Uncommon Magic Items: The Guide
5/5 Gold
4/5 Blue
3/5 Green
2/5 Purple
1/5 Red
Finally, by very few people demand, we present you our Magic Items Guide, starting from Uncommon ones because we’re poor.
We’re gonna divide the guide in multiple articles by item rarity to avoid writing a single huge post and to easily anwer the popular question: “My DM allows me to choose X magic items of this rarity, what should I pick?”. This can also help DMs create more useful loot when they feel the party deserves it.
Always remember that in the end, the choice of what items appear in your campaign falls on your DM alone, so try not to insist too muchon this regard, unless you’re playing with Santa Claus.
Note: This list only includes magic items from content manuals:
Dungeon Master’s Guide, Eberron: Rising from the Last War, Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica, Explorer’s Guide to Wildermount, Mythic Odysseys of Theros, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.
We’re gonna leave out stuff from unofficial manuals and the various official campaigns campaigns, such as Storm King’s Thunder.
The (*) beside an item’s name means it requires Attunement: you can only have 3 attuned magic items at the same time unless you are an Artificer, who doesn’t give a shit and can get up to 6.
No consumable items, we’ll make a separate article for those.
No items that are restricted by a certain background, like guild related Ravnica items.
Equipment
Armours and Shields
5/5 Adamantine Armor. Immunity to critical hits, the ultimate counter to bad luck.
5/5 Sentinel Shield. Advantage to initiative, without requiring attunement. STUPENDO.
4/5 +1 Shield: Evergreen. Gold if you have the Shield Master feat.
3/5 Mithral Armor. Useful for those who favour stealth while keeping a good AC. An Adamantine Armor is much better, though.
2/5 Barrier Tattoo (TCoE)*. The uncommon version is the only useless one: several classes already got light armour proficiency, equivalent to this tattoo, or even better access to Mage Armor. Not red because it can still provide a bonus to sorcerers and monks, at least at low levels.
1/5 Mariner’s Armor. Learn how to swim and lets you float if you faint underwater. Invaluable for campaigns in the Waterworld setting
Armi
5/5 +1 Weapon. It may not be flashy, but it’s still mandatory for most weapon users.
4/5 Skyblinder Staff (GGR)*. A +1 uberstaff. Good on fighter/spellcaster hybrids, since it grants +1 to spell attack rolls. It also has some bonuses against flying creatures. Just stick to a +1 Weapon if you can’t cast spells.
4/5 Weapon of Warning*. Advantage to initiative, the party can’t be surprised and it also works as an alarm clock. Even if you switch to a better weapon in the future, it’s still pretty useful to keep around.
4/5 Eldritch Claw Tattoo (TCoE)*. Vital to Monks or characters foolish enough to try fighting bare-handed, like our Muscle Patron (“BUY OUR PRODUCT”, BUT MORE SUBTLE): +1 to unarmed attack rolls and, for one minute per day, makes all attacks (weapons included) gain 10 feet extra range and 1d6 additional damage. Pretty strong, for all kinds of melee fighters.
3/5 Javelin of Lighting. A small Lightining Bolt (4d6) per day. Useful to STR build without good ranged attacks
3/5 Staff of the Adder (Cleric, Druid and Warlock). Melee weapon with an extra 3d6 poison damage (DC 15) per hit. Not bad for weapon builds but it has two annoying flaws: can be broken by the enemy and almost 100 creatures in the Monster Manual have poison immunity.
2/5 Trident of Fish Command*. Dominate Beast (DC 15) on every swimming beast. Rarely useful, but remember that a lot more creatures than you think have a swimming speed.
Spellcaster Items
5/5 Mizzium Apparatus (GGtR)*. You can cast ANY spell from your list that you don’t know, as long as you have the slot to do so. There’s a chance that a random spell of the same level will come out , which isn’t so bad anyway.
5/5 The following items grants similar bonuses. Every item givs a +1 bonus to spell attack rolls and saving throws DCs, plus a class-related extra power. All of them are gold, the score reflects their power compared to each other:
- 5/5 Amulet of the Devout +1 (TCoE, Cleric and Paladin)*. Grants an extra use of Channel Divinity, which is usually pretty strong for both classes.
