a table of odd magic items that may or may not be useful
“…the GM will only tell you something interesting—it’s on you to make it useful.” — Dungeon World
1d20 Magical Items of Mild Utility
A doorknob that can be easily affixed to any door by simply holding it on for about thirty seconds. Once affixed, it permanently transforms into an ordinary doorknob and lock, to which you have the key.
The Shaker of Infinite Salt
A pencil that significantly improves the user’s penmanship when writing with it.
An orb containing a very small pocket dimension, into which one can transfer their familiar so that it may safely rest.
A palm-sized stone figurine of a shark, which will bite any fingers that come near its mouth.
Self-Fluffing Pillow
Watch that shows you what time it was the last time you looked at the watch, instead of what time it is now.
Piece of string that, when tied around your finger, actually helps you remember to do that thing.
Temporary Scissors: They can only cut the normal things you’d expect from a pair of scissors, but if you hold the cut pieces together tightly they will magically re-form into a whole, as though they’d never been cut.
Robes that make the wearer an inch or so taller.
Magic Eraser (erases pencil, ink and crayon!)
Hand-sized stone that, when thrown, always lands 5 feet in front of your intended target—whether your aim is perfect or abysmal.
A bucket that transforms any liquid poured into it into seawater.
A bar of soap that temporarily changes the color of anything washed with it. The color is random, and changes each time the bar is used (1d6: 1: Red, 2: Orange, 3: Yellow, 4: Green, 5: Blue, 6: Purple). The color lasts one day.
Goggles of Shrimp-Color Vision
A ring with a single very round stone. When you say the magic word the stone pops out and transforms into a bowling ball. It turns back into a small stone after 2d4 hours and must be manually returned to the ring before it can be used again.
Boots that produce an animal sound of your choice when you jump up and do a jaunty little bell-kick while wearing them.
A small glass bottle that, when filled with water, appears instead to be full of a swirling, shimmering potion.
A quiet trumpet.
A knife that can only cut sandwiches. It is up to the GM’s discretion what does and does not count as a sandwich for this enchantment, but the rules are consistent.
Hotlinks to all Tables: A complete list of every trinket table for quicker access. This also functions as the easiest link to reblog or save for reference purposes as it’s updated with each new table. Now with 161 full d100 loot tables, resource tables and a working rollable Omni Loot Table.
---Note: The links sometimes don’t work on mobile devices or some apps. Try using a desktop or browser extensions if they aren’t working.
-The Omni Loot Table: The loot mega-table that allows the user to roll randomly on the 161 tables this blog has collected. This grants a DM literally millions of unique trinkets, equipment and items that players can find to enrich their world and playing experience.
-Character Creation Loot Generator: This generator creates an sample of trinkets, curiosities and loot, pulled from a wide list of other tables that is meant to provide the player with items to encourage engaging roleplaying. Best used at character creation to help with ideas of where the character has traveled, what they’ve accomplished and what they’ve chosen to carry with them.
-All Trinkets: Interesting baubles or semi magical items that have little to no practical in game or mechanical use for an adventurer.
-All Unique Armors: Splint mail, studded leather and sturdy shields of all shapes, sizes and mysterious backgrounds. Distinctive armors that can serve as the basis for family heirlooms, legendary artifacts and magical or masterwork weapons.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 /
-Masterwork Armor Bonuses: Over a dozen homebrew armor improvements, enhancements and modifications created though superior craftsmanship. These masterpieces are more useful than standard armor but less powerful than a +1 armor.
-All Artifacts: Artist masterpieces, rare magics and opulent combinations of jewels and precious metals. These objects can be found in the throne rooms of kings, the demiplanes of archmages and the pinnacle of a dragon's hoard.
1 /
-All Books: An eclectic library of dusty tomes, fictional textbooks, pocketbooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, booklets, leaflets and magical manuals.
-Book Descriptions: A short list of quirks, physical descriptions and eccentricities to add additional characteristics to the book trinket list. Rollable Book Descriptions table
-All Cloaks: A collection of unique descriptions of cloaks for DM’s to give to their players as magical or mundane loot and for players to use during character creation to help flesh out their personal style.
