Best Magic Items for Bard | Must Find Items

Beautiful music comes from the heart. A Bard’s music comes from straight-up magic! While a Bard already has access to a ton of magical tools that make it useful in combat, there’s still room for more! The Bard’s magic items in Dungeons & Dragons 5E are important, though not necessarily crucial for any given build. The Bard is very good at using all sorts of magical items. However, our D&D 5E Bard Magic Items guide will open your mind to how a Bard works with magic items to make a symphony.

D&D 5E Bard Magic Items

The bard is looking for a touch of synergy for it’s magical items; safety, more effective spells, and out-of-combat solutions. Because of the Bard’s lack of attack roll spells, they don’t really need to keep up with +1, +2, or +3 Wands of the War Mage. Instead, get your +1, +2, or +3 weapons on track… Though, unless you are a Bard with Extra Attack, you should make sure your Martial Allies get their enchantments first.

Combat Magic Items

Anti-Magic Items

You wouldn’t want a Wisdom Saving Throw Spell to utterly destroy your bard without some resistance, right? Pick up a Cloak of Protection, Mantle of Resistance, Ring of Spell Turning, or other magical items to help you defend yourself!

Elven Chain

For Bards, getting to high AC usually involves a lot of Dexterity investment, or going to a College which grants you armor proficiency. Elven Chain allows you to slip by with 16 AC base with only 14 Dexterity! You don’t need to be proficient in the armor to wear it, but is a somewhat mediocre increase to defense. Still, some of the best AC a bard can get without going to school for it.

Ring of Spell Storing

Interchangeable with Pearl of Power, this Ring will let you store a few more spell levels into it. Great for when you outgrow the pearl, since that item is less rare but much weaker in overall power.

Ruby of the War Mage

This item allows you to use a weapon for a spellcasting focus. Good for you, Valor bards! But, be careful; this takes an entire attunement slot for a relatively minor benefit. If your DM is bad with somatic items and weapons, though… This might be for you.

Winged Boots

The Bard is one of the few casters with limited access to the Fly Spell (though, an Instrument of the Bards can help with that). Winged Boots gives you easy access to flight, which increases your mobility dramatically. Better for aiming your spells around obstacles, too! And you don’t have to deal with as many melee goons. Win-win-win!

Other Magic Items

Cube of Force

The Cube of Force gives you something the bard desperately needs in many situations; time. By activating the cube, you can make it so that living matter can’t attack you, or spells, or even anything. Do you know how hard it is to have a perfect shield? This can let your party members figure out a plan, keep you up while you heal your party, or allow you to buff your party from the safety of a massive forceshield.

Deck of Illusions

A potent distraction tool. DC 15 is hard to reach, especially with Intelligence. You’re going to trick a lot of people with a deck of cards that have a lot of options. Then, you can follow up with spells to make the illusion seem even more real!

Instruments of the Bards

There are 7 Instruments of the Bards, Bard-only tools that allow you to more easily cast bardic Charm spells. In addition, they each have a ton of spells on them that a Bard can cast for free. All 7 of them can cast Fly, Invisibility, Levitate, and Protection from Evil and Good. These are fantastic utility and problem solving tools for any self-respecting bard.

Mastery Ioun Stone

+1 to your DCs, spell attack rolls, attack rolls, skill checks… This is the best Ioun stone in the game. And the Bard makes by far the best use out of it! It’s an extremely big upgrade for any Expertise class.

Portable Hole

You know when the party looks around to desperately escape a terrible situation? Bards don’t have great access to teleport or emergency spells, so a Portable Hole can be exactly what you need to use to escape out of a bad situation. You can also use a Portable Hole to smuggle people around, without it being as obvious as a Bag of Holding. Great problem solving tool!

Robe of Useful Items

Not only is this item quirky enough to make any bard happy; it can really come in handy! Depending on the patches on this thing, you can always have a random solution to a problem spring up, just because this robe exists!

Tome of Leadership and Influence

You might be the best candidate for this tome. While Warlocks and Sorcerers might bicker about their spells… You have spells too. And Bardic Inspiration. And better skills than they do. You are probably the best option for this thing. So fight for it!

Conclusions

The Bard doesn’t really need much for magic items. They have incredibly handy magical spells that allow them to do great in all manner of situations. However, gathering magical items to make them even better inside and outside of combat will make you the favorite member of any given team.