Analysing all the best magic item options for a fighter.
Everyone loves a magic item in D&D. They come with brand new capabilities and enhancements that make your hero even more heroic. But not everyone loves trawling through the hundreds of possible magic items you could purchase from Sorcerous Sundries or whatever other adventurer’s store you stumble across. Even DMs may want a bit of help finding the right magic items to tuck away in their mega dungeon.
To help you narrow down your search, I’ve reviewed the magic items published for D&D 2024 and suggested what I think are the best options for a fighter. I’ve organised these by rarity so characters of different levels have options they can pick from and I’ve included a range of options and a summary of each item to make it easier for you to choose which to take. I’ve not included common magic items as their effects are too small to be specific to one particular class.
Uncommon magic items
Boots of striding and springing
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 400gp
Abilities: 30ft speed and 20ft extra move distance each turn through jumping.
Analysis: With these boots, you can move 20ft further than normal by jumping around. The 30ft jump they provide only uses 10ft of movement leaving the rest of your movement to walk/jog. You can close down enemies quicker, chase down enemies that run away and get around the battlefield more easily.
Cloak of protection
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 400gp
Abilities: +1 AC and saving throws.
Analysis: As frontline warriors, fighters can do with all the protection they can get. This is a pretty decent resilience buff for the cost.
Enspelled armor
Type: Armor
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Armor+400gp
Abilities: Armor that can cast a cantrip or level 1 spell with 6 charges.
Analysis: Grab shield or shield of faith if you can for this and you’ve got some hefty protection that won’t rely on a strong spell DC and will work nicely at higher levels too. Armor of Agathys and healing word are decent options too.
Enspelled weapon
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+400gp
Abilities: Can cast a cantrip or level 1 spell that’s determined at creation with 6 charges.
Analysis: Grab something like burning hands, divine smite, hellish rebuke, hunter’s mark, searing smite, thunderous smite, thunderwave or wrathful smite. 6 charges is a lot and most of these can be made in combination with your normal attacks or give you a solid AoE option for crowds.
Gloves of missile snaring
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 400gp
Abilities: Reduce damage from ranged and thrown weapon attacks by 1d10 + dexterity modifier by using a reaction.
Analysis: If you’ve gone for a dexterity build, this can reduce some incoming damage to up your resilience. If you’ve built for opportunity attacks (say from the sentinel feat), you may find some conflict in reaction uses though.
Headband of intellect
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 400gp
Abilities: Makes your intelligence 19
Analysis: If you’ve taken an intelligence subclass like an eldritch knight or psi warrior, then you may want a boost to your intelligence. It can be tricky to get intelligence this high, especially if you want to take some feats so this makes a good workaround.
Helm of awareness
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: No
Cost: 400gp
Abilities: Advantage on initiative rolls
Analysis: Taking your turn earlier in combat is always a good thing and this will provide a decent boost here.
Returning weapon
Type: Weapon
Attunement: No
Cost: Weapon+400gp
Abilities: +1 to attack and damage rolls and weapon returns to your hand after making a ranged attack.
Analysis: Great for ranged attacks where you want to continuously get a boost to your attack and damage rolls, especially fighters wanting to use thrown weapon fighting a lot.
Ring of jumping
Type: Ring
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 400gp
Abilities: Can cast the jump spell on yourself.
Analysis: Not quite as good as the boots of striding and springing, but roughly the same effect. Basically you can travel further on your turns. There’s no limit to how often you can use the spell, you’ll just need a spare action to activate it.
Sentinel shield
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: No
Cost: 400gp
Abilities: Advantage on initiative rolls and perception checks.
Analysis: Slightly better than the helm of awareness as you also get advantage on perception checks too. If you want to spot things more and roll better for initiative, this is a great option.
Shield +1
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: No
Cost: Armor+400gp
Abilities: An additional +1 to AC
Analysis: More AC is always good for a frontline warrior. Great for sword and board builds.
Spiked shield
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Armor+400gp
Abilities: Make a 2d6 + strength modifier attack with the shield in place of another weapon attack and a once per day AoE cone of damage.
Analysis: Great if you want to get some of the damage of a greatsword while wielding a shield. You also get the occasional AoE damage dealer for a bit of crowd control.
Stone of good luck (luckstone)
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 400gp
Abilities: +1 to ability checks and saving throws.
Analysis: Great for some extra resilience. Fighters aren’t big on skill checks, but you will still be making them so this remains a good perk too.
Weapon +1
Type: Weapon
Attunement: No
Cost: Weapon+400gp
Abilities: +1 to attack and damage rolls.