- 5/5 Rhythm-Maker’s Drum +1 (TCoE, Bard)*. An extra Bardic Inspiration. Perfect for any bard, expecially those with subclasses with alternative uses for the resource, like the College of Glamour.
- 5/5 Bloodwell Vial +1 (TCoE, Sorcerer)*. Recovers 5 GODDAMN SORCERY POINTS, lifeblood of any sorcerer. Absurdly strong, especially at low levels
- 4/5 Arcane Grimoire +1 (TCoE, Wizard)*. Allows to recover an extra slot when using Arcane Recovery, invaluable after intense fights.
- 3/5 Moon Sickle +1 (TCoE, Druid and Ranger)*. The only one that can be used a weapon, partially covering the worst special effect: adding 1d4 to the result when casting a healing spell, only relevant for AoE heals.
5/5 Instrument of the Bards (Bard)*. You can’t call yourself a bard without one of these toys. Each instrument grants 7 extra spells, cool stuff like Fly or Invisibility, which can be casted without expending a spell slot. 1000/1000
5/5 Rod of the Pact Keeper (Warlock)*. Essential for warlocks, who conveniently are also the only class that can use it. Provides a+1 bonus to spell attack rolls and saving throws DCs.
4/5 Nature’s Mantle (TCoE)* (Druid and Ranger). A cloak that can be used as a divine focus and allows to hide with a bonus action if lightly obscured. A ranger’s wet dream, and also nice for druids.
4/5 Pearl of Power. Grants an extra spell slot, level 3 maximum, per day. One more Fireball is always good.
4/5 Wand of the War Mage +1 (Spellcaster)*. The addition of Tasha’s new spellcasting magic items made it obsolete since they grant the same bonuses plus an extra, but it’s still a nice item.
3/5 Wand of Web (Spellcaster)*. The powers of a spider’s butt in a handy wand. It has 7 charges, which can be expended to cast Web, a decent control spell.
2/5 Feywild Shard (TCoE, Sorcerer)*: Using metamagic while holding this thing produces a random Wild Magic effect, once per day if you’re not a Wild Sorcerer. Awesome for that subclass, mostly just for fun for others.
Build-specific Items
5/5 Gauntlet of Ogre Power*. Your STR score becomes 19, very straightforward. It’s so strong on melee builds we’re writing this whole sentence in gold.
5/5 Headband of Intellect*. Fixes your INT score become 19, see above but only valuable for the few INT based class.
5/5 Guardian Emblem (TCoE, Cleric and Paladin). Unique and invaluable effect: 3 times per day you can to middle finger the DM and cancel a critical hit.
5/5 Bracers of Archery*. Grants proficiency in the use of bows and +2 to their damage. Magic items for archers are so few that they automatically get an high score, though this one is still very good on it’s own merit.
Stuff for Everybody
Items that cast spells and such
5/5 Wand of Magic Missiles. An UNCOMMON item that can potentially deal 9D4 + 9 (36 average) GUARANTEED DAMAGE without even requiring attunement. HOLY MIELIKKI i want to make a gatling with 20 of these.
5/5 Helm of Telepathy*. Detect Thoughts at will, plus Suggestion one time per day. Having a constant radar that also allow to catchs almost any lie is amazing.
5/5 Pipes of Haunting. A flute that sounds so shitty it frightens every enemy in a fairly big area three times per day. The DC is also relatively high (15). An astounding item for sure.
4/5 Helm of Comprehending Languages. Comprehend Language at will. Essential for bards, paladins or generally anyone who doesn’t have the spell available and wants to learn as many racial slurs as possible.
3/5 Wand of Magic Detection. Detect Magic always comes in handy, and three times per day with no attunement required is a good deal.
3/5 Hat of Disguise*. Disguise self at will. Very useful for thieves, spies and drag queens.
3/5 Ring of Obscuring (EGtE)*. Fog Cloud 3 times a day that lasts one minute and requires no concentration. Looks deadly, but it’s retricted to targeting yourself as center of the AoE. Still not bad, basically a ninja smoke bomb.
2/5 Rod of Retribuition (EGtE)*. One attunement slot and one hand occupied in order to deal 2d10 damage (DC 13) 3 times a day when being hit? There’s a lot of stuff better than this.
2/5 Googles of Object Reading (EGtE)*. Advantage on arcane checks and one free Identify per day. As useful as that spell is, it’s not worth the attunement slot.
