Magic items grant capabilities a character could rarely have otherwise, or they complement their owner's capabilities in wondrous ways. While some magic items can be found in specialty stores or crafted over the course of a campaign, the most powerful magic items are found in the hoards of dangerous monsters, or long-lost vaults, or in the hands of formidable NPCs.
Rarity
Each magic item has a rarity: common, uncommon, rare, epic, or legendary. An item's rarity denotes how frequently a magic item might be encountered in the world. Rarity also provides a reasonable measure of the item's power, with higher rarity items typically being more powerful.
Attunement
Some magic items require a creature to form a bondwith them before their magical properties can be used. This bond is called attunement, and certain items have a prerequisite for it.
If the prerequisite is a class, a creature must be a member of that class to attune to the item. (If the class is a spellcasting class, a monster qualifies if it has spell slots and uses that class’s spell list.)
If the prerequisite is to be a spellcaster, a creature qualifies if it can cast at least one spell using its traits or features, not using a magic item or the like.
Without becoming attuned to an item that requires attunement, a creature gains only its nonmagical benefits, unless its description states otherwise. For example, a magic shield that requires attunement provides the benefits of a normal shield to a creature not attuned to it, but none of its magical properties.
Attuning to an item requires a creature to spend a short rest focused on only that item while being in physical contact with it (this can’t be the same short rest used to learn the item’s properties). This focus can take the form of weapon practice (for a weapon), meditation, or some other appropriate activity. If the short rest is interrupted, the attunement attempt fails. Otherwise, at the end of the short rest, the creature gains an intuitive understanding of how to activate any magical properties of the item, including any necessary command words.
An item can be attuned to only one creature at a time, and a creature can be attuned to no more than three magic items at a time. Any attempt to attune to a fourth item fails; the creature must end its attunement to an item first. Additionally, a creature can’t attune to more than one copy of an item. For example, a creature can’t attune to more than one ring of protection at a time.
A creature’s attunement to an item ends if the creature no longer satisfies the prerequisites for attunement, if the item has been more than 100 feet away for at least 24 hours, if the creature dies, or if another creature attunes to the item. A creature can also voluntarily end attunement (no action required), unless the item is cursed.
Wearing and Wielding Magic Items
Using a magic item's properties might mean wearing or wielding it. A magic item meant to be worn must be donned in the intended fashion: boots go on the feet, gloves on the hands, hats and helmets on the head, and rings on the finger. Magic armor must be donned, a shield strapped to the arm, a cloak fastened about the shoulders. A weapon must be held. Items that come in pairs—such as boots, bracers, gauntlets, and gloves—impart their benefits only if both items of the pair are worn. For example, a character wearing a boot of striding and springing on one foot and a boot of elvenkind on the other foot gains no benefit from either.
In most cases, a magic item that's meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or they magically adjust themselves to the wearer.
Magic Equipment Slots
Each part of your body is assigned a slot which can be occupied by a compatible magic item. Each magic item's description indicates what slot that item occupies right next to their rarity. Each of these items must be worn on (or over) that particular part of your body. You can equip a magic item as long as you have slots available on your body to wear or wield it. Most humanoids, barring malformity or dismemberment, have the following twelve magic equipment slots:
- Armor: suits of armor.
- Belts: selts and girdles.
- Face: glasses, goggles, and masks.
- Feet: boots, shoes, and slippers.
- Hands: gaunlets and gloves.
- Head: circlets, crowns, hats, and helms.
- Legs: pants, leggings, and skirts.
- Neck: amulets, brooches, medallions, necklaces, periapts, and scarabs.
- Rings (up to 1 on each finger): rings.
- Shoulders: capes and cloaks.
- Torso: robes, vestements, mantles, shirts, and vests.
- Wrist: bracelets and bracers.
While you can carry or possess additional items, you can only benefit from items that are occupying an equipment slot. A nonhumanoid or a disfigured humanoid can only wear a magic item if their body has a compatible slot, for instance, a creature with a snakelike tail instead of legs can't wear boots.
