Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Magic Items by a Factor of Three — Armor

Wow is there a tremendous amount of homebrew content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons found at D&D Beyond. I’ve gone over all the 5E D&D schools of magic, subclasses for every class, feats and several other categories of content and now it’s time to start tackling magic items. Starting at the alphabetical top I’m looking at all the homebrew armor for 5E D&D. You’ll find over 20,454 of these at DDB. We get a kick out of checking out the 5E D&D content folks come up with and sharing their homebrew creations. (There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious.) Let’s get into it.

Magic items (armor) at D&D Beyond

Before getting started it’s important to note you can create homebrew content for private use and share your homebrew content publicly at DDB at no cost — there’s no subscription required to access these services. However if you want to add any of the homebrew magic items like the armor mentioned below or any other homebrew content you come across to your 5E D&D collection you must subscribe at the Hero Tier or above. There’s a lot you can do at DDB for free. Check out what you can do here.

The DDB homebrew collection uses several statistics to track entries. Views shows how many eyeballs any particular homebrew creation received, Adds shows the number of times a creation was added to someone’s collection and Rating is an upvote/downvote system. Since there are over 20,454 in the collection I’m going to share the top 10 highest rated, most viewed and most added selections and to see what’s out there along with any crossover between these three lists.

Top 10 highest rating armor

1. Armor of Beasts. A druid exclusive designed for characters of this class for thematic purposes but also a nice buff for all those wonderful beast forms. Not surprisingly this magic item featured prominently among the best homebrew magic items for druids too.
2. Bracers of Compact Plate. I like Iron Man 2 and not only because of the briefcase armor of which this magic item reminds me. Great for characters who navigate polite society where perhaps wearing plate armor to the fancy soiree may be seen as gauche.
3. Technically “Plate” Armor. Not really all too magical this fine china armor nevertheless offers superior protection with some delicate drawbacks. This one scores extra points with me because I’ve become something of a gourmand gamer over the years.
4. Berserker Armour. Ouch. Curses and cursed magic items can certainly give grief to adventurers but this one takes it to another level entirely. I’d begin searching for diamond dust worth at least 100 gp and a spellcaster to use it on my posthaste.
5. Shield of Heroic Memories. I like this one already without even reading what the magic item does. After reading I like it even more. Evocative and incorporates roleplaying into using the features? I’d drop this treasure into my own games for this reason alone.
6. Chakram Shields. Like No. 3 on this list this magic item doesn’t seem magical in nature. On the other hand fans of Xena: Warrior Princess ought to be ecstatic upon discovering these.
7. Ambush Drake Hide Armor. A bit of descriptive flair punches up this otherwise boring magic armor. I’m surprised it’s so highly rated but it does have a catchy name.
8. Ankheg Plate. Wow, another non-magical magic item! Instead this is a material and armors constructed of it get around pesky drawbacks like disadvantage on Stealth and Strength requirements. This would pair nicely with the variety of weapons made from monster parts offered at Vaagur’s Natural Selection, which includes an ankheg mandible sword with the Savage property.
9. Gunslingers Armour. Yet another non-magical magic item. Props to this one for incorporating upgrade potential from the owner through investments of time and treasure though.
10. Shardplate. I’m going to guess this one’s campaign specific for the creator’s setting. Aside from the trait suggesting this we’ve got a very powerful suit of armor with an interesting way to include a drawback I rather like although I’d prefer a version without ongoing bookkeeping.

Top 10 most viewed armor

1. Armor of Beasts
2. Saddle of the Cavalier. When it comes to mounted combat in 5E D&D some people complain, some people take a deep dive and some people create a magic item.
3. Berserker Armour
4. Gleaming Chain Mail, +1. The number of D&D games I’ve played where a particular character’s penchant for getting filthy becomes a trope is statistically significant and any of those characters would have loved this magic armor.
5. Dragon Hide Studded Leather Armor. I’m on the fence about this magic armor. There’s some roleplaying incorporated into both attuning to it and the curse attached but the execution feels kludgy. The armor properties and drawbacks get lost along the way.
6. Bracers of Compact Plate
7. Shield of Retribution. A very powerful effect because of the essentially unlimited use this one is a melee battlefield controller’s dream.
8. Gunslingers Armour
9. Smoldering Scale Armor. Unless I’m missing something this is terrible design. Higher in rarity than armor of resistance from the Basic Rules with the same feature along with a major flaw? Pass.
10. Technically “Plate” Armor

