Best Magic Items for Wizard in D&D 5e
If any of you are still not convinced that the Wizard is WOTC’s favorite class, please consider that the Wizard has more magic items exclusively designed for them than all other classes combined. Many of these are magical spellbooks, and I’ll take the time to detail each of those, but even outside of those there are a ton of fantastic and exclusive magic items for Wizards. This is compounded by the fact that Wizards qualify for all of the best items in the game. 99% of staves, wands, robes, and rings are available to the Wizard. The rich truly get richer.
Arcane Grimoire (Attunement, Rarity Varies): This is the basic magical spellbook for Wizards, granting a bonus to your spell attack rolls and spell save DCs depending on the item’s rarity. It also increases the amount of spell slots you can recover with Arcane Recovery by 1. A great basic bonus in power for any Wizard.
Magical Spellbooks: Each of these spellbooks contain a number of spells centered around a theme. They can function as a spellbook for you, and if you want to copy down your own spells into the book, it only takes a short amount of time and 10gp per spell level. They also each have a set number of charges that can be expended to either replace one of your prepared spells with a spell in the spellbook, or produce a more unique effect.
Alchemical Compendium (Attunement, Rare): This transmutation based book contains some standout spells like Enlarge/Reduce and Polymorph. The unique effect it provides is to change one object of a small size to another object. This follows the law of equal exchange, so the new item must be the same or less gold value as the old. The requires a bit of game knowledge to make the most of, but the simplest thing I can think of is to make poisons with this. Smelting down gold or platinum coins into one bar allows you to easily convert money into objects. Same for precious gems. There are certainly more potential uses for this, like creating the keys to a jail cell, and you’ll find plenty of use for this if you look out for opportunities to use it.
Astronomy Archive (Attunement, Rare): The image of this item is very cool, an armillary sphere of brass discs with spells encoded onto them, but the actual spells found within are less exciting. Divination and Locate Object are fine, and getting a 9th level spell in Foresight is definitely novel, but nothing here is amazing. The unique action is a D4 bonus or penalty applied to a D20 roll of a creature within 30ft of you. If the monster passes your spell save DC by one or two, then you’ll really appreciate having this. This will probably turn a few rolls in your favor a day, so you’ll definitely appreciate having it, but there are more powerful features elsewhere.
Atlas of Endless Horizons (Attunement, Rare): Tons of great spells that all center around teleportation, and a unique reaction that allows you to avoid an attack entirely. That’s a great reaction option, especially if you know that teleporting away from this attack will keep you safe until your next turn. We obviously have to weigh this reaction with Shield, and the comparison is favorable because they can be used in different scenarios. If you have a bunch of enemies that are all in range to attack you this round (even if you teleport 10ft away), Shield is the best option to help you avoid the majority of attacks. If you are only threatened by one enemy who has used all their movement to get into melee range with you, then use the teleport and avoid all damage. Additionally, if ranged attacks are your worry and you are just barely not able to get behind cover, teleport away from the first attack that hits you into cover and you’ll be safe for the rest of the round. All around this is easily one of the best options.
Crystalline Chronicle (Attunement, Very Rare): We get a ton of mental spells here, with things like Telepathic Bond, Detect Thoughts, and Tasha’s Mind Whip, making for a great addition to our spell list. We also get to add 3 great cantrips to our list if we don’t have them already. The unique feature is the ability to cast spells without any components a few times per day, mirroring the Sorcerer’s Subtle Spell Metamagic. This protects us from Counterspell, and makes spellcasting in social situations much easier. A fantastic option all around.
Duplicitous Manuscript (Attunement, Rare): The flavor of this book is stellar. To you, it’s a spellbook, but if anyone else looks at it, it appears as a steamy romance novel. Even better you can change the plot of the novel as you wish! Might I recommend taking inspiration from a certain series of comedy/fantasy novels and short stories written by a Mr. Bevan? In all seriousness, this book specializes in illusion magic if you couldn’t tell, and gives some cool spells to go with that theme. Silent Image, Major Image, and Phantasmal Force are all great spells. The unique feature is a bit weak, allowing us to impose disadvantage when someone tries to determine if one of our illusions is real or not, but it might come up occasionally. This is one of the weaker options, but it’s definitely the funniest.
Fulminating Treatise (Attunement, Rare): With some great offensive spells like Magic Missile and Fireball, plus a unique feature to deal extra damage and knock prone one target of your spell, this item is simple and powerful. Control spells like Wall of Force, Tiny Hut, and Contingency are fantastic additions as well.
Heart Weaver’s Primer (Attunement, Rare): This grants a bunch of fantastic enchantment spells like Hypnotic Pattern and Suggestion, and a unique feature that lets you impose disadvantage on the first saving throw the target of your enchantment spell makes. Great for making spells like Suggestion much more reliable and safer to cast.
Libram of Souls and Flesh (Attunement, Rare): This gives a bunch of staple necromancy spells like Animate Dead and Summon Undead, though its unique feature is very situational. It allows us to take on an appearance that makes undead indifferent to us, but this effect ends if we damage anything or force a saving throw. This is both situational and clunky to use, but the spells are still good if you want to play a necromancer.
Planecaller’s Codex (Attunement, Rare): We get some great conjuration spells like Find Familiar, Banishment, Gate, and Planar Binding, and the unique feature is quite strong. It allows us to give a creature that we have summoned advantage on all attack rolls for one minute, making them much more dangerous in combat. This works perfectly with the new summoning spells printed in Tasha’s, and would be a great addition to any summoner’s sheet.
Protective Verses (Attunement, Rare): This gives a bunch of honestly mediocre abjuration spells, but the ability to grant temporary HP to a friend whenever we cast an abjuration spell is very nice to have.
In summary, all of these spellbooks are a wonderful addition to any Wizard, though DMs take note to not give one to a player who already has most of the spells contained within.
Uncommon:
Barrier Tattoo (Attunement): This is an easy way to boost your AC if you are dead set against taking an armor dip. The three different rarities of this item will act as either the best light, medium, or heavy armor available, all while not requiring any armor proficiencies.
Winged Boots (Attunement): Flight on full casters is overpowered, and Wizard is the best full caster. Need I say more?
Rare Items:
Cloak of Displacement (Attunement): With this and Shield, you will be harder to hit than the Fighter in full plate. Sorry Martials, I didn’t make the rules, Wizards did.
Elven Chain: This is another means of raising your AC, as this chain mail shirt can be worn even if you don’t have proficiency in it. It also grants a +1 bonus to your AC, leaving you with a flat 16. You can definitely do better than this through multiclassing, but if you want to play a straight Wizard, this is a fine option, especially since it doesn’t require attunement.
Staff of Defense (Attunement): The best part of this is 4 free castings of Shield each day, which frees up your low level slots for other spells. The +1 AC is also appreciated, even if you took an armor dip.
Very Rare Items:
Staff of Power (Attunement): This item reads like a hall of fame for some of the best spells in the game, and lets us cast them with a huge pool of charges. You’ll never run out of slots again with this thing.
Staff of Dunamancy (Attunement): This is a fun way to add a little bit of Dunamancy to a Wizard without diving whole hog into it. The spells here are all fine but not overwhelming, and getting essentially a once per day legendary resistance is fantastic.
Legendary Items:
Robe/Staff of the Archmagi (Attunement): The best items for an arcane practitioner by a mile, these two legendary items would make a commoner a world class threat. In the hands of a well trained Wizard? You’ve won D&D, my friend.
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