Best Magic Items for Fighter in D&D 5e
As is the case with all martial classes, magic items are necessary for Fighters to meaningfully contribute to the game, both in and out of combat. This goes beyond simply giving the Fighter a +1 sword and calling it a day. DMs need to be willing to give the Fighter interesting items that both play into what the character already wants to be doing, along with items that push them into new ways of interacting with the game.
As a special note, the designers of this game wanted to make sure you knew they hated martial classes by restricting some of the best magic items to only spellcasters. To DMs, please ignore this rule whenever possible. The prime example of this is Wands like the Wand of Web, and spell scrolls.
Uncommon Items:
Deck of Illusions: This is the perfect item to give to a player who is newer to the game and chose Fighter because it is simple. The item is random, so it doesn’t require much thought, and it always causes something interesting to happen, encouraging the player to continue to find more interesting ways to play than killing everything that looks at them funny.
Dragon Touched Weapon (Attunement): This is a great item to give to a player right at level 1 as part of their background, as it starts out very weak. However, this item presents a natural quest for the player to work towards, slaying increasingly stronger dragons to empower their favorite weapon. The higher tier versions of this item are extremely powerful and definitely worth the effort to get there.
Eversmoking Bottle: If you can guarantee you’ll get this item early on in your campaign, pairing this with the Blind Fighting Fighting Style is an extremely potent combo. Just be mindful that your other party members can work alongside this strategy, as everyone else may not be so comfortable being blind all the time.
Gauntlets of Ogre Power (Attunement): This is another interesting option if you can guarantee you’ll get it early, as it allows you to play a strength based Fighter while dumping your strength. This could allow you to allocate those stats into another ability, potentially making multiclassing much easier or just making you much better at Wisdom saves than the average Joe. Same applies to the various Belts of Giant Strength, though those are higher rarity.
Pipes of Haunting: All you need is wind instrument proficiency (which can be acquired during downtime) to use a concentration free, selective, set DC 15, mass-fear effect. This will often be worth your action assuming you are fighting more than two enemies, as the control of the fear effect will help win the fight much more than a few attacks will.
Winged Boots (Attunement): Melee Fighters need flight to contribute against flying enemies, and ranged Fighters love flight for staying out of enemy melee range. This is the best magic item for granting flight. Simple as that.
Rare Items:
Butcher’s Bib (Attunement): This is a rare instance of a non-weapon magic item that increases your damage output. It increases your crit range for weapons that deal slashing damage, but allows rerolling your damage die for any weapon type. The increased crit range isn’t actually that big of a deal math-wise, so I’d recommend this item even for those who specialize in other damage types.
Cape of the Mountebank (Attunement): The only Fighter that can teleport reliably is the Echo Knight (the best one), and while this item isn’t nearly as good as the teleportation that subclass offers, any Fighter would still be happy to have access to Dimension Door.
Horn of Valhalla: This item comes in various levels of rarity, and as a Fighter, you can use all versions of it. This item summons a band of berserkers, each of whom are about as effective as you are in combat. Does this item call into question your role as a contributing member of the team? Yes. Is it also extremely powerful? Yep. Summoning is broken people, get used to it.
Starshot Crossbow (Attunement): I generally don’t mention many magic weapons in these articles, because they are all pretty evenly amazing to have. Whichever one your DM gives you, you’ll probably be pretty pleased with it, assuming it fits in your build. As an aside to DMs, please give your martial characters magic weapons that fit their build. Do not give the person who took Polearm Master and Great Weapon Master a magic shortsword and expect them to use it. I say all this because for the longest time, there was a complete dearth of magic bows and crossbows. This has recently been corrected, and this crossbow is on of the best examples of that. It does take a bonus action to use its special properties, which can conflict with Crossbow Expert’s bonus action attacks. Thankfully, we have an option that is worth sacrificing that attack; complete and unbreakable invisibility until the end of our next turn. That’s advantage on all attacks, disadvantage on attacks against us, and immunity to all sight-based spells and effects for a full turn, three times per day. Probably the best ranged magic item available at this rarity, if not the best in the game overall.
Very Rare Items:
Animated Shield (Attunement): The best Fighter builds do not have a spare hand for a shield, either using two handed heavy weapons or ranged weapons that also require both hands to operate. This item is basically a hands free shield, granting a +2 AC at a point in the game where your 19-20 AC may not be cutting it quite as well.
Antimagic Armor (Attunement): The biggest problem with the Antimagic Field spell is that the only people who can cast it are people who rely on magic, and are therefore hindered by the spell themselves. Put that spell on a Fighter though, and you’ve got a mage’s worst nightmare. You’ll encounter spellcasters more and more as you grow in level, making this an item that ages like a fine wine. Do note however, this turns your magic items off as well, meaning your magic sword can no longer bypass non-magical resistance or immunity. This is less of a problem than you may initially think, as the majority of spellcasting monsters aren’t immune to non-magical attacks. Also note that this spell turns off more than spells. Creatures can’t teleport out of the area, even if that teleport isn’t a spell, making it very tough for enemies to run away from you. It also can’t be dispelled, leaving magic users extremely few options for how to deal with you, and basically no options once you get close.
Cape of Enlargement (Attunement): The Rune Knight subclass shows us the power of growing in size, and this item spreads that to all subclasses. It’s even pretty good for a Rune Knight, letting that subclass grow to huge and eventually gargantuan size! The growth is nice, as is the extra damage. This is another rare item that increases your damage output without being a weapon itself, making it very easy to slot into any build.
Legendary Items:
Blood Fury Tattoo (Attunement): This is a great, simple way to increase your damage output with plenty of charges to use each day. The additional healing this provides is just gravy.
Literally any Legendary Weapon: Take your pick, they’re all great!
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