One of the most exciting parts of Dungeons & Dragons is the discovery of magic items tucked away in long-lost catacombs, heavily guarded lairs, or well-hidden treasure chests. The Dungeon Master's Guide provides us with a cluster of options to choose from when dropping magical items into our adventures, but, with so many choices, it can be hard to decide.
Thankfully, the DMG does provide some guidelines on magic level rarity and its relevance to player character levels. A mid-level party consists of characters between levels five to 11 and should most often be receiving magic items of rare quality or lower.
Updated March 13, 2023 by Jerel Levy: We've taken the time to update this list; as Dungeons & Dragons evolves, so too do the available magical items to use. We've narrowed down the best magical item choices for a mid-level party, providing a variety of options to ensure every type of player and player character can have an opportunity to shine and benefit from a different type of weapon. We've also updated this article to ensure all of the information is up to date and reformatted it to improve readability.
15 Greater Bracers Of Accuracy
The Greater Bracers of Accuracy are an item that requires a casting level of five to equip, so it fits nicely into that mid-level bracket. It's not just for archers or ranged weapons, either. They can give a spellcaster a nice boost to their hit rating. Other than better precision on your ranged attacks, you can also ignore abilities like cover and concealment when targeting your foes.
What keeps these from being too overpowered is that the wearer has to choose exactly what ability to use and when since they only have three charges per day. They will have a nice ability, but they must learn to use it wisely.
14 Armor Of Resistance
The armor of resistance provides a simple yet effective, benefit—resistance to one damage type of the DM's choice. The best part about the DM doing the choosing is that they are likely to know best what kind of damage the players will be running into.
Make sure to give your players an armor of resistance that provides resistance to a damage type relevant to your game. Otherwise, the item's great boon will fall to the wayside due to its rare applications. The goal is for players to be excited about owning magic items, after all.
13 Boots Of Speed
If thinking ahead about encounters to provide a meaningful damage-type resistance sounds like too much work, you can always just give your players an item with an on-use effect instead. The boots of speed allow you to use a bonus action to double your movement speed.
More importantly, while this double speed is active, enemies have Disadvantage on opportunity attacks made against you. Any of your players that enjoy darting around the map will instantly fall in love with this item.
12 Flame Tongue
Flametongue is always pictured in resource materials the same way, but it isn't always on fire. Speak its Command Word as one of your Bonus Actions, and the blade bursts into flames.
That's not just an extra 2D6 of fire damage when it hits its targets — it also sheds Bright Light for 40 feet and Dim Light for another 40 ft. A powerful sword that's extremely rare and often found by mid to low-level players, it could make or break a fledgling party that's just reaching mid-level range.
11 Cape Of The Mountebank
The Cape of the Mountebank is a great gift for a martial-based character. While fighters, rogues, and monks are capable of dishing out some serious damage, it's easy to feel regret after witnessing a fellow party member cast a couple of spells. After all, the variety of things you can do with spellcasting is ultimately a lot more dynamic than simply making another attack roll.
This item gives its owner the ability to cast the fourth-level dimension door spell as an action once per long rest. A character that performs best when in the most dangerous position on the map will find this item especially useful. In case of critical danger, they'll have one final trick up their sleeve.
10 Dagger Of Venom
If your melee players aren't so remorseful about their class choice, they likely want to be rolling even more damage dice. There are a handful of items that serve well for this purpose, but the dagger of venom is an especially wicked choice. It's a +1 magic weapon that, as an action, causes the dagger to ooze viscous, black liquid that coats the blade for the next minute.
If an attack using this weapon hits a creature during this time, the creature must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 2d10 poison damage and become poisoned for the next minute. The poisoned condition is a debilitating effect, and a player who successfully lands an attack with this poisoned dagger won't soon forget its sizable impact.
9 Lantern Of Revealing
For six hours, for the inexpensive price of one pint of oil, your whole party will be surrounded by 30 feet of bright light and 30 more feet of dim light. The Lantern of Revealing also reveals invisible creatures and objects that fall within its light. That's handy outside in the wild or in a dungeon. It gives the party time to prepare for possible threats without giving them too much of an advantage. There's a hood you can lower to reduce the light to a 5-foot radius in case you and your party are trying to keep a low profile.
