THE Dungeon Master Guide 2024 was released, and with it came hundreds of magical items to use in Dungeons and Dragons. Some are returning from old books, while others are entirely new. And some, although familiar, received important changes to its rules and wording that may affect how players use them.
Of course, many spells and items have had their rules changed with the introduction of “magic” actionwhich is now how many effects are activated. But these changes deal more with the minutiae of the items being changed, adjusting your damage output or increasing your requirements of the player characters. These ten items best summarize the changes that have occurred to the magic items in the new book.
10
Items like the water elemental control bowl no longer require a creature’s concentration
Summoning is easier to use with these new rules
A major change has occurred to many of the summoning-related items, including the water elemental commanders’ bowl. The bowl is one of four similar wondrous items that, in the ancient rules, allowed creatures to summon a water, fire, earth, or air elemental once per day. This depended on the “conjure elemental” spell, which requires concentration keep even with these magical items. Not only that, but losing concentration can actually result in the elemental activating in the summoner.
The new version of these items avoids this problem by not relying on a spell; instead, the item states that it summons an elemental for a time that occurs after the summoner. This means that no concentration is required and there is no chance of the elemental attacking the group. This change is reflected in many items, allowing users to focus on other spells while summoning help.
9
Weapons like the Moonblade can be more than just a sword
More variability for certain magical armaments
Another change seen across several items is that exclusive weapons are no longer restricted to a certain weapon type. Take the Moonblade, for example: a legendary longsword that bonds to its wielder and has runes that correspond to certain powers. Within the new rules, however, the Moonblade can be a short sword, rapier, scimitar or broadsword.
DMs can determine which weapon type the Moonblade comes in, adapting it to your players’ characters so it can work with more builds. This is true for many weapons now, making Legendary weapons usable for all character types. It’s a nice, low-key change that allows DMs to alter magical weapons so their players can get more out of them, without needing to change their fighting style to fit certain items.
8
The sharp sword cannot cut limbs
Decreasing the flavor – and severity – of certain items
Some items have lost some of the flavor that made them special, and the one who suffered especially from this is the sharp sword. This blade, which comes in shortsword or longsword variants, used to allow players to cut off enemies’ limbs when they attacked. It was a powerful skill that made critical hits feel impactful.
While the weapon is still strong, dealing extra damage on critical hits, it no longer has this unique ability. Now simply inflicts a level of exhaustion after a critical hit. It’s a strange change that makes the sharp sword less special. It’s especially strange that this part of the item was changed, given that the Vorpal Sword, which has a similar effect for decapitations, remains unchanged.
7
The sphere of annihilation is deadlier than ever
Increasing damage dice on certain effects
On many items and spells in 2024 D&D rules, damage dice increased. Reflects an overall shift in the game’s damage and healing balance, and It’s especially apparent in this book when looking at something like the Sphere of Annihilation. This sphere is a death machine, essentially a black hole that mages can control to destroy objects and creatures. The old version of the sphere was certainly strong, but this new variant is downright terrifying.
The damage the sphere deals when it touches something has been doubledfrom 4d10 to 8d10 force damage, an increase of approximately 20 points on average. Additionally, the save DC to avoid this damage has increased significantly, meaning it is more likely to kill creatures than before. This legendary item can be a great weapon for a campaign’s villain, the ultimate tool of destruction for an evil wizard or sorcerer.
6
Daern’s Instant Fortress is no longer an instant knockout
Changing the wording of certain rules
Daern’s Instant Fortress is intended to be a great defensive tool. But ironically, its use in earlier editions was often more offensive, as the wording of the rules allowed them to be created in the space of hostile creatures. This resulted in them having to make a dexterity saving throw, taking 10d10 damage on a failure. That’s a ton of damage that players could literally pull out of their pocket with this item, capable of going from a figurine to a fort in a single turn.
Although the fort can no longer crush enemies directly, it is still able to move them without a saving throw. This means it can be used to knock them off cliffs, into traps, or out of range for an attack of opportunity.
