of your enemies. It’s basically concentrated rust monster powder–you hurl it onto an enemy and any non-precious metallic materials within the area of effect become useless scrap after one round. Magic items are resistant to this effect, but not immune.
And there you have it. A whole empire of dust.
