D&D: The Best Magic Items for Rogues
Rogues are skilled sneaks and stealthy assassins. And with the right gear? Unstoppable. Here are some of the best magic items for Rogues.
In the earliest days of D&D, Rogues existed to do everything else that you would do in a dungeon that didn’t involve casting spells or fighting monsters. Lock picking. Finding traps. Detecting secret doors.
These were the bailiwick of the Rogue, and remain so to this day. Now the Rogue’s role has expanded a bit more. With expertise, they can be the face of the party, or they can hang back and deal massive damage with a sneak attack. Whether solving crimes or committing them, Rogues can do a whole lot. And with the right magic items, they can do even more.
Here are some of the best magic items for Rogues in D&D.
Best Magic Items for Rogues
Since Rogues can do a variety of things, they can benefit from a wider variety of magic items than most. Especially Rogues who pick up abilities that let them dabble outside of the purely physical realm.
The best magic items for Rogues help them take whatever they focus on to extremes. Whether that’s by capitalizing on skills they excel at through expertise, enhancing the damage to their combat abilities, or helping them bend the rules even further.
Things like the Cloak of Elvenkind can make you all but impossible to detect. While a Weapon of Wounding helps your damage goes even further. But perhaps the all-time best weapon a Rogue could get their hands on is a Luck Blade. All Rogues will use their Skills for something, and the ability to reroll any ability check or attack roll is extremely helpful for them.
The best approach to Rogue items, though, is to figure out what you want to do, and how to do it better.
Stealth and Scouting
For Rogues who are looking to stay undetected, these magic items are the best in class. We’ve added in a few helpful for those Rogues who end up pulling “scout ahead” duty from the Ranger too.
- Cloak of Elvenkind – Advantage on Stealth Checks, and anyone trying to perceive you has Disadvantage. It’s a double whammy that will help you stay hidden.
- Boots of Elvenkind – Like a Cloak of Elvenkind, but it works on attempts to move silently instead of moving unseen.
- Cloak of the Bat – While not as effective against vision as a Cloak of Elvenkind, the Cloak of the Bat is a great alternative stealth-boosting cloak that can also let you fly in dim light and darkness.
- Horn of Silent Alarm – Sound a blast from a horn that only one creature of your choice can hear. The perfect way to scout ahead and let your party know what you find. Come up with a code beforehand and you’re golden.
- Hat of Disguise – Not being seen at all is the best option, but with a Hat of Disguise, you can at least be someone else if they’re going to have to see you.
Movement and Flying
Every Rogue is exceptionally mobile to begin with, thanks to their Cunning Action feature. The ability to dash as a bonus action can help them reach distant foes who might be vulnerable to a well-placed shortsword.
These magic items help that along:
- Boots of Speed – Double your walking speed for up to 10 minutes, and anyone making an opportunity attack on you is at disadvantage. Make that Dash take you extremely far.
- Broom of Flying – Every character can benefit from the ability to fly in 5th Edition. Flying is extremely good since it helps you decide what can and can’t reach you. It also lets you engage with flying creatures, who start filling the ranks at higher levels.
- Winged Boots – Similar to a Broom of Flying these let you fly all on your own. The Broom has the advantage of not needing attunement, but it doesn’t run off of your walking speed. Which Winged Boots do, so you can take a flying dash, if you want.
- Slippers of Spider Climbing – If you can’t fly, these magic items will let you walk on walls and ceilings. The perfect place to hide, because you’d be surprised how rarely people look up.
Skills And Powers
Rogues are fantastic with their skills. And these items will help you take that mastery beyond what your DM is expecting.
- Stone of Good Luck – While carrying this magic, polished agate, you have a +1 bonus to any ability checks or saving throws. Which for a Rogue, who frequently makes skill checks, is huge.
- Ioun Stone, Mastery – Similarly, the Mastery Ioun Stone increases your proficiency bonus by one. Meaning you could combine the two and gain +2 to all skill checks (and several saving throws). It also requires attunement, though, so you might be better off picking one or the other if you’re hurting for attunement slots.
- Eyes of the Eagle – Want to make it impossible to be caught by surprise? With Eyes of the Eagle you’ll have advantage on all perception checks involving sight and can literally see your enemies coming from miles away.
- Eyes of Minute Seeing – Want, instead, to find all the secret doors, traps, and clues? These items give you advantage on Investigation checks.
Combat
When you do get in a fight, you’ll probably want to have one of these magic items. They’re the best magic items for Rogues looking to increase their offense or defense.
- Luck Blade – Not only does this give you a +1 bonus and let you do magical damage (which is huge for overcoming resistance and immunity) it also lets you reroll one failed d20 test per day. And you can cast Wish a time or two, maybe.
- Amulet of Health – Want the most hit points for the least effort? This amulet sets your Constitution to 19, which means you never need to waste an Ability Score Increase/Feat choice on boosting your Constitution.
- Cloak of Displacement – While wearing this cloak you’re permanently “displaced” and any creature attacking you has disadvantage until you finally take damage. A great defensive option for Rogues, who can combo this with their mobility to really limit the number of attacks that can hit them.
- Ring of Spell Storing – This is an excellent item for any character. But especially if someone in your party has Absorb Elements or Shield.
- Cloak of Invisibility – This might seem like a Stealth option, but it’s actually perfect for Rogues in a fight. The Cloak’s invisibility isn’t broken by attacking or casting a spell, so you can Sneak Attack to your heart’s content.
- Weapon of Warning – A must-have for Assassins, this gives you advantage on initiative rolls and you and anyone within 30 feet cannot be surprised.
What are your picks for best magic items for Rogues?
