The Best Non-Magical Items in DnD 5E

Authors: Lilith / Majin Evelyn

While magic items are generally hard to come by, mundane or non-magical items can usually be purchased or acquired with ease. Today, we will go through the most useful selections of this variety.

All items mentioned in this guide come from official sources, which include adventure modules and setting-specific sourcebooks. As such, availability for some of these items may be limited depending on your campaign. Should they be available, however, they should not be especially difficult to acquire. Many of them are certainly applicable outside of their specific settings, but it is entirely up to your DM as to how those may be obtained otherwise. For those of you that wish to not be spoiled about any content from written adventures that could otherwise surprise you, we have spoiler tagged some items with a note of where they come from.

We have subdivided different categories of items in different sections. Items in each section are roughly ordered from highest to lowest priority.

Items that only require your action to use or set up, especially those that have more limited range, are prime candidates for your minions such as familiars, unseen servant(s), or applicable beasts from conjure animals to utilize.

The items in this section are generally listed as “Adventuring Gear” in the Player’s Handbook, and many of them are available as part of the Starting Equipment for classes, or inside items like the explorer’s pack. Some have situational or build-specific use cases, but the items here are very roughly ordered by list of purchasing priority for any player character. As an example, martial characters might not need to purchase a component pouch, but spellcasters will. Lanterns, however, are cheap and the party will likely benefit from having a few of them available. 

Component Pouch (25 gp) ^PHB

Essential for any spellcaster to keep on hand every non-costly material component. Generally preferable choice over foci. In any case, it’s worth stocking up multiple foci and component pouches to ward against disarmament. 

Spellcasting Foci (varies) ^PHB

Valid spellcasting foci vary by class, but all function to take the place of material spell components, provided they have no cost. Another essential pick-up for spellcasters. Note that an arcane focus staff can be used as a quarterstaff, but not the other way around.

Lantern, Bullseye (10 gp) ^PHB

A very useful, cone-shaped light source that uses oil for fuel. Excellent when working with allies who benefit from low light levels, like Twilight Domain Clerics and Gloom Stalker Rangers. This can be attached to your belt or clothing, or held by a familiar, mage hand, or unseen servant, which will leave both of your hands free. If in darkness and fighting allies with no Darkvision or limited Darkvision range, you can shine the light on your enemies while leaving your party in darkness. This makes your party count as unseen attackers, while the enemies themselves are visible. This gives your party advantage on attack rolls against your enemies while they have disadvantage to attack your party, even if your party lacks Darkvision. A particular blue kobold talked about this item in a video here. This item, along with other lantern types, can be used in conjunction with the control flame cantrip to adjust the distance of their light.

Oil (flask) (1 sp) ^PHB

There are two standard ways to use this item: throwing, which requires an improvised ranged attack against the AC of a target creature or object, and pouring, which doesn’t require any ability check or attack roll. The tradeoff here is that pouring the oil will require you to close some distance towards your target. Still, the lack of a required ability check or attack roll generally makes this method superior in most cases. You can then ignite the oil through whatever means you have at your disposal. A lit oil puddle does a guaranteed 5 fire damage whenever a creature enters or ends its turn there (once per turn limit), which is better than cantrip damage in early levels when you can set it up, and is still relevant later on with familiars or an unseen servant handling it. One flask of oil also fuels lanterns for six hours.

Ammunition (varies) ^PHB

Whether these are arrows or bullets, anyone carrying around a ranged weapon will want to have some in stock. A bundle of 20 might seem like plenty, but keeping more on you can be helpful in situations where you need to kite monsters for an extended period of time.

Backpack (2 gp) ^PHB

These come with starting gear such as the explorer’s pack and dungeoneer’s pack. A requirement for any adventurer to store the many of the useful things contained in this article.

Pole (10-foot) (5 cp) ^PHB

“I wouldn’t touch that with a 10 foot pole.” A staple option for adventurers across the editions. Poke any suspicious surface, item, or liquid you plan to interact with, activate traps, measure the depth of bodies of water. If you think a trap only activates against living creatures, tie a rat or chicken to the end of your pole. Thanks chickens!

