Best Magic Items For Barbarian Characters In DND

Summary

• Barbarians in D&D focus on physical prowess instead of spells, making magic item selection simpler for Dungeon Masters.
• Gauntlets of Ogre Power boost barbarian Strength to 19, allowing for more focus on feats and nuanced play.
• Javelin of Lightning provides barbarians with a powerful ranged attack option, helping to address their lack of ranged options.

The barbarian may be the simplest class to play in Dungeons & Dragons, but it’s this added simplicity that often makes them some of the most memorable characters as far as roleplaying is concerned. After all, since they don’t have to spend time poring over a large selection of spells and abilities, barbarian players have all the time in the world to focus on roleplaying instead.

Thankfully for Dungeon Masters, the simplicity of the class also makes magic item selection for them rather straightforward. Barbarians are characters that forgo in-depth martial and magical abilities to focus on overbearing strength and physical prowess instead. Consequently, you’ll want to reward your barbarians with magic items that supercharge these traits, and there’s certainly no shortage of them to go around.

Updated on January 15, 2025 by Marissa Fiore: Barbarians deserve to have powerful magic at their fingertips, and although they may not be able to do that through spellcasting, they can use magic items. This article has been updated to include additional entries about the items that are best used by the mightiest of party members.

15

Adamantine Armor

The big draw of Adamantine is that, in D&D terms, it is the hardest known substance. In all the worlds. What that translates to in this suit of armor is that it can prevent you from taking the full damage of any critical hit. It, in fact, makes a natural 20 against you just like any other hit.

Now, for a raging barbarian, that probably seems like a waste. You already reduce the damage of piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing attacks. But early into the game, or if going up against foes that are constantly rolling at advantage against you, then throwing on a piece of armor that qualifies as Adamantine can literally save your life.

The only kind of armor that is excluded from being Adamantine is anything that falls into the light category and Hide armor.

14

Gauntlets Of Ogre Power

Starting with uncommon quality items that barbarians will receive during lower levels of play, the Gauntlets of Ogre Power is a great first magic item to reward a barbarian. A creature who equips the Gauntlets of Ogre Power sees their Strength score increase to 19 unless their innate Strength score is already greater.

Eventually, most barbarians are going to reach 20 Strength sooner or later due to the large number of ‘ASI’s (ability score improvements) they receive. However, during early levels of play, it’s unlikely that a barbarian will already have a Strength score of 18. Gifting these gauntlets early allows them to focus their starting ASIs on interesting feats like Great Weapon Master, Skilled, Sentinel, and more, providing a barbarian with slightly more nuanced play.

13

Javelin Of Lightning

​​​​​​One of the exploitable weaknesses of barbarians is that they don’t have a great option for a ranged attack. Of course, they can load up on tons of Javelins and use those in times of dire need, but they fall far below the damage output a barbarian can do in melee and only have a range of thirty feet. Target anything outside of that range, and you’re making your attack with disadvantage.

The Javelin of Lightning helps shore up this issue somewhat, providing barbarians with a single use of a powerful ranged attack once per day. When you speak the Javelin’s command word, a line of lightning extends from you to a target within 120 feet. All enemies inside the line must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 4d6 lightning damage. Additionally, if the Javelin hits the target, they take damage from the Javelin as normal — as well as an additional 4d6 lightning damage.

12

Animated Shield

Look, do barbarians usually wear much armor? No. But this is a shield. It’s totally different. But the best thing about this shield is that it doesn’t require you to stay holding it to be effective. While you may have a hard-to-hit armor class, that number can reach new heights thanks to this item.

The animated shield gives you all the protection a regular shield does, but makes it so that, if you choose to dual wield, you can without leaving yourself more open to attacks. And, if you ever feel you out grow the use of this shield, you can pass it to a grateful, and more squishy, party member.

11

Amulet Of The Drunkard

Most barbarians are no strangers to enjoying a drink or ten at the local tavern. If your very own barbarian party member is one such ale distinguishing fellow, this thematic magic item is likely to bring a smile to their beer-stained face. You can use the Amulet to regain 4d4 + 4 hit points once every day, which is like giving your barbarian their very own personal Greater Healing Potion.

As far as classes that excel at taking large amounts of damage are considered, it’s hard to beat the barbarian. For this reason, the Amulet is also quite possibly the best magic item for Barbarians, mechanically speaking. Lastly, the Amulet doesn’t even require attunement, allowing your barbarian to enjoy its benefits without costing them an important attunement slot.

10

Ring Of Jumping

The Ring of Jumping is an underwhelming magic item for most characters, but barbarians can take great advantage of it. It allows you to cast the Jump spell on yourself as a bonus action, tripling your jump distance. A character’s maximum jump distance or jump height is calculated by their total Strength score or Strength ability modifier, respectively.

Because barbarians have such high Strength, this ring allows them to jump a distance of up to 60 feet horizontally or 20 feet vertically. Additionally, a DM might allow a character to jump even farther if they succeed on an appropriate Athletics (Strength) difficulty check. As it happens, barbarian Rage gives Barbarians advantage on Strength checks. It’s not out of the question that a barbarian might be able to jump one hundred feet horizontally or 50 feet vertically, depending on how well they do on their Athletics check, as well as the DM’s discretion.

9

Boots Of Speed

You know what’s scarier than a barbarian? A fast barbarian. Really, the only things that keep barbarians from being effective in fights is when something is preventing them from physically hitting their target. If it’s a speed issue, then these boots solve that. Well, in most cases anyway.

