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D&D 5E Most annoying / awesome magic items

Skyscraper

Explorer
I'll sign up for the Wand of Wonder. Back in our old AD&D campaign, that was a well of storytelling. Battle is not going as intended - or is easy and needs some spice... Whip out the wand of wonder!

In a similar vein, the bag of tricks - is that what's it's called? The bag from which you'll pick a random animal and learn what it is when you throw it to the ground - well, that was also really cool. "Oh... I'd really need a lion just about now" and poof! a squirrel jumps at the enemy's big toe. "Oh, wait, maybe I can get a squirrel to amuse the lady of the court" and poof! a rhino tramples towards her.

The robe of useful items was also really cool. (Not sure if it made its way into 5E?) It was the first magic item i picked up when playing D&D in, say, 1982. Then, it reappeared in my campaign as a DM about 8 years later. Each time, the wizard (mine, or the player's) really found neat ideas to use many of the items found in the robe. When you have little else in early levels, especially in AD&D when unlimited cantrips didn't exist, this resource was really, really interesting.
 

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Hey, I think that’s pretty cool, and I’m far from my teenage years as well!

I actually really like magic items with a cursed catch – like a magic ring that causes pain to the wielder when used.

The Deck of Many Things can easily derail a campaign in just a few draws.

I like the randomness and whimsy of the Wand of Wonder, but it has a sour connotation for me. Back in 2e, I gave out a Wand of Wonder and the PC used it constantly – after a while, I realized that he wasn’t even keeping track of the charges.

Years ago I used to have a -1 Cursed Dagger which I loved. I refused to get rid of it. Why you ask? Because I wanted to prove that my Assassin character could still kill despite the curse, and the dark evil blade appealed to my teenage angst. Ah, to be young again ...
 

I love immovable rods so many uses for them.
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Also love the instan fortress.
And you can have fun combining the 2, use fly spel, fly up high make a fioundation of immovable rods place your instant fortress on the foundation.
 


Ath-kethin

Elder Thing
I think the Immovable Rod was one of the best additions 3rd Edition made to the game. An incredibly handy, flexible tool with innumerable possible applications that absolutely relied upon the user's creativity to be effective. I'm happy that this one made the list for default 5e items.

I've never been a fan of plain old "swords +x." Or shields, or armor, or anything else. It is my belief that every magic item should have a name and a history to it, but I have played in far too many campaigns where the DM just didn't bother.
 

Same here - I absolutely love the magic item details tables in the DMG.

I've never been a fan of plain old "swords +x." Or shields, or armor, or anything else. It is my belief that every magic item should have a name and a history to it, but I have played in far too many campaigns where the DM just didn't bother.
 

Istbor

Dances with Gnolls
Not a terribly old school magic item, but while playing 4th edition, I acquired a Dynamic Weapon. I fell in love with the ability to have my weapon morph into any other weapon from the Martial list. Very cool and a very useful, but not in some super-powered weapon kind of way. That is what I like for my magic weapons.

What I have always hated for magic items are the plain +X weapons and armor. Give me some flavor or something cool to work with!
 


Arial Black

Adventurer
It's just more needless bookkeeping; I don't play D&D for resource management and attrition, and I can think of more fun things to do than keep track of wand re-charging.

...er...isn't there the same amount of bookkeeping for a wand with X charges per day and a wand with X charges that doesn't recharge...?
 


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