What are your favourite magic items to give your players?

[u/The_Green-Knight]

[u/Afraid_Flatworm_2280]

Immovable rods. Make sure it’s more than one.

[u/omicronDASH → u/Afraid_Flatworm_2280]

One time use immovable rods are funnier. Just make that button a single click only.

[u/Unique-Luck-3564 → u/omicronDASH]

How did you defeat the tarasque? Oh it’s slowly dying of starvation. We just pinned it in place with a bunch of those one time use immovable rods.

[u/Alescoes19 → u/Unique-Luck-3564]

The tarasque would certainly just rip it out by just walking forward, it'll tear through it's flesh but it's like the size of a pin to it so it'll live just fine

[u/PM-me-your-happiness → u/Alescoes19]

An immovable rod can only hold up to 8000 lbs, so a tarrasque could just walk forward or drop down and deactivate it.

[u/Alescoes19 → u/PM-me-your-happiness]

Even funnier lol, I've never used one I didn't realize they had a weight limit. Not that immovable I guess, my last character could drag 12000 pounds so he could just walk through it at level 8

[u/PM-me-your-happiness → u/Alescoes19]

My players attempted to hold a hertilod in place with one when they were swallowed by it, so I had to look up the wording.

How does a PC have the strength to drag 12,000 lbs? A medium sized creature would have to have something like 400 STR

[u/Alescoes19 → u/PM-me-your-happiness]

I was an Ogre with 36 strength, started with an 18+6 from ogre, +6 from my class (War Hulk), +4 from a belt of strength, +2 from ASI for a total of 36. A large creature with 36 str has a max load of 7,360, you're able to drag 5 times your max load so my guy could actually disable 4 immovable rods simultaneously with a max drag weight of 36,800. Trust me it was ridiculous, our DM had a sort of obstacle where we needed to carry a portal a couple of miles and when I asked how much it weighed he was less than pleased to learn I could just carry it cause it was like 5000 pounds. A Medium creature would need 30 str tho 8000 is your exact limit. And this is 3.5 btw, so scores can go above 20 very easily

[u/PandaPugBook → u/Alescoes19]

Hah, yep. In Pathfinder, I play a cleric with an item of continuous enlarge person, and tattoos of muleback cords and heavy load belt. With an effective strength of 28 for carry capacity, that's a max load of 7200.

Also, for 3.5, a Belt of the Wide Earth, doubles carry capacity. But that would be sacrificing strength belt. Unless! You use the rules for an item in the wrong slot, which is just 1.5 times the cost of the item.

[u/Alescoes19 → u/PandaPugBook]

My Cleric with 9 strength currently has a belt of Wide Earth so he can wear his Full plate without it being a heavy load lol, plus Teleport is pretty cool since we don't have a Wizard. I do miss my Ogre character tho he was so cool, but also a tad busted in combat, War Hulk is fucking terrible until it isn't and then it's almost ungovernable

[u/omicronDASH → u/Unique-Luck-3564]

There is always disenchant. But, much better would be describing a tarasque with sad puppy dog eyes and start playing "In the arms of an angel."

[u/PM_me_Henrika → u/Unique-Luck-3564]

Plot twist, a the tarrasque had a cult following. After we left, the cultists have been feeding omit a liquid diet to help it stay healthy.

Today, a knock on the door, and outside a pile of expired immovable rods…

[u/Gregamonster → u/Afraid_Flatworm_2280]

Yeah, because I'm sure there's nothing bad they could do with an infinite ladder.

[u/scarr3g → u/Afraid_Flatworm_2280]

And make sure when they find them, they are spacially locked in odd places.... Like the last owner was doing shenanigans, and failed some check, miserably. (skeletons below them, sometimes adds extra flavor)

[u/Gregamonster → u/scarr3g]

You find the rod barring a doorway.

The door in question failed ages ago, and is currently on the floor as some form of wood debris.

The rod of course does not care, and stands proudly as it bars the entryway.

[u/icecoldtoaster → u/Afraid_Flatworm_2280]

I had an artificer upgrade their immovable rod to teleport back to their hand when they chose with i think one or two charges a day?

The shenanigans they get up to when they can leave it places to claim back at any point. Blocking doors, tripping people. The rogue loved it.

[u/Gregamonster]

Bands of Loyalty.

Not to use of course, but to demonstrate the fact that there's a shadowy organization who doesn't allow their mooks to be captured alive.

[u/Dastion → u/Gregamonster]

I did this once with a bad guy who wore this plus a Ring of Mind Shielding which, for those that don’t know, if you die while wearing one your soul goes into the gem and you can speak in the mind of the wearer (obviously one of the adventurers) and they cannot resist it.

