D&D: That Magic Item Does *What*?
D&D is a game about confusing your DM when you actually use that random magic item you got three sessions ago.
The secret to D&D is remembering that you have a magic item that you’ve been carrying around for three or more sessions (the longer, the better, typically) and then pulling it out in a questionably useful circumstance before changing everything.
These kinds of items thrive on being weird. And typically they’re Wondrous Items. A Wondrous Item might give you the power to summon a mouse or a hungry rhinoceros, it might also grant you a bag full of fireballs or a magic crab submarine waiting to happen. Here are five recent magic items that show just how wondrous a wondrous item can be.
Professor Orb
Nevermind that this is already the best name for a magic item/character ever, a Professor Orb is a magical sphere that contains the personality of a scholar–you can roll a generic one up using the rules for creating Sentient Magic Items in the DMG, but it always has an Intelligence of 18 and lives to impart its knowledge to whomsoever picks it up.
A Professor Orb normally has knowledge of four narrow academic subjects and can cast Mage Hand at will, allowing it to fly through the air with the greatest of ease.
Hook of Fisher’s Delight
This is a much more useful item. A tiny silver fishhook with a little gold feather that, when attached to a fishing line and cast into the water, will catch a randomly conjured magical fish determined by rolling on a magic fish table. There are four different kinds of fish:
- A tasty fish that provides a day’s worth of nourishment to a single creature that eats it
- An awful-tasting fish that can be through up to 120 feet at a creature you can see–if your target fails a DC 15 Strength save they’re knocked prone
- A squirming, flying fish that, if released from the hook, follows you around singing a beautiful tune for 2d4 hours before vanishing
- A tasty fish that provides a day’s worth of nourishment and 2d10 temporary hit points to a single creature that eats it
With this hook, you’ll never have to worry about the one that got away.
Ythryn Mythallar
On the other end of the spectrum, there’s the massive magic item that’s really more like a magical system you can attune to. It’s an enormous crystal ball that draws on ambient magic energy to create a number of effects. At a 50-foot diameter sphere, this particular mythallar is not the biggest of its kind–but its effects are potent.
While attuned to the Ytryn Mythallar, players gain several abilities that are akin to Lair Actions, but for PCs:
- While you’re on the same plane, you can use an action to cause it (and “all matter” within 500 feet of the device) to fly in any direction at a speed of 30 feet. Or you can make something hover in place when not in motion
- You can use an action to cause one magic item to be immediately recharged to full while within 30 feet of it
- You can use an action to cast Control Weather within a 50-mile radius
This is a powerful magical item that’s really more like the engine of a great home base. I love that it goes big while going home.
Abracadabrus
An Abracadabrus is a magical chest that can be used to conjure up nonmagical objects (including food and liquids) worth a total of 1gp or less. You can create a plate of strawberries, a bowl of hot soup, a stuffed animal, or anything else that fits the description. Food and water are delicious, and with 20 charges (that replenish by the d20 every dawn), you can get a lot of mileage out of the deal.
Scroll of Tarrasque Summoning
It’s a scroll that summons the Tarrasque anywhere you can see within a mile of your location. Use it with caution, but definitely do use it.
Happy adventuring!
