My Top 10 Favorite D&D Magic Items (Part I)

Since "My Top 10 Favorite D&D Monsters," Parts I and II, were so well received last week, I thought it might be fun to follow them up with a couple of posts in which I talked about my favorite magic items. As with the monsters, I'll try to stick to magic items that are unique to Dungeons & Dragons, though, as you'll see, several of the items in question were inspired by prior works. All of these items come originally from OD&D or AD&D, but then that should hardly be a surprise to anyone reading this. Sadly, almost none of these magic items had an illustration to accompany it in its original appearance, so these posts won't be quite as visually appealing as their predecessors.

10. Sword +5, Holy Avenger

First appearing in Supplement I to OD&D (which, not coincidentally, also introduced the paladin class to the game), the Holy Avenger is, in the hands of its intended user, a very potent weapon, conferring 50% magic resistance in a 5' radius, dispelling magic in a 5' radius, and dealing +10 damage against chaotic evil opponents. My fondness for it is colored, no doubt, by the fact that my first D&D character eventually obtained this mighty weapon, which he used to good effect in his battles against the forces of the Abyss. The Holy Avenger is arguably overpowered even by AD&D standards, but it brings with it a lot of flavor, which is more than can be said of most magical weapons.

9. Elven Cloak and Boots

This is a bit of a cheat, in that it's actually two items, but, because the Holmes edition of D&D listed them together on its miscellaneous magic items table, I tend to think of them as a unit. Conferring near-invisibility and silent movement respectively, the elven cloak and boots were probably inspired, at least in part, by the cloaks Galadriel gave to the Fellowship in the first volume of The Lord of the Rings. Despite this likely origin, I'll always consider them distinctively D&D magic items, because of how commonplace they were as a treasure in low-level adventure modules. They're also pretty darned useful.

8. Sphere of Annihilation

How's that for whiplash? The sphere of annihilation is a favorite of mine for two reasons. The first is that the use – or misuse, depending on your point of view – of this magic item played an important role in a campaign I refereed to great success in the early to mid-1990s. The second is that the sphere, like many of the best magic items, is both powerful and unpredictable. Successfully employing it depends on a magic-user's level and Intelligence score and, even under ideal circumstances, there's still a reasonable chance things will go awry. Plus, opposing magic-users can fight for control of the sphere, which always struck me as pregnant with potential.

7. Gauntlets of Ogre Power

This is another staple of low-level adventure modules and understandably so. Not only are they quite useful to fighters, they have a nicely mythic quality to them, like something Siegfried might have found in Fáfnir's hoard. Gauntlets of ogre power also play an important role in the history of Morgan Just, a character from the earliest days of playing D&D with my friends. 

6. Figurines of Wondrous Power

I suppose this, too, might be considered something of a cheat, because it's actually a category of magic item, coming in seven different forms. In truth, that's precisely why I like them. There's something very fun about the fact that these are magic items that can appear again and again and yet never be precisely the same thing twice. Equally fun is the fact that they're little animal statues that come to life and perform useful tasks for their owner. The figurines remind of something that might appear in a fairy tale and I think that's just great.