Top 10 DnD magic items to cause chaos in any campaign

Some of the best Dungeons & Dragons moments come out of solutions that nobody saw coming. Here’s a list of the top ten magic items that turn one problem into a different, bigger problem.

10. Gambler’s Blade (Lost Laboratory of Kwalish)

Gamblers like to push their luck, and none more so than the adventurer wielding the Gambler’s Blade. This sword gives a bonus between +1 and +3 to attack and damage rolls, which can be changed every dawn, but it also applies the same bonus to the wielder’s death saving throws. On top of that, it has a curse on it that means a character won’t want to part with it. The idea of throwing in an item that just sits there, quietly tempting a player without the GM having to say a word, is particularly delightful.

9. Nolzur’s Marvelous Pigments (Dungeon Master’s Guide)

This is low on the list because it’s very controllable, but nobody can deny that being able to create objects of up to 10,000 cubic feet in size is a dangerous power to put in the hands of excitable adventurers. Even with the restriction that the item cannot cost more than 25 gold pieces, that still leaves a lot of scope.

8. Bag of Devouring (Dungeon Master’s Guide)

What if there was a Bag of Holding, but it was actually the maw of an extradimensional monstrosity that will try to eat you if you stick your hand in? The most intriguing part of the Bag of Devouring’s description is that any item placed inside that is not animal or vegetable matter is spat out on a random plane of existence. Suddenly, the campaign becomes a jaunt across the planes to recover that vital magic item you accidentally put inside an extradimensional monster.

7. Alchemy Jug (Dungeon Master’s Guide)

A staple of low-level treasure parcels for the chaotic GM, the Alchemy Jug produces a set amount of a liquid defined by the user. This might seem innocent enough, and acid or poison are doled out only in ounces, but the list of liquids is quite extensive and the amounts generous, including oil, vinegar, honey and beer. The orange and blue jugs from Candlekeep Mysteries add hot tea and soy sauce into the mix. Personally, I don’t like to imagine what most of my adventuring parties would do with two gallons of mayonnaise.

6. Bag of Tricks (Dungeon Master’s Guide)

This innocuous-looking bag has only one thing in it: a small fuzzy object. As soon as a character throws the fuzzy object, it transforms into a random animal from a selection of animals. This creature is friendly, as long as you command it to do things, but as soon as you stop, it reverts to its nature and while it might like you, you might also end up with up to three giant elks or dire wolves trampling through the environment and chasing down local wildlife until the next dawn.

5. Dodecahedron of Doom (Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage)

Anyone who starts throwing the Dodecahedron of Doom around is asking for trouble, but that’s part of the fun! A great little item for those characters who like to chuck a magical grenade into a room and hope that everything will be fine, the Dodecahedron of Doom is a twelve-sided mechanical object that can heal, harm, or just glow. The Dodecahedron does not discriminate between friend and foe. Like the die the player rolls for the effect, the magic item cares not.

4. Ring of Three Wishes/Luck Blade (Dungeon Master’s Guide)

These items both give player characters access to the notoriously tricky spell, Wish. The Wish spell is a 9th level conjuration that gives very powerful options to player characters. They can negotiate for a larger Wish too, with greater negative consequences if it goes dramatically wrong. These items have the power to reshape reality and propel people through time, and any adventuring party worth their salt is going to use them for all they are worth.

3. Bag of Beans (Dungeon Master’s Guide)

This isn’t your gran’s Jack and the Beanstalk. This bag of 3d4 dried beans might look humble, but even one bean could reshape the entire landscape. Dumping the entire bag on the ground makes everything in a 10 foot radius explode with fire. The d100 table of random effects from planting any one bean includes a beer geyser, a massive pyramid containing a mummy lord and, of course, the classic beanstalk to the clouds with a cloud giant’s castle at the top. It begs the question: what happens if you eat them?

2. Eye and Hand of Vecna (Dungeon Master’s Guide)

Artefacts of one of the most famous villains in all DnD, the Eye and Hand of the lich Vecna were all that were left after his climactic battle with his former ally Kas. Anyone who wishes to attune to these artefacts must replace their own hand and eye with Vecna’s. Attuning to both body parts allows the bearer access to an impressive range of spells, plus fun extra benefits like access to the Wish spell every 30 days and the ability to turn people’s skeletons to jelly. Such terrible power comes with a terrible price, however, as the hand and eye attempt to take control of the bearer every time they are used to cast a spell.

1. Deck of Many Things (Dungeon Master’s Guide)

Infamous as one of the most chaotic items in DnD, the Deck of Many Things is a deck of magical cards with the power to completely change a campaign’s direction. The majority of these decks only have 13 cards, but some very special decks have 22. The most common decks of 13 cards still hold the power to change a character’s destiny, from tangible rewards like experience points, unusual magic items and a single use of the Wish spell to terrible doom, like your soul being trapped in a soul jar in the possession of a powerful being. The storied 22-card decks can cause alignment shifts, additional levels, and even the ability to change one event in history so it never happened. The Deck of Many Things is a perfect way to shake things up in a stale campaign.