Enhance Your 5E D&D Game with Magic Drums

Magical instruments have been on my mind for a while now. Our friends over at Hero Forge recently released a set of new drums to add their their ever expanding collection of of items that you can add to your character. I took inspiration from those designs to make three new magic items to add to your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game.

Repercussions of Hero Forge Treasure Tuesday for 5E D&D

In 5E D&D if you have proficiency with a given musical instrument you can add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to play music with the instrument. A bard can use a musical instrument as a spellcasting focus.

There’s no small number of musical instruments both mundane and magical from pipes of the sewers and instruments of illusions to lutes, lyres, dulcimers and drums. Since Hero Forge released three distinct varieties of drum accessories to incorporate with your customized miniatures I thought it would be fun to create a magical version of each one — Stitched Leather Drum, Skull War Drum and Tall Ornate Drum.

Necrodrum

Wondrous item, very rare drum (requires attunement by a spellcaster)

This drum is filled with necromantic magic and radiates heavily so under detect magic spells. When you play this drum made of preserved bones and stitched and stretched leather hides with preserved bone drumsticks you can coax magic from the rhythm. While holding this drum you can cast summon undead as an action. Once you cast this spell twice the spell can’t be cast from the drum again until the next dawn. If you are a Necromancer wizard you can cast this spell a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier instead (minimum 2 times).

In addition you can play the drum as an action to cast create undead. Once you do so you must wait 7 days before you can cast this spell again through the drum. Undead created by this drum remain under your control for as long as you are attuned to the drum.

Skull Drum of War

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

When you play this drum made from the large skull of a massive creature with numerous horns and carved with totemic runes as an action all allies within 300 feet gain advantage on melee attack rolls until the start of your next turn. You can continue to play as a bonus action on your turn for up to 10 minutes. This property of the drum can’t be used again until the next dawn.

Heroic Drum

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

This drum is quite large, standing at 2 feet tall and 1 foot across with a long leather strap for carrying it across your back or in front to play while walking. The leather is died in 2 inch squares of dark colors — blue, black, green and red — with silver inlays and decoration.

When you play this drum for 1 minute choose up to 8 creatures including yourself that can hear the drum. For the next 8 hours these creatures are under the effect of heroism and aid spell. No concentration is required. This property of the drum can’t be used again until the next dawn.

These magical drums for 5E D&D are inspired by the new releases from Hero Forge. I have been a big fan of them for quite some time and happy to spread the word. Right now they are having a sale on their color printed miniatures. If you use the promo code ColorMiniMay you get $5 off your color printed customized miniatures. I already have a bunch of the color printed minis and I truly love them. In addition to the incredible tools for creating all your customized miniatures you can create portraits of your creations, tokens for your virtual tabletops and a whole lot more. Help out the channel by helping out the sponsor and see what kind of amazing hero you can forge over at Hero Forge here.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, stay nerdy!!

*Featured image — Get ready to feel the rhythm! Hero Forge’s May 18, 2021 #TreasureTuesday release included the Stitched Leather War Drum, Tall Ornate Drum, Skull War Drum and Drumsticks. [Image courtesy Hero Forge]