Ladder (10-foot) (1 sp) ^PHB

Cross horizontal gaps without needing the Strength for a jump. Get up short vertical distances with ease. Keep this strapped to a companion’s back, in a cart, or similar if you are concerned about its bulk.

Rope (50 feet) (1 gp) ^PHB

This has a large variety of in-game uses, just as real life rope does. Aside from typical survival and adventuring uses, certain spellcasters may find rope particularly useful to give your staff or other held spell focus a “wrist-strap” to make sure gremlins don’t steal the aforementioned component pouches or arcane foci.

When you learn the spell rope trick, prepare multiple pieces of ropes for each length so that you can always create the dimensional space at a desired height. You should easily be able to cut up one rope into most kinds of pieces you might want to use. 

Silk rope is a bit more expensive at 10 gold per 50 feet while allowing you to do basically the same things.

Rations (1 day) (5 sp) ^PHB

Some DMs may not expect you to keep track of this, but if they do then these can be good to stock up on before going on extended travels. Keep in mind that a character can go without eating food for 3 + their Constitution modifier (minimum of 3 + 1) days before suffering levels of exhaustion. This counter resets when eating a day’s rations, so you won’t often suffer any penalties. The rules on food and water can be found in the Player’s Handbook on page 185.

If any party member has taken the Outlander background or has access to goodberry, these become less important to math out before a trip.

Waterskin (2 sp) ^PHB

Turns out humanoids need water to survive, keeping some on you is helpful. That goes for characters and players, so make sure you’re getting your 2 to 3 liters of hydration per day.

Healer’s Kit (5 gp) ^PHB

Ironically, this item negates the need for Medicine proficiency entirely, as anyone with this item can stabilize others without needing to pass a check. Buy some for when the need arises, as they do have a limited amount of “charges.” The Healer feat also uses these “charges,” though we don’t rate the feat very highly.

Caltrops (bag of 20) (1 gp) ^PHB 

Covers a 5 foot square, where creatures that enter the area must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or stop moving, take 1 piercing damage that reduces their walking speed by 10 feet until it regains hit points. Since this is not a named game feature with a duration, multiple instances of this speed penalty can apply, though you should check with your DM to see how multiple “stacks” of caltrops within a given 5 foot square interact.

This is another helpful item for familiars and unseen servants to make use of each turn. Spread this at choke points or edges of a web to keep enemies from getting past, especially larger sized ones. Very good with forced movement effects such as Telekinetic and works in tandem with other hazard areas. The clause “A creature moving through the area at half speed doesn’t need to make the saving throw” presumably works like other movement impairment effects, where each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot. 

Ball Bearings (bag of 1,000) (1 gp) ^PHB

This works similar to caltrops, but covers a 10 feet square, where creatures moving across its area must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. Cheap source of area control that can be used by familiars and such too, and 10 feet square is good coverage even if the DC is only 10. This shares the half speed clause from caltrops.

Lantern, Hooded (5 gp) ^PHB

Another oil lantern, with a hood that can be lowered to reduce the intensity of the light emitted. Not as tactically useful as the bullseye lantern, but if you just don’t want to deal with the perils or strategies involved with light and vision manipulation, clipping one onto each party member’s belt will generally ensure you’re fighting in good lighting.

Wukka Nut (1 gp) ^ToA

If your party lacks a magical light source to counteract the darkness spell from enemies (as it can be lit by any non-spell source magical light, or light from a spell of 2nd level or higher), this item is a module-specific but cheap option. 

Mirror, Steel (5 gp) ^PHB

Can turn the Petrifying gaze of the Basilisk or Medusa against those creatures, or circumvent the Skulk’s Fallible Invisibility trait. Can also be useful to look around corners without completely exposing yourself, either held in hand or via a mage hand.

Climber’s Kit (25 gp) ^PHB

If you intend to climb a mountain or other large vertical distance, these can come in handy! Scale a castle wall or make your way up some terrain. Outside of that, the anchoring effect has some good uses too. A good preemptive protection against being knocked off ledges, and can help you quickly get to lower elevations without taking fall damage. 

Ram, Portable (4 gp) ^PHB

Break down the dungeon door with a +4 bonus to the Strength check. Get your friends to help you for advantage as well! If even all of that fails, fire bolt the door down. If there is no time constraint, this item lets you access doors that are otherwise impossible to breach.

