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

There’s so much homebrew content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons found at D&D Beyond! Tens of thousands of entries include spells, races, subclasses, monsters, magic items and pretty much everything you’d expect. We’ve even got a presence over there in what I believe is the only third party creator to achieve. (I do totally mean to toot our own horn 100%) In videos and posts we’ve looked at 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, rods and scrolls so now it’s time to take up a trusty staff. There’s enough of the over 8,704 homebrew magic staffs at DDB to include something for any character so let’s get into it.

Magic items (staffs) 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 8,704 staffs 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 staffs

1. As-You-Will Quarterstaff. Big ups to Indestructoboy whose magic staff gets things started after a few weeks of disheartening looks at homebrew material. I love this item for the wide array of useful utility powers. I wondered why it was legendary though until I got to the end where it’s also a +2 magic weapon. Bravo!
2. stick. And then we have this, which is a joke item…? How this achieved such a high rating is beyond me.
3. Staff of the Master Necromancer. Wow. Like, wowie wow wow. Essentially a modified staff of the magi it packs some incredibly powerful spells like true resurrection and harm. As a straight up mod to an existing item it’s pretty cool but I think the creator went a little overboard on the spells contained within. Also perhaps it was an oversight from duplicating the staff of the magi but why would telekinesis be included?
4. Moonfire Staff. Starting off I dig the name of this one. So far, so good. This artifact grants you a new cantrip called moonfire, which is baked into the description of the item. The synergy between this new spell and the staff’s other features, which scale with character level, is pretty neat. I imagine many DMs would be wary of dispensing this item to a lower level party because it’s an artifact but I feel like it’s handled well enough to be okay.
5. Staff of Utility. When it comes to magic items with charges and spellcasting potential I think the balance lies in the specific spells included. Compared to another very rare staff — the staff of power — this one contains fewer charges but the real issue is casting things like shield, greater restoration and heal without expending a resource. That’s a heck of a lot of shield for free every adventuring day. The additional feature to transform into a tree, which among other things instantly grows clusters of goodberry, really tests the boundaries of becoming an easy button.
6. Forgiveness. I’ve got no idea why this is an artifact. It’s got a single quirky feature granting a reaction to heal an attacker and simultaneously create a sanctuary against them. I can’t imagine feeling awesome about using this feature beyond some really edge cases and if it’s an artifact where’s the rest of the properties?
7. Aangbao. I’m most impressed to see a staff that’s less than very rare in this list. It’s easier to create super powerful items than something less spectacular especially when you’re sharing with others for public consumption (believe us, we know!). I’m on board with the feather fall effect but I feel like the reverse action needs a limitation whether it’s a finite number of times, charges or something else.
8. Scepter of Savras. I’m already thinking this belongs in the rods category but I’ll move on. My first impression was whoa, this is really powerful but after consideration it seems elegantly balanced for a legendary item. The main gimmick is very strong but can’t be used over and over in a cumulative way, which is great. It also provides incredibly powerful access to divination spells via charges but without any ability to regain charges it becomes a neat resource. I’m into this one and I could imagine our magic item czar Nerdarchist Ted getting ideas for similar staffs related to other schools of magic. We definitely need a Beardomancy version at least!
9. Staff of Embers. You know what? Coming across this common magic item with no other power than letting you cast produce flame feels like a breath of fresh air. Thank you PrismaticPolarBear!
10. Lantern. On A Stick. A much more wordy version of the previous item essentially. Since it’s the last of this batch I’ll take the opportunity to draw your attention to the description of staffs in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, which includes this text so creators need not clutter up their descriptions any further. “Unless a staff’s description says otherwise, a staff can be used as a quarterstaff.”

Top 10 most viewed staffs

1. Moonfire Staff
2. Staff of Utility
3. As-You-Will Quarterstaff
4. Staff of the Master Necromancer
5. Staff of True Cleric. It’s difficult to form much of an opinion about this one because it’s completely fueled by charges but fails to indicate anything about them like how many there are or if they recharge. It also incorporates vague concepts like requiring completion of a certain kind of puzzle to attune but does not give any information about this. I’m chalking this up to an item from someone’s campaign that was probably really interesting and engaging for the players and is in need of polish for public consumption.
6. Staff the Novice Necromancer. Creator Drmabe27 looks to have a thing for necromancy (it’s the same creator as the staff of the master necromancer). Everyone’s games play out differently so perspectives are quite subjective. Mine is this provides too many powerful spells. There’s more to balance than spell levels considering another rare staff like the staff of the woodlands. Casting awaken is powerful and wall of thorns can impact a battle significantly but spamming blight or raise dead is a bit much.
7. Staff of Anti-Thunder and Darkening. Full disclosure: designing and even contemplating material for higher level play gets really noodly especially for a game system like 5E D&D. This very rare staff boasts five very powerful effects along with a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls (but not spell attacks or the DCs of spells you cast). In my experiences playing this edition of the game a character could only ever use the features of this magic item in battle and very little else and present a force with which to be reckoned. I have mixed feelings about this. Check it out and let me know! I don’t mean to pick on this one. The format and style of the item set my thinking down a path is all.
8. Extendable Pole. Doesn’t sound like something rare off the bat. This magic staff’s quirky power does feel unusual enough to place it as something more than uncommon I suppose. Attuned monks can use their ki to change the length of this otherwise normal quarterstaff. I really like this! It gains some weapon properties at certain lengths and can also be reduced down to the size of a pin. Very creative, fun and something to become a signature item without overshadowing a character’s own capabilities. Excellent!
9. Staff of the Master. Very similar to the previous staff with less emphasis on the size changing and a couple of extra bells and whistles. I prefer the No. 8 staff for simplicity of sticking to one theme without tacking on some incidental crunch.
10. Staff of Magic Missile. A wand of magic missiles with an extra charge, pared down language and doesn’t potentially crumble to dust.