Analysis: A decent boost to your attacks is always handy for a class that will almost always be making weapon attacks.
Weapon of warning
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+400gp
Abilities: Wakes you and allies when combat begins and you and allies have advantage on initiative rolls.
Analysis: Probably the best initiative booster when it comes to uncommon magic items as it helps allies as well as yourself. Better initiative means basically an extra turn ahead of enemies which is always useful.
Winged boots
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 400gp
Abilities: 1 hour of flight with 4 charges.
Analysis: Flight is useful for everyone. It can be used in and out of combat for scouting, burglary and even just fighting flying creatures.
Rare magic items
Armor +1
Type: Armor
Attunement: No
Cost: Armor+4,000gp
Abilities: +1 AC.
Analysis: More resilience is always good, but especially for a frontline warrior who will attract a lot of attacks.
Arrow catching shield
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Armor+4,000gp
Abilities: An additional +2 AC against ranged attacks and can use a reaction to become the target of ranged attacks against allies 5ft away.
Analysis: A pretty strong boost in AC against ranged attacks. Works great for sword and board builds that act as protectors. You’ll need to be highly resilient to pull this off as you’ll be attracting more attacks. You’ll also want to be attacking on the frontlines alongside an ally to gain the benefits.
Bead of force
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: No
Cost: 2,000gp
Abilities: Can be thrown to cause 5d4 damage in a 10ft sphere and trap creatures inside for 1 minute.
Analysis: A great option for battlefield control. You can trap some enemies in the sphere while you deal with the rest of the enemies. And there’s no concentration required. Just be aware these aren’t rechargeable.
Belt of dwarvenkind
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 4,000gp
Abilities: +2 constitution, poison resistance, advantage against the poisoned condition, darkvision and a few other, minor benefits.
Analysis: The main thing for a fighter is the extra resilience. This can save you a couple of ability score increases allowing you to focus on other ability scores or grab feats instead. There are a few extra benefits, but you’re mainly here for the resilience.
Boots of speed
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 4,000gp
Attributes: 10 minutes of double speed and disadvantage on opportunity attacks against you per long rest.
Analysis: Being quicker will let you close down enemies faster and allow you to move to the most crucial parts of the battlefield more easily (say within axe swinging range of the enemy spellcaster). You can easily switch the boots on and off so that they last for every encounter in a day.
Cloak of displacement
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 4,000gp
Abilities: Attacks against you have disadvantage until you’re hit. This ability works again at the beginning of each turn.
Analysis: This won’t help you against saving throws, but it will against quite a lot of attacks. The higher your AC is, the bigger the impact this will have too as you’ll maintain the disadvantage longer making this extra powerful on shield builds.
Cube of force
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 4,000gp
Abilities: Cast spells including mage armor, shield, Leomund’s tiny hut, Mordenkainen’s inner sanctum, Otiluke’s resilient sphere and wall of force using its 10 charges.
Analysis: Easy access to the shield spell is great for a fighter. Most of the other spells provide some decent utility. The only weak option for a fighter is mage armor, but you can just not use that spell. The DC of 17 is decent too.
Dazzling weapon
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+4,000gp
Abilities: +1 to damage and attack rolls, sheds light and can sometimes use a reaction to cause blinded for a turn against attackers.
Analysis: The improved attack and damage rolls can be gained from much cheaper magical weapons, but combining this with reaction blinded conditions can temporarily make enemies less effective and more vulnerable. Plus it only costs a reaction to use.
Enspelled weapon
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+4,000gp
Abilities: A weapon with 6 charges that can cast a 2nd or 3rd level spell.
Analysis: You really only want spell options that can be used without preventing you making attacks (like blinding smite) or that can be more powerful than your attacks (like fireball). If you can get these, then this is a solid option.
Flame tongue
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+4,000gp
Abilities: Deals an extra 2d6 fire damage and sheds light.
Analysis: This is a fairly substantial boost to damage. It won’t boost attack rolls like the +2 weapon so won’t be as accurate, but will definitely hit harder.
Mantle of spell resistance
Type: Wondrous item
Cost: 4,000gp
Abilities: Advantage on saving throws against spells.
Analysis: Fighters need plenty of resilience and becoming more resilient to spells will help you last longer.
Ring of evasion
Type: Ring
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 4,000gp
Abilities: Succeed on a failed dexterity saving throw by using a reaction. It has 3 charges.
Analysis: Failed dexterity saving throws can often be very damaging as these often include AoE damage dealers like fireball. That makes this a strong resilience option.