Antitoxin (vial) (50 gp) ^PHB

Gain advantage on saving throws against poisons for 1 hour by consuming this antitoxin. While rather expensive at early levels, there is definitely a level range between being able to get heroes’ feast every day, and being able to acquire antitoxin for every fight you think will include saving throws against poisons.

Wooden Stake (n/a) ^VRGR

While it has no listed cost, it should be rather simple to make one yourself. Stab a vampire in its resting place for an easy kill. If this was a spoiler to you, we are sorry.

Holy Water (flask) (25 gp) ^PHB

This isn’t quite Castlevania, but some fiends and undead have features that can be counteracted with the application of some holy water. 

Additionally, as the item’s description indicates, it can be thrown as a ranged improvised weapon attack, dealing some radiant damage on hit against any creature with the fiend or undead creature type. 

Clerics and Paladins are able to create holy water with a ritual as described in the item text during downtime at the cost of 25 gp and a first level spell slot. However, anyone with access to the ceremony spell can do the same thing using the Bless Water option.

Tinderbox (5 sp) ^PHB

On the off chance nobody in your party has cantrips that can create fire, a tinderbox will likely find use in your travels.

Torch (1 cp) ^PHB

While lanterns are generally more useful as a standard light source than torches, these can still come in handy. Throwing one down a dark well or hole, or down a corridor to see what lies ahead or attract attention can be quite handy. Drop it on an oil puddle to easily ignite it. A convenient countermeasure when being attacked by pesky rot grubs.

Crowbar (2 gp) ^PHB

Keep one around to pry open dungeon doors and whatnot. Less effective, but cheaper and more convenient than a portable ram. As with the ram, becomes notably more useful if fire bolt can’t be used to target objects or break down a door.

Barding (varies) ^PHB

Horse armor DLC for 5E, but for more creatures. You can buy barding versions of any generic armor for your animals to wear, improving their AC. They cost four times the usual cost of the armor. So these are a luxury purchase if your party has permanent mounts, and not disposable ones like ones from phantom steed or mules unless you don’t have to worry about losing the item.

Clothing, Cold Weather (10 gp) ^IDRotF

Only relevant in extreme cold weather, but essential in this situation. Stops you from having to make saving throws as a result of this weather effect when worn. Cast prestidigitation on wet sections of your clothing to keep yourself dry and maintain the item’s effect against extreme cold.

Crampons (2 gp) ^IDRotF

Spikes that you can attach to boots, to prevent you from falling prone on slippery ice. Buy these alongside Cold Weather Clothing in cold or icy climates. While not necessarily supported by the rules, a DM might let this benefit apply to your character while standing in a sleet storm, which is called out as “slick ice.”

Grappling Hook (2 gp) ^PHB

Can prove useful for getting around environments with verticality without fully investing into a climber’s kit.

Raincatcher (1 gp) ^ToA

Lets you refill your waterskin during long periods of travel, as long as the environment allows it.

Hourglass (25 gp) ^PHB

Purchasing 1 minute and 1 hour hourglasses can be helpful if your DM requires them for your characters to keep accurate track of time, specifically in the context of spell durations.

Lock (10 gp) ^PHB

Comes with a key, use it to lock up your chests and whatnot. Combine it with arcane lock for some healthy paranoia.

Magnifying Glass (100 gp) ^PHB

A little expensive for starting gear, but can be helpful for a few things. Can start fires, and makes it easier to appraise or inspect small and detailed items.

Manacles (2 gp) ^PHB

Much better at keeping prisoners hostage than rope is, for little cost. Worth keeping around. Ask your DM how long and what it takes to put this on someone.

Case, Map or Scroll (1 gp) ^PHB

Can be a convenient place to keep 10 spell scrolls stored, when they aren’t hanging from your shield, staff, or other equipment.

Piton (5cp) ^PHB

A metal spike that can be used for climbing or other various survival uses like setting up a tent. Nice to have a handful of these in someone’s pack.