Top 10 most added staffs

1. As-You-Will Quarterstaff
2. Moonfire Staff
3. Staff of the Master Necromancer
4. Staff of Utility
5. stick
6. Quarterstaff of Spellcasting. This is a terrific magic item treasure for I’d say any spellcasting character. It’s not fancy and there’s no list of powerful effects or features. Instead it’s a stalwart staff that’s a magical weapon with a bonus, a focus and gets around having disadvantage on a ranged attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature that can see you and that isn’t incapacitated. A quarterstaff is one of the best weapons in 5E D&D full stop and these little quality of life perks make this deceptively wonderful magic staff worth at least strapping one onto the backpack of any adventurer.
7. Staff of Defense. The staff of defense in Lost Mine of Phandelver is way cooler than this one. Oh, Iarno, I remember you well.
8. Staff the Novice Necromancer
9. Staff of Embers
10. Monkey Staff. Another size changing staff! I’m sticking with the one that brought me to the dance though. This one’s got more flavor but I really appreciate how enthusiastic the OG Extendable Pole comes across about altering the size.

Staffs rising to the top

You know what’s weird? In almost every one of these posts there’s a total of 19 items collectively from the three lists. After the last few of these posts I’m happy to note all but one of these are a bona fide staff. If you’re familiar with Nerdarchy’s general outlook and mine in particular you won’t be surprised at how happy I am to see a lot of unusual features and effects not designed for combat too. Characters in 5E D&D particularly exhibit extraordinary power from within so external sources of power can create awkwardness in some ways in my perspective. I like magic items that do something different than replicate spells or simply hurt the monsters real good. I also appreciate magic staffs that aren’t implicitly or explicitly meant for spellcasters.

“A magic staff is about 5 or 6 feet long. Staffs vary widely in appearance: some are of nearly equal diameter throughout and smooth, others are gnarled and twisted, some are made of wood, and others are composed of polished metal or crystal. Depending on the material, a staff weighs between 2 and 7 pounds. Unless a staff’s description says otherwise, a staff can be used as a quarterstaff.” — from the 5E D&D DMG

There’s a handful of these staffs I enjoyed discovering quite a bit. I’d be excited to receive one with a character I played and curious to see what would happen in a game for which I was the DM. As-You-Will Quarterstaff set a high bar right away. I also like Extendable Pole in case it wasn’t clear earlier. Both struck me as something their creators were enthusiastic about and neither were just combat enhancers. On the opposite end of the spectrum Quarterstaff of Spellcasting appeals to me because it is nothing but mechanical bonuses but relatively low key and universally useful. I’m also surprised how much I like the Staff of Embers. It might have something to do with how our Ashes or Ardor characters can all cast produce flame because of special circumstances and how much a simple thing like that created a lot of cool and cinematic moments. Like Marge Simpson’s feelings about potatoes, I just think it’s neat.

5E D&D staff 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 — Rods, Staves and Wands
    • Old D&D Spell Sticks to Snakes Reborn for 5E D&D — Cast Down Thine Staff!
    • 5E D&D Quarterstaff Not So Simple After All
    • Best in Show 5E D&D Magic Items for a Druid
    • Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Staff Master
    • Best in Show 5E D&D Magic Items for Rangers
    • Dark Paths: Forbidden Library includes the Staff of Black Light
    • Order of the Wizened includes the Staff of the Seeker

*Featured image — There’s a lot of staffs to be found in the worlds of Magic: The Gathering but come on. When there’s an Adventurers in the Forgotten Realms expansion and one of the card’s is an icon of D&D’s Forgotten Realms it’s a match made in cardboard heaven. The legendary item itself resides within Waterdeep: Dragon Heist with its rightful owner Vajra Safahr. Best of the official 5E D&D adventures if you ask me. I also rank Princes of the Apocalypse pretty high too for some context. [Art by Anna Steinbauer]

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