1 /
- All Circlets, Crowns and Coronets: Resting on the noble head of the mighty king or regal queen are the physical manifestations of their wealth and power. The symbols of their right to rule, these various headdresses are often tailor made to serve as metaphor for the monarch’s personality or that of their kingdom.
1 /
-All Minor Magical Items: Not-quite-wondrous objects, common magic items, utility and niche magical equipment, underpowered relics or depowered artifacts. These options are essentially cantrips and weak magic spells in physical form and are perfect for low level characters.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 /
-All Necklaces: Amulets, lockets and pendants that grant an immediate glance into the bearer’s personality, wealth, rank or social class and often serves as an iconic part of that character’s look. While a locked metal torque can instantly mark the bearer a penniless slave and a string of lustrous pearls mark their owner a flauntingly wealthy noble, so can an adventurer's necklace mark them as a creature to bestow quests upon.
1 / 2 / 3 /
-All Rings: Enough bands, loops and rings to wear three on every finger and toe while still having dozens to spare. These tiny bejeweled circlets of bone, metal and wood always add more to the story than the sum of their parts.
-All Unique Weapons: Blades, bludgeons and bows of all shapes, sizes and mysterious backgrounds. Distinctive weapons that can serve as the basis for family heirlooms, legendary artifacts and magical or masterwork weapons.
-Masterwork Weapon Bonuses: Over 20 homebrew weapon improvements, enhancements and modifications created though superior craftsmanship. These masterpieces though more powerful than ordinary weapons but weaker than a +1. Rollable Masterwork Bonus Table
-Running the Numbers: On Balancing Homebrew Masterwork Weapon Bonuses
-Random Weapon + Random Masterwork Weapon Bonus.
-Random Unique Weapon + Random Masterwork Weapon Bonus.
-Minor Weapon Enchantments: A collection of minor bonuses that are weaker than a standard +1 weapons, as they come with trade-offs, risks, prerequisites, limited uses or niche benefits. These enchantments provide feat-like bonuses, low level class abilities, modify damage types, provide short bursts of power or replicate the effects of low levels spells. Rollable Minor Weapon Enchantments Table.
-Random Weapon + Random Minor Weapon Enchantment.
-Random Unique Weapon + Random Minor Weapon Enchantment.
-All Unique Minor Magic Weapons: A collection of weapons of artifact level flavorful but low level power. Much like the Minor Weapon Enchantments, these provide small bonuses and combat options that are restrained by limited uses, niche situations or come with risky drawbacks.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 /
-All Valuables: More useful than simple baubles touched mystery, these items have either a clear purpose, a reliable ability or are made from a fairly costly material. The items could fetch fair prices to collectors of the strange, jewelers, antique or art dealers or simply to barter with if the owner is short on actual currency.
-All Worthless Trinkets: Vaguely interesting garbage, vendor trash and junk loot. Not magical or mysterious like regular trinkets or worth anything more than a copper piece or two even if you could find someone to buy it in the first place.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 /
—Keep reading for all reference and resource tables.
-Random Artisan's Tools: A tool helps you to do something you couldn't otherwise do, such as craft or repair an item, forge a document, or pick a lock. This list is meant to be used as a reference for other tables on this blog and to serve as a resource for players and DM’s
-Battle Cries: Simplistic and bone chilling warcries, complex and inspiring calls to arms and primal wordless screams of rage that shakes the enemy down to their iron-shod boots. A collection of simple phrases, threats, insults and violent promises for creatures to yell before and during combat to add verbal spice to each attack.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 /
-Random Color Table: Pretty self explanatory and it’s basically only here because many of the trinkets reference it. Roll for colors or just use it as a reference while handing things out if you don’t have a color wheel handy. Rollable Random Colour Table.
-Random Creature Type Table: A quick guide to the various creature types for reference purposes. Rollable Random Creature Type Table.
Random Godly Domains Tables: Depending on your system and in-game universe, there may already be a pantheon, singular or lack of Gods. However, people are superstitious wherever your players go and these tables allow a DM to generate a domain, theme or patronage to quickly flesh out a trinket with a “Random Godly Domain”. Rollable Godly Domains Table.