Spyglass (1,000 gp) ^PHB

Its high price makes the spyglass impractical for the minor benefit it brings. However, if you can choose an item from the gothic trinket table, you can start with a spyglass in your equipment to sell for a lump sum.

Tent, Two-Person (2 gp) ^PHB

Simple shelter while adventuring for two. Something something minecraft bed. Once you get Leomund’s tiny hut, these become largely obsolete.

There are a variety of tools available for purchase between 1 and 50 gp, with their specific uses detailed in our Complete Guide to Tools article. 

Many useful spells require material spell components with an associated cost, or ones that are consumed when the spell is cast. Spells such as revivify, glyph of warding, planar binding, and heroes’ feast are a handful of options that are certainly worth planning to cast, and buying their respective material components for. Making sure that you have a few diamonds for revivify, for example, is very useful to factor into your “mundane” purchasing decisions.

For any character, armor should be a high priority purchase. Many classes gain serviceable armor from starting equipment, but they are not the best option available. 

The standard armor items from the Player’s Handbook can be found on D&D Beyond. After starting equipment, the important purchases are generally half plate armor and plate armor, for medium and heavy armor users respectively. While upgrading to half plate armor or plate armor may seem expensive, the AC increase is well worth it—see our article on The “Squishy Caster” Fallacy for our analysis on the value of each additional point of AC after the last. 

One type of armor that is not that well known, but can be useful is:

Spiked Armor (75 gp) ^SCAG

Functionally equivalent to Scale Mail, but the descriptive wording implies that its materials do not need to be metal. This is relevant for Druids at tables that interpret the “[D]ruids will not wear metal armor” text in the Druid’s proficiency table as “cannot wear.”

For characters that devote build space to taking the Attack action, weapons will be a high priority purchase, and will likely be affordable upon character creation. The list of setting-agnostic mundane weapons can be found on D&D Beyond’s Equipment page. Generally, there are a few standouts: a hand crossbow for Crossbow Expert users, a spear, quarterstaff, glaive, or halberd for Polearm Master users, a stack of javelins for melee characters, and a longbow for weapon users as well as spellcasters who may benefit from having a useful action at 600 feet away.

There are two options to improve “mundane” weapons. First, any weapon or ten pieces of ammunition can be silvered for 100 gp. Second, through an optional rule from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, they can coat their weapons or ammunition in adamantine, or buy adamantine weapons. Neither of these options makes a mundane weapon magical for the purposes of overcoming damage resistance, but there are several monsters that only have resistance to “bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage from non-magical attacks that aren’t silvered” or “bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage from non-magical attacks that aren’t adamantine.”

Adamantine weapons have an additional boon: they are highly effective when used to break objects, as every hit made with an adamantine weapon against an object is treated as a critical hit. Also consider that the Dungeon Master’s Guide says that DMs should “use common sense when determining a character’s success at damaging an object” (pg. 246), and then provides the example that a Fighter wouldn’t be able to cut through a stone section of a wall with a sword. Well, maybe not with a normal sword, but what about an adamantine one? Talk to your DM about the how adamantine weapons might change your character’s ability to interact with objects around them.

The renaissance, modern, and futuristic optional settings from the Dungeon Master’s Guide also present additional firearms options not included in the above link. Each progression in setting has ever increasing weapon power. We will mention some notable options, as well as some exotic weapons found in other sourcebooks. Based on your table’s setting allowance, these weapons may be worth taking advantage of for your weapon-using character build.

Antimatter Rifle [futuristic] (n/a) ^DMG

The most powerful non-magical weapon. It requires an action or bonus action reload after two shots, but does 6d8 necrotic damage per hit. The hand crossbow is dead, long live the antimatter rifle!

Rifle, Hunting [modern] (n/a) ^DMG

A direct upgrade to the musket, but without the loading property. Two-handed, and doesn’t need the Gunner feat to function.

Double Crossbow ^WDH 

While this item is described in the adventure as a heavy crossbow with reduced range (60/240ft) that fires two bolts at the same target, this ends up functioning like a normal heavy crossbow with an extra damage dice. While its damage is comparable to the hunting rifle, the weapon still requires Crossbow Expert to get around its loading property. 

