The Best Magic Items For Monks In DND

Key Takeaways

• Monks can utilize unique magic items like Cloak of the Mountebank for mobility and stealth advantages.
• Items like the Quarterstaff of the Acrobat and Cloak of Arachnida offer versatility in combat situations for monks.
• Monks benefit from items like Bracers of Defense and Dimensional Shackles, enhancing their abilities and survivability.

Monks are one of the more oddball classes in Dungeons & Dragons, which leads to them struggling to find a use for many magic items that other character classes are happy to receive. The good news is that a monk already has access to many things that other players need magic items to achieve.

The bad news is that for each one of these features a monk receives inherently, other classes receive some other bonus that is much more compatible with the majority of magic items. But there are still several magic items that monks can get a lot of mileage out of.

Updated on December 5, 2024 by Alfredo Robelo: The release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook made monks one of the best classes in the game, improving its damage output in the early and late stages of a campaign. We’ve updated this article with even more items to help all the new practitioners of the monastic traditions.

17

Cape Of The Mountebank

Disappear In A Puff Of Smoke

The Cape of the Mountebank offers mobility and subterfuge, things that the naturally dexterous monks already do well. The cape allows the user to cast Dimension Door once per dawn, and leaves a cloud of smoke when you use the spell that makes that area lightly obscured.

How you use this ability is up to you, but the Cape can make for an outstanding way of leaving a compromised situation, either for you or for an ally. Dimension Door lets you take a willing ally with you, after all, so you can dash to a surrounded friend and get them out of harm’s way.

16

Quarterstaff Of The Acrobat

Goku’s Power Pole

This weapon gives monks some much-needed range, since it can be used as a thrown weapon that goes back to your hand whenever used in this way. It can also extend to become a ten-foot pole, meant to be used for acrobatic purposes, but it might extend your melee range for that much, should your Dungeon Master allow it.

Beyond that, the quarterstaff can also emit dim light, raise your AC by five against a single attack, and give you advantage on acrobatic checks. All that while also being a plus two weapon, so unless you really want to be a weaponless monk, this quarterstaff is a must-have.

15

Cloak Of Arachnida

Walk On Walls

The Cloak of Arachnida offers quite a few perks for a single item, although some of them may vary in their use depending on your adventures. You can walk on webs without being stuck in them, cast your own version of the Web spell, and gain resistance to poison damage.

The main reason this is one of the best magic items for a monk, however, is because it gives the wearer spider walk, letting them walk through walls and ceilings while leaving their hands free. This lets monks chase monsters wherever they may go, fighting vampires on equal footing or dropping down on unsuspecting enemies from the roof.

14

Bracers Of Flying Daggers

Nonflying Daggers Just Don’t Cut It Anymore

These magical Bracers allow you to conjure two magical daggers and throw them as an action. Monks really don’t have a good option as far as ranged attacks are concerned, seeing as they are so focused on going full Bruce Lee on any opponent they encounter. Unfortunately, some enemies, such as those that fly, can’t be reached by your monk’s fists of fury.

In cases like these, it can make all the difference in the world that a Monk has access to a passable ranged attack instead of having to rely on a crossbow. The fact that the magical daggers will overcome many monster resistances to non-magical bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage is also huge. Furthermore, the bracers never run out of daggers, so your monk doesn’t have to worry about retrieving the ones he throws.

13

Blood Spear

It’s Just Ketchup, I Swear!

Weapons on the whole are tricky for monks, especially seeing as they don’t have proficiency in martial weapons. Thankfully, the spear is a simple weapon that monks can use. The Blood Spear comes from the Curse of Strahd module and has an interesting bit of lore that you can adapt to your campaign as you see fit.

Despite being an uncommon rarity item, this weapon gives a surprisingly strong +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls where most other weapons of the same rarity only provide a +1. Furthermore, attacks made with this spear that kill an enemy benefit you with 2d6 temporary hit points. Seeing as monks are front-line fighters with rather low AC (armor class), they can use the temporary hit points better than most.

