What have been the most fun/impactful magic items you've found/made for your players?

I'm pretty sure I stole the idea from a post here but back in my 3e DMing days they found a club that did 1d8 damage and healed 1d8 HP. So you had to roll the dice and take your chances. Unfortunately they were not adventurous enough to keep it.

rubarbrubarb said:

Was it a weapon?
Was it a strange tool?
Was it something on the border of powerful and useless?
Was it something they absolutely wouldn't have expected?

What was it?

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It was a standard candle that was enchanted to provide truesight in its area of illumination.

Dungeons are dark and full of terrors. Even moreso when you only have 1 hour of bright light in a 5-foot radius and dim light for an additional 5 feet.

My friend was DMing, the campaign dealt heavily with Mind-Flayers and Psionics, and he had made the ruling that "Magic and Psionics are different and separate".

So, Dispel magic wouldn't work on Psionic effects, and Psionic dispelling wouldn't affect Magic.

I, therefore, successfully made the argument that Psionic and Magical augmentations must surely be different, and therefore an item could theoretically be both magically enchanted and psionically enhanced. He bought it.

So, my Cleric of Pelor ended up with a +5(magical), +5(Psionic), Ghost-touch, impacting, something something something something Heavy Mace, OK it was a +10 with another +10 worth of enhancements. It was GROSSLY over-powered while it lasted.

Then I set off a disintegration trap, Botched the save, botched the second pity save he gave me, (yes, 2 nat 1's in a row), and my cleric and his mace went away.

The Mace was then declared an Artifact, not destroyed but taken by Pelor himself. It would resurface several times briefly in other games with that group, in times of need, as a mcguffin, and as a plot tool (The only weapon that could kill a multi-template Undead (Vampire-Mummy? I forget)).

The Atlas Obscura

This sentient book is able to sense the basic history and lore of the surrounding area. This lore can be read from the book, or spoken by the book. Basic general knowledge is usually available with a DC 10 Persuasion check or by DM decision. Other knowledge can be researched via higher DCs should the DM assess its availability. Once a check is failed, the book will no longer cooperate and cannot be checked again until a long rest has passed.

Personality: Book is usually ill-tempered and grouchy, untrusting of bearer to assist with the books goals. Also can be sarcastic.
Motivations: Book ultimate goal is to become one with the Outlands. Book hates the Carnifex, and may volunteer info to thwart such creatures.

The Ella-Krad

In my 4th edition Dark Sun campaign my wife played a Half-Giant Barbarian Gladiator who wielded a psionic maul crafted for her by one of her biggest fans. Eventually it was called the Ella-Krad by the party. There was nothing too special about this weapon other than it did an extra 1d6 psychic damage.

When 5th edition rolled around I ran the Ravenloft Grand Conjunction Modules converted to 5e. For each character I did a little intro about how their character's got to Ravenloft. For Ella, she was fighting in the arena in the city state of Urik to distract the Sorcerer King Hamanu while the rest of the party infiltrated the castle.

After winning her fight, Hamanu stood up from his throne in his viewing box and revealed that he knew what was happening, that Ella's friends were likely already dead, and she would be to. With that Hamanu sent some high level dragon magic at Ella, who blocked it with the original Ella-Krad. The resulting cataclysm killed most of the spectators and caused the mists of Ravenloft to come and suck Ella away.

Upon arriving in Ravenloft, Ella found that the mists provided her with a new Ella-Krad, still made of stone, but this one with the head of a lion. Further, once the maul began talking to her in a familiar voice, it appeared that the maul was intelligent and contained the soul of Sorcerer King Hamanu.

The party discovered that in addition to being possessed by a Sorcerer King, the new Ella-Krad had the ability to absorb the magical properties of any magical item it struck and consumed.

By the end of the campaign the Ella-Krad was +1, brutal, and could fly (as it had absorbed a broom of flying), and maybe one or two other abilities.

The Ella-Krad could have become the an overpowered and game-breaking weapon, however, the party was terrified of the fact that Hamanu was very happy every time the Ella-Krad gained a new power. Eventually the party banned Ella from absorbing anymore powers out of fear that Hamanu would possess Ella or break free from the weapon and kill them all.