Ring of protection
Type: Ring
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 4,000gp
Abilities: +1 to AC and saving throws.
Analysis: Solid resilience boost, especially as it aids both AC and saving throws.
Shield +2
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: No
Cost: Armor+4,000gp
Abilities: An extra +2 to AC.
Analysis: More protection is always better for a frontline warrior.
Shield of missile attraction
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Armor+4,000gp
Abilities: Resistance to damage from ranged attacks. There’s also a curse that causes attacks from ranged weapons against targets 10ft from you to target you instead.
Analysis: Despite the curse, I think this is actually quite good if you’re the party tank. You’ll be reducing damage by half from those ranged attacks and ensuring the attacks intended for allied rogues, monks and others, actually go for you. This is a high risk strategy so maybe have a cleric on standby, but it could work very well.
Sun blade
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+4,000gp
Abilities: +2 for attack and damage rolls, +1d8 damage against undead, deals radiant damage and sheds light.
Analysis: Basically an enhanced weapon +2 but it’s limited to being a longsword so best for sword and shield builds. It does require attunement which is the downside Vs a +2 weapon. It’s best against undead though.
Sword of wounding
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+4,000gp
Abilities: +2d6 necrotic damage and may prevent healing.
Analysis: This is especially potent on a fighter as the extra damage occurs on each hit and fighters tend to have a lot of attacks.
Vicious weapon
Type: Weapon
Attunement: No
Cost: Weapon+4,000gp
Abilities: +2d6 damage.
Analysis: Kind of a lesser version of the sword of wounding as there’s no healing prevention and the damage type isn’t necrotic, but it doesn’t need attunement. Useful if you’re already attuned to a decent number of objects.
Weapon +2
Type: Weapon
Attunement: No
Cost: Weapon+4,000gp
Abilities: +2 to attack and damage rolls.
Analysis: Straightforward boost to your attacks and damage rolls is great and no attunement required.
Very rare magic items
Animated shield
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 40,000gp
Abilities: Can float and protect you leaving your hands free for other things.
Analysis: Ever wanted the protection of a shield and the damage dealing of a two handed weapon or two weapon fighting? Well you can with an animated shield. If the choice is between this and some armor +2 though, you might as well go with the armor to spare your attunement. If you can combine both though, then you could become really hard to hit. This works best when you want a combination of things working in your favour.
Armor +2
Type: Armor
Attunement: No
Cost: Armor+40,000gp
Abilities: +2 AC.
Analysis: Straightforward AC boost is great and leaves your attunement for other things.
Belt of giant strength (frost, stone or fire)
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 40,000gp
Abilities: Makes your strength 23 or 25.
Analysis: One of just a few ways to get your strength above 20 at normal levels of play. It means up to +2 to weapon attacks but also improved strength saving throws and ability checks as well as a few other things.
Dancing sword
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+40,0000gp
Abilities: Flies and attacks on your command with a bonus action.
Analysis: Basically a free attack. Fighters often have a spare bonus action and it can be filled nicely with another attack. Dual wielders won’t want this if they already have the dual wielder feat or if your bonus action is regularly occupied in some other way. You might as well make this the most potent weapon you can (so a greatsword).
Dwarven thrower
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 40,000gp
Abilities: +3 to attack and damage rolls and 1d8 extra force damage (or 2d8 against giants) it also returns to the wielders hand when thrown.
Analysis: Great for strength builds that need a ranged weapon or just a powerful melee weapon too. It’s considerably better than a +3 weapon with its extra damage and returning property. The only problem is you need to be a dwarf or have the belt of dwarvenkind. Fortunately, the belt of dwarvenkind is also quite good and much cheaper.
Enspelled weapon
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon +40,000gp
Abilities: Gain 6 charges to cast a level 4 or 5 spell.
Analysis: This will get you a weapon infused with 6 charges of a 4th or 5th level spell. Banishing smite and steel wind strike can be good, but there’s also loads of utility here too with wall spells, polymorph and more.
Executioner’s axe
Type: Weapon
Attunement: No
Cost: Weapon+40,000gp
Abilities: +1 to attack and damage rolls and an extra 2d6 damage and temporary hit points.
Analysis: Some strong extra damage and protection and it’ll be easy to keep replenishing this. The only problem is it’s limited to humanoids, but they’re often around for executing. It’s one of the more powerful options that doesn’t require attunement too.
Manual of bodily health
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: No
Cost: 20,000gp
Abilities: +2 constitution (up to 30).
Analysis: This is a permanent constitution boost that can also take you beyond the usual 20 constitution making it something best saved for when at 20 constitution. Great on a class that often relies on being tough and has extra ability score increases to get them up to 20 quickly.