12

Boots Of Striding And Springing

A Bouncy House In Your Boots

While monks may be known across other entertainment media as jumping acrobats capable of leaping ridiculous heights, the rules of Dungeons & Dragons don’t really allow for this. It’s an unfortunate side effect of jump distances being based on a character’s Strength score rather than their Dexterity.

Thankfully, the Boots of Striding and Springing can amend this error for any monk interested in leaping ridiculous distances. These boots increase a character’s jumping distance by three times what it would normally be. This allows a monk with a Strength score of only ten to long jump 30 feet and high jump up to ten feet. Not too shabby, eh?

11

Delver’s Claws

I Am Become Mole

These claws turn every battlefield into a three-dimensional environment by giving their wearer a burrow speed equal to their walking speed. Pair this item with a monk’s high movement speed, and you’ve just completely changed the way a player’s character works by granting them the ability to dig holes underneath their opponents.

The gloves also bestow blindsight up to 15 feet, which makes the monk wielding these gloves partially immune to the blinded condition. Lastly, you can use an action once per long rest to spend and roll unspent Hit Dice equal to half your proficiency bonus. You then regain hit points equal to the roll plus your Constitution mod.

10

Bracers Of Defense

Who Needs Armor When You Have Bracers?

Since monks may tend to have low AC, the Bracers of Defense are one of the few ways for classes that don’t use armor to increase their armor class. These bracers give you a +2 bonus to your AC as long as you’re not wearing armor and not wielding a shield.

Simple but quite good nonetheless. Furthermore, this is one of those items that monks won’t have to fight with other players over unless you’ve got the greediest of goblins at your table.

9

Dimensional Shackles

No Escape

Seeing as monks are one of the most mobile classes in the game, they’re also one of the best at chasing down slippery enemies. The Dimensional Shackles allow a monk to actually capture an enemy they’re chasing down thanks to the fact that the monk’s stunning strike temporarily incapacitates a creature.

As an action, you can attach the dimensional shackles to one incapacitated creature. The shackles will fit a creature from small to large size as they magically adjust to the proper sizing. Once these shackles are on a creature, they aren’t going anywhere fast. That’s because the shackles prevent teleportation magic and extradimensional movement. In fact, the only way to get them off is by succeeding on a DC 30 Athletics check, and this check can only be attempted once every 30 days.

8

Bracers Of Celerity

Honestly, Anklets Would Have Made More Sense

If there’s one thing that monks do better than any other class in the game, it’s movement. These bracers increase a monk’s speed by ten feet while also giving them advantage against saving throws made to resist or end the paralyzed and restrained conditions.

A monk that gets locked in place on the battlefield is a pretty darn useless monk. Consequently, this item is a great safety precaution against some of the worst conditions a monk can suffer. However, it’s important to keep in mind that these Bracers won’t help at all against an opponent that goes for a straightforward grapple.

7

Cloak Of Displacement

Now You See Me, Now You See Me Again

Why settle for a +2 to AC though when you can instead impose a disadvantage on most enemy attacks? The Cloak of Displacement provides its wearer with the uncanny ability to project an image of yourself that makes you appear to be standing somewhere else. Consequently, attacks made against you while wearing the cloak are made at a disadvantage.

Unfortunately, once you do take damage while wearing the cloak it doesn’t function again until the start of your next turn. Furthermore, the cloak’s features also fail to work if you are ever made unable to move. Good thing monks are the most mobile class in the game.

6

Crown Of The Wrathbringer

For Edgy Monks

Taking less damage is all good and fine, but dealing more damage is something monks really need help with. The Crown of the Wrathbringer offers a lot in this department as it allows its wielder to spend and roll one unspent Hit Die whenever they land an attack.

