Who doesn’t love trinkets? Items with minor magical abilities are great to use in your game as rewards for players that participate in roleplay or win prizes at a carnival. Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep introduces seven new common wondrous items, called medals of merit, that provide a one-time minor effect for the user.

This article digs into what the medals of merit do and will give you some tips on rewarding your players with these trinkets!

• Medal of muscle
• Medal of the conch
• Medal of the horizonback
• Medal of the maze
• Medal of the meat pie
• Medal of the wetlands
• Medal of wit

Medals of merit

Unlike most common items, the seven medals of merit provide mechanical benefits, ranging from temporary hit points to helping you find your way out of a nonmagical maze. More often than not, common items like armor of gleaming and cloak of billowing exist for flavor, roleplay, or exploration but don’t provide any tangible gameplay benefits (at least, not directly, anyway). 

The tradeoff is that the medals of merit are one-time-use items. Once exhausted, a medal becomes a mundane item. This helps balance their power level and makes them a fun boon to hand out to your party.

Medal of muscle

Activating this medal takes an action and gives you advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws for 1 hour. The effect granted by this item can come in handy for a character that is staring down an athletically demanding challenge. 

The 2nd-level spell enhance ability can provide a similar effect—albeit without the advantage on Strength saving throws—but this would require a spell slot and concentration, making it far less efficient than the single action needed to use the medal.

This item is an excellent reward for a fighter or barbarian after winning an arm-wrestling match, or it could be gifted to a group of adventurers lacking a strong party member.

Medal of the conch

Underwater exploration and combat can be challenging for a party of any level. The medal of the conch helps mitigate the halved movement speed and disadvantage on melee attacks by granting a swimming speed equal to your walking speed when you activate it with an action. Keep in mind that you still won’t be able to breathe underwater, so you’ll need to find a way around that to stay submerged for extended periods.

You can reward players with a medal of the conch for going above and beyond when exploring underwater locations. This is also a suitable reward for helping out one of the many aquatic races, like tritons or lizardfolk, that are featured in Dungeons & Dragons. 

Underwater Combat

When making a melee weapon attack, a creature that doesn't have a swimming speed (either natural or granted by magic) has disadvantage on the attack roll unless the weapon is a dagger, javelin, shortsword, spear, or trident.

A ranged weapon attack automatically misses a target beyond the weapon's normal range. Even against a target within normal range, the attack roll has disadvantage unless the weapon is a crossbow, a net, or a weapon that is thrown like a javelin (including a spear, trident, or dart).

Creatures and objects that are fully immersed in water have resistance to fire damage.

Source: Basic rules

Medal of the horizonback

The medal of the horizonback, named after the massive horizonback tortoises of Eastern Wynandir, can be used as a reaction to gain +5 to your AC until the beginning of your next turn. This effect mirrors the effects of the shield spell, which, despite its low level, is an extremely useful combat spell. This effect can literally be the difference between life and death, so make sure to hang on to it for an especially dire situation.

A good time to reward your players with this item is after a good roleplay interaction with a tortle NPC, or it could even be an actual scale of a thankful horizonback tortoise that the party helped.

Medal of the maze

The medal of the maze has quite the unique effect. You can activate it as an action to gain advantage on Wisdom checks for an hour. On top of that, you’re able to determine the quickest route through any nonmagical path or maze.

Wisdom checks come in many shapes and sizes. For example, you could use this item during an interrogation or if you need to diagnose a strange illness. Perhaps the most effective use of the medal of the maze would be leading your party through a hostile wooded area. Advantage on Perception and Survival checks while not being able to get lost? Anyone with these abilities could give a ranger a run for their money.

This medal could be a reward for solving a tricky riddle, or it could be found in the middle of a labyrinth as a way of getting out.

Medal of the meat pie

As an action, this medal gives you temporary hit points equivalent to that of a potion of healing. This is quite a strong item for its rarity because it provides proactive healing rather than reactive. While the medal of the meat pie can be used when you’re in dire straits in combat, it would be best used before a tough fight.

This is one of the more versatile items to give a player. You could reskin the medal to be an edible petal gifted by a dryad for saving their grove or a vial of enchanted water gifted by a grateful priest. The most “flavorful” reskin of this item could even be an actual meat pie made by an exceptionally gifted chef. Make sure that the chef is hard to track down after the party discovers the wonderful effects of their cooking, or they may never leave them alone!

Medal of the wetlands

This medal allows you to ignore the effects of difficult terrain for one hour after activating it with an action. Unfortunately, when looking for comparable effects to gauge its power level, it’s hard to find a direct comparison. This is because the ring of free action and the freedom of movement spell both provide additional benefits on top of allowing the user to ignore difficult terrain.

The most likely use of the medal of the wetlands would be when your party is navigating treacherous terrain, like a swamp or dense forest. Using the medal in this situation would allow you to scout ahead for the party, providing a significant advantage if you were to run into any danger while traversing the area. Once the effect’s hour is up, though, you’re back to slogging away with the rest of your party!

This medal could be something that a character is gifted after helping a farming village or given to them by a grateful lizardfolk that they saved deep in a swamp.

Medal of wit

Intelligence saving throws don’t come up often, but you really want to pass them when they do. The medal of wit allows you to make Intelligence checks and saving throws with advantage for one hour after you activate it with an action. While this might sit collecting dust in your adventurer’s pack for weeks or even months, when you’re about to head into a nest of mind flayers or other psychic creature, you’ll be glad you have it.

The medal of wit can be presented to any character that shows a particularly keen mind. This doesn’t necessarily have to result from a high Intelligence check. It could be a reward for a well-constructed plan or a particularly sharp retort to an appreciative noble.

These medals sure have their merits!

Whether you’re uncovering the mysteries of Exandria in Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep or are forging your own path, medals of merits are a fantastic way to reward players for creative gameplay. These medals grant mechanical benefits that won’t drastically increase the power of the party, meaning you can hand them out without having to worry about your party launching the campaign’s villain into the astral plane! (Looking at you bag of holding.)

Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his girlfriend, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.