Manual of gainful exercise
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: No
Cost: 20,000gp
Abilities: +2 strength (up to 30).
Analysis: Like other manuals, the effect is permanent and doesn’t require attunement and will stack with other magical weapon effects that enhance attack rolls. Again, it works best for characters with 20 strength to get them beyond the normal threshold. Great for a strength build.
Manual of quickness of action
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: No
Cost: 20,000gp
Abilities: +2 dexterity (up to 30).
Analysis: Good on a dexterity build if you’ve gone that route. A permanent dexterity boost that doesn’t require attunement and can take you above 20. For this reason, it works best on characters already at 20 dexterity.
Oathbow
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+40,000gp
Abilities: Advantage on attack rolls, ignore cover, deal an extra 3d6 damage and no disadvantage at long range against a sworn enemy with this weapon.
Analysis: If you’re a ranged build and tend to focus fire on an enemy rather than spread attacks against multiple enemies, then this can be really good to make it much easier to hit and damage them. Sworn enemy is easy to activate against whatever enemy you want as it activates when you make an attack so you can kill a creature with one attack that’s you’re sworn enemy, set it on a new creature with your next attack, kill them and then activate it on another creature so it’s much easier to keep a sworn enemy than something like hunter’s mark which requires your bonus action.
Shield +3
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: No
Cost: Armor+40,000gp
Abilities: Additional +3 to AC
Analysis: Really strong boost to AC making you more resilient. Great for sword and shield builds.
Shield of the cavalier
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Armor+40,000gp
Abilities: +2 AC on top of what you normally gain from a shield, a shield attack that can push and a protective field that can prevent enemies getting close or from getting away.
Analysis: Solid defence and the damage is more than you can normally accomplish with one handed weapons. The emanation can be an interesting way to keep enemies close and other enemies away.
Spellguard shield
Type: Armor (shield)
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Armor+40,000gp
Abilities: Advantage on spell saving throws and spell attacks have disadvantage against you.
Analysis: If you want a lot of resilience against spells, then this is really good, severely reducing their effectiveness against you. It’s less good on something like a Gnome that is already quite resilient against magic.
Staff of striking
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 40,000gp
Abilities: +3 to attack and damage rolls and you can expend charges for an extra d6 damage.
Analysis: Essentially, this is a better weapon +3 but it’s limited to a quarterstaff and requires attunement. If you can work with that, then this is great.
Weapon +3
Type: Weapon
Attunement: No
Cost: Weapon+40,000gp
Abilities: +3 to attack and damage rolls.
Analysis: More accuracy and damage is always good on a fighter, especially as this is multiplied by the number of attacks they get.
Legendary magic items
Armor +3
Type: Armor
Attunement: No
Cost: Armor+200,000gp
Abilities: +3 AC.
Analysis: A big boost to AC is always useful.
Armor of invulnerability
Type: Armor
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Armor+200,000gp
Abilities: Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and splashing damage. You can also activate it for 10 minutes to grant immunity to these damage types.
Analysis: At high levels, some creatures will be hitting so easily that boosted AC may be less worthwhile than simply reducing the damage you receive. This is great for that damage reduction.
Belt of giant strength (cloud and storm)
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 200,000gp
Abilities: Makes your strength 27 or 29.
Analysis: One of few ways to get your strength beyond 20 before level 20 and this is quite a big boost to that. You can even pair it with magic weapons for a double boost to accuracy and damage.
Defender
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 200,000gp
Abilities: +3 to attack and damage rolls which can be transferred to your AC instead.
Analysis: If you want the flexibility of hitting harder or being tougher, then this manages that nicely.
Enspelled weapon
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+200,000gp
Abilities: 6 charges that can be used to cast a 6th, 7th or 8th level spell.
Analysis: Get a really powerful spell to keep casting at enemies. You don’t need to worry about your spellcasting ability either as the weapon handles that. Spells like eyebite, prismatic spray and sunburst could all be useful options for a fighter.
Hammer of thunderbolts
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+200,000gp
Abilities: +1 to attack and damage rolls and can cause creatures 30ft from a target to be stunned for a turn. Has additional benefits when combined with the belt of giant strength or gauntlets of ogre power.
Analysis: The attack and damage boost isn’t that much for this rarity. Really, you’re here for the big stun area you can cause which could debilitate a lot of creatures for a round.
Iron flask
Type: Wondrous item
Attunement: No
Cost: 200,000gp
Abilities: Trap a creature inside and command it for an hour when released.
