Your fighter has completed their training, specialized in a weapon or two, and perhaps even found an adventuring party. But once their journeys bring them face-to-face with increasingly powerful creatures, their nonmagical equipment isn’t going to cut it anymore. Time for an upgrade!

Here’s our list of some of our favorite items for the fighter class. Suppose something catches your eye, head on over to the marketplace to pick it up. Alternatively, a DM or friend can share it with you with a master-tier subscription.

1. Adamantine armor
2. Battering shield
3. Dragon wing bow
4. Flame tongue sword/frost brand sword
5. Iron bands of binding
6. Potion of speed
7. Ring of free action
8. Spellguard shield
9. Weapon of certain death
10. Weapon of warning

Dungeon Masters’ Discretion

Some of these items may be unavailable or very difficult to attain in your campaign. Reach out to your DM if you are interested in a specific magic item, but bear in mind that some campaigns may offer many magic items while others may only include very few.

Top 10 magic items for fighters

1. Adamantine armor

An assassin thrusts their dagger precisely at the gap in your plate armor. It strikes true, and they twist the knife, hoping to sink the blade into your heart. “That’s going to be a critical–”

No, it isn’t. Not with your adamantine armor. Practically the most durable metal around, adamantine armor will render any critical hit against you a normal hit. Any medium or heavy armor (other than hide) can be made with adamantine, so it’s not just for the party tanks. 

If you’re going to be up close and personal with enemies, you may as well minimize the risks where you can. For those that are a little less Strength and a little more Dexterity but want to prioritize good magical armor, all the same, look to adamantine’s cousin, mithral.

2. Battering shield

In addition to a +1 to its normal bonus to AC, the battering shield amplifies the shove attack, an often-underused ability. If you succeed on this contested check, you can use the shield to push the target 15 feet away and knock it prone. (You will also have the flexibility to apply a more muted effect if that is tactically preferable.)

Remember that the shove attack is not necessarily a full action. If your fighter can make multiple attacks, the shove attack only counts as one of these. Use the battering shield to shove the opponent prone with your first attack, then strike with advantage on future attacks. Pair this item with the Shield Master feat to maximize its potential.

3. Dragon wing bow

One of my favorite items from Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, the dragon wing bow, is a gift from the dragon gods to archers everywhere. The effect is straightforward: an extra 1d6 damage of whatever chromatic, gem, or metallic dragon infused the weapon with its breath. Oh, and did the dragon who gifted this to you forget to mention? Ammunition is optional.

I enjoy using the dragon wing bow to demonstrate that items don’t need three abilities and seven charges to be cinematically powerful. A bow that produces its own magical arrows and does psychic damage? Legolas could never.

4. Flame tongue sword/frost brand sword

In a sense, they’re twins. They each shed light under certain circumstances and deal additional elemental damage on every attack. 

Prefer a bit more offense? The flame tongue deals more damage—2d6 compared to 1d6—and sheds four times as much light as its icy counterpart. These effects must be activated using a bonus action.

Little more subtle? In addition to its extra 1d6 of cold damage per attack, the frost brand sheds soft light in freezing temperatures and provides you with resistance against fire damage. All of these effects are active upon attunement and do not require a bonus action. 

5. Iron bands of binding

The barbarian and necromancer may not like it, but there might be times when you must capture rather than kill an enemy. If that enemy is a Huge or smaller creature, then the iron bands of binding might be right for you. 

About the size of a baseball at rest, the iron bands of binding can be thrown up at an enemy up to 60 feet away. As the item hurls towards the foe, it expands into a series of overlapping metal bands. If this ranged attack roll hits the target, they are restrained until you release them using a command word or until they break the bindings. In addition, they’ll find that escape from the iron bands is much more difficult than against mere rope. If the restrained target fails the DC 20 Strength check, it will auto-fail any future attempts for 24 hours.

Alternately, use this item to turn your DM’s dire troll encounter into a very brief affair. Regardless of how you use it, a piece of advice: make the command word something ridiculous.

6. Potion of speed

We’ve all been there. You’re slashing through enemies, enjoying the doubled movement, the hasted attack, the +2 bonus to AC, the advantage on Dexterity saving throws. You’re flying high! You rush the goblin boss. Next turn, you’re absolutely going to crush them.

Bonk. A breeze blew a pebble onto your wizard, and they’ve failed their concentration check. The haste spell fades; lethargy sets in. The goblin boss smiles at you.

The potion of speed bestows haste without concentration, largely eliminating the risk that you experience the spell’s lethargy during combat. Importantly, it also frees up your party spellcaster to send in an arcane hand to help watch your back or cast hypnotic pattern at the group of enemies running to flank you.

The goblin boss may have kicked your butt last time, but drink up and get back in the fight!

7. Ring of free action

As a fighter, spells like entangle or web can derail your battle plan, and more acutely powerful spells like hold person can quickly lead to a brutal death. While there are items that can provide bonuses to the saving throws or skill checks needed to resist or escape these spells, the ring of free action takes a more direct route: immunity.

While wearing the ring of free action, magic can neither restrain nor paralyze you. It also protects you from magic that would drain your movement, such as ray of frost and slow, and you’ll be able to stroll through the difficult terrain created by erupting earth without issue. Watch the enemy wizard’s eyes widen in terror as all of their usual tricks fail against you.

8. Spellguard shield

Arguably the most powerful item on this list, the spellguard shield imbues your fighter with potent magical resistance. If your DM is letting you access this item, they are prepared to hear the question “Does this count as a magical effect?” about as often as they hear that you have darkvision. 

With this shield, your fighter will have advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects, and spell attacks have disadvantage against you. Whether they’ve taken the Mage Slayer feat or not, this shield will surely make them a slayer of mages on the battlefield. 

9. Weapon of certain death

If you’re tired of seeing trolls and vampires repair themselves at the start of their turns, pick up a weapon of certain death and tell them to stay down. Once you’ve hit a target with a weapon of certain death, that target cannot regain hit points until the start of your next turn. This weapon comes in any form, including firearms, if your campaign setting includes them. 

Though a weapon of certain death does not provide a bonus to attack and damage rolls, nor does it add any damage dice, its effect is as valuable as it is rare. Its prohibition on regaining hit points applies to all healing, from healing potions and spells to a monster’s innate regenerative abilities. While many abilities in the game, such as the sword of life stealing’s, do not affect undead or constructs, the weapon of certain death affects all targets that it damages, with no opportunity to save against its power. 

The hard part is finding one—why don’t you go ask that death knight if they have an extra they’d like to sell?

10. Weapon of warning

Despite its humble rarity and concise description, the weapon of warning provides one of the single most protective benefits in the game: the inability to be surprised (except when incapacitated by something other than nonmagical sleep). 

Whether the assassin dropped from the ceiling or the panther pounced from deep within the shadows, your weapon of warning will notify you of the threat; accordingly, battle will begin without the bearer of the weapon (or any of their allies within 30 feet) being surprised. But the weapon of warning isn’t done keeping you safe. As combat begins, it grants you advantage on initiative rolls, ensuring you react quickly to danger.

If your fighter is very protective of the party, they’ll sleep better with a weapon of warning on their belt.

Building a fighter

Whether you’re a drow echo knight with a frost brand rapier or an orc wrapped in adamantine armor, hold onto that character concept and open up D&D Beyond’s character builder. Happy rolling!

Damen Cook (@damen_joseph) is a lifelong fantasy reader, writer, and gamer. If he woke up tomorrow in Faerun, he would bolt through the nearest fey crossing and drink from every stream and eat fruit from every tree in the Feywild until he found that sweet, sweet wild magic.