The Hit Die deals extra psychic damage equal to what you roll. While monks don’t have the biggest hit die, they do have access to the most attacks every turn. As a result, they get the most bang for their buck out of this item as they can use it repeatedly. The crown also lets you cast Fear once per long rest without the need for concentration. This is a nice added bit of crowd control to add to any monk’s toolkit.

5

Ring Of Free Action

There’s No Better Price Than Free

The Ring of Free Action will make it so that your monk rarely ever loses access to this most important advantage. On top of making you ignore difficult terrain, it also provides you with complete immunity to any magic that would restrain you, paralyze you, or otherwise reduce your speed.

Immunity is something that doesn’t come up often in Dungeons & Dragons, so any opportunity to pick up immunities is a great one. In the case of monks, mobility is so important to their overall effectiveness that the Ring of Free Action could arguably be the best item on this list in the right circumstances.

4

Dragonhide Belt

Hopefully, You Don’t Need To Kill A Dragon For This

As the only item specifically made for the monk class, the Dragonhide Belt is quite good, as it ought to be. It did take Wizards until the release of Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons for this item to be added to the game, but it’s better late than never. This belt crafted from the scales of dragons gives you a bonus to the DCs of your monk features from +1 to +3 depending on the belt’s rarity.

Additionally, it also allows you to use an action to regain a number of ki points equal to the number on a roll of your martial arts die. High-level monks already have a ridiculous number of ki points, but there’s no harm in having extra. Especially when you’re delving through a lengthy high-level dungeon with multiple deadly encounters.

3

Staff Of Striking

So Anyways, I Went Donatello On Them

While the Staff of Striking doesn’t say that it’s made specifically for monks, it might as well, based on how it functions. This very rare magic item will increase your monk’s damage output considerably. Not only is this a +3 weapon that adds a bonus to the monk’s chance to hit and damage while using the staff, but it also comes with expendable charges that can add additional damage to the attacks.

Specifically, the staff comes with ten charges and each charge can be spent to add 1d6 force damage to an attack. However, only up to three charges can be spent on a single attack. Even so, this is a staggering additional 3d6 force damage to throw onto your monk’s weapon attack. Also, the staff replenishes 1d6 + 4 charges at dawn, always ensuring that your monk has access to at least two powerful staff strikes every day.

2

Winged Boots

Here’s A Tip: Make A Monk With An Innate Flying Speed

Despite being an uncommon rarity item, these boots have led more than a handful of DMs to break their pencils in frustration after awarding them to players too early. The winged boots give a character wearing them access to a flying speed equal to their movement speed for up to four hours a day.

Considering that the fly spell is third level magic that usually only becomes accessible to fifth-level characters at the earliest, the winged boots should certainly be a higher rarity than uncommon. Granted, there are races in Dungeons & Dragons that inherently have fly speeds, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The issue here is giving a fly speed to a character early in the game when they also receive other benefits from playing a non-flying race. The notoriety of this item aside, the Winged Boots allows monks to further excel in the mobile arena that they’re known for. Who needs a Bracer of Flying Daggers when you’re a monk of flying fists?

1

Blood Fury Tattoo

Sick Tattoos Should Be A Prerequisite For The Monk Class

The Blood Fury Tattoo is a legendary magical item that will increase any monk’s damage output and survivability exponentially. This is thanks to the tattoo allowing you to expend one of its ten charges every time you land an attack, adding an additional 4d6 necrotic damage to the attack.

You also regain a number of hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt. Thanks to a flurry of blows, a monk can make four attacks every turn for the low price of a single ki point. This adds up to a total of 16d6 necrotic damage and healing if all four of those attacks hit.

That’s just the damage that this Tattoo offers, by the way. We aren’t even calculating all of the normal damage that the monk would already apply.

As you can see, the Blood Fury Tattoo is the perfect magic item to capstone a high-level monk’s career. Just don’t be surprised when your monk becomes the dungeon master’s new favorite punching bag.