While the Deck of Many Things may be the eponymous magic item of The Book of Many Things, that does not mean it’s the only arcane relic to be found within the pages of this exciting new sourcebook. Far from, as this new book is a veritable full house of magical trinkets and eldritch relics for you to use in your Dungeons & Dragons games.
Read on to find out about new arcane foci, planeswalking blades, and more with these previews of but a few fantastical magic items from The Book of Many Things.
Talk to Your Dungeon Master About Magic Items
Depending on the campaign, your access to magic items might be limited. Your DM will determine which magic items are and are not available in the campaign. Let them know which magic items you are interested in but be open-minded if they are uncomfortable permitting some or any of the magic items you request.
Armor of the Fallen

Armor (Medium or Heavy), Uncommon (Requires Attunement)
The armor of the fallen is a suit of medium or heavy armor that is crafted from bone and sinew, and held together by the very power of your soul. It grants you a modicum of power to reach out beyond the veil of life and death. While attuned to this uncommon magic item, you can use its power to cast speak with dead, or even animate dead. However, be warned, for if you die while wearing this armor, the power that holds it together will vanish as you perish, destroying the armor in the blink of an eye.
This suit of macabre armor would be ideal for a Grave Domain cleric or Oath of Vengeance paladin, or any martial character with a particularly melancholic aesthetic. Speak with dead is a very useful spell for those parties who prefer to stab first, ask questions later—as long as they remember to ask the right questions! But animate dead is where the armor can really shine for a paladin, cleric, or fighter, allowing them to raise their own personal guard.
Bow of Melodies

Weapon (Any Bow), Very Rare (Requires Attunement)
This magic item puts the Bow in Bowie. Be heroes for more than just one day as you slay with this harp-like bow that imbues your arrows with the power of music. A strum of the bow's many strings allows you to perform a magical melody which enchants each shot you make.
The Melody of Precision grants you a magical bonus to your attack roll if you have proficiency in Performance. (That bonus is higher if have expertise.) The Melody of Reverberation allows you to add your Charisma modifier to an attack in the form of thunder damage.
This weapon screams, or more accurately sings, bard. Both abilities synergize well with the class and mean that a bard equipped with the bow of melodies will either regularly be getting a significant magical bonus to their attack rolls, or bringing the house down with thunderous Charisma damage (or is that charismatic thunder damage?). Either way, a bard wielding this bow will be the center of attention.
Fate Dealer's Deck

Wonderous Item, Rare (+1), Very Rare (+2), Legendary (+3) (Requires Attunement by a Cleric or Paladin)
The fate dealer's deck appears as an ornate deck of cards adorned with various glyphs or symbols. These might correspond to the Inner Planes, such as the Elemental Plane of Fire; the Outer Planes, like Mechanus; or various deities and divine beings. While being wielded by a paladin or a cleric, the deck can be used as a spellcasting focus that empowers their spell attack rolls and spell save DC.
A powerful boon by itself, that’s not all there is to this fateful deck of cards. As an action, a character holding the deck can expend Hit Dice to either heal allies or deal guaranteed-to-hit damage!
This item would be very much on brand for a Trickery Domain cleric, but any paladin or cleric would benefit greatly from the bonus to spell attack rolls and spell save DC, much like the rod of the pact keeper does for warlocks. The secondary effect can be excellent for emergency healing if you’re out of spell slots, but the damage ability with no chance of missing is perfect for trying to break the concentration of an enemy caster.
House of Cards

Wonderous Item, Uncommon
Sometimes Leomund's tiny hut is just too tiny, Mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion just isn’t magnificent enough, and Daern’s instant fortress doesn’t instantly appeal. For when you want a shelter with style, a residence with the rizz, a keep with charisma, there’s the house of cards. Appearing as a decorative deck of cards, one quick shuffle causes this magic item to deal itself into a magical shelter made out of cards. You can shape this literal house of cards however you wish as long as it fits within a 40-foot cube, including positioning the door and up to four windows, which only you can open. Inside, you’ll find a pleasant atmosphere to relax and unwind in.
Lasting 24 hours, or until it’s reduced to 0 hit points, the house of cards is a fantastic utility item for any party, especially one that doesn’t have access to the more traditional magical shelter options. It also adds some fun flair to the process of setting up camp but doesn’t make the party completely invulnerable during their long rests. But that’s only something the most fiendish of DMs would want to know…
Sword of the Planes

