D&D: Forget Ye Orb, Ponder One of These Five Magic Cubes Instead
Every Wizard loves to ponder an orb. But consider, what if that orb were square on all sides? You know, like a magic cube.
D&D has a massive catalogue of magic items of all shapes and sizes. Including more than a few magic orbs for your favorite Wizard to ponder. But orbs are old news. Cubes are the future. They’re square. They feel like science and progress. And D&D has a surprising number of magic cubes tucked away in its pages.
Here are five of our favorites. That’s right, there are at the very least enough to have five favorite magic cubes. Let that sink in the next time you feel like you can’t come up with good treasure.
Cube of Force
Let’s start with one of the classic cubes of D&D. This magic cube is about an inch across, with a distinctive marking on each of its six faces. With 36 magical charges, the Cube of Force is capable of creating an impenetrable magical barrier. Or a penetrable one.
You get to decide what the barrier keeps out. A single charge will keep out gases, wind, and fog; meanwhile spending five charms at once keeps everything out: gases, nonliving matter, living matter, spell effects, and anything except for walls, floor, and ceiling at your discretion.
Daern’s Instant Fortress
Okay, this fortress is clearly not a cube… or is it? Daern’s Instant Fortress is another iconic magic item. And though it is primarily known for being a fortress, it spends the majority of its time in cube form.
That’s right. This massive fortress, which is 30 feet high and 20 feet on each other side, is a humble 1-inch cube in its natural state. A command word can transform it from cube to tower and back again.
Thermal Cube
This magical cube is three times the size of the two previous magic cubes. That’s right, a thermal cube is a whopping 3 inches on either side. And what’s more, it’s solid brimstone. This means that it can generate enough dry heat to keep the temperature within 15 feet of it at a balmy 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius), which not only keeps you safe in Icewind Dale but also canonically introduces Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit and Anders Celsius into the many worlds of D&D.
Infernal Puzzle Box
This is a 5 to 6-inch cube, depending on how evil it gets. An Infernal Puzzle Box is a series of airtight, interlocking parts composed entirely of materials found in the Nine Hells. Most of these boxes are made of infernal iron. But some are bone or horn, depending on what’s available.
A single Infernal Puzzle Box can be used to enclose a small object, sealing it shut and rendering both the box and its contents completely immune to all damage. The only way to open one of these cuboid boxes, once shut tight, is to solve the strange and eldritch puzzle by making a DC 30 intelligence check. Fail, though, and you’ll take 42 points of psychic damage.
Horizon Puzzle Cube
Finally, the Horizon Puzzle Cube, introduced in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, rounds out the list as a massive 8-inch magical cube that is made of many different metals: iron, crystal, gold, and copper. It is worth 5,000 gp to the right collector or sage.
But players might want to use it before getting rid of it. Solving the puzzle cube causes a 30-foot-diameter portal to appear before the creature who solved the cube. This cube takes you to the mystical realm of Horizon’s Edge if you can manage to solve it.
What’s your favorite magic cube?