At the end of the campaign the Ella-Krad appeared to shatter and both Ella and Hamanu returned to Athas. Ella was reunited with the original Ella-Krad, while the Dark Powers reforged the Ravenloft Ella-Krad, put a false Hamanu soul inside of it, and presented it to the imposter Ella II, who the party had met during a pervious adventure in the Dark Sun-based Island of Terror of Kalidnay.

Made for myself:

4e Star'Lock, first adventure was an LFR module. One encounter involved fighting four fey polecats plus some other enemies. We were all learning the rules and I did not realize that firing an Eldritch Blast with two melee foes in adjacent squares was a bad idea. The group won the fight while I got badly mauled. My trophy for myself, between adventures, was to skin the polecats' hides and make a cloak out of them. The Polecat Cloak, a cloak-and-hood garment, became a Cloak of Distortion (added AC against ranged attacks) which was composed of rich dark black fur with a white stripe down the middle, and an animated tail on the peak of the hood. I wanted to add the ability to squirt Troglodyte Stench (monster trait)* at my enemies - via the tail ! - but never found the rules that would permit such a custom modification.

* modified of course so the to-hit penalty would mess up Team Monster, not my allies

The most powerful magic item I've ever had is probably the Shield Guardian Amulet. My wizard had a personal bodyguard affectionately nicknamed Captain Steel that would stick close and protect him from threats that got too close.

In my current game my paladin has a homebrew magic weapon that I really enjoy. Aquamorph is a +1 magic weapon formed from water stored in a magic vial. As a bonus action you can command the weapon to shape into the form of any melee weapon. When thrown or sundered the weapon explodes in a burst of water that douses any flame within 10 feet. The weapon cannot be drawn again from the vial until fresh water sits in it for 1 hour. I spend most of my time with it as a longsword, but when I drop my shield and transform it into a maul everybody knows that it's go time!

Here are the items I've created for my campaign as DM which I'm happy with.


Circle of Omans - an 18" circle which is made up of an unbreakable metal. It quickly reshapes to a body part (finger-ring, neck-amulet, arm-torc, etc.) when the Circle is pulled over that body part. When taken off, it will quickly resize to 18" - I was hoping the party would use it to open a jail cell, but no luck with that. Originally was a ring of a dragon, named Omans.

Properties - ring of protection +1. Once a long rest will act as half a heal spell (so half of total HP will come back), but then all attributes will be reduced by 2 for one hour (except constitution).


Shield of the Deepwatch Guard (dwarven guards) - 35 lbs, 4'x2.5' shape, 14 strength minimum. All attacks by enemies from the front which need to roll (bows, firebolts, melee, etc.) are at disadvantage. Attacks from above (huge or gargantuan sized creatures), from the sides or rear aren't affected. Bearer is at -5' speed in combat and is -3 to attack.

For bearers larger than dwarf sized, treat as +3 shield, with -5' combat speed and -2 to attack. Intent is for dwarves to use.


Hawkwing Bow - Longbow +1, with a small 6" carving of a hawk in flight above the central handgrip. The following properties can be used as a bonus action, three times total combined per long rest:

Eyes of the Hawk: +D6 to hit for one round
Talons of the Hawk: +2D6 to damage for one round

The bow using bard was suitably happy!



The last two items were made for specific characters without saying as much. The dwarf player is not a good tactical player at all, so I made him something very nice. For example, he fell into the same 15' pit trap twice in one combat - not the player being funny, but literally being a dumb player. Sad thing is that he has a PHD in multiple forms of biology and genetic engineering.

The first custom magic item I created: the Void. Not a physical, tangible object. More like a reality ripple. Only the party's Warlock could sense its existence.
DM: "You check for treasure and find Nothing."
Player: "Darn."
DM: "So, do you take the nothing?"

When attuned and equipped, the user has Advantage on Investigation and Perception checks to observe multi-dimensional and inter-planar phenomena.

Toledo said:

Properties - ring of protection +1. Once a long rest will act as half a heal spell (so half of total HP will come back), but then all attributes will be reduced by 2 for one hour (except constitution).

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Since all HP come back on a long rest, did you mean this works on a short rest? Not sure what this is supposed to do.