2/5 Circlet of Blasting. A free Scorching Ray per day. Decent at low levels, but loses relevance quickly.
2/5 Medallion of Thoughts. 3 Detect Thoughts per day. The Helm of Telepathy is infinitely better, but at least this doesn’t require attunement.
2/5 Coiling Grasp Tattoo (TCoE)*. One of the very few ways to do a RANGED grapple, so cool. The DC is not very high (14) but can work on physically weak enemies like spellcasters. Too bad it requires a whole action to use.
1/5 Earworm (ERLW)*. A worm that plants itself in your head and provides Dissonant Whispers and Detect Thoughts, with 4 total charges. It wouldn’t be bad, except that it CANNOT BE REMOVED, forever locking an attunement slot.
1/5 Wind Fan. Access to the almost worthless Gust of Wind, with low DC and can also be broken. W O W
Containers
5/5 Bag of Holding. Every self-respecting adventurer should have this vintage version of Mary Poppins’ bag. It’s also one of the components, together with a Portable Hole, to make a weapon of mass destruction:
3/5 Quiver of Ehlonna. A worse Bag of Holding, but it’s better at storing long and straight objects, I guess.
Mobility and Exploration
5/5 Winged Boot*. Flight for 4 hours a day, which is as long as it takes to do anything within a play session.
5/5 Broom of Flying. Uncommon item that flies without requiring attunement. PRETTY GUD.
4/5 Slippers of Spider Climbing*. Good for exploring and especially useful for ranged characters to get out of the fray by sticking to the ceiling.
3/5 Driftglobe. Literally a floating flashlight. Useful for losers without darkvision
3/5 Googles of the Night. Night-vision googles. Mandatory for people without darkvision, worthless for anyone else.
3/5 Lantern of Revealing. A lantern on steroids that allows to see the invisible. Situational but at least doesn’t require attunement.
2/5 Wand of Secret. Discovers traps or secrets within 6 squares: if you think about activating it, you already know it will find something.
2/5 Necklace of Adaptation*. Breathe everywhere, like an elven yoga master. Useful if the DM is curiously fixated with autoerotic asphyxiation.
2/5 Ring of Water Walking. It has some (well) hidden qualities, especially for founding religions.
2/5 Rope of Climbing. An ordinary rope that floats and can hold ONE TON. Finally the orc Paladin in lead armor will be able to attach himself to something. Still a situational item.
1/5 Boots of Striding and Springing*. Fixed speed at 30f, which is the standard speed for almost all races and triple jump. Useful for dwarves with an inferiority complex. When combined with the spell Jump you can throw the ultimate Shoryuken.
1/5 Ring of Jumping*. Jump at will. I know it’s beautiful and you’d sell the virginity of any hole to have it, but it’s a waste of attunement slots.
1/5 Ring of Swimming. Considering that by default all characters can swim, it serves little purpose.
1/5 Gloves of Swimming and Climbing*. Guess what it does. As above, it’s not worth it.
1/5 Cloak of the Manta Ray. Underwater breathing and super speed swimming. Extremely setting dependent.
1/5 Cap of Water Breathing. We get it. There are ways to breathe underwater.
Durability and Defences
5/5 Stone of Good Luck*. +1 to all Saving Throws and skill cheks. Simple and yet very effective.
5/5 Periapt of Wound Closure*. Direct combat damage cannot kill you anymore unless it’s over the massive damage threshold. Plus you recover twice as much HP per short rest.
5/5 Cloak of Protection*. +1 to AC and all Saving Throws, one of the best defensive item
4/5 Amulet of the Drunkard (EGtW). 4d4+4 hp when you take a shot of alcohol, once a day. Healing potions are for gnomes.
4/5 Ring of Warmth*. Resistance to cold damage, a fairly common type, and immunity to intense cold. No more ice cream headaches.
4/5 Boots of Winterland*. Exactly the same item as above.
1/5 Brooch of Shielding*. An attunement slot to get resistance to force damage, the rarest type there is, and also extremely specific immunity to Magic Missile. Legends say that somewhere, sometime, somebody was saved by this.
1/5 Ring of Mind Shielding*. Lots of text for a useless effect, maybe for spying and investigation focused campaigns.
1/5 Gloves of Missile Snaring*. The Deflect Missiles privilege of the monk, which wouldn’t be so bad, but the attunement requirement is unacceptable.
