Best Magic Items for Barbarian in D&D 5e
The Barbarian class is just begging for anything interesting at all to make it worth playing. A few of the subclasses kinda help in that department, but nothing besides multiclassing will truly fix that problem. As a DM, you can alleviate some of these issues with the proper magic items.
Obviously items that give extra damage or defense are nice, but I would recommend also giving plenty of options that expand what a Barbarian can do, especially out of combat. I’ll be focusing more on those types of items in this list, as you don’t need me to tell you that a +3 Greatsword is good for a martial class.
Uncommon Items:
Adamantine Armor: I won’t talk much about things like armor on this list, but this prevents all critical hits against us. This is especially important to the Barbarian, as Reckless Attack will be giving our foes advantage against us constantly, doubling the chances for us to be crit.
Deck of Illusions: I love this item for all the crazy stories it can create, and it’s a great item to give out at early levels. It won’t break anything, and it has limited uses, but the shenanigans it can create are right up most Barbarian player’s alley. This gives something fun and unique for that player to do out of combat, which is exactly what we are looking for.
Eversmoking Bottle: A neat combo with this item is to grab one level of Fighter for the Blind Fighting Style. Doing so grants you advantage on all your attacks as you can see through the fog, and your enemies disadvantage to hit you. This is essentially negating all the downsides or Reckless Attack, without even needing to use that feature!
Immovable Rod: I had a Barbarian player shove this down the throat of a Glabrezu. Needless to say, that fight was over quickly. Yeah sure, any class could come up with fun ways to use this item, but Barbarians always seem to find the most… creative applications.
Pipes of Haunting: All you need is proficiency with wind instruments to have a better version of the Fear spell multiple times per day. Even better, it isn’t a spell, which means it works with Rage.
Rings of Shared Suffering (Attunement): So these really only work if you are playing in Eberron, as you need to be playing a race with the Mark of the Sentinel. That being said, this item is amazing if you can meet those criteria. It allows you to split the damage that the other creature wearing the other ring between the two of you, and unlike most damage sharing effects, it doesn’t prevent the damage you take from being reduced in any way. That means that our Rage resistance would apply, effectively reducing the damage that the enemy attack does by 1/4. This really helps sell the tank fantasy that the Barbarian advertises, but so often fails to deliver on.
Winged Boots (Attunement): This is the best magic item for granting flight, and Barbarians desperately need a way to combat flying enemies.
Rare Items:
Cape of the Moutebank: Giving a Barbarian Dimension Door just sounds like a really good time to me. It also helps them keep up with both enemies and their own party as both become much more mobile in the late game. It being a spell just means that in combat we drop Rage at the start of our turn, cast the spell, then Rage again with our bonus action.
Claws of the Umber Hulk (Attunement): I’m always looking for unique things to give Barbarians, and burrowing speeds are surprisingly hard to come by. That makes this an amazing out of combat exploration and infiltration tool.
Cloak of the Bat (Attunement): Vampire Barbarian anyone? This one item adds a ton of utility to any martial, granting conditional flight, an unassuming polymorph form, and advantage on Stealth checks. This makes your Barbarian a great asset to the team for exploration, scouting, and stealth. Perfect for a party who spends a lot of time in the dark.
Crown of the Wrath Bringer (Attunement): This gives us the ability to cast the Fear spell once per day, but notably, it does not require us to concentrate on the spell. This means we can easily cast the spell, then Rage as a bonus action. Toss in two levels of Fighter for Action Surge for good measure.
War Horn of Valor: Barbarians are famously bad at all mental saves, and Frighten effects are very common in this game. This item doesn’t grant immunity, but rather the ability to infinitely remove the frightened condition with just a bonus action. This is crucial, as a frightened barbarian will almost certainly be dropping their rage and be pretty useless in combat. There are other items that grant advantage on saves verses the frightened condition, but I’d pick this one if I had my choice.
Very Rare Items:
Blade of the Medusa (Attunement): Normally I wouldn’t recommend cursed items, but thanks to Reckless Attack, the barbarian is uniquely equipped for this weapon. The curse only takes effect if we roll a 1 on our attack, and with advantage, that will basically never happen. In return for this small detriment, we get a chance to restrain and eventually petrify on every attack we make. Definitely a worthwhile trade off.
Horn of Valhalla: Do you want to turn your Barbarian into a better summoner than the Druid? Well, this can make you feel like that once per week at least! This is a great option to pull out in that really big encounter, just remember that these berserkers don’t have magic weapons by default.
Legendary Items:
Blood Fury Tattoo (Attunement): This is just a bunch of extra damage each day, and sometimes that’s all you can ask for.
Belt of Giant Strength (Attunement): This is the easiest way to get your Strength score over 20, and the higher you can get it, the better.
Any Legendary Heavy Weapon: Every martial needs an ultimate weapon to walk into the final battle wielding. DMs out there, go wild and give your player something crazy. Lord knows they need some way to contribute to this fight they are about to have with whatever god they’ve ticked off.
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