D&D: Five Magic Items That Are All About Making Friends
These magic items are a great way to add some friends to your party – even if only for just a little while.
In D&D, friendship is a powerful magic. And not just in the metaphorical sense. But in terms of mechanics as well – having more actions on your side often means winning. Even if the fight is against something that should be beyond your reach.
Quantity is a quality all its own, in other words. And these magic items are all about upping the quantity of your party, even if only temporarily. But still, being able to call upon a powerful ally is extremely strong. So keep an eye out for magic items like these!
Figurine Of Wondrous Power
First up, a tried and true D&D classic, the Figurines of Wondrous Power. These statuettes are small enough to fit into your pocket. But if you take a Magic action and throw them on the ground, they transform into living creatures, great and small, and they will fight alongside you or aid you in other capacities.
There’s a sizable spread, including:
- Bronze Griffon – Summon a Griffon
- Ebony Fly – Summon a Giant Fly to ride on
- Golden Lions – Summon one or two Lions
- Ivory Goats – Three goats: one is a mount, one has horns that are magic weapons, one is a Giant Goat
- Marble Elephant – Summon an Elephant
- Obsidian Steed – Summon a Nightmare that might take you to hell
- Onyx Dog – Summon a very good boy
- Serpentine Owl – Summon a Giant Owl that is telepathic
- Silver Raven – Summon a Raven
Manual of Golems
Of course the Manual of Golems is a little bit mor eliterally about making friends. These magic items are single-use, and take a while to take effect, but boy are they worth it. A single Golem Manual comes with the recipe to make your very own golem. You can find flesh, stone, iron, or clay varieties and haveto sp end anywhere from 30-120 days working on it, and anywhere from 50,000-100,000 gp to complete your task.
But when you do, and the book turns to agical ash that you sprinkle on the golem you’ve just been making, you gain a potent ally in the form of a golem that is completely under your control and understands your commands. You do have to have at least two level 5 Spell Slots to be able to use the manual. Still, what a friend you’ll have made.
Quaal’s Feather Token
Quaal’s Feather Tokens are another example of an old school magic item that’s still kicking to this day. These are a series of magical feather tokens that you can spend to conjure up all sorts of wondrous effects, many surprisingly boat related.
But one of these tokens is among the most powerful “summon a friend” type magic item in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and that is the Bird fether token. The Bird token, when used, takes only a single Magic action. And when you do so, an enormous, multicolored bird appears that uses the statistics of a Roc.
So not only do you get a giant bird, you get an ally that can fly your party to wherever it needs to go.
Baba Yaga’s Dancing Broom
Baba Yaga’s Dancing Broom is a newer category of magic item. These were all crafted by the great Archfey, Baba Yaga. No two brooms are exactly alike, but that’s fine because they all do the exact same thing: transform into an Animated Broom that then fights under your control.
They pack a decent punch, and act on their own immediately after you. You can decide what action it’s ging to take, and can revert it back to a broom as a Bonus Action, which you’ll want to do if the Animated Broom is getting low on hit points. Do so before it hits 0 hit points, and it heals to full, let it hit 0 and the broom shatters forever and you’ll realize just how much you care about this little broom guy.
Iron Flask
The ultimate “make a friend” item, the Iron Flask is basically D&D’s equivalent of a Pokeball. You can use it to capture various creatures that you encounter in the wilds, and then later in combat, you can release them to fight on your behalf. But watch out because there are a few key differences.
The iron flask, for instance, can only capture a creature that is native to a plane other than the one you’re currently on. Also the creature you capture gets a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw to avoid being trapped. Once trapped, you get a whole hour of a completely loyal ally – after an hour, the creature acts normally. Unless you put it back in the flask.
Happy adventuring!