The new rules ensure that this is a purely defensive tool. Any creature in the fortress space when it appears is pushed harmlessly to the side, not suffering any damage from the impact. It’s true that the fort is still good for creating cover and defense against enemies, but taking away its ability to crush enemies certainly diminishes its usefulness.
5
Silver weapons are more than just a gimmick
Reworking simple magical equipment to make it more useful
Some older pieces or types of equipment D&D the rules have had effects on the world’s lore, but not too mechanically to reflect that. An example is silver weapons, which are capable of harming certain creatures, such as werewolves, which have immunity to physical damage. But normal magic weapons could do this toomaking it kind of unnecessary to get a silver weapon specifically.
Now at least the silver weapons have a little more oomph to go with their tradition. When used against a shapeshifting creature, critical hits with silver weapons deal an extra die of damage. This makes silvering something like a greataxe or spear especially useful in order to deal the most critical damage. It’s still not an overpowered option, but it gives silver weapons some extra power to match their flavor and sets them apart from others. magic weapons.
4
The Spell Rotation Ring is now much more powerful
Hurling spells back at enemies with reckless abandon
The Spell Spin Ring has gotten a major overhaul, making it a much better item for any type of character. The general purpose of the ring remains the same: to thwart the enemy sorcerer’s attempts to harm the wearer. The ring gives advantage on saving throws against spells and can even completely negate the effects of a spell. In the old rules, a spell’s effects were negated if it was below 7th level and the user scored a critical success on their save; Now, succeeding on any saving throw for a spell of 7th level or lower negates the effects, no crit required.
But that’s not all. The old version of the item cast the spell back to the caster when the user negated it, which only happened when they rolled a 20 on save. Now, the user can use a reaction to reflect the spell back, as long as the save is successful. Specifies that the spell must affect only one creature for this reaction to work; however, the old version of the item only protected against single-target spells, meaning it’s still a huge improvement.
3
The speed potion has lost its negative effects
Potions are now less punishing
Potions have had some small changes across the board, along with one major one: they now only require a bonus action to drink. But this was introduced in 2024 Player Handbook; node DM GuideSpecific potions have received some updates. One of them worth noting is the speed potion, which emulates the effects of the haste spell. Haste has an incredible effect on D&Dwith a crucial disadvantage: when the spell ends, causes a round of lethargy to the affected creature, essentially skipping one of its turns.
This makes using the haste spell risky, especially since it requires concentration to maintain it. Potions don’t require concentration, of course, but the old version of this potion would still cause that lethargy effect after it wore off. This could be detrimental if the battle lasted more than a minute. The new version of the potion simply omits the lethargy penalty, making this a much more attractive option for alchemists.
2
The force cube is basically a different item
A complete change of mechanics
No item has undergone more changes than the power cube, which is almost unrecognizable in its new form. The old version of the item was cool but clunky, with rules that had some interesting physics problems and issues about character spaces. The new version of the item is much clearer in its effects and abilities, opting for an approach that simply replicates familiar spells.
The cube has six sides, each of which has a button that can be pressed to cast a certain spell. The sides cost different amounts of charges to press, with the weaker side casting magic armor for one charge, while the stronger side casts wall of force for five. The old version of the cube basically created an invisible barrier around the user, which could keep certain things out based on which side was pressed. This version of the defensive tool makes it much easier to understand and play with.
1
The deck of many things is now even more tempting
Buy some new cards from this updated deck
Of the twenty-two official cards in the Many Things deck, four have received substantial changes to reflect the new rules of the game. These are the cards of balance, the fool, the sun and the comet, all related to somewhat controversial parts of the game like XP and alignment. The deck has a reputation among Dungeons and Dragons players as a game-breaker, and while it’s certainly still chaotic, the changes should at least prevent these four problematic cards from causing as many problems.
Older versions of these cards could grant or take away large amounts of experience, change a character’s alignment, or encourage them to fight alone instead of in a group. Neither of these effects were particularly good to play with, as they caused strange partisan imbalances, unwanted character changes, and encouraged uncooperative actions. The new versions of these cards in Dungeons and Dragons they’re still wild, but less annoying for the group and less of a headache for the DM running the game.