Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Magic Items by a Factor of Three — Rings
Browsing the homebrew content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons found at D&D Beyond has become a regular habit for me by now. Since going over all the schools of magic, subclasses for each class individually, feats, monsters, races and a variety of other categorizations of 5E D&D content I’ve now moved onto magic items. Going in alphabetical order I’ve already explored the homebrew armor and potions for 5E D&D so now it’s time for rings. It may blow your mind to know there’s over 17,718 homebrew magic rings at DDB. Let’s get into it.
Magic items (rings) 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 rings 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 17,718 rings 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 rings
- Band of the Dryad. As I noted when this showed up as a best in show magic item for druids, “A simple magic ring with some healing power not only holds the lead in rating by a significant margin, it’s elegantly written and evokes the kind of imagery you might expect for a druid.”
- Abandoned Ring of the Nine Hells. This intriguing artifact incorporates 5E D&D lore into a variety of powerful and thematic effects based on different rulers of the infernal plane. I’d like to see beneficial and detrimental properties included along with a weakness but overall a solid magic item.
- Ring of the Grammarian. Another one with a showing elsewhere this ring not only makes a terrific match for a bard where I noted how, “Bards possess an affinity for words and sounds and this wonderfully fun magic ring lets you alter one letter of a spell cast nearby with the appropriate changes to the result.”
- Ring of the Goat. Whether this magic ring is the greatest of all time is up to you to decide. My affection for culinary adventure notwithstanding this one makes for a spectacular thematic fit for an Oreamnos character.
- Ring of Quiptical Hits. A punny name scores points with me. Some players may balk at the requirement on the player to offer up subjective humor but I land on the more forgiving side of this scenario and I’d more than likely favor any player who makes the attempt.
- Coin Storing Ring. Another one with an initial showing in another post. This time it’s rogues although as noted there, “I’ve got a feeling this would make a rogue of anyone wearing such a magic item.”
- Average Ring. I really appreciate where this one is going but for my taste I’d expand on the cursed nature of this ring and make things a bit more interesting. Off the top of my head a feature making the reduced ability scores provide a benefit of some sort along with a more engaging curse would up the appeal on this one.
- Totally Magic Ring. This reminds me of the Tainted Blade at the heart of the tool themed adventure included with Taking Chances. As it stands this is kinda funny but only for a certain sort of player in a certain style of game.
- Peephole Ring. I love this. A terrific and really useful effect plus it includes an optional cursed variant really appeals to me. Another magic item reminiscent of something we’ve created, this time its the lantern of stoneseeing from Garden of Statuary.
- Brass Knuckles. This ought to be uncommon plus indicate your unarmed strikes are considered magical but otherwise a nice, simple solid magic item for brawling enthusiasts.
Top 10 most viewed rings
- Band of the Dryad
- Abandoned Ring of the Nine Hells
- Ring of Lightning Strikes. Another one showing up as a great item for druids I notice now it requires attunement by a monk. But a character of that class, a druid who multiclasses into monk or other punchy adventurers ought to find this magic ring hella good.
- Ring of Shared Suffering. Wanna recreate Xamot and Tomax in 5E D&D? I dig this very rare ring quite a bit. The effects feel nicely balanced to me, there’s a serious potential drawback to temper the power and if I’m honest the roleplaying opportunities are the real juice here.
- Ring of the Grammarian
- Ring of Quiptical Hits
- Ring of Truths. Utility items tend to get me excited more than powerful combat enhancements and I dig the potential for creating engaging scenarios found here. A character with this ring, a staff of black light from the Forbidden Library and armor of the inquisitor from Gathering couldn’t get much more on brand when it comes ensuring honesty from themselves and anyone else.
- Ring of the Goat
- Ring of Disguise. I was ready to dismiss this one from a design perspective because of the comparison with a hat of disguise but the built in limitation redeems it from being way too powerful.
- Absolutely Not Cursed Ring of Luck. Following the wordy name of this magic item is an overly wordy description for what amounts to a really ho-hum effect and relatively negligible curse.
Top 10 most added rings
- Band of the Dryad
- Abandoned Ring of the Nine Hells
- Ring of the Goat
- Ring of the Grammarian
- Coin Storing Ring
- Brass Knuckles
- Atlas Ring. Nothing fancy about this one but the effect is terrific and balanced for an uncommon magic item.
- Ring of Quiptical Hits
- Peephole Ring
- Average Ring
Rings rising to the top
Next to magic swords a magic ring feels about as fantasy as they come. These 16 magic rings do a wonderful job showcasing the scope and scale of 5E D&D magic rings.
“Magic rings offer an amazing array of powers to those lucky enough to find them. Unless a ring’s description says otherwise, a ring must be worn on a finger, or a similar digit, for the ring’s magic to function.” — from the 5E D&D DMG
Rings or any other magic item with purely and solely combat benefits don’t really excite me at all. They have their place for certain but an incremental bonus, extra damage, sticking a condition on a target struck in combat and the like may be useful and offer consistent reward but I’ll take a magic item with an unusual utility power all day. Several of the magic rings above even incorporate roleplaying opportunities either explicitly in the description or implicitly through their effect during a game.
Looking past the number of items found in previous posts like this one I like the Abandoned Ring of the Nine Hells perhaps the most. Despite my minor criticism this is very creative and feels like one of those items I’d be curious to structure a campaign around. Placing this in the hands of a low level party could pave the way to some truly incredible adventures and stories. The Ring of the Goat gets a special thumbs up from me because of how much I enjoy food-themed adventures. I also find great appeal in the Ring of Truths because of the connection it shares with a few of our own magic items and I’d love to see how a character with all of them plays out during a game. Lastly although I’d make some changes as noted earlier I like the Average Ring for giving me some ideas.
5E D&D rings 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 rings in a significant way:
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- D&D Ideas — Rings
- New 5E D&D Magic Rings from the Gaze of the Void Eye
- Spice Up Your 5E D&D Dwarves with Ring Magic from the Kobold Press Deep Magic Series
- D&D Ideas — Halloween includes the Creepy Ring
- Gaze of the Void Eye includes the Ring of Angel’s Grace
- Forgotten Oasis includes the Ring of Appraisal
- Secrets of the Vault: Mage Forge Vol. 1 includes both the Ring of Clear Skies and the iconic Ring of Hork
- Wizard’s Wake (a personal favorite) includes the Ring of Planar Anchoring
- Garden of Statuary includes the Ring of Stoneshielding
- Croak Hollow (a Nerdarchy classic) includes the Ring of the Ghost Orchid
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*Featured image — There’s several rings scattered throughout the planes of Magic: The Gathering not the least of them being the iconic Sol Ring. The most recent expansion including Innistrad: Crimson Vow Commander features this Wedding Ring artifact, which creates a token duplicate for your opponent and links the two planeswalking players quite closely as long as it’s on the battlefield. [Art by Olena Richards]
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