Analysis: Find the nastiest creature you can (preferably with a low wisdom and without legendary resistance) and use this to trap them. You can then unleash them on your next foe. There’s potential to trap some really nasty creatures, but they must be native to another plane of existence.
Luck blade
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+200,000gp
Abilities: +1 to attack and damage rolls and saving throws. You can also reroll a d20 once per day and can cast wish 1d3 times.
Analysis: A small boost to attacks and saving throws is handy and the d20 reroll is really useful, especially as it will stack with advantage. 3 castings of wish is the main thing though as the most powerful spell in the game.
Moonblade
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Weapon+200,000gp
Abilities: Random set of properties determined by how many wielders it’s had and rolling on the properties table. These include things like enhanced attack and damage rolls, extra force damage, easier critical hits, the thrown property and spell storing.
Analysis: A moonblade can be a little weak at this rarity, or very strong depending on how well you roll. It could be a +3 weapon with an extra 3d6 force damage and that crits on a 19 or it could just have the thrown property and be a +1 weapon.
Ring of invisibility
Type: Ring
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 200,000gp
Abilities: Turns you invisible.
Analysis: This invisibility can be active as much as you want which means advantage on attack rolls against anything that doesn’t have blindsight or some other way to see invisibility and attack rolls will have disadvantage against you.
Ring of spell turning
Type: Ring
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 200,000gp
Abilities: Advantage on saving throws against spells. Saving throw successes will cause no effect on you if they’re spells of level 7 or lower and if you’re the only target, can reflect the spell back at the caster.
Analysis: This has some really strong spell resilience properties and most spells thrown at you will be level 7 or less meaning this should be an option a fair bit. You may simply find yourself targeted by spells less as a result though.
Ring of three wishes
Type: Ring
Attunement: No
Cost: 200,000gp
Abilities: Can cast the wish spell 3 times.
Analysis: The wish spell is extremely powerful and a great option for anyone.
Sword of answering
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: 200,000gp
Abilities: +3 to attack and damage rolls. Can also take a reaction to make an enhanced melee attack against a creature that damages you.
Analysis: The standard damage boost from this weapon is equivalent to a +3 weapon (which is very rare) add to that what should be a consistent, additional attack most rounds that’s enhanced and there’s some strong increased accuracy and damage output here.
Artifacts
Axe of the dwarvish lords
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Priceless
Abilities: +3 to attack and damage rolls, extra damage on a critical, thrown and returning properties, additional force damage when thrown, darkvision, +2 constitution, immunity to poison damage, resistance to fire damage, summon an earth elemental, cast teleport and a few other minor features.
Analysis: This is definitely a legendary weapon and with all the attacks a fighter possesses, there’s no other class that can take advantage of the extra damage more than a fighter.
Blackrazor
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Priceless
Abilities: +3 to attack and damage rolls, damages you when hitting undead and heals them, immunity to charmed and frightened, 30ft blindsight, gain temporary hit points equal to a creature’s maximum when slaying them, can cast haste and is sentient.
Analysis: While it’s a decent sword without these features, the soul devouring feature that grants loads of temporary hit points is extremely powerful and really rewards you if you can land the killing blow on really tough enemies with a lot of HP, potentially granting you temporary hit points in the 100s! Haste is also great and will increase your damage output further.
Wand of Orcus
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Priceless
Abilities: +3 to attack and damage rolls, +2d12 necrotic damage, +3 AC, can cast animate dead, blight, circle fo death, finger of death, power word kill and speak with dead and can summon 30 undead creatures.
Analysis: So this is actually a better melee weapon than some other legendary weapons. For a fighter, I’d say you’re mostly here for the damage and attack roll boosts as well as the AC increase. Attuning to it relies on your constitution which is usually strong on a fighter. You can summon 30 undead creatures and cast some spells which might be more powerful than your weapon attacks at times.
Whelm
Type: Weapon
Attunement: Yes
Cost: Priceless
Abilities: +3 to attack and damage rolls, thrown and returning properties, +1d8 force damage when thrown and more against certain creature types, can cause stunned in a 60ft area that can last for 1 minute, can cast detect evil and good and locate object.
Analysis: While this is pretty good as a thrown warhammer, the best part of it is the shock wave which can avoid affecting allies, affects creatures in a huge 60ft radius and can last up to a minute. That’s some serious disabling and the main reason a fighter might want to wield Whelm.
That’s all the best magic items for a fighter in D&D 2024. Hopefully this helps you whittle down your options. Let me know if you have any favourite magic items for a fighter in the comments below.