Unique Metamagic Options: The practice of learning, preparing and casting spells is often considered Art rather than religious fervour, academic knowledge or inborn skill. Over a dozen homebrew options all of which provide a vivid description of exactly how the caster is deliberately warping the nature of the spell to achieve their goal. Rollable Unique Metamagic Options.
-All Mottos: Whether they're called adages, maxims or creeds, these simple statements are essentially promises made to oneself, family, or institution. A character's motto can be a goal in itself or a moral anchor that centers his life and guides his action. A mixed collection of real life and fictional mottos that can aid a DM to quickly expand the history of the campaign or to aid a PC in a richer character creation.
Random Musical Instruments Table: There are a surprisingly large number of ways to pluck a string, blow through a tube or hit something with a stick. This collection of real life instruments are all capable of being created with pre-industrial techniques and can be easily be carried, maintained and played by a traveling adventurer. Rollable Musical Instruments Table.
Random Nightmares: A collection of unspeakable, nonsensical night terrors, worse than the strongest of bad trips on powerful hallucinogens. These exist to frighten adventurers who have seen more than their fair share of trauma. A cleric’s healing words can mend the flesh but nothing truly mends the mind from witnessing the aberrant horrors, monstrous beasts and undead abominations, whose defeat is an adventurer’s main source of income. Rollable Nightmares Table.
Random Weapon Tables: Sometimes you just need a weapon and literally anything mildly lethal will do the trick. These lists give a DM the ability to quickly look through different options when generating loot. Rollable Random Weapons Table.
-Random Sword Table
-Wild Magic Surges: A collection of Wild Surge options for DMs and PCs who find the published tables limiting, repetitive or boring, three things wild magic by definition, should never be. Rollable Wild Magic Surge Table.
Glossary and Common Terms: A collection of terms and lingo that are frequently used in D&D and other tabletop games, along with terms written by me specifically for use in this blog. Some words used in this blog are purposely written as “catch all” ideas or “Common Terms” that can easily be adapted to any game system.
Large orb (at least 10” diameter, we’re talking 15lbs minimum.)
Flimsy walking stick
Literal brain-in-a-jar
Dented helmet
Cannon, or other large weapon meant to be on a vessel
Rug
A left boot (the right boot is nowhere to be found.)
Multi-volume encyclopedia
Anvil
Globe
A single crossbow bolt.
1d6 Sources of Sentience (and Wants)
Mad-science/alchemical experiment gone wrong; trapped own consciousness in this object. Wants to return to their lab so they can have you attempt to reverse the procedure.
Cursed into this form by a witch or other entity as punishment for wrongdoings. Wants to find the entity and reverse the curse
Born this way, comes from a lineage of sentient objects. Wants to be owned/wielded by a powerful person.
Mad-science/alchemical experiment gone wrong; was a henchman transformed into this object by their master. Wants revenge.
Magically transformed themself into this form as a way of achieving immortality. Wants a new, young, living body to inhabit.
Was once an inanimate object brought to life by a mage. Has now outlived that mage and wants to find a way to resurrect them.
1d6 Powers - how does the object communicate its wants and exert its will?
Compulsion/possession: the object can force a person who is touching it to perform an action. What can a person do to prevent themself from being compelled?
Telepathy: the object can send telepathic messages in a short range. Are the messages targeted, or does everyone around it hear them?
Limited mobility: the object can move on its own, though not quickly. How does it move? (Does it roll, waddle, float?)
Charm/influence: the object can make a person believe that its wills are the best course of action. What types of people are most susceptible to its wiles?
Speech: the object can speak out loud in one or more languages. Does it know when to keep its mouth shut?
Telekinesis: the object can move inanimate objects, but not itself. What are its limits? (Size? Range? Material? Form?)
For when treasure in convenient mints is just too easy.
1. Iron rings - this smallest denomination coin belongs to a nation far across the sea. Even trading with them, though, these rings are small change.
2. Butterflies - this odd currency belongs not to a nation but to a thieves guild (or other underground faction). It is made by permanently attaching four coins of the realm together in a sort of square or clover shape. It is not legal currency, but has value in certain illegal transactions. Carrying it can also, of course, get you into trouble.
