Bag of Beans 5e
Wondrous Item, rare
Inside this heavy cloth bag are 3d4 dry beans. The bag weighs 1/2 pound plus 1/4 pound for each bean it contains.
If you dump the bag's contents out on the ground, they explode in a 10-foot radius, extending from the beans. Each creature in the area, including you, must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5d4 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The fire ignites flammable objects in the area that aren't being worn or carried.
If you remove a bean from the bag, plant it in dirt or sand, and then water it, the bean produces an effect 1 minute later from the ground where it was planted. The GM can choose an effect from the following table, determine it randomly, or create an effect.
Bag of Beans Effects
| _d100_ | Effect |
|---|---|
| 01 | 5d4 toadstools sprout. If a creature eats a toadstool, roll any die. On an odd roll, the eater must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 5d6 poison damage and become poisoned for 1 hour. On an even roll, the eater gains 5d6 temporary hit points for 1 hour. |
| 02-10 | A geyser erupts and spouts water, beer, berry juice, tea, vinegar, wine, or oil (GM's choice) 30 feet into the air for 1d12 rounds. |
| 11-20 | A treant sprouts. There's a 50 percent chance that the treant is chaotic evil and attacks. |
| 21-30 | An animate, immobile stone statue in your likeness rises. It makes verbal threats against you. If you leave it and others come near, it describes you as the most heinous of villains and directs the newcomers to find and attack you. If you are on the same plane of existence as the statue, it knows where you are. The statue becomes inanimate after 24 hours. |
| 31-40 | A campfire with blue flames springs forth and burns for 24 hours (or until it is extinguished). |
| 41-50 | 1d6 + 6 shriekers sprout. |
| 51-60 | 1d4 + 8 bright pink toads crawl forth. Whenever a toad is touched, it transforms into a Large or smaller monster of the GM's choice. The monster remains for 1 minute, then disappears in a puff of bright pink smoke. |
| 61-70 | A hungry bulette burrows up and attacks. |
| 71-80 | A fruit tree grows. It has 1d10 + 20 fruit, 1d8 of which act as randomly determined magic potions, while one acts as an ingested poison of the GM's choice. The tree vanishes after 1 hour. Picked fruit remains, retaining any magic for 30 days. |
| 81-90 | A nest of 1d4 + 3 eggs springs up. Any creature that eats an egg must make a DC 20 Constitution saving throw. On a successful save, a creature permanently increases its lowest ability score by 1, randomly choosing among equally low scores. On a failed save, the creature takes 10d6 force damage from an internal magical explosion. |
| 91-99 | A pyramid with a 60-foot‐square base bursts upward. Inside is a sarcophagus containing a mummy lord. The pyramid is treated as the mummy lord's lair, and its sarcophagus contains treasure of the GM's choice. |
| 00 | A giant beanstalk sprouts, growing to a height of the GM's choice. The top leads where the GM chooses, such as to a great view, a cloud giant's castle, or a different plane of existence. |
Commentary by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Like the Deck of Many Things, the Bag of Beans is an iconic D&D item that thrives at causing chaos. If you dump them out, they explode. If you plant them, one of twelve random outcomes occurs that range from summoning a single angry monster to creating a gargantuan beanstalk or pyramid. Want some extra randomness? Get a Bag of Beans!
3d4 averages to roughly seven uses; seven outcomes from this table is a ton of variance.
Two results have only a 1% chance of occurring: the beanstalk, and a bunch of toadstools sprouting. The beanstalk I get, as it basically starts an adventure, but the toadstools are an odd choice to occur this infrequently.
Four outcomes directly produce a monster that usually attacks you, making nearly half the outcomes immediately hazardous to be near. This makes the beans solid traps to set that “detonate” after a minute.
You can get 1d4+3 eggs that permanently increase ability scores. That potential is massively impactful on some characters for the remainder of the game, and can lead to a huge power pump when rolled in tables with ample access to save bonuses to help beat the DC 20.
Mummy Lords are CR 15. Rare items are recommended loot for parties starting as early as 5th level. 5th-level players usually aren’t prepared for a CR 15 creature, so I’d stay clear of any pyramid that rises from a bean if you’re lower level.
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