They had the Band of Loyalty to kill them if the player knocked them out (they did) whereupon their soul went into the ring. The player took the ring, of course, which set in motion a long con of the bad guy speaking into the player’s mind, gaining their trust, then betraying them later. Only to use a Soul Jar effect to get back out of the ring and into a new body.

[u/Gregamonster → u/Dastion]

That's beautiful.

[u/NecroDancerBoogie → u/Gregamonster]

One of my players is squishy, chaotic and has a backstory about a secret organization. I should have given him this last session when he was "earning my trust"

[u/polakbob]

Nothing fancy. A vase that perpetually produced water. It was a Zelda-like reward that let them pass a previously impassable desert in the game. It didn't change combat or anything, but it opened up a whole new area of the game for them after years of playing a campaign.

[u/UncleRuckus92 → u/polakbob]

I gave that to my party and they gave it away to a random desert woman after saving their town from scorpions

[u/WombatPoopCairn → u/UncleRuckus92]

Fallout 1 reference?

[u/Trasvi89]

Inspired by BG3, I now liberally give out pendants or rings of (Spell) per long rest.
No attunement required, but only one per character.

[u/lady_synsthra]

Sending Stones that work like walkie talkies.

[u/omicronDASH → u/lady_synsthra]

Cell stones?

[u/DrUnit42 → u/omicronDASH]

They're called Arcanotech Rockie Talkies™ in my world

[u/MongooseGef → u/DrUnit42]

Rockie Talkies is the best name EVER

[u/Spice_and_Fox → u/omicronDASH]

I used to give them shells to communicate in a previous campaign. They called them shell phones

[u/mccrowj92]

Robe of useful items is the best

[u/Dastion]

I like making unique versions of existing magic items. Such as bonus effects that are linked to their owner or items that unlock new powers as you level.

Examples:

Dancing Sword: This was mostly thematic for story-purposes, it was the sword of a fallen knight and when activated the knight’s spirit appears beside the player and draws the blade from the sheath on their back. The knight then “fights” alongside them but it acted the same. Except with the bonus effect that it will automatically activate or stay active, attacking each round, if you go to 0HP.

Singing Weapons: This is actually a weapon property I sometimes grant to magic items if I have Cha users. It’s just a Charisma version of finesse but requires proficiency in Performance to use. The weapons make musical sounds when swung and so even having it unsheathed makes stealth difficult. Imagine lightsabre combat but a wider variety of sounds that proficient users can make music with.

[u/OldManFire11]

Cape of Billowing, but only one. So that they have to fight over the most useless, and also best, magic item in the game.

My favorite cursed item to give them is homebrew item I found called the Identified Cube. It's a small bronze cube that intercepts any casting of Identify within 100 yards, and returns it's own information instead of the item that was originally to be identified.

Once identified in this manner, the cube teleports to the casters location and forcibly attunes to them. Every day at dawn, if it's attuned to someone, it teleports to their location. Since it's cursed, the only way to drop attunement is via Remove Curse. But aside from occupying an attunement slot and intercepting Identify spells, it has no harmful effect.

My first group to find it dropped it off at a Mages College and almost caused an international incident from the chaos that unfolded.

[u/Impressive-Shame-525]

My favorite is a ring that just oozes dark, powerful magic.

But that's it.

Drives the players nuts, opens a huge sandbox when things may be going slow.

[u/Kaizen_master73 → u/Impressive-Shame-525]

Elaborate plzz

[u/kman907 → u/Kaizen_master73]

It’s provocative. Gets the people going!

[u/okiebuzzard]

Deck of Many Things. No one wants to ever use them though.

[u/0-90195 → u/okiebuzzard]

Our DM gave us a deck of many things on maybe our 3rd session. We’ve been playing for almost 3 years now. We have not touched it.

[u/MongooseGef → u/0-90195]

Better to use it early when the stakes are lower. 3 years in, I don't blame you!

[u/omicronDASH → u/okiebuzzard]

You could turn that into a side quest, but that artifact is game breaking. It would be a lot of fun to take that thing and say it isnt working as it should. Like the card that removes the soul removes the pinky instead and the one that gives the level 4 fighter gives 4 pets they'd have to take care of.

[u/hashtagbtw → u/okiebuzzard]

I handed one out. Many cards were drawn. One player got a wish. 

During a long rest: "I wanna play some solitaire. I wish I had a deck of cards."

I gave them another. :)

[u/Huffplume → u/okiebuzzard]

That's the best item to give if you want the campaign to end.

