Nothing beats getting your hand on a great magic item in D&D 5e, but flipping through the DMG in search of the treasure or your dreams – or the item you want to grant a specific player – you quickly realize that not all items are equally powerful, even if they share the same rarity. In 5e, uncommon items can in fact be stronger than even rare items! But which uncommon magic items are the best?
Well, here’s our picks for the top 10 best uncommon magic items in D&D 5e!
The Best Uncommon Magic Items in D&D 5e
1. Instrument of the Bards
Instrument of the bards comes in seven different types of which three are listed as uncommon. While the instruments require attunement and can only be used by bards, it’s honestly hard to believe that the uncommon versions of this item are not listed at a higher rarity.
All of the instruments grant you the ability to cast fly, invisibility, and protection from evil and good without expending a spell slot plus an additional 3–4 other spells individual to the type of instrument – all of which is really amazing as a bard.
Fly, for example, is not even on the bard’s spell list, so being able to cast it would normally require you to pick it up as one of your precious magical secrets, but with this flute you could in theory do it at level 1!
Pretty crazy, right? Well, it’s getting better: When you play an instrument of the bard while casting a spell that causes any of its targets to be charmed on a failed saving throw, the targets have disadvantage on that save. Hypnotic pattern is already an extremely powerful spell as is, and imposing disadvantage on the save makes it so much stronger, even at higher levels. For this reason, I believe the three uncommon versions of instrument of the bard – a doss flute, fochlucan bandlore, and mac-fuirmidth cittern – to be among the best uncommon items in the basic rules of D&D 5e.
2. Weapon of Warning
With this weapon in your hands, nasty ambushes from sneaky enemies becomes a thing of the past. Wearing this weapon not only grants you advantage on initiative rolls, it also prevents you AND any party member within 30 feet from being surprised.
Listed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, a weapon of warning will even wake you up if you’re sleeping naturally and a combat breaks out! If your DM is cool with waving goodbye to surprise assaults for good, you can hardly find a better uncommon weapon!
3. Rod of the Pact Keeper +1
Like a wand of the war mage, the uncommon version of the rod of the pact keeper grants +1 to all spell attack rolls, but, unlike the wand, it also increases the saving throw DCs of all your warlock spells.
As if that wasn’t enough, the rod also allows its wielder to regain one warlock spell slot level as an action once per day – thus compensating for one of warlock’s greatest weaknesses! Like an instrument of the bard, the rod of the pact keeper is class-specific, but for a warlock it doesn’t get any better than this!
4. Winged Boots
Attuning to winged boots gives you a flying speed equal to your walking speed, and it’s such an powerful item that it’s almost hard to believe it wasn’t a mistake that it was listed as uncommon.
While wearing these boots you can “only” fly for up to 4 hours and each use lasts a minimum of 1 minute. However, that still translates to up to 240 x 10 rounds of combat in D&D terms which any seasoned D&D player will know is hardly ever fought. So, basically, the boots give you unlimited use of flying in combat without using up your concentration! For an uncommon item, that is unbelievably strong. The boots restore 2 hours of flight for every 12 hours they aren’t used and don’t increase your movement speed as the spell fly does. But hey, who cares, you can fly! Add a haste spell to that and you’ll catch the flying wizard in no time!
5. Broom of Flying
Similar to winged boots (or even more so), the broom of flying allows you to constantly fly, which is just extremely useful – and it doesn’t even require attunement! We’re not done yet, the broom also gives you a flying speed of 50 ft. instead of just matching your walking speed!
It’s debatable whether the broom is a vehicle or a mount (and leaves it up to the DM to decide what this means in terms of allowing the PC on the broom to take a Dash action, whether it requires one or two hands to ride it, and if certain situations should require a player to make an ability check or a Dexterity saving throw to hold on to it).
Nevertheless, the broom of flying is an amazing uncommon item. It even has a neat feature that lets the broom fly to a destination of your choice within a mile. If you ever get this item, hold on tight to its command word – since the broom doesn’t require attunement, a clever thief might pick it up and fly right away!
6. Cloak of Protection
While not the most exciting item, a +1 bonus to AC and saving throws is hard to beat. This item almost gives the same bonus as a +1 armor and a luckstone combined and is something every adventurer will want in their wardrobe! There’s just not a lot of bad to say about the trusty ol’ cloak of protection.
7. Sentinel Shield
This shield gives you advantage on initiative rolls and Perception checks – making it a lot harder to catch you off guard. It’s not as strong as a weapon of warning, but advantage on Perception checks has a certain value – and this shield is without a doubt one of the best uncommon items you can get!
8. Bag of Holding
Adventurers love to pick up loot as they go along, but – depending on the DM – it can quite literally become a heavy burden to carry all that gold, equipment, and magic stuff. A bag of holding changes that: On the outside, the bag doesn’t look like much, but it can hold up to 500 pounds and weighs 15 pounds regardless of its contents!