Revolver [modern] (n/a) ^DMG

Slightly less damage than a hunting rifle, but it is a one-handed weapon. This means that it meets the requirement on the Crossbow Expert feat’s bonus action attack. A Crossbow Expert weapon user can hold a revolver in one hand and a hand crossbow crossbow in the other, jugging these weapons to increase their damage output.

Musket [renaissance] (500 gp) ^DMG

The renaissance gun of choice. Has the loading property, so you will want the Gunner feat in order to make use of it.

Yklwa (1gp) ^ToA 

One handed simple melee weapon, thrown (10/30), 1d8 piercing damage, and very cheap to buy.

Hooked Shortspear ^ToA 

A somewhat interesting item that can forego dealing damage on a hit to force a strength saving throw from the target to avoid falling prone. Unfortunately, other than its questionable valuable when used with two weapon fighting, this is just a worse way to shove an opponent.

Repeating Light Crossbow ^OotA 

Can hold 6 bolts before needing an action to reload, so you might need to bring several of this crossbow, pre-loaded, to swap to during an encounter. For a small sized character, this looks like a longbow with extra hassle, and in the end still outmatched by the mighty hand crossbow. 

Grenade Launcher [modern] (n/a) ^DMG

This extends the range you can launch smoke and fragmentation grenades from 60 feet to 120 feet. We will cover both of these later. Simple, but useful.

Flensing Claws (n/a) ^VGM

Surgically implanted Wolverine claws that Illithids sometimes put into their thralls. Four separate versions exist by size category (Small to Huge) that scale up in damage. The mechanics are sadly rather underwhelming.

Oversized Longbow (n/a) ^WDH

While the idea behind this weapon is quite novel, it’s only viable with a “rolled 18s at home” character, and still has to compete with the mighty Hand Crossbow. 

Interestingly enough, the mount options in this section fall under the “Items” category, most of which are found in the Equipment chapter of the PHB.

Small sized characters have access to more and cheaper mount options than medium characters, and thus can reap the benefits of being mounted more easily. 

However, before we get to the mounts themselves we will first highlight two saddles that are pretty useful.

Saddle, Exotic (60 gp) ^PHB

This saddle is a requirement for riding aquatic or flying mounts. Pretty important if you want to use one.

Saddle, Military (20 gp) ^PHB

As written, this item doesn’t work, as you need to make a saving throw to resist falling off a mount, while this item gives you advantage on checks. However, the intent is obvious and the fix is simple—let it give advantage on saving throws as well. If you’re able to carry them around, you could even throw these onto phantom steeds.

Mule (8 gp) ^PHB

Medium, 40 ft speed. Cheap, and a little better than mastiffs in terms of small size PC mounts. Your party can keep around a number of these for little cost, even at level 1, to carry your burdens and yourselves into battle.

Camel (50 gp) ^PHB 

Large, 50 ft speed. Desert environment.

Draft Horse (50 gp) ^PHB

Large, 40 ft speed. Urban environment.

Elephant (200 gp) ^PHB

Huge, 40 ft speed. Grassland environment. Quite a bit more durable than other mounts and boasts some offensive power, but harder to take everywhere.

Moorbounder (300-500 gp) ^EGtW

Large, 70 ft speed. Their Standing Leap feature lets this mount jump rather far and high. Expensive, but a nice quality mount if Wildemount content is available in your game.

Mastiff (25 gp) ^PHB

Medium, 40 ft speed. Slightly lower survivability than mules for three times the price. Still an early accessible mount for small size PCs.

Riding Horse (75 gp) ^PHB

Large, 60 ft speed. Not too expensive, and a decent upgrade over mules. Probably your first available mount if you are a medium PC.

Warhorse (400 gp) ^PHB

Large, 60 ft speed. You’re paying 325 gp more on the riding horse for a mediocre attack and 6 more hit points, which is not a great deal. 

There are 4 main types of poisons. Contact and injury poisons can generally be applied on weapons ahead of time as they don’t lose potency until they are delivered or washed off. Inhaled poison needs to be blown near the target, so it’s best delivered by familiars (and servants, you should get the idea by now). Ingested poisons are rarely applicable in combat. Constitution is the saving throw for all of these poisons. 

