The Best Magic Items for Monks in Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) 5e

Magic items in Dungeons and Dragons are meant as magical rewards for adventuring and exploring your campaign. Every D&D campaign is full of great loot placed by your DM, but if you ever have a pile of gold burning a whole in your pocket and are looking for somewhere to put it all, here are some suggestions!

Whether you are a player looking for the best items for your character, or a DM who is looking to tailor the loot in your campaign to the classes your party is playing, here is the perfect list for magical items for Monks in Dungeons and Dragons 5e that every monk is gonna want to attune to!

Winged Boots:

With the exception of a couple of subclasses, one of the Monk’s primary weaknesses in 5e is their inability to combat flying targets well. Monks have access to some ranged attacks, but they are far less effective than their melee abilities. Monks have exceptional speed and maneuverability, but this usually ends once a foe leaves the ground. Enter the Winged Boots, an uncommon item that gives you a flying speed. While it doesn’t allow for the ability to Hover unlike some other methods of flight, it will allow you to move fairly quickly and catch up to those pesky flying creatures hitting you from the air.

Amulet of Health:

Monks have a pretty mid tier hit die, and aren’t exceptional tanks, but work better as fast moving strikers that can move in and out of combat effectively. However, if your monk is one of the only frontliners in your group, or if you don’t have a dedicated ‘tank’ in the party, then picking up an Amulet of Health is a very effective way to put yourself on the same footing as higher Hit Die classes like the Paladin, Fighter and Barbarian.

Boots of Elvenkind:

For the monk that specializes a little more on the skill-monkey side of the game. The Boots of Elvenkind give you advantage on stealth checks, allowing your monk to get the drop on their opponents. Surprise gives you advantage, and may let you stunning strike key opponents before anyone even has the chance to move. Never underestimate the power of moving before your enemies.

Bracers of Defense:

Fairly simple, these bracers give you a +2 bonus to Armor Class, but can’t be worn by anyone who uses armor. As such, these are a key item for higher level monks to not get outclassed by magical armor and shields that the other frontliners are wearing. If you ever outgrow this item and one of the arcane casters in your party is in need of an AC boost, you can always pass this item onto them!

Insignia of Claws:

This magic item comes out of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, they are an uncommon item that is great for low level combats. Giving both a +1 to attack and damage rolls to unarmed strikes and natural weapons as well as making your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purposes of resistances. This magic item is like getting your own +1 weapon for your fists, a very effective low level item!

Ring of Free Action:

This ring allows you to ignore difficult terrain which keeps you doing speedy monk things. But, far far more importantly, it makes it so magic can neither lower your speed, nor cause you to be paralyzed or restrained. This keeps you mobile and on the field, and essentially makes you immune to things like the Entangle Spell or Hold Person. This is one of the better Rings in the game, and for a monk it is an absolute game changer, get this item as soon as possible.

Cloak of Displacement:

The Cloak of Displacement gives opponents disadvantage to hit you on all attack rolls until the first time you are hit, at which point the cloak stops working. Effectively, until you are hit, this allows you to have Patient Defense going at all times without spending a key point. This is an extremely effective way to keep your monk alive a little longer, and is one of my personal favorite items in the game besides!

Staff of Striking

This quarterstaff is a very rare item, so don’t expect your DM to hand it out in the short term, but if you are looking for a solid capstone magic item for your campaign, look no further. The Staff of Striking counts as a +3 quarterstaff, which is already an excellent choice for a weapon. But, above and beyond that, the staff has 10 charges and regains 1d6+4 of those at dawn. These charges can be expended on a hit to deal extra force damage. Up to three charges can be expended at a time, dealing an additional 1d6 additional force damage at a time when you do. Like most staffs you don’t want to expend the last charge, because if you do, you’ll have to roll a d20 and on a 1, the staff becomes a non magical quarterstaff. That being said, as a character who can drop four attacks in a round on an opponent that you need to blitz, it’s not difficult to pump the entire staff into a creature and take them out of the fight early. Not to mention that only a couple creatures in the entire game have any resistance or immunity to Force damage.

So there you have it, a short, and certainly not comprehensive list of magic items that every monk should be on the lookout for! Go forth and spend your gold with a little more insight on what might help you going forward!

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• Backstory Ideas for Monks
• Best Feats for Monks

If you want to read my other articles on Magic Items, follow the links below;

• Barbarian
• Bard
• Cleric
• Druid
• Fighter
• Monk
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Rogue
• Sorcerer
• Warlock
• Wizard