There’s also no rule that says you can’t stack this benefit with the likes of Haste, which does more than just make you faster, but hey, big number getting bigger produces some serotonin, doesn’t it? But this can be paired with so many other items and spells to create some great synergy while making it harder for foes to escape your wrath.

8

Carpet Of Flying

Look, sometimes the only reason a barbarian can’t hit a target isn’t about speed at all. The target could be flying after all. Well. Throw yourself onto a Carpet of Flying and not even the Gods are safe from you! Well, okay, they might have some other tricks up their holy or devilish sleeves, but it won’t be a height difference.

Naturally, it’s not just about combat either. There are plenty of useful ways to utilize one of these rugs. You can rush in and grab allies in danger, you can quickly escape a situation that is too much to handle. But let’s be so for real. It’s pretty much so you can fly in and smack something in the face. The party will love that you can now fly up and punch the dragon. Maybe it’s like a shark?

7

Belt Of Dwarvenkind

Transitioning to rare items that are given out from levels five through ten, the Belt of Dwarvenkind is a great roleplaying magic item that also has incredible game benefits. While wearing the belt, your Constitution score increases by two, you have resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws against poison, you gain darkvision out to 60 feet, and you can speak, read, and write Dwarvish.

Naturally, you also gain advantage on Persuasion checks made to influence dwarves. Best of all, though, every day, you have a 50 percent chance to grow a full beard or increase the size of your beard if you already have one. Basically, the belt makes any character a bonafide dwarf. What’s not to love about that?

6

Berserker Axe

Any barbarian who doesn’t embrace their rage-induced frenzies is no true barbarian at all. The Berserker Axe is a +1 weapon that increases your hit point maximum by a number equal to your total level. However, it might have your Barbarian seeing red in all the wrong ways, as it comes with a curse that makes you unwilling to part with the weapon — and gives you disadvantage on all attacks made with other weapons.

For even more fun, each time a character wielding the weapon takes damage, you have to succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On failure, you go into a berserker rage and must attack the creature nearest you each turn using all of your possible attacks. The berserker rage only ends when you either fall unconscious or you start your turn with no creature within 60 feet of you that you can see or hear. And the barbarian just killed the wizard… whoops!

5

Dancing Sword

What’s better than one two-handed weapon cutting through swathes of enemies? How about two of them? The Dancing Sword is a very rare magical weapon that will make attacks without even needing to be wielded at the cost of your barbarian’s bonus action. Fortuitously enough, many barbarian builds fail to take advantage of their bonus action every turn.

This means that the Dancing Sword is the perfect weapon for increasing a barbarian’s damage output at little to no cost. Even better, the weapon uses its controller’s attack roll and ability score modifier to determine attack and damage rolls. This means it can take advantage of the barbarian’s access to a total Strength score of 24 at the highest levels of play.

4

Belt Of Giant Strength

Once a barbarian reaches the upper echelons of play, there’s almost no item quite as desirable as the Belt of Giant Strength. This belt comes in as many shapes as there are types of Giants, ranging from the lowly Hill Giants, all the way to the almighty Storm Giants. Acquiring better tiers of belts could be a longstanding questline that will lead to many grand adventures.

The Belt of Storm Giant Strength makes a character’s Strength score 29, which is absurd. Nonetheless, as stated in the introduction, Barbarians forsake any strategy or tricky moves for pure physical might. There’s no better way to demonstrate that than having a Strength score that’s nearly ten points higher than the supposed maximum.

3

Dragon Vessel

The Dragon Vessel is one of a handful of items found in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons that increases in power alongside the character who is wielding it all the way up to the highest levels of play. This makes it the perfect item for a longstanding campaign where you want to introduce players to magic items that are important to their backstory, the primary plot of the game, or both. At early levels, the Dragon Vessel functions as a once-per-day Potion of Healing or Potion of Climbing.

However, as your barbarian accrues more power, the Vessel provides some interesting new options, including increasingly powerful healing potion options, a Potion of Fire Breath, a Potion of Flying, and even a Legendary potion known as the Potion of Dragon’s Majesty. This final potion allows your barbarian to take the form of an Adult Dragon once per day: something that many players beyond barbarians can only dream of achieving.

2

Hammer Of Thunderbolts

Once a barbarian has acquired every other item on this list, the only thing left to give them is a weapon as formidable as their own bodies. The Hammer of Thunderbolts is exactly that, and it also requires any character who attunes to it also be wielding a Belt of Giant Strength and the Gauntlets of Ogre Power. This weapon will bump your Barbarian’s Strength score to the promised land of 30. It’s also a +1 weapon, and any Giant you hit with it must succeed on a DC 17 Consitution saving throw or die outright.

The Hammer comes with five charges; you can expend one charge to make a ranged attack. On a hit, the Hammer fires off a booming thunderclap, forcing both the target and all creatures within 30 feet to make a DC 17 Consitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn. In other words, you basically become Thor. If your barbarian favors an element other than lightning, you could always reflavor this weapon as the Hammer of Firebolts, Hammer of Frostbolts, or what have you. Either way, it will take a villain with godlike powers to challenge any barbarian who clamps their titan grip around this bad boy. Are you raging yet?

1

Axe Of The Dwarvish Lords

This baby can do it all, +3 bonus to attacks, extra damage, random properties. No seriously, besides its property as a magic weapon, there are ten different, other properties this artifact and axe gets. And that’s before its Topple benefit if you have access to the mastery it carries with it.

Now this is truly the stuff of legends and probably shouldn’t make it into the hands of low-level barbarians, but as you get into the late stage of a campaign, or the very last levels, maybe even going beyond level 20, then giving this to a barbarian can let them tap into more power, perhaps even surpassing what even they thought they were capable of already.