While some of the following poisons have some nice effects for combat, they are often not worth the gold cost if gold is tight in your game. However, if you are able to obtain these through crafting, or harvesting from monsters like basilisks, then they are absolutely worth using. 

We tried to limit ourselves to poisons that were at least half decent, but there are more out there.

Essence of Ether (300 gp) ^DMG

An outstanding inhaled poison, DC 15 save to be knocked unconscious for 8 hours unless the target takes damage or is shaken awake. No repeated save. Can’t be applied ahead of time like the injury poisons, but the effect can completely remove a creature from a fight for no spell slot or concentration.

Purple Worm Poison (2,000 gp) ^DMG

The premier injury poison, does 12d6 poison damage on a DC 19 save, or half on a success. 

Oil of Taggit (400 gp) ^DMG

A DC 13 contact poison that knocks someone unconscious for 24 hours. Essence of Ether has a higher DC, but doesn’t last as long (usually the duration is not that important, however).

Torpor (600 gp) ^DMG

An ingested poison that incapacitates the victim for 4d6 hours. Lace this into someone’s meal ahead of time, then enter later to clean up.

Truth Serum (150 gp) ^DMG

An ingested poison for a specific purpose—interrogation. Force feed this to someone you’ve taken prisoner and they cannot lie for an hour, as long as they fail the (admittedly low) DC 11 save. It is unclear whether the interrogators will even know if the poison has taken effect on the subject or not, so its usefulness can be table dependent. If you have a Cleric or Paladin who can change their spell list every long rest, letting the target sit in a zone of truth spell instead would be much more reliable. 

Midnight Tears (1,500 gp) ^DMG

Ingested poison that only activates its effect at midnight, dealing 9d6 poison damage, or half on a DC17 Constitution save. Not very practical, but certainly thematic.

Wyvern Poison (1,200 gp) ^DMG

Injury poison, a nice 7d6 damage or half on a DC 15 save.

Crawler Mucus (200 gp) ^DMG

A contact poison with a DC 13 saving throw for a 1 minute duration paralysis with a repeated save every turn. Quite low value, but needing a creature to be paralayzed might come up.

Drow Poison (200 gp) ^DMG

A DC 13 saving for 1 hour poisoned condition, but if the creature fails the save by more than 5, they are also knocked unconscious. No repeated save. Does a little more than damage, but the success rate is low. You’ll likely run into a fair amount of this if you’re in the Underdark or fighting drow for some other reason.

Drugs are substances that give you different benefits when used. These drugs listed here specifically are from the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemont, Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, Tomb of Annihilation, and Eberron: Rising from the Last War sourcebooks. Cures for several conditions that are otherwise very difficult to remove like petrified or multiple levels of exhaustion can be found here. Some of these drugs inflict the poisoned condition, which can affect not just attack rolls, but also important ability checks like initiative or counterspell/dispel magic, so if the benefit doesn’t require the poisoned condition to persist it’s best to prepare ways to counteract it like lesser restoration or a Paladin’s Lay on hands.

Wildroot (25 gp) ^ToA

A valuable and practically unconditional way to remove the poisoned condition, which can also counteract many of the substances in this list. 

Dragon’s Blood (n/a) ^ERftLW

This stimulant’s precise effects are left up to the DM’s discretion, but it is indicated that the effects of the Wild Magic Surge table would be an appropriate effect, as well as the ability to temporarily cast Sorcerer spells. 

Dreamlily (1 gp/10 gp) ^ERftLW

This Eberron-flavored morphine affects you for an hour with the poisoned condition, and while poisoned, grants fear immunity (which presumably means the frightened condition) and a death ward-like effect. Legally obtained dreamlily is more expensive than illegally obtained, but either way this is a very cheap boost for characters that can live with the poisoned condition.

Muroosa Balm (100 gp) ^EGtW

This provides fire resistance for an hour per dose, no risk of poisoned condition like other drugs. Fire is a common damage type, so this balm can be quite helpful to keep around to boost your party’s survivability against certain enemy types, even if you have absorb elements.

Black Sap (300 gp) ^EGtW

Smoke this to become immune to the charmed and frightened conditions. Use a dose if you expect to face a dragon’s Frightful Presence, a beholder’s Charm and Fear Rays, or other threatening monster/spellcaster that can inflict you with these conditions.