In most cases, you can use common sense to determine whether another magic item of a certain kind can reasonably be worn without even thinking about equipment slots, but if there's ever any ambiguity, you can reference your equipment slots to determine if the item can be equipped.
Activating a Magic Item
Activating some magic items requires a user to do something special, such as holding the item and uttering a command word. The description of each item category or individual item details how an item is activated. Certain items use the following rules for their activation.
If an item requires an action to activate, that action isn't a function of the Use an Object action, so a feature such as the rogue's Fast Hands can't be used to activate the item.
Command Word
A command word is a word or phrase that must be spoken for an item to work. A magic item that requires a command word can't be activated in an area where sound is prevented, as in the area of the silence spell.
Consumables
Some items are used up when they are activated. A potion or an elixir must be swallowed, or an oil applied to the body. The writing vanishes from a scroll when it is read. Once used, a consumable item loses its magic.
Spells
Some magic items allow the user to cast a spell from the item. The spell is cast at the lowest possible spell and caster level, doesn't expend any of the user's mana, requires no components, and can be cast even the spell is higher than the user's maximum spell level, unless the item's description says otherwise. The spell uses its normal casting time, range, and duration, and the user of the item must concentrate if the spell requires concentration. Many items, such as potions, bypass the casting of a spell and confer the spell's effects, with their usual duration. Certain items make exceptions to these rules, changing the casting time, duration, or other parts of a spell.
A magic item, such as certain staffs, may require you to use your own spellcasting ability when you cast a spell from the item. If you have more than one spellcasting ability, you choose which one to use with the item. If you don't have a spellcasting ability -- perhaps you're a rogue with the Use Magic Device feature -- your spellcasting ability modifier is +0 for the item, and your proficiency bonus does apply.
Charges
Some magic items have charges that must be expended to activate their properties. The number of charges an item has remaining is revealed when an identify spell is cast on it, as well as when a creature attunes to it. Additionally, when an item regains charges, the creature attuned to it learns how many charges it regained.
Spell Scrolls
A spell scroll is a consumable magic item that bears the words of a single spell, written in a mystical cipher. If the spell is on your class's spell list you can use an action to read the scroll and cast its spell without providing any material components. If the spell is on your class's spell list but of a higher level than your maximum spell level, you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability to determine whether you cast it successfully. The DC equals 10 + the spell's level. On a failed check, the spell disappears from the scroll with no other effect.
If the spell isn't on your class's spell list, you can still attempt to cast it, but must make the same ability check as above, but with disadvantage.
Once the spell is cast, the words on the scroll fade, and the scroll itself crumbles to dust. The level of the spell on the scroll determines the spell's saving throw DC and attack bonus, as well as the scroll's rarity, as shown in the Spell Scroll table.
A wizard spell on a spell scroll can be copied just as spells in spellbooks can be copied. When a spell is copied from a spell scroll, the copier must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell's level. If the check succeeds, the spell is successfully copied. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the spell scroll is destroyed.
Purchasable Magic Items by Rarity
This section and the setting guide provide a frame of reference for magic items that can be purchased or commissioned. You can
seek out a magic item for purchase during downtime, though the GM ultimately determines how available and expensive the item might be in your region of the world.
Common
Common magic items, such as a potion of healing, are the most plentiful and can often be purchased from an alchemist, herbalist or local mage.
Uncommon
Uncommon might be purchased in very limited quantities in large cities, or commissioned from highly specialized artisans.
Rare and Epic
Most Rare magic items, and nearly all Epic items cannot be easily purchased and will likely be obtained during through dangerous exploits and adventures. Only the most gifted and magically inclined artisans can craft Rare or Epic items.
Legendary
Legendary items are usually well-preserved antiquities that are highly sought after. Wars are fought for, and won by them. The secrets of creating most legendary items arose centuries ago and were then gradually lost as a result of wars, cataclysms, and mishaps. As such, the creation of a new legendary item is a generation defining event, taking a genius artisan a lifetime to produce.
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