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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Deal Magical and Martial Might With This 5E D&D Magic Item Card
5E D&D magic item card

Deal Magical and Martial Might With This 5E D&D Magic Item Card

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Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted fired up the ol’ mage forge to brainstorm ideas for a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons magic item. One of Ted’s very favorite things about D&D are magic items. Rewarding adventurers with cool magic items and discovering them when he’s not behind the Dungeon Master screen brings him a lot of joy. But Ted’s never been content with the plethora of 5E D&D magic items in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, other official sources or even the endless vault of creations others share in books, blogs or elsehwere. Creating his own magic items is the juice for Ted so we set him loose at the magic item creation forge and along with Dave came up with a legendary weapon for spellcasters looking to mix it up in the thick of melee.

Quest for the legendary magic item

In the video Ted pitches his idea for a powerful legendary magic item for 5E D&D. The premise is a weapon for wizards evocative of traditional wizardly themes but with a decidedly different approach to practicing magic. A glaive felt like a terrific place to start, reminiscent of a staff but forged as a weapon meant for combat. We considered making this magic item a staff that dealt slashing damage instead of bludgeoning but it felt too noodly and strayed from the essence of Ted’s concept. This is a weapon designed for wizards to wield, not a wizard implement designed with combat tricks.

After the video brainstorming we hammered out the features and abilities they discussed. The finished product is a legendary magic item called a glaive of wizardry and we feel any spellcaster would wield this mighty weapon with pride. A glaive of wizardry provides an array of benefits not only as a melee weapon but a powerful spellcasting implement capable of extraordinary effects. Spell slots gain more versatility through interaction with a glaive of wizardry and the magic weapon boosts spellcasting all around too.

The items greatest power lies in how it interacts with concentration. In fact we’re curious to hear all the ways 5E D&D players plan to exploit this feature. Let us know how many sorcerers in your game immediately embark on the Quest to Find a Glaive of Wizardry.

5E D&D magic item card glaive of wizardry

We paired Nerdarchist Ted up with our artist retainer to visually represent the Glaive of Wizardry. [Illustration by Nelson Vieira]

It’s all in the cards

Once the glaive of wizardry took shape we moved onto the next phase of our plan. Several years ago we connected with an artist named Nelson Vieira back when we relaunched our Patreon rewards with the free Empusia: Curator of Souls to celebrate International Tabletop Day. (You can find it in Nerdarchy the Store.) Nelson’s been on retainer ever since, illustrating many of the products you see in the store. His artistic skills brought to visual life dozens of magic items, monsters, NPCs, landscapes and more over the years.

Nelson and Ted paired up to create the visual look for the glaive of wizardry and then we thought why stop there? Since we already create tremendous amounts of content you can find here on the site, over on YouTube, the Dungeon Masters Guild and through our monthly Patreon rewards we figured let’s make some more stuff to give 5E D&D players and DMs they can drop right into their games.

We’re making cards!

Every month (or maybe even more than once a month) Ted and Nelson’s creations get transformed into print and play cards for 5E D&D. We shared the Glaive of Wizardry over on our Patreon page on a public post available for anyone to download. A standard size playing card PDF attached to the post shows the magic item name and details along with all the features and illustration from Nelson. There’s also a JPG version of the card there too.

We all really dig card accessories for our 5E D&D games and we’re excited to explore this corner of content creation. If you’re into this sort of thing keep an eye out as we plan to not only create these monthly magic item cards but perhaps put a few more decks of our own together in the future. We’ll also be doing polls over on our Patreon page so fans can help decide some of the visual elements of these cards.

You can find the Glaive of Wizardry over on our Patreon page available to anyone. Future cards will be included for supporters at the Meet Us At The Tavern tier and above, which also gives you access to all our monthly products before they come to Nerdarchy the Store, automatic entry into monthly giveaways and one shot game sessions and more. Get the Glaive of Wizardry and find out more about all the stuff you can get here.

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Doug Vehovec

Nerditor-in-Chief Doug Vehovec is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, with D&D in his blood since the early 80s. Fast forward to today and he’s still rolling those polyhedral dice. When he’s not DMing, worldbuilding or working on endeavors for Nerdarchy he enjoys cryptozoology trips and eating awesome food.

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