Menga Leaves (1 ounce) (2gp) ^ToA

If what you want from potions of healing is just bringing an ally up from unconscious, then this is a cheaper alternative. 

Theki Root (3 gp) ^EGtW

Eating a dose gives you advantage on saving throws against poisonous or toxic substances for 8 hours, including the saving throws the other drugs on this list force you to make when consumed. 

Sinda Berries (10) (5 gp) ^ToA

These berries provide greater coverage than theki root, providing advantage on saving throws against disease and poison for the next 24 hours. However, they will lose their potency 24 hours after being picked, so it’s best to bring plant pots for storage.

Willowshade Oil (30gp) ^ToA

One of the few ways to counteract petrification, and much cheaper than casting greater restoration, too. 

Olisuba Leaf (50 gp) ^EGtW

When used to make tea, and consumed during a long rest, this lets you reduce two levels of exhaustion instead of one at the long rest’s end. Can be useful for the few class features in the game that inflict exhaustion on its user, like Frenzied Rage or Convergent future.

Ryath Root (50gp) ^ToA

This gives some temporary hit points. Not especially useful if you have a Twilight Domain Cleric, Charisma caster with Inspiring Leader, etc., in your party already, and somewhat costly even if you don’t. 

Zabou (10 gp) ^ToA

Although the save DC is low, you can arm many of your minions with this fungus to inflict the poisoned condition in a nice area of effect.

Soothsalts (150 gp) ^EGtW 

This confers advantage to Intelligence checks for 1d4 hours, at the risk of gaining a level of exhaustion. A decent boost to a Wizard’s counterspell or dispel magic checks, but the drawback makes this item rather limited unless you can reliably pass the saving throw (such as with the help of a Paladin ally).

Blight Ichor (200 gp) ^EGtW

Provides advantage on Intelligence and Wisdom checks, but makes you vulnerable to psychic damage. While this again boosts a Wizard’s counterspell or dispel magic checks, it is usually not worth using.

A large variety of explosives are available across the various sourcebooks. The Dungeon Master’s Guide offers some setting specific items from renaissance and modern settings. Some items from adventures are also included here. Funnily enough, using these items do not count as attacking, so familiars can throw this for some extra damage or control, especially when you have gold to spare. 

Grenade, Smoke [modern] (n/a) ^DMG

This can be thrown to create an area of heavy obscurement. This spell-like effect can be quite useful in place of things like fog cloud.

Dynamite (stick) [modern] (n/a) ^DMG

3d6 bludgeoning, half on a DC12 Dexterity save, but can be bound together for up to 7d6 damage, making it comparable to catapult munitions.

Gunpowder, Keg [renaissance] (250 gp) ^DMG

Same as Gunpowder Horn, except more of it. A keg full of the stuff does 7d6 fire, half on a DC 12 Dexterity save.

Hunting Trap (5 gp) ^PHB

A low DC immobilizing trap, but it’s cheap. Set these in front of you in a hallway before combat and let monsters walk through it to try and get to you.

Grenade, Fragmentation [modern] (n/a) ^DMG

A small improvement in DC and damage over renaissance Bombs.

Blasting Powder (n/a) ^EGtW

An alchemical powder that must be ignited to explode it. Multiple pouches can be bound together for more damage and blast radius. It can be difficult to make use of in combat, as it cannot be thrown.

Bomb [renaissance] (150 gp) ^DMG

Expensive, 3d6 fire damage or none on a DC12 Dexterity save. Not worth the cost. 

Gunpowder, Powder Horn [renaissance] (35 gp) ^DMG

Similar to blasting powder, it must be ignited to explode. Can’t be thrown, low DC and damage.

Explosive Seed (n/a) ^EGtW

Low DC and damage, but at least you can throw it 30 feet as an action.

Gems, art objects and trade goods are functionally direct substitutes for coins, which can typically be useful in two ways. First is convenient transport for large amounts of money—notably, gold and platinum which are the most compact, or gems which have no listed weight, which presumably means it’s negligible. Second is to directly convert resources you generate with effects like the fabricate spell, such as turning flax to silk, into money. 

