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

The homebrew content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons found at D&D Beyond includes tens of thousands of entries and browsing them is a regular habit of mine. I’ve gone 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. Now I’m onto magic items and already explored the homebrew armor, potions, rings and rods so now it’s time to unfurl those scrolls. If I’m honest I was surprised to see a respectable 1,688 homebrew magic scrolls at DDB. Let’s get into it.

Magic items (scrolls) 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 1,688 scrolls 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 scrolls

1. Musings of the Old Masters. I appreciate the fun factor of this “magic item” but there’s nothing magical about this scroll. It’s literally a collection of mundane writing with a table you can roll on for a random “Zen and Confuscian saying” with which to enlighten your fellow party members. Fingers crossed this one doesn’t portend the rest to follow.
2. Crap Guide to D&D. I know this is inspired by another YouTuber but that’s where my awareness ends. The effect is completely ludicrous so perhaps there’s in-the-know humor found here somewhere? Moving on, still disappointed.
3. Cartographer’s Map. I dig the effect on this but it’s a wondrous item and not a scroll. With some polish and cleanup of the language along with knocking it down from artifact status to uncommon (maybe even common?) this makes a wonderful wondrous item for a party to share.
4. Scroll of Communication. Documancers do it better. Once again not a scroll and not very well worded when it comes to the mechanics of what it can do and how it works. Cool idea for fantasy text messaging though. A Social Magica Master would love these.
5. Ability Scroll. So a very rare magic item can increase an ability score by 2 after a character spends 48 hours in study and practice over a period of 6 days or fewer. Or just read one of these bad boys instantaneously and raise a score by 1. Great design work.
6. Food Stamp. What on Oerth is going on with these homebrew magic items today? An artifact with the awesome ability to create a single meal for one person and it may turn out spoiled or otherwise inedible? Even at common rarity whoever creates this scroll in a campaign world could have spent the gold on way more food and the time on something way more productive.
7. Lifeblood. Really creative and evocative! But ultimately meh. This one bakes in quite a lot of roleplaying…and that’s all. If a character goes through all the steps to awaken the power of this artifact then they’ll create yet another roleplaying opportunity.
8. Parchment of Infinite Kicks. The disappointments keep on coming! Another nonscroll with poor mechanical language and rules shoddy rules implementation. It’s essentially a gag item and beyond this aspect totally forgettable.
9. Parchment of Messages. Guess what? It’s another nonscroll with inflated rarity. Protip: If you’re a Dungeon Master and you want to incorporate magical communications capabilities for the party and others then simply state this is the case and everyone has relatively easy access. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and effort.
10. Armory Scroll. The very nature of 5E D&D scrolls — what makes them scrolls — is their power can only be invoked once and they crumble to dust afterwards. If this were a wondrous item with way more mechanical guidance and way less fluff it would make a neat complement to items like a robe of useful items.

Top 10 most viewed scrolls

1. Musings of the Old Masters
2. Ritual Spell Book. I’m not even sure of this one’s purpose but I’m glad it let’s me know the spells needn’t be prepared in order to cast as rituals in case I forgot how ritual spellcasting works anyway. This nonscroll scroll does mention using a ritual kit though, which while nonexistent in 5E D&D does exist in one of our own creations.
3. Scroll of Pedigree. Wow, is this lame. Refreshingly it actually is a scroll, just not a magical or remotely interesting one.
4. Scroll of Communication
5. Ancient Manuscript. Slogging through these is becoming quite a chore. Here we’ve got yet another nonscroll scroll to function as an arcane focus…and that’s it. And it’s an artifact.
6. Tome of Cat Summoning. Here’s a design tip: if the name of your homebrew item includes an object other than a scroll then it’s not a scroll. These scroll creators aren’t even trying! I love cats so I had a glimmer of hope and while I may personally feel like a magic item capable of conjuring a cat is neat when the cat does nothing but take a nap on this book (you know, the object that’s not a scroll) I’ll pass — in real life and imagination land.
7. Note for the Newly Departed. Finally! A decent magic scroll. What it lacks in solid mechanical language it more than makes up for in the effect. If I’m honest the fact it’s a consumable scroll at all already rockets it up to the best thing I’ve come across today.
8. Crap Guide to D&D
9. Scroll of Sealing. If you had a nickel for every time the word “seal” appears in the rather short description of this scroll then you’d have yourself $0.55. With zero mechanical language for guidance this may be the most powerful item ever created in the history of D&D.
10. Book of Shields. At this point I’m not even going to read past the first sentence, which indicates how many charges this nonconsumable nonscroll possesses.

