In this article, we’re sharing our picks for the top 10 best magic items for sorcerers in 5E D&D!
The items are listed in no particular order, and we’ll be focusing on magic items found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide – but will also give a shoutout to a few flavorful magic items from newer releases.
1. Wand of Paralysis & Other Amazing Wands!
Snippet of magic item card handout from our 5E Magic Item Card Deck! Check it out here.
From a wand of the war mage that’ll enhance your spell attacks to a wand of fireballs that lets you spam-cast one of the most iconic spells in 5E D&D, there are a ton of great wands that are awesome magic items for sorcerers!
My personal favorite for the sorcerer has to be a wand of paralysis. This wand lets you expend one of its 7 charges as an action to paralyze a creature for 1 minute unless it succeeds on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw (which it can repeat at the end of each of its turns). While many monsters in 5E have pretty Constitution saving throws, the beauty of this effect is that it isn’t a spell – and this means you can use the wand while also casting a spell as a bonus action with your Quickened Spell metamagic feature!
Being paralyzed is a terrifying condition in 5E, as a paralyzed creature automatically fails any strength and dexterity saving throw (meaning your disintegrate will be a sure hit). At the same time, any attack against a paralyzed target has advantage and, if it hits, it becomes a critical hit – giving a huge boost to spells such as scorching ray, the attacks made with crown of stars, and the 9th-level blade of disaster (which is already a bonus action spell but triples its damage on a critical hit!). More importantly, the martial classes in your party will love you!
2. Bracers of Defense
Snippet of magic item card handout from our 5E Magic Item Card Deck.
As a sorcerer, you don’t have any armor proficiencies. So, unless you multiclass or simply don’t mind being hit by an ogre’s club even when you use shield, you should search for other ways to gain some defensive capabilities – and in that regard, bracers of defense are a great magic item!
The bracers give you a +2 bonus to your AC while you’re not wearing any armor – but the beautiful part is that the effect does work with mage armor or Draconic Resilience from the Draconic Bloodline sorcerer subclass, making it a pretty great magic item for a sorcerer – especially if you also have the shield spell.
3. Amulet of Health
Snippet of magic item card handout from our 5E Magic Item Card Deck.
As a sorcerer, anything that makes you more durable is valuable – and that makes an amulet of health a great magic item for you. This amulet sets your Constitution to 19, but since you’ll likely be focusing on maxing out your Charisma and grabbing some feats, chances are you’ll have to dump either your Constitution or Dexterity score. With this amulet, that’s not the case!
Aside from giving you a bunch of hit points, becoming better at Constitution saving throws is equally important as it will make you much better at concentrating on spells while also letting you avoid some nasty effects.
4. Staff of the Magi
A staff of the magi is a legendary and extremely powerful magic item for sorcerers in 5E D&D. It grants you a +2 bonus to spell attacks, but the thing that really makes it shine is the 50 charges it has for a whole bunch of cool spells, such as a 7th-level fireball or lightning bolt for 7 charges and dispel magic (3 charges). Gaining access to numerous spells is nice for a wizard, but it’s even better for a sorcerer due to its limited number of spells known.
Equally awesome, this staff also lets you use a reaction to cancel the effects of single target spells and have the staff regain a number of charges equal to the spell’s level – and it gives you advantage on saving throws against spells!
5. Robe of the Archmagi
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A robe of the archmagi is another overpowered legendary magic item. Like a staff of the magi, it gives you a +2 bonus to your spell attacks – but more importantly, it also raises your spell save DC by 2, which is just insanely powerful.
It also grants you advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects and gives you a base AC of 15 + your Dexterity modifier (2 higher than mage armor!). Crazy power in all aspects, in other words.
6. Ioun Stone of Mastery & Ioun Stone of Leadership
Ioun stones are a group of 20 or so magic stones in 5E D&D that orbits your head and grant your some kind of benefit. For the sorcerer, the ioun stone of leadership is pretty great as it gives you a +2 bonus to your Charisma score – unfortunately to a maximum of 20, but that won’t matter if you are currently at an 18 (plus, it can free up an Ability Score Improvement and let you pick up a feat instead of maxing out your Charisma score).
The best ioun stone you can get, however, is an ioun stone of mastery. This magic stone simply raises your Proficiency Bonus by 1, which is incredibly useful for every class – but especially powerful for spellcasters.
7. Ring of Spell Storing
Snippet of magic item card handout from our 5E Magic Item Card Deck!
A ring of spell storing is a great magic item for any class in 5E D&D. It lets you store up to 5 levels worth of spell. These spells don’t have to be stored in the ring by you, making it possible for your party’s cleric fill it up with cure wounds (which you can twin spell with your metamagic!), or you could have your wizard-buddy store a few uses of shield or even a mage armor in it, freeing up your limited number of spells known, which is awesome.
8. Cloak of Protection & Ring of Protection
Snippet of magic item card handout from our 5E Magic Item Card Deck.
A cloak of protection and ring of protection are two separate magic items that do exactly the same – granting you a +1 bonus to your AC and saving throws. This is pretty vanilla but also a pretty great buff. So, not the most exciting magic items on the list, but definitely decent magic items for a sorcerer.
9. Elven Chain
As a sorcerer, you lack proficiency in armor, but you don’t need that to use an elven chain! This +1 chain shirt doesn’t even require attunement, and unless you have 16 or more Dexterity, it will give you a higher AC than you would get from mage armor – plus, with a limited number of spells known, not needing mage armor is really nice!
10. Bloodwell Vial
The only non-SRD item on this list, we have the sorcerer-only bloodwell vial. This magic item gives you a bonus to spell attack rolls AND your spell save DC, making it much much better than say a wand of the war mage, which only gives you the spell attack bonus.
The bonus depends on the rarity of the vial, with the uncommon version giving you a +1 bonus, +2 for rare, and +3 for very rare – but even the uncommon version is a top-tier item for a sorcerer as it’s one of the few magic items that increase your spell save DC. In addition to this flat bonus, you can also use the vial to regain 5 sorcery points when you roll any Hit Dice to recover hit points once per day, which is just a sweet bonus.
Honorable Mention: Sorcerer Shards
Another non-SRD item I have to mention is the “sorcerer shards” from Tashas’s Cauldron of Everything. All of these shards are fun and flavorful magic items that are specifically tied to the sorcerer class and its metamagic feature.
From a mechanical standpoint, it’d say that the shadowfell shard is probably the best of the lot. I also like an elemental essence shard (air), a far realm shard, and all types of outer essence shards. But seriously, all of these shards are great – even the relatively weak ones like an astral shard and elemental essence shard (fire).
Conclusion
That round’s up our list of the top 10 best magic items for sorcerers in 5E D&D! Let us know in the comments if you agree with our picks – or what magic items are your personal favorites for the sorcerer class.
Don’t forget to check out our deck of printed magic item card handouts for the most iconic 5E D&D magic items!
The deck consists of 400 printed card handouts with awesome art and descriptions for each magic item featured in the 5E SRD, including a dedicated Deck of Illusions & Deck of Many Things! Check it out here.
