‘Warhammer: The Old World’- The Best Common Magic Items

Having trouble building a list for The Old World? Lets take a look at the best common magic items that everyone can take.

The Old World has been out for about a year. It’s clear that building armies is one of the most important aspects of the game, one which most of focus a lot of time on (some never get past this phase in fact!) One of the key aspects of building an army is equipping your characters. Powerful heroes have access to a wide list of magic items to boost what they can do. Picking the right ones can help make or break you. While each army has its own list of items to pick from, the main rule book contains a significant number of Common Magic items that almost every army can pick from. A lot of the time these are even the best options for charecters. Today, let’s take a look at the best item in each category.

Magic Weapons – The Ogre Blade

Do you want a big old Guts-style sword? Then the Ogre Blade is the one for you. It’s the most expensive magic weapon in the book, but it also tops the list. It gives you the best buffs to straight up damage, with +2S AP -2, Armor Bane (1) and Multiple Wounds (D3).  If you want to hit hard, this is the weapon for you. It’s also one of the few magic weapons that really gives you a major buff over a lance or great weapon. It’s the weapon that really plows through the enemy. As such its become a staple and really the default weapon for a big kill-y hero. Honorable mentions go to both the Dragon Slaying Sword and Headsman’s Axe, which give you either Monster Slayer or Killing Blow. For some armies, these are the only way of getting those special rules, which can be the best way to deal with though heroes or big dragons.

Magic Amour – Bedazzling Helm

Another expensive item, the Bedazzling Helm, is a top-notch magic armor. The Helm can be combined with other armor and gives you an extra +1 to your save. For a lot of factions, this is one of the few ways to get a character to a 2+ save. That alone would be pretty great, but not worth the 60 Pts. However, the Helm also gives enemy’s a -1 to hit you in combat. Combined this is a massive uptick to a character’s survivability in combat. The Helm is especially strong when combined with another -1 to hit ability, such as glittering robes. This can make it so that even elite enemies are hitting your character on a 6+. It’s a great bit of defense if that is your goal. While the big dragons can’t take it, it still a great choice for a lot of people.

Talismans – Talisman of Protection

To me Talismans are probably the weakest section of the Common Magic items. Most of them are either a bit underpowered or corner case. By far the best of the lot is the classic Talisman of Protection. This item gives you a decent 5+ ward save for 30 points. It’s a solid upgrade, and outside of the 70 pt Armour of Destiny the best Ward save most models can get. It’s just a great buff and almost always useful. You’ll very commonly find it paired with the Ogre Blade for a great offence/defense combo that fits in the 100 pts of magic items most lords get.

Magic Standards – War Banner

Unlike Talismans, Magic Standards is a pretty stacked category with a lot of useful items. Top of the list for me however is the War Banner. It’s a pretty simple one for 25 pts it gives you +1 to combat res. While it’s not the most powerful option its still a great value and I think the vast majority of armies will try to squeeze it in. It’s also cheap enough to dump on a unit and not waste the BSB. While there are standards that are better, I often find myself asking if I wouldn’t rather just have the warbanner for a very reliable result.

Enchanted Items – Ruby Ring of Ruin

30 pts to let you cast Fireball once a turn is possibly the best deal in the game. This isn’t just the best Enchanted Item, it might be the best magic item in the game! I certainly don’t leave home without it. The return on it’s cost is amazing. In a normal 6 turn game it’s got the potential of doing 72 wounds! Now, while it won’t get close to that, it doesn’t need to kill a lot of enemies to earn its points back. Most of the time a single successful cast will do the trick. This is just an amazing bang for your buck item. You’ll see this in like 90% of armies that can take it.

Arcane Items – Lore Familiar

Arcane Items have a pretty good selection of options to buff your wizards. The major standout here is the Lore Familiar. This item allows you to pick your magic spells rather than randomly rolling for them. It’s pretty much the only way to 100% guarantee you get the spells you want. This is really big as it lets you plan around having certain combos you might otherwise miss out on. Making sure you have the spells you are counting on to make your plans work is well worth 30 points. Its become pretty ubiquitous for a caster to have it.

Let us know what your favorite magic items are, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.