8 Dimensional Shackles
If your players enjoy taking prisoners, that's all the reason you should bestow upon them magical shackles. The dimensional shackles require an action to be placed on an already incapacitated creature. They adjust in size to fit a target of small or large size.
On top of conferring the benefits of regular shackles, the dimensional shackles also prevent their captor from using any means of extradimensional movement. But perhaps most impressively, a creature can only make a strength check to escape the shackles once every 30 days. The DC to break the shackles is an athletics check of 30. Be prepared for the players to keep a high-priority prisoner around for a while.
7 Horn Of Blasting
Magic items provide a lot of fun for the players, but what about the dungeon master's good time? If you're looking to put your players in even more peril, the Horn of Blasting will do you just fine. As an action, a character can speak the horn's command word and then blow into it, emitting a thunderous blast in a 30-foot cone that is audible 600 feet away. Each creature in the area must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw.
On a failure, a creature suffers 5d6 thunder damage and is deafened for 1 minute. On a success, a target takes half damage and is not deafened. It's a powerful item, but here's the catch: each use of the horn's magic has a 20 percent chance of resulting in the horn exploding. This explosion deals 10d6 fire damage to the blower and destroys the horn.
6 Amulet Of The Planes
An advanced level means improved traveling abilities, but there's a catch. DMs like this one because it's a bit of a trick. Yes, this means improved travel abilities, provided you have the Attunement to use it and make the roll.
The user needs to make a DC 15 Intelligence check, and a failing throw means that the player holding the amulet and everything within 15 feet of them travels to a random destination. That can be an interesting way to start a campaign — or end one.
5 Mace Of Disruption
The Mace of Disruption is the perfect item to give to a party in a heavily undead or fiend-themed campaign. The mace deals an extra 2d6 radiant damage whenever it strikes one of these types of creatures. If the target has 25 hit points or fewer after taking this damage, it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be instantly destroyed.
On a successful save, the creature still becomes frightened of you until the end of your next turn. On top of all that, the weapon sheds bright light in a 20-foot radius and dim light 20 feet beyond that. This item would fit into any game perfectly as the ancient fabled weapon of a long-dead hero whose name will forever be remembered for leading a crusade against the undead.
4 Potion Of Fire Breath
The one-time use feature of potions makes them a bit less rewarding than other magic items, but your players surely won't be disappointed by the potion of fire breath. After drinking it, you retain its effects for the next hour. During this time, you may use a bonus action to exhale a cone of flame at a target within 30 feet.
That creature must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. It takes 4d6 fire damage on a failed save or half as much on a success. The potion also expires once you've used the breath three times. Your players will surely be excited about breathing fire for a couple of rounds.
3 Portable Hole
The Portable Hole is a circular sheet 6 feet in diameter. However, it can be folded up into a handkerchief-sized black cloth. As an action, you can unfold it and place it against a solid surface. Wherever it is placed, an extradimensional hole ten feet deep forms.
This hole exists on a different plane, so it can't be used to create passages. No matter what's inside of it, the hole's weight is negligible. A creature can survive inside a portable hole for ten minutes before it suffocates. Notably, the portable hole's six feet diameter can fit objects many times larger than anything you could put in a Bag of Holding. Your players will revel in a free secret stash they have constant access to.
2 Cloak Of Displacement
The Cloak of Displacement creates the illusion that the wearer is standing a few feet away from their actual location. That means anyone attacking the wearer does so with a Disadvantage. However, the cloak won't work if you take damage or are immobilized or incapacitated.
It's a versatile item, as a multi-class character that uses both ranged and melee could equip this. The party would have to decide who would be the best suited to wear the cloak for the benefit of everyone. It could also be a fitting reward from a quest or as dungeon loot.
1 Ring Of Evasion
Dexterity saving throws are among the most common saves made in the game. Traps, area-of-effect spells, and breath weapons like a dragon's fire breath all require a dexterity save. For this reason, the ring of evasion will come in handy without any special work on the dungeon master's part.
The ring has 1d3 charges that return at dawn. When you fail a Dexterity saving throw, you can use your reaction to expend one charge and succeed instead. It might be a simple magic item, but the next time your players get hit with a fireball, they'll be glad to have it.