D&D 5E D&D's Top Magic Items

D&D Beyond has shared a data dump of the most popular magic items, weapons, and armor used by characters on its platform. They did this in April last year, so this is an update.

Amor hasn't changed, except for a tiny shifty at the bottom end where spiked and padded switched places. The top three are still leather, shield and chain mail. The top places are taken by 'starting gear', and as we know most DDB characters are low level.

Weapons have a shifted a little more, but not by much. The top 10 is still the same list, with a couple of items shifting positions. Daggers, shortswords, handaxes, and light crossbows rule the roost here.

When it comes to magic items, there's a greater shift again - but still, it's not a lot. Bag of holding is the clear leader, followed by ring of protection, cloak of protection, and boots of elvenkind.

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[Ace]

The more data we get, the more we are seeing that new/casual players prefer D&D Beyond because they would rather create a character in five minutes versus an hour. In other words, it is introducing D&D to a whole new group of people at a rapid pace.

"Hardcore players" (quoted because what does that really even mean?) or more experienced players are more likely to create characters manually and less likely to embrace D&D Beyond do to things like change bias.

Daggers are also not defaulted in any way in the software, other than being an option in starting equipment for many classes.

This data makes sense.

And I was using Hardcore as people who have gamed a lot, typically many systems and are not new to the hobby . They usually also know the rules very well and often how to optimize them. Its not an insult but there certainly are difference in the gaming culture from long time gamers, serious gamers and new gamers

As far as all the tech goes, computers are hardly new to gaming. Dragon had articles in the late 70's and our group had AD&D characters stored on a TI 994A Computer cartridge , they fit if barely. Other groups also used various DOS based software for char gen or spreadsheets as needed

I don't need stuff like D&D Beyond myself as 5E is rather simple but am hardly opposed to it or a Luddite. I think its pretty great actually.

My only 5E grip right now is I'm not playing

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Interesting data. My take on it is that it shows that Dex-based builds are the most popular with folks. Leather, dagger, shortsword, rapier all outrank the longsword, battleaxe, plate, and breastplate.

I'd even argue that the top magic items point to that as well - Bag of Holding makes up for the lower carrying capacity. And who doesn't want a ring/cloak of protection?

 

[Nebin]

To quote a Warrior Princess "Chain mail gets you weirder fanboys".

 

[ad_hoc]

Yep, I didn't say that experienced players weren't using D&D Beyond - hundreds of thousands (possibly millions, not in front of the data right now) are.

Simply sharing that newer players have proven more likely to adopt. I would suggest a couple of primary reasons (hypotheses since I haven't performed a full analysis): 1) new players don't possess the change bias and 2) new players aren't in the scenario where they already bought most of their books in hardcover before DDB came along.

It's a good thing, because new players are coming to the game and hobby in droves.

New players are probably younger and more into technology too.

We had a new player (though not young) join our table yesterday. They brought a dice app. We said no, none of that nonsense, real dice only.

 

[TheSword]

Interesting, I reckon the most used magic items corresponds to our table pretty well. Having played a lot of the published campaigns I recognize several of the items as being easily available in Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation etc

 

[Eltab]

Speaking strictly for myself, I prefer chargen via pencil-and-paper over using computerized methods. This is mostly because I am a Grognard.
But if you want to call me a "hardcore player" I'll take it as a compliment.

 

[Maxperson]

I love how the magic item list is like, this item, that item, +1 this, +1 that.........+3 studded, +3 shield.......+1 this, +1 that.

What happened to +2 items and other +3 items?

 

[ProfessorDetective]

Honestly, all of this just shows that most folks prefer simple, straight-forward, equipment. Knives and swords, leather and bucklers, Bags and AC boosts/+1s of the previously mentioned. 'Boring, but practical' seems to be the name of the game.

What DOES surprise me is that CLUBS aren't even on the list. You can't get much simpler (and cheaper) than a weighty stick. Even has the same damage die as the dagger, if a different damage TYPE.

 

[Eltab]

What DOES surprise me is that CLUBS aren't even on the list. You can't get much simpler (and cheaper) than a weighty stick. Even has the same damage die as the dagger, if a different damage TYPE.

Make Skeletons vulnerable to bludgeoning damage but resistant to piercing again, and ...

 

[Zardnaar]

I love how the magic item list is like, this item, that item, +1 this, +1 that.........+3 studded, +3 shield.......+1 this, +1 that.

What happened to +2 items and other +3 items?

Easy explaination. They basically tied +2 and +3 items to higher level.

Since most games don't go past level 6 and only a fraction go higher than 10 that's probably why.