3. Bricks - so called because rather than being flat disks, these coins are rectangular and almost as thick as they are wide. Bricks come in different denominations, in varying sizes but all made of silver. The small alliance of nations who use Bricks are nearby, but not on the friendliest terms with your home region. However, the raw silver is of decent value.
4. Beads and Medallions - smaller and thicker than the average metal coins, these coins are made of dyed glass. They are the coin of a small, wealthy principality, where literally displaying one’s wealth has become quite fashionable. Merchants who accept these coins are most likely to trade in small, luxury items.
5. Golden Daggers - these slender gold coins are not uncommon to see in the northern part of your realm. They are the most used coin in the neighboring kingdom, whose odd manner of minting begins with slender metal rods. They aren’t commonly accepted except near the northern border, but it isn’t too difficult to find someone who will exchange them at a fair rate.
6. Silver Gems - so called because of their geometric design that resembles a cut gemstone, these coins are highly valuable. The empire from which they come has dissolved. The upper class of your realm romanticize the fallen empire’s glory days, and prize anything from it, including its odd currency. They can’t be spent like regular money, but to a collector they can be sold like valuable art.
1. Smiling life-sized bust of a young woman with an elaborate hairstyle. It is carved from grey stone but the mouth is set with what appear to be real teeth.
2. Circlet made of tiny, realistic golden bones.
3. Ebony raven statue with eyes made of jade that seem to almost glow.
4. Small framed portrait of a gaunt, pale family with hollow eyes. The portrait is beautifully rendered and the frame is intricate and silver.
5. Square wooden jewelry box with a relief carved into its lid. The relief depicts a person being mauled by wolves.
6. Silver flask in the shape of a realistic human heart.
7. Severe mask made of several pieces of carved, polished bone.
8. An intricately carved, empty reliquary; it feels impossibly heavy for what is, ostensibly, an empty box.
9. Brass locket in the shape of a coffin, with a portrait inside of an old man wearing a hooded cloak.
10. A chess set wherein the pieces have been rendered as realistic figures, all bearing horrible tortured expressions.
1. Half-eaten cookie.
2. Pouch with a small amount of coins.
3. Ring with 2d4 keys on it.
4. A container of lamp oil.
5. Small trinket in the shape of a frog, carved out of semi-precious stone.
6. Flask, half full of hard liquor.
7. Flask, half full of poison.
8. Healing/medicine kit.
9. Ripped map of the region with 1d4 locations marked.
10. Chain made of moderately valuable metal.
11. Drugs.
12. Sack full of 2d6 high quality rations.
13. A nice dagger.
14. Tools of an artistic trade, perhaps painting or jewelry making.
15. A book on the local flora and fauna.
16. A spare set of clothing, nicer than the clothes they’re wearing now.
17. A pair of spectacles.
18. A pouch with a moderate number of coins, in an obviously foreign mint.
19. A full bottle of ink and a brand new pen.
20. A nice ring with a single precious stone—definitely worth a pretty penny.
1. Droopy magenta flowers. Ingredient for: healing potion.
2. Tiny purple flowers that grow in long clumps. Ingredient for: flying potion.
3. Small, green and white flowers. Ingredient for: shrinking potion.
4. Round, fluffy purple flowers. Ingredient for: vampirism cure.
5. Small yellow flowers that grow in wide clumps. Ingredient for: defense potion.
6. Black flower with many, broad petals. Ingredient for: invisibility potion.
7. Pale pink and white flower with five petals. Ingredient for: stealth potion.
8. Round, dark blue flowers. Ingredient for: power potion.
1. Saber with a ruby encrusted hilt and a golden-hued blade. It protects the wielder from fire.
2. Longsword with a blade that is always perfectly shiny and polished to a mirror finish. It is blessed with such purity that evil beings burn as though by acid when cut with it.
3. Greenish tinted shortsword that bestows a minor curse on those it hits, making their attacks less effective.
4. Greatsword that glows with an eerie purple aura. For the most part it seems to behave like a normal sword, but it is doubly effective against ghosts and other spectral beings.
5. Rapier as black as ebony, that allows its wielder to move unseen through shadows.
6. Shimmering opalescent cutlass that can be channeled to heal rather than harm.