Weapon (Any Sword), Legendary (Requires Attunement)
With a single stroke of the legendary sword of the planes, you can tear the fabric of reality and open a rift between planes! You'll really put the "cut" in "shortcut" as you carve a path to the banks of the River Styx in Avernus, or the heart of Mechanus. And given that it’s an action to use this ability, it can be incredibly useful for escaping danger in a hurry. However, be careful, as the rift lasts for 1 minute, and you wouldn’t want to let your enemies in behind you. Unless that’s your plan; one quick shove and you could deposit that troublesome fiend into Limbo, or hide a body in the Feywild!
Where this +3 sword really shines is as an item key to the plot of an adventure. Its ability to open rifts between planes makes it a great objective to recover in pursuit of a larger goal such as reaching a specific location. You could also place it in the hands of an enemy, allowing them to escape the party should they face defeat, and providing an exciting piece of loot to collect after the characters eventually pin their foe down and defeat them.
Find More Magic Items in The Book of Many Things
The fun doesn’t stop with just these five items, as there are many more to draw upon from The Book of Many Things. As you shuffle through its pages, you’ll find over 50 magic items suitable for all sorts of characters—or maybe even some monsters.
Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including his daughter Willow (well, one day). The three of them live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in south of England.
Nope grave is exactly right. Gods that are keepers or rulers of the dead are keepers and rulers of all dead including the undead. These gods will often send or allow undead to punish the living so their clerics prevent undead by keeping them happy. For example if you desecrate a grave that will often result in you being haunted by a ghost and this only works if a god of the dead lets their spirit out to do so. These gods will also often hate necromancers in the same way that Zues hates people who steal his lightning bolts, they are trampling on their domain.
The death domain also isnt simply undead its mechanically more about worshiping creators of death as you can see in their abilities like touch of death and inescapable destruction. Creators of death and destroyer gods also often kill and destroy undead for example soul devouring gods. You may even invoke such a god to banish the undead by scaring them away.
There is overlap but in no way should you assume grave = no undead and death= undead because it is easily the opposite.
I did and I think you misread it. It doesn't say undead are an abominations, it says
Like desecrating a grave.
It does say
It doesn't say when they destroy undead or say they don't make undead just that they seek to destroy them.
Finally if you look at the choice of gods it's pretty obvious
Most of these gods are rather famous for creating undead
The remaining gods Kelemvor is a judge of the dead and is the only anti undead god on the list
I love this, especially the armour of the fallen, perfect for any character influenced by the powers of death
A third magic bow!!
First off, there is nothing that says a Worshipper of Osiris wouldn't raise undead. Secondly, Osiris has total control over the undead (The implication here is that the undead is a non-issue to him), and he has an entire subsection of his worshippers who are revenants that fight minions of Set. So you can't use him as an example of a god who "opposes undeath." The undying court, by definition, is unnatural undead because undeath, by its very premise, is unnatural. Also, while it is true the gods from our world history are not the same, they are still inspired by them, so you've got a bad faith argument with Persephone not existing. Also, it is entirely possible to ask permission (either before killing them or using a spell such as Speak with Dead), so you can't use that argument. Also, as you said, Animate Dead doesn't use the soul in the first place. The only argument you have is that necrotic energy is dangerous, which so is a fireball spell or a disintegrate spell, or a planar ally spell. Again, desecrating the peace of the dead is an abomination, but by your own argument, animate dead doesn't desecrate the peace of the dead because the dead are unaffected. Only the corpse is. So there is no "dead" being desecrated, especially if it's a corpse on a battlefield that hasn't been buried yet.
The other part of your argument is that Grave clerics destroy the undead, right? But you also have to realize there are two types of undead: mindless and intelligent. Mindless undead are creatures such as Zombies and Skeletons, and intelligent undead creatures such as Ghouls, Ghasts, Wraiths, Wights or more powerful undead such as Vampires and Mummy lords. So, all you gotta do is destroy the undead you animate with Animate Dead when you're done with them, therefore fulfilling your duty to destroy the undead. Though I will say I agree that it was odd they chose the grave domain over the death domain for the example, but its also not as negligent as you believe it to be (especially considering it also gives access to Speak with Dead and a Vengeance paladin would ABSOLUTELY be more then willing to use undead if it meant getting the vengeance they seek) The Only paladin who wouldn't be okay with undead is Devotion, Glory (and even that is a stretch) and Redemption. Conquest would gladly use them, Ancients would use them, then destroy them, and Vengeance would use them. That close-minded philosophy that all necromancy can only be used for evil is flawed and subjective. Is it the lawful Good way to do things? Depends on where you are at but typically no, is is chaotic good? Absolutely it is so long as you are responsible.
A Paladin of Vengeance could easily summon and use undead if the summoned undead were spirits of fallen fellow Paladins sent by their commonly-worshipped deity as reinforcements to help the living Paladin achieve his vengeance in his/her god's name. One of my paladins has actually done this in a campaign.
Anything can be justified with just a little use of imagination.
@bigbossduckman
While i agree with the Cleric bit
Being able to speak to the fallen about who wronged them could come in very handy when out distributing vengeance. ..
Actually to be fair... Anyone could find good use for speak with dead.
And animate dead is just a fun spell to use. No need to take everything so.. bloody... serious.
Yeah! It's not like we're talking about soccer.
(*grin* *duck* *run*)
Sword of planes. So D&D included Vergil´s Yamato!
That art for the Bow of Melodies is awesome. I'd use it on every Bard and quite a few Rangers, just cause of how cool it looks.
I completely agree about the confusion about the grave domain, but I could see an oath of revenge paladin using raise undead to get their fallen allies or enemies of their enemies to help them defeat foes.
Both of these things exist buddy. I don't know what you are talking about.
That sword isn't called The Riftmaker. What a waste.
The email that linked me to this promised a poll! I don't see a poll. Rather then be sad, I'm just going to say I vote for the Fate Dealer's Deck (though I think the House of Cards deserves an honourable mention as runner up for my unimportant vote).
I really like that harp bow - my brd/rng its perfect!
oooooooooo
good
House of Cards... Set it up as a mini maze to enjoy while your party is chilling out.
residence with rizz= cringe
I agree