1/5 Periapt of Health. Disease immunity. They are very rare, but in some campaigns it can be vital, for example if they are set in 2020.
Creation and Familiars
4/5 Bag of Tricks. There are 3 different types and they have pretty much the same utility: three random familiars per day.
Some are very strong in combat, like the mfing Giant Elk and the Tiger, while others are perfect for exploration. The only thing that pushes it away from gold rank is the random nature of the summon. Personally, I’d go with the grey bag for style.
4/5 Staff of the Python (Cleric, Druid and Warlock)*. A Giant Constrictor Snake as a pet. Do not to let it die or you’ll suffer my curse.
3/5 Alchemy Jug. A nice item to create water, beer, ACID, POISON and MAYONNAYSE. Wonderful in hyper realistic campaigns where thirst is a more serious threat than pointy objects.
3/5 Eversmoking Bottle. Instantly creates a public school bathroom: a heavily obscured area of 12 fucking squares radius. Heavily obscured means the creatures are blinded. There’s a possibility for it to be more of a hindrance than a benefit, but vaping addiction is too strong to resist.
3/5 Figurine of Wondrous Power: Raven. A familiar that can also be used to cast Animal Messenger. A small problem is that if it dies during the trip it becomes a figurine on the spot, good luck getting it back. Still handy for short-range exploration, though.
2/5 Pipes of the Sewers*. You can call up mice and order them to do things. Unfortunately the mice are not included.
2/5 Decanter of Endless Water. Although it may seem circumstantial, having infinite amounts of something is always useful, especially at the rate of 100 liters per action. It also leaves the bonus action free to do something else.
2/5 Deck of Illusions. With a bit of creativity it can be very powerful: Conjures an illusion of a random creature displayed on the card, which is then consumed. Some are pretty scary, like red dragons or beholders, but its random nature and the fact that it is consumed greatly diminishes its value.
Proficiencies and Skills
5/5 Cloak of Elvenkind*. Advantage on stealth checks and disadvantage on perception to those who see us, roughly equivalent to a +34 in stealth (I don’t feel like doing the math). Great for rogues, but also to make group stealth checks possible while having a full plate half ogre paladin in the party.
3/5 Gloves of Thievery. +5 to lockpicking stuff. It doesn’t ask for attunement, so it’s really just a free boon.
3/5 Boots of Elvenkind. Advantage on stealth checks. Gold for rogues and great for the already mentioned half ogres who keep ruining your ambushes.
1/5 Uncommon Glamerweave (ERLW). +1d4 to persuasion or diplomacy checks once per day, so no big deal. Extremely fashionable, though.
1/5 Eyes of Charming*. Charme Person 3 times per day. Sounds great, but the issue is the DC of 13, too low to justify an attunement slot.
1/5 Eyes of Minute Seeing. Advantage to investigation within a radius of 30 cm. The most specific object in the manual. Also learn the fucking metric system.
1/5 Eyes of the Eagle*. Advantage to perception checks based on sight. Why the hell does it require attunement?
1/5 Living Gloves (ERLW)*. Borderline cursed: proficiency in a semi-useful skill/tool, but once you put them on you can’t take them off.
Weird Things
4/5 Immovable Rod. I don’t care if you offer me a +3 Sword of the Rectal Ravage. I have so many stories about the uses of this precious item that I wouldn’t trade it for anything: Blocking doors and people, climbing things, excellent prostate massages, the possibilities are endless.
4/5 Pyroconverger (GGtR)*. IT’S A FLAMETHROWER TAKE IT BEFORE READING FURTHER. There is a risk of it exploding in your face and becoming unusable for a while BUT WHO CARES IT’S A GODDAMN FLAMETHROWER. You can make it risk free once a day and it deals 4d6 damage in an area, very respectable.
2/5 Saddle of the Chevalier. Attacks against your horse have disadvantage. Unfortunately, Fireball is not an attack. Very useful for Paladins that like to use Find Steed and Find Greater Steed.
1/5 Brooch of Living Essence. If someone tries to scan you, they will only see an unassuming neutral human NPC. Your villains will love it.
1/5 Sending Stone. Walkie talkies, essentially. They can be used for scouting, but mostly as substitutes for phones in most settings.
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Great guide, thanks a bunch!