The rules governing these vehicles are sparse, aside from the chariot. An animal pulling one of these vehicles can pull five times its normal carrying capacity according to the Mounts and Vehicles section, page 155 of the Player’s Handbook. These vehicles, combined with access to mounts from the earlier section of this article (as well as phantom steed), can make travel easier for your party.

Cart (15 gp) ^PHB

Chariot (250 gp) ^PHB

The rules do not define how many creatures should/can pull a chariot, how big chariots are, or how many creatures can ride one, but they can certainly be useful improvements over simply being mounted. You get half cover while on a chariot, and you can mount/dismount a chariot with only 5 feet of movement, instead of half your speed like most mounts, all while moving at the same speed your mount normally would be.

Wagon (35 gp) ^PHB

Carriage (100 gp) ^PHB

The purchasability and usability of water vehicles will vary quite a bit based on your campaign or adventure. Some of these vehicles are very large and can only be purchased in specific locations. Vehicles such as canoes or rowboats are a bit easier to find use cases for, due to cost and size.

Canoe (50 gp) ^ToA

Holds up to six Medium creatures and goes up to 2 miles per hour. Quite slow compared to some grounded mounts.

Galley (30,000 gp) ^DMG

Crew 80, 150 ton cargo, speed 4 mph.

Keelboat (3,000 gp) ^DMG

Used on lakes and rivers. crew 1, passengers 6, cargo ½ ton, speed 1 mph.

Longship (10,000 gp) ^DMG

Crew 40, passengers 150, cargo 10 tons, speed 3 mph.

Rowboat (50 gp) ^DMG

Used on lakes and rivers. crew 1, passengers 3, speed 1 ½ mph.

Sailing Ship (10,000 gp) ^DMG

Crew 20, passengers 20, cargo 100 tons, speed 2 mph.

Warship (25,000 gp) ^DMG

Crew 60, passengers 60, cargo 200 tons, speed 2 ½ mph.

Air vehicles are prohibitively expensive for most tables until later levels, and even then may not be useful for the party. If you have the funds, however, a sky vessel may prove very useful for a group of adventurers trying to protect the world from various threats.

Airship (20,000 gp) ^DMG

Crew 10, cargo 1 ton, speed 8 mph.

Skyship (100,000 gp) ^EGtW

An Eberron sky vessel. Crew 6-10, passengers 30, cargo 10 tons, speed 10 mph. passengers and those looking to ship items can pay for fare on these vessels.

This section covers other miscellaneous items that don’t fit neatly into the above categories. 

Chicken (2 cp) ^PHB

A cheap source of bones for animate dead. One chicken can potentially provide several “piles of bones” for creating skeletons.

Backpack Parachute (n/a) ^WDH

A reusable feather fall-like effect on a reaction. You cannot slow falls that are less than 60 feet, and requires a 10 foot cube of unoccupied space to deploy, but it can definitely save your life if you don’t have access to the aforementioned spell.

Dragon Blood (n/a) ^FTD

Introduced in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, this is less a specific item and more a property of dragon blood as a whole. Several blessings and rituals can be performed using the blood of dragons, with varying beneficial effects. They are largely left open-ended, outside of two instances where they may provide certain feats (Durable, Resilient, Tough) as a Draconic Gift, or turn you into a half-dragon. Much like harvesting poison, if you slay a dragon it may be worth gathering their blood. Speak with your DM about these options, and check out the book for more details.

Flail Snail Shell (n/a) ^VGM

The intact shell of a flail snail can be sold for 5,000 gp. but it can also be used to create magical shields. The description indicates that a “skilled armorer” can create three shields from one shell, with each shield possessing the Flail Snail’s Antimagic Shell trait for 1 month, making it an effective shield to use against spellcasters that also doesn’t require attunement. After the month has ended, the shields can be crafted into spellguard shields. The shell can also be ground down to create a robe of scintillating colors instead, though you lose out on the prospect of having shields with the Antimagic Shell trait for a time. 

Optimization does not stop at the statistics on your character sheet, and interaction with the world does not stop at your improv acting. Adept use of items will open up a whole slew of interactions, which will not only improve your character, but also your adventuring experience as a whole.