D&D: Five Extremely Useful Items in the New Player’s Handbook
In the new PHB, there are plenty of items to pick from, big and small. But here are five extremely useful items for any adventurer.
Items are one of the more delightful things to put on your character sheet. This is because they will invariably come in handy in the weirdest times. You never know when certain items are going to come in handy, only that they will, and when they do, the vindication is sweeter than wine.
So here are five great items to bring along on any adventure, taken straight from the new D&D Player’s Handbook.
Net
A net is an extremely handy item to have when you want to lock down a large or smaller enemy in a fight. For the low low price of one of the attacks in your attack action, you can instead hurl a Net at a creature (which already makes it easier to use in the new edition). You don’t even roll to hit. Instead the enemy makes a Dex save, and if they fail they are Restrained until they escape.
Restrained is pretty gnarly as far as conditions go, and while your target is restrained you can typically whomp on them pretty good.
Manacles
Or failing that, you could use their new restrained condition to put manacles on them. Manacles are a handy way to shut down any creature that is small or medium. Especially since you don’t make an attack roll or make your enemy make a save to put ’em on. Instead, manacles can only be applied to a creature that has the Grappled, Incapacitated, or Restrained condition. To use them, all you have to do is pass a DC 13 Sleight of Hand check to give the creaure a much more difficult to escape Restrained condition. It takes a DC 20 Sleight of Hand or DC 25 Athletics check to escape. And if you can’t spend your action on that, you stay Restrained.
Caltrops
Caltrops were an old favorite last edition, and in the new edition they’re just as useful. Spend one action to cover a five-foot area in razor sharp caltrops that will deal damage to any creature entering their zone that fails a dex save. A failed dex save not only deals 1 point of damage, it reduces their speed to 0.
Which can be handy, especially if you have ways of pushing enemies into caltrops or the like to immobilize them. Hazards like these make it easier to control your battlefield.
Flask of Oil
Now with rules for dousing a creature, object, or space in the world in oil, a humble flask of oil can be a force multiplier, giving you five extra damage when you attack a doused creature with a fire-based attack. But it can also be used to set up a temporary patch of on-fire ground, which damages any creature that enters the area. So, ward off a space on the battlefield, or show someone just how inflammable they really are, all for the low low price of 1 silver piece.
Potion of Healing
It hasn’t changed much from the 5E days. But the humble healing poition and its 2d4+2 hit points can now be drunk as a Bonus Action, which makes them measurably better in every way, so you should always have a couple in your pack.
Happy adventuring!