Top 10 most added armor

1. Armor of Beasts
2. Bracers of Compact Plate
3. Berserker Armour
4. Gunslingers Armour
5. Ambush Drake Hide Armor
6. Armor of Shadows. View for the evocative name, pass for the lackluster features. That’s my assessment why this one ranks so high.
7. Shield of Heroic Memories
8. Absorbing Shield. Nothing too fancy here and our approach with magic items replicating spell effects is incorporate the effect rather than give the character spellcasting capability but that’s us. A fantastic spell with expanded scope (another reason to copy the effect rather than grant a spell) makes this a very solid magic item.
9. Technically “Plate” Armor
10. Arm Buckler. It’s just a shield +1 with descriptive text to convey the style of shield.

Armor rising to the top

The time has come to consider these 18 magic armors and share some takeaways. As a 5E D&D DM, player, designer and fan this part is particularly useful. My first observation is a number of these magic items aren’t magical at all. I suspect the creator used the DDB homebrew magic item tools as a way to introduce new, unusual or setting specific gear for the player in those games. This makes some sense because there’s no option for homebrew mundane items and they were probably created before DDB added more complex item customization options.

Something I’m happy to note is these didn’t wind up as lists of ridiculously powerful magic items. Except for an outlier or two these are largely straightforward and easy to understand (and implement!) into 5E D&D games. Personally I do not like game mechanics with ongoing bookkeeping like tracking how many times a character has been hit with a critical hit for example so content like this turns me off right away. On the flip side I love when any sort of character option or game material blends roleplaying opportunities alongside mechanics.

Shield of heroic memories stands out as my favorite of the bunch. This is the kind of magic item I’d love to get for a character and give out as a DM. Encouraging players not only to flex their roleplaying muscles but also add their own voice to worldbuilding sits at the top of my priority list as an RPG nerd. I also dig bracers of compact plate because of verisimilitude reasons. Technically “plate” armor gets high praise thanks to my affection for culinary adventures and ankheg plate gets a special nod because it fits so well with our own Vaagur’s Natural Selection stuff.

5E D&D armor resources

I mention our own forays into homebrew content creation for 5E D&D several times to plant the seed in your mind. Now you’re wondering, “What kind of homebrew content do you create, Nerdarchy? I’m extremely interested!” In addition to the monthly rewards our Patreon supporters receive we’ve presented tons of material in our videos and right here at Nerdarchy the Website ready to drop right into your games too. Another place we frequently create new content for Dungeon Masters and players to drop right into games is Nerdarchy the Newsletter and you’ll also get several gifts including $9.99 in store credit so you can add whatever you like there to your own collection when you sign up. Here’s a selection of content focused on or including armor in a significant way:

• • • Worldbuilding and Character Development for 5E D&D Inspired by Game of Thrones — Hide Armor
    • Worldbuilding and Character Development for 5E D&D Inspired by Game of Thrones — Studded Leather Armor
    • Worldbuilding and Character Development for 5E D&D Inspired by Game of Thrones — Leather Armor
    • Worldbuilding and Character Development for 5E D&D Inspired by Game of Thrones — Padded Armor
    • Worldbuilding and Character Development for 5E D&D Inspired by Game of Thrones — Chain Shirt
    • D&D Ideas — Armor
    • Move Over, Armor Class — This 5E D&D Magic Armor Brings the Razzle Dazzle
    • Dark Paths: Gathering includes the very rare Armor of the Inquisitor
    • D&D Ideas — Halloween features the very rare Fright Armor
    • D&D Ideas — Heroism features the very rare Armor of Heroic Valor
    • D&D Ideas — Knights features the very rare Flowery Armor
    • Enhance Your Witchlight Carnival with Fey Magic Items for 5E D&D features the variable rarity Petal Armor
    • Muckwuggle the Frog God includes the extremely popular Frog Tongue Shield (also a recent monthly magic item card for our Patreon supporters!)
    • Treasures of the Tundra includes two magic armors — Armor of Black Ice and Icespire
    • Winter Lord’s Throne includes the very rare Hoarfrost Armor

*Featured image — In lieu of discovering magic armor as treasure or rewards the 5E D&D Artificer Specialist armorer modifies armor to function almost like a second skin. The armor is enhanced to hone the artificer’s magic, unleash potent attacks, and generate a formidable defense as this drow Infiltrator and tiefling Guardian demonstrate in the pages of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

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