Take Hold of Whimsical 5E D&D Magic Items from Wild Beyond the Witchlight

October 5, 2021

Whether a new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons book comprises a campaign adventure, a sourcebook full of new character options or an entire campaign setting one of the first things players look for are new magic items. We can’t help it! The siren’s call of exciting new 5E D&D magic items pulls us in and we imagine what our favorite characters would do with such treasures. Wild Beyond the Witchlight is no exception and while the whimsical and nostalgic adventure captivates 5E D&D players it’s those juicy magic items I’m taking a closer look at in this post. Let’s get into it.

5E D&D toys in Wild Beyond the Witchlight

Like in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything nearly all of the new 5E D&D magic items in Wild Beyond the Witchlight are wondrous items. This isn’t unusual since wondrous items are the largest category full stop. In our own content development we strive to balance this ratio out a bit more but it’s hard to ignore the flexibility and versatility of this magic item category.

Finding all the magic items in Wild Beyond the Witchlight isn’t easy. For starters there’s two very special items not found in the book’s appendix. In the video below Nerdarchists Dave and Ted point these out and discuss them in greater detail. In addition there’s a few items that aren’t new to 5E D&D and can be found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, which means they’re not included in the appendix either. A step further there’s a couple of magic items first appearing in noncore books and these are found in the appendix. Confusing, right?

Of course all of the new magic items sprinkled throughout the adventure possess whimsical qualities and feel very much like storytelling enhancements especially considering this adventure wisely represents a fresh approach to adventure design from the WotC team. Encounters in the campaign include lots of guidance for resolving them without combat, which is such a fantastic new direction and in many ways feels like a “No duh” moment from the current stewards of the game. (Our own content’s been designed this way for several years now.)

“Magic and the Feywild go hand in hand.” — Wild Beyond the Witchlight Appendix A: Magic Items

At any rate here’s a summary of all the 5E D&D magic items found within the pages of Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

Bobbing Lily Pad. A very rare wondrous item that’s a vehicle for land, water and air travel.
Chromatic Rose. A rare wondrous item with five varieties, which grants severely limited damage resistance and the power to create a cone of damaging energy both determined by the rose’s color. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around why this is rare because of the massive limitations on this one.
Cloak of Many Fashions. This common wondrous item changes appearance to whatever you want as long as it remains a cloak. A true coutre character pairs this with the magical clothing from our own Mage Forge!
Dread Helm. This common wondrous item instantly identifies the wearer as a classic character from D&D lore.
Dust of Corrosion. This uncommon magic item takes a nod from the rust monster’s playbook and puts the power of oxidizing ferrous metal in the adventurers’ hands. For all the Dungeon Masters out there — this could make a fantastic hazard in a rusty-themed dungeon along with monsters like the Rusted Guardian and Trust Monster.
Eldritch Staff. This very rare staff is sorta like a staff of striking but with a magical lightning twist. There’s also a super cool feature mashing up elements of the misty step and mislead spells. Terrific stuff.
Gloves of Thievery. This uncommon wondrous item shows up in the DMG and for the light-fingered character makes the perfect magic item. This item reminds me vaguely of Daryth from the Darkwalker on Moonshae novels. I believe he wore magical gloves to aid with thievery too. I’m not sure if the writing holds up but I really enjoyed these stories as a kid.
Iggwilv’s Cauldron. This artifact wondrous item takes the cake for word count and provides all sorts of features to attuned characters. There’s different forms of Iggwilv’s Cauldron, which only she or Baba Yaga can change with a touch even while they’re not attuned. This magic item poses a serious danger to any humanoid creatures who attune themselves and fail a Constitution saving throw. It’s also possible for three hags to attune to the cauldron together as a coven. In addition to any random minor beneficial property and minor detrimental property it can transform various substances put inside into helpful consumables from food to health elixirs to scrying spells to creating brooms of flying. The more powerful transformed version produces all sorts of witchy effects, one of which freezes all creatures within 1000 feet in time. All told this magic item is more of a plot device then something adventurers carry around.
Instrument of Scribing. This common wondrous item allows those who play it to create a magical message while doing so.
Orb of Direction. This common wondrous item is basically a compass and it only works on the Material Plane.
Ornithopter of Flying. This very rare wondrous item conjures Magic: The Gathering vibes in my mind and grants a flying speed. Compared to wings of flying I don’t understand why this is very rare except the flight lasts longer.
Pipe of Smoke Monsters. This common wondrous item gives Gandalf and Bilbo a run for their money.
Pixie Dust. This uncommon wondrous item grants a one-time temporary flying speed making it not nearly as cool as the pixie dust in Storm King’s Thunder, which does this plus a few other randomly determined effects.
Pole of Collapsing. This common wondrous item speaks to the theme of nostalgia present throughout Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Back in the day any party worth their weight in gold pieces brought a 10 ft. pole into the dungeon with them.
Potion of Advantage. Can you believe 5E D&D’s been around for seven years now and we’re just seeing something like this uncommon potion, which grants advantage on one check within the next hour?
Potion of Invulnerability. This rare potion comes from the DMG and grants resistance to all damage. All. Damage.
Quiver of Elhonna. This uncommon wondrous item from the DMG stores all sorts of items like bow and crossbow ammunition, javelins and even quarterstaffs and spears.
Scissors of Shadow Snipping. This rare wondrous item I’ve got to believe is inspired by Peter Pan although not as interesting since there’s no connection to the creature whose shadow is snipped. This feels like a missed opportunity to me.
Snicker-Snack. This legendary weapon is essentially a sentient vorpal greatsword. This is Ted’s favorite magic item from Wild Beyond the Witchlight and he discusses it in much greater detail in the video below.
Steel. This very rare weapon is also sentient and grants the wielder the power to cast revivify once per day.
Talking Doll. This common wondrous item reminds me very much of the Chatty Ring from our own Wooden Dragon Out of the Box encounter except our magic item comes preloaded with humorous — and potentially adventure starting — phrases.
Wand of Scowls. This common wand first showed up in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and with its counterpart gives characters the power to turn frowns upside down or in this case vice versa.
Wand of Smiles. This common wand first showed up in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and with its counterpart gives characters the power to turn frowns upside down.
Woodcutter’s Axe. This rare weapon is a greataxe meant to take down plant creatures and almost certainly is inspired by the Huntsman character in fairy tales like Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and others.

*Featured image — The Witchlight Carnival has come to town! A displacer beast finds 8-year-old Tyler Jacobson and leads him back to the carnival, where he belongs. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]