It’s not a powerful item in combat per se, but being able to carry a lot of stuff without being encumbered and without using up a precious attunement slot makes a bag of holding a great item for any group of adventurers!
9. Immovable Rod
Some of you will probably wonder why I didn’t put gauntles of ogre strength, headband of intellect, or bracers of archery here – and rightly so. Immovable rod might not always be the most useful or powerful item – but it’s just so much fun!
As the name suggests this flat iron rod can be magically fixed in place, even in a position that defies gravity, by pressing a button on it. Since it can hold up to 8.000 pounds (≈ 3,5 tons), there are almost no limits to the fun ways this can be used – from anchoring or even sinking a ship to saving yourself from falling, or having a charging bulette impale itself!
10. Cloak of Elvenkind
Wearing this cloak turns you into a ninja. While its hood is up (which nothing prevents it from being at all times) you have advantage on Stealth checks made to hide and Perception checks made to see you have disadvantage. As a result, it will be next to impossible for you to fail a stealth contest. However, there are other ways to improve your stealth dramatically, so using an attunement slot for this item might be overkill in some cases.
Honorable Mention: +1 weapons
A +1 weapon is a fantastic item, especially at lower levels. The +1 to damage and +1 to attack rolls is mathematically superior to the +2 damage bonus bracers of archery, for example, but just having a magic weapon in a world where the most fearsome beasts are often resistant and even immune to damage from mundane weapons is something that can never be underestimated! So, a +1 weapon definitely deserves an honorable mention!
Honorable Mention: Deathgrasp Glove
If you’re fond of wrestling and have built your character around grappling your foes, it doesn’t get much better than a deathgrasp glove.
This magic item lets you deal 1d8 necrotic damage to any creature you’re grappling at the start of each of its turns – and as an added bonus, you can detach the glove and use it as a flying extension of your own hand, allowing you to grapple creatures from afar using your own Strength (Athletics) modifier!
The deathgrasp glove is just one of the 120 new magic items in our 5E sourcebook Wanderer’s Guide to Merchants & Magic, so if you’re looking for more cool magic items like this, check it out.
Wanderer’s Guide to Merchants & Magic also includes numerous ready-to-play magic shops, price lists for magic items, and everything else you need to make magic items fun and easy in D&D 5E!
Conclusion
Alright, that wraps up our top 10 picks for the best uncommon magic items in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and basic rules of D&D 5e! Of course, the list is subjective. What items you should wish to fill one of those precious attunement slots with as a player – or reward to your players as a DM – depends on numerous factors and are highly individual.
If you, for example, want to be a master of manipulation, you would probably be better off getting your hands on a hat of disguise and a ring of mind shielding rather than a sentinel shield and a pair of winged boots. And vice versa if you are a brutish fighter.
At the same time, this list doesn’t necessarily cover the top 10 strongest items in the strictest sense. Items such as the gauntlets of strength and headband of intellect are likely much more powerful than an immovable rod. However, I feel those two bad boys have been featured in many official campaigns – and since I assume many D&D fans are already aware of them – I decided that I’d rather include a few items that are more focused on giving out-of-combat utility!
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And, since this article is about magic items, don’t forget to read our guide on pricing magic items in 5e and check out Wanderer’s Guide to Merchants & Magic which covers everything you need to make magic items a fun (and easy!) part of your game in D&D 5e!
S. K. Valeur
Creative engine, cheerleader, and co-founder of Eventyr Games, S. K. Valeur is the beating heart of the Eventyr team. When he isn't busy brewing up magical marvels – or equally magical craft beer! – he's either exploring the wonders of VTT, managing logistics and manufacturing, or writing articles about 5E.
Mizzium apparatus. this thing is stupid with multiclassing. it is restricted in who can attune but lets you cast anything on your spell list you have slots 4. playing a cleric 1/ wizard 4. if you pass a dc 16 arcana check you can revivify the party cleric after a tough fight. revivify is on your cleric list and you do have 3rd level slots. and this item just gets more and more powerful as you level. it isn’t hards to get to a point where cantrips are no risk and with a bit of investment to get expertise such as from a knowledge cleric dip you can start now with a +8 and by level 5 have a +11. which could cast any first level spell on either list risk free and every prof bonus increase level gives you another level of spell you pass the dc for even when rolling nat 1
Thank you for the comment, and you’re 100% correct! Mizzium Apparatus is an extremely powerful uncommon item – especially if you’re multiclassing and design your character around increasing your Arcana checks! The reason it isn’t mentioned on this list is that it focuses on items featured in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and 5E Basic Rules, whereas Mizzium Apparatus is from Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica 🙂