Top 10 most added scrolls

1. Musings of the Old Masters
2. Cartographer’s Map
3. Ability Scroll
4. Scroll of Revivify. The spell scroll in the free Basic Rules does it better.
5. Scroll of Communication
6. Crap Guide to D&D
7. Scroll of Fireball. See No. 4 on this list.
8. Ritual Spell Book
9. Book of Shields
10. Food Stamp

Scrolls rising to the top

Worst. Homebrew. Preview. Ever.

These 19 magic scrolls most noteworthy aspect is replacing the Top 10 Monastic Traditions as the worst collection of DDB homebrew content I’ve covered here. From nonmagical objects to items better suited as wondrous items to replicating existing 5E D&D scrolls in a more clunky way to wildly weird rarities going through these was a real slog. To be somewhat fair I suppose for personal use some of these may simply not be meant for mass consumption but then why make them public?

“Most scrolls are spells stored in written form, while a few bear unique incantations that produce potent wards. Whatever its contents, a scroll is a roll of paper, sometimes attached to wooden rods, and typically kept safe in a tube of ivory, jade, leather, metal, or wood. A scroll is a consumable magic item. Whatever the nature of the magic contained in a scroll, unleashing that magic requires the user to read the scroll. When its magic has been invoked, the scroll can’t be used again. Its words fade, or it crumbles into dust. Unless a scroll’s description says otherwise, any creature that can understand a written language can read the script on a scroll and attempt to activate it.” — from the 5E D&D DMG

At the end of the day bog standard scrolls can be pretty boring. The generic spell scroll item covers the entirety of 5E D&D spells and incidentally you might consider removing the restrictions on who can use these items to give non-spellcasters some fun opportunities. Since there’s only two codified consumable magic items in 5E D&D — potions and scrolls — the game creates a weird scenario where a consumable magic item outside the bounds of these two becomes wonky. We’ve greatly expanded on the concept of charms in our own experiences and games, which makes them more like cyphers from Cypher System (and much cooler to discover and use during adventures).

Out of all the scrolls I looked at only a single one — Note for the Newly Departed — interests me at all. Looking past the nonscroll scrolls and nonmagical objects spread across these three lists there aren’t even others with effects I find very interesting. I’m more than ready to move on and looking forward to the next magic item category — staves.

5E D&D scrolls 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:

• • • D&D Ideas — Scrolls
    • Wizard Like No Other with Order of Scribes from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
    • 10 New 5E D&D Magic Items from Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
    • Is the pen mightier? | Tool Time with Calligrapher’s Supplies in 5E D&D
    • D&D Ideas — Media
    • Crafting D&D Magic Items for the Wizard

*Featured image — The mages of Strixhaven wield magic in numerous ways heretofore unseen. For example this Twinscroll Shaman from Magic: The Gathering’s Strixhaven: School of Mages expansion appears to be wielding the scrolls themselves as a weapon (and does so with deadly effect thanks to their Double Strike keyword). Scrolls and consumable items like potions and charms can make a 5E D&D game really exciting and fun without the risk of giving characters too much power on a persistent basis. Protip: If you’re a Dungeon Master then hand out more consumable magic items and if you’re a player, use ’em! [Art by Chris Seaman]

New videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel here