D&D: Five Magic Items For A Season Of Horrors
Lean into the horror of D&D’s Season of Horrors with these five magic items that are sure to play well with the spooky atmosphere.
The thing about horror is, not everything has to be blood and bones and ectoplasm to be spooky. That might be the general palette, but there are contrasting tones. For instance, a hero who tries to make the world a little brighter shines in a place of darkness.
Likewise, your magic items don’t have to be dripping with blood or skulls (though some of these are). You can have a magic lantern that reveals hidden things alongside the creepy, magical “spirit board” that claims it knows how you’re going to die. So here are five items that fit in the general vibe of horror, one way or another.
Lantern of Revealing
Speaking of lanterns that reveal things, a Lantern of Revealing is a great item for playing in the Season of Horrors, because one of the themes of horror is the unknown. Just look at horror movies that don’t let you see the full monster, only glimpses of it or what it does to its victims.
A lantern of revealing sheds light on things both literally and metaphorically, revealing invisible creatures and objects and the like within 30 feet of it. Of course, as any cosmic horror might tell you, take care when shining a light into the darkness… you might find something you wish you’d never seen before.
Baba Yaga’s Dancing Broom
What I like about Baba Yaga’s Dancing Broom is how readily it plays into the vibes. For one, an old timey broom is kind of inherently spooky to me. For two, brooms are automatically spooky because of their association with witches. And for three, it’s animated so it can go around and do stuff on its own, which makes it a fun way to play a witchy type hero. Whether it’s a wholesome positive thing or kind of eerie, it fits into a horror campaign in myriad ways.
Ivory Goats
We’re getting even more occult with this next item. The Ivory Goats are a set of three magical statuettes of goats. And it’s always threes. Something about the number three and also goats feels kind of folkloric, it calls to mind folk horror vibes.
Nevermind that the goats can come to life when you command them to. One becomes a giant goat you can ride on. One becomes a giant goat that will fight for you. And then there’s the Goat of Terror, which is the third goat that you can ride and whose horns you can break off and use as magic items to attack your enemies while your goat terrifies any who get near it.
Sun Blade
Back to the not dripping with spooky vibes side of things with the Sun Blade. This is a blade of literal sunlight that you can turn on and off like a fantasy lightsaber. It deals radiant damage and is a weapon made to fight the darkness; it’s especially potent in Ravenloft, because a Sun Blade’s dazzling brilliance is sunlight, and is as deadly to vampires and other creatures with sunlight sensitivities as the actual sun is.
Spirit Board
Then of course, yeah, absolutely, if you’re wanting to play up the Season of Horrors, you gotta give your party a Spirit Board. For one, it’s a cool magic item that gives you a lever you can pull to help the party in the form of castings of the Augury and Commune spells.
But two, consider that nothing’s stopping you from having other messages come through the magic Spirit Board by spirits of the restless or angry dead who lie just on the other side of the veil. Spooky messages and ominous, cryptic warnings are a DM’s best friend when it comes to horror.
What are your favorite magic items when doing a horror campaign?