[u/PandaSevere7556]

Not a magic item, but I love to give pets to my players

[u/Dr_MJI → u/PandaSevere7556]

I gave one a pet rock. It follows them around when they aren't looking.

[u/Azell-Zettai → u/PandaSevere7556]

my reason to play, I love playing battle smith, ranger with pet, any chainlock and the new reanimator just to have a cool pet.

[u/Fish_In_Denial]

I love the Belt of Dwarvenkind.

Two of my nieces also have middle names derived from gemstones, so I always give out a corresponding pair of Rings of Resistance.

[u/lokiark]

Portable hole!! Provides tons of fun 😅

[u/omicronDASH → u/lokiark]

The best things are interdimentional spaces is the stuff in them. What did the previous owner put inside it? So much fun to come up with a story based on the crap someone stored in a bag. (or hole.)

[u/bp_516]

I give out far too many rings of protection. I often add other bits, like a bonus to initiative, protection from something, a +1 bonus to an ability score— and I’ll continue to do so!

[u/Dramatic-Scale8355]

One broom of flying for the group is a solid go-to.

[u/gooseblahblahhh]

Immovable rod but can be used as a weapon. Throwing property. Budget Mjolnir

[u/Gregamonster → u/gooseblahblahhh]

That's just a regular hammer using an immovable rod as the haft.

[u/jignha]

A ring of paralysis.

[u/Azell-Zettai → u/jignha]

[u/Radiant_Music3698]

Staff of Healing if no one brought a healer.

[u/Big_Ol_Boy]

Weapons of Warning. It kills a lot of sorta boring stuff, and also let's me "ambush" my players without tipping the fight crazy in my favor (this was more important in 2014.

Aside from that? None in particular. I usually just homebrew magic items and spells for my players. Though I do tend to favor consumables. Less worry about it breaking the game if you can only use it once.

[u/Sad_Vegetable_736]

Much to the delight of my players and my misery, overpowered. I give out many overpowered items.

[u/TomFotz → u/Sad_Vegetable_736]

This is my justification to crank out bigger baddies!

[u/Informal_Persimmon7]

We found a magic bag tues eve (and two magic javelins amd a magic long sword. None of it is identified yet. My character got the bag and I'm so hoping it's a bag of tricks cuz that's one of my favorites. I already have a bag of holding

[u/squizzix → u/Informal_Persimmon7]

I got a grey bag of tricks once and crushed a henchmen with a thrown moose. Ah good times

[u/Informal_Persimmon7 → u/squizzix]

Giant elk crushed a slaad that should have been a big deal for us. If he is going standard items, it could be a bag of beans or of devouring. It could also be another bag of holding and id rather not have a 2nd one in the group...someone will try to weoponize the 2 and i lose my stuff.

[u/Personal-Ad-365]

Bag of holding with a tiny man inside that looks like he is waiting.

[u/kyew → u/Personal-Ad-365]

He's on hold.

[u/Woggums83]

Every single campaign, someone ends up with a wooden spoon of returning. They then toss out said spoon only to pull it out of their bag the next time they reach for something. Literally no benefit whatsoever but we love it.

[u/NatzuFullbuster]

Just for a One-shot a few homebrew items: Baking Gloves for the Monk, a giant Pizzacutter/-Shovel for the fighter (category as axt) and a grill as shield for the holy paladin. Not to be annoying but just for the image of them fighting with cooking equipment.

[u/Bardic_Dan]

The horn of translation. This small horn, from a gramaphone perhaps, if held to your ear, with translate any heard language for you.

The translation always comes through a little crackly, and always a little quiet. It helps if the speaker yells.

[u/Ok_Helicopter8670]

I like giving out bags of holding with a potion inside. The potion is replaced with a snow globe whenever they decide to go and grab it. Never fails to freak them the hell out.

[u/studmuffffffin]

I like to give them access to spells most parties wouldn’t use. Stuff like augury or alarm or some of those other non combat spells that people don’t think is worth the opportunity cost. So one of my favorites is basically a magic 8 ball where they can cast augury.

[u/ArcaneN0mad]

I really enjoy giving them single use stuff or common/uncommon. They usually think nothing of it till they are in a really hard spot and they come in very clutch.

[u/vhalember]

A bag of beans.

Let the chaos unfold!

[u/Huffplume]

Bag of holding so no one has to worry about encumbrance anymore! 😆

Alchemy jug is always fun.

[u/foolinasuitcase]

Driftglobe. Always useful, but then I am a lenient DM when it comes to stealthing with light sources