D&D: The Five Best Magic Items For Your Barbarian Bud
Barbarians and magic items go together a lot better than you’d think. Here are some perfect in-game gifts for the Barbarian in your party.
Barbarians are infamously minimal. Depending on the playstyle, they often wear very little in the way of clothes, and really only need one weapon. Maybe two. At best. This is because Barbarians are self-reliant. All they need are their exhaustible reservoirs of rage and an enemy to point them at.
They are exhaustible reservoirs do. A Barbarian can get really tough and real damage-y twice per day and then they have to go lie down and sleep it off. Kind of like a 1st level Wizard, except they have hit points and can do damage without needing to cast a spell.
But what do you get a Barbarian anyway? Well, try one of these Barbarian magic items. They’re good pretty much any day of the week.
Belt of Giant Strength
Okay, let’s start with a practical gift that’s sure to be on any Barbarian’s list. This is one of a series of magical belts that is infused with the strength of one of D&D’s many types of Giants. Which it then passes on to its wearer, making not only a stylish accessory, but a powerful boon for any Barbarian as it instantly raises your strength to an odd number between 21 and 29 depending on what you have. Which is a fantastic way to be more than mortal with a single item.
Gloves of Missile Snaring
Being a Barbarian is all about getting up close and personal. And some stylish gloves are a great accessory to begin with. But these magical gloves are the perfect magic item for a Barbarian because they help you deal with the most annoying part of being a melee character: getting hit with ranged weapons. While wearing these, you can use a reaction to reduce the damage of a ranged weapon attack and can even catch the ranged weapon if you reduce the damage to 0. Even if you don’t catch it, these gloves help any Barbarian look even cooler and less pincushioned.
Tankard of Plenty
Okay, accessories are nice, and all. But, what do Barbarians love to do more than entering a primal rage? That’s right, quaffing ale! And with the Tankard of Plenty, you’ll have enough to quaff wherever you are. And none of that hoppy IPA nonsense, either. Speaking the command word on this tankard fills it with three pints! THREE PINTS! of rich, dwarven ale. You can do this three times per day, and if you need more than nine pints of rich, dwarven ale, well, that’s what Taverns are for.
Breastplate of Balance
Here’s a controversial one. Barbarians are famous for not wearing armor. But also they can. Up to Medium Armor! They can even wield shields, which not only rhymes but is one of the better ways to pump up your AC. The only thing that you lose is your Unarmored Defense feature, but that means you no longer have to worry about raising up your Dex and your Con in tandem to try and have a decent AC. In fact, with medium armor and a shield, you can make it surprisingly hard for enemies to hit you, even with the advantage they might get from Reckless Attacks.
And the Breastplate of Balance removes even this. While wearing it, you’ll have an AC of 14 + Dex (up to a maximum of +2), so 16, which is the equivalent of having both Wisdom and Dex of 16 or 17. Which you won’t. And then you can use a shield. But that’s just for being a Breastplate.
This magic armor also has two abilities, and the one Barbarians love is Equalize. This ability lets you spend one of the armor’s 4 charges to use a reaction to prevent the roll from being affected by advantage or disadvantage, helping you negate the downside to Reckless Attacks up to 4 times per day. And it can also let you cast Lesser Restoration, which is nice to have if you need it.
Crown of Whirling Comets
It may not be the jeweled crown of Aquilonia, but, a Crown of Whirling Comets is a fantastic gift for the Barbarian in your life. Because who doesn’t want to bear a crown upon their troubled brow during the days of High Adventure?
And the Crown of Whirling Comets is fantastic, because not only is it a jeweled tiara, making anyone a pretty princess, a feeling everyone in their life needs at least once, it also gives you the ability to fly as a bonus action for ten minutes at a time. A flying Barbarian is a deadly Barbarian. And if that doesn’t do it for you, you can also make the crown shoot bolts of frigid starlight that are basically little magic missiles that auto-hit a target up to 120 feet away for 2d4 cold damage each. Or you can cast Ice Storm.
But honestly, worth it for the flying alone.
What will you get for the Barbarian who has everything?
