Top 10 Defensive Magic Items in DnD 5E 

You never want to roll a 1d4-1 for a 1d3. That can give bad results, and alters the statistical chances of the results. Instead, roll 1d6, with a 1-2 equalling a 1, a 3-4 equalling a 2, and a 5-6 equalling a 3.

The best defensive item is whatever kills the enemy the fastest so it stops dealing damage :)

I'm a fan of the Rod of Alertness. Advantage on Perception checks and initiative rolls, some pretty good free detection spells you can cast at no cost, and a special ability where you can place the rod into the ground and give all allies within 60 ft. around you +1 to AC and Saving Throws. Now, an enemy can use an action to get to the rod and pull it out of the ground, but that still costs them an action, if they can even reach the rod and are smart enough to realise that they can do that. You could place down the rod and cast a Spike Growth right under it so that it couldn't be easily removed by non-flying enemies

If allowed at your table, silvery barbs is also a pretttyyy good option for a ring of spell storing. Just keep one charge in there for when you really need to dodge a crit

Ring of Spell storing is SO underrated, I love it for the exact reason you mention. Have 3 shield spells on a tank or squishy backline is unbelieveably good

When it comes to why the Cloak and Ring of Protection are different rarities I think it's because RAW suggest you only have cloak slot.

Just a reminder for people too Artificers at Lv. 20 can attune to 6 items. Let that sink in for some broken fun

some of my favs are: defender weapon, +3 armor and shield, ring and cloak of protection, stone of luck.

Keep in mind that you need to be able to see your target for an attack of opportunity, so being invisible is pretty neat.

I usually play tanks in my parties, so thanks for all the ideas of stuff to ask my DM for!

For my old blind fighting rogue/fighter, my Ring of Obscuring was basically a robe of invisibility at uncommon. Though to use that, you do need blindsight from either a fighting style or also carry a Dagger of Blindsight. I also carried an Eversmoking Bottle, but that smoke area was so big that I rarely ever used it as to not screw over my party. I'd rather the smoke only sit on me and not my enemy

The Ring of Protection is rare because it's a ring so, you can have many copies of the item.

this video was exactly what I needed thank you

Ioun Stone of Protection, Ring of Free Action, Sentinel Shield... we upset our DM when a couple of us all gave the lvl 14 Fighter a mix of items (Spellguard shield, Cloak of Displacement and his Defender) + Bless and Bane lol so much that our DM doubled the challenge rating of our next fight! it was an Epic struggle!

I am now concocting a boss fight for the party against someone with the ghost tattoo. Might give them a few of the weaker items on this list as a reward for beating them too.

ring of spell storing us great, it can fit 1x spike growth (lv2) and 1x windwall (lv3) and does so indefinitely untill used

Cloak of displacement is simply amazing. The average of +3 (and not +5, i've done the math) effective AC it gives makes my Eldritch Knight basically impossible to hit outside of a critical (I also have the shield spell). And heavy armor master reduces all damage further by 3. I built that as an answer for the lack of healers in the party. 1 player chose a druid that doesn't heal but himself so... Been relying on regular health potions, second wind, short rests, and a magic healing item the dm brewed for us healing a greater about twice per day. Of course i can live on this strict healing diet, but I can't say this isn't a challenge for the whole party... And they unfortunately gobble my potions constantly. I always have to get 10 regulars on me for they never buy enough for them... The cloak of invisibility, tho is legendary and better, even if it can be countered by flour, a mundane item.

I did know Hiru had a dnd channel. Love it!

Looking for some magical items to boost my lvl 9 barbarian's AC, so this video was very helpful. Thank you!

Yes!!!!! Thank you for understanding that mobility is defense! Some people can not seem to understand that

Sentinel shield is badass as well. Advantage on initiative and perception is probably worth more than a +1 bonus at least. Last campaign i was in i played a warforged star druid that used one. I was essentially a walking spy satellite, and in fact i RP'd that i was especially a sentient probe that was charged with monitoring the world and was charged with maintaining the balance of fate

I quite like the "Tattoos" offered by Tasha's Cauldron. It brings back fond memories of the huge host of tattoos made available in the RPG "Planescape: Torment". PS:T had some really incredible ones that can be easily adopted into a DM run game but Tasha's got some pretty cool ones as well. Gotta agree though, that some may be TOO powerful, depending on level the DM provides them to. :)

If the DM allows it "Brigandine Armor" also gives you AC 14 but allows +3 Dex bonus. So 1 better. But as you pointed out,... even ONE BETTER EVERY TIME is actually an awesome thing.

I have had a blast playing a Oath of the Open sea paladin with 3 of these magic items for about a year. She is currently level 9 and and her main stats are Dex: 16 Wisdom: 16 and Charisma: 20. She mainly fights with a firearm, hence the dex. Winged boots, for mobility Serpent scale armor, for all its benefits (only have a +3 dex mod tho) and the Cloak of displacement. What makes this even better is that by being a Open sea paladin she, and any creature within 10 feet, cannot be grappled or restained. Which means the only way that the Cloak of displacement is not gonna work is if SHE goes down. Effectively having 17 AC (without a shield), all attacks agaisnt her at disadvantage (until damaged). Immune to grapple and restrained and high maneuverability. In our high fantasy hero campaign we have a homebrew magic point buy system, so we can choose what we want when we have completed a difficult task. Depending on the task we dont get many points.. So her getting both the serpent scale armor and cloak of displacement was very time consuming and difficult! My character also earned her high defence as she ran through most of the start of the campaign with only 14 AC. Disliking heavy armor cause of the clunkyness and disadvantage on stealth. So she played more like a rogue than a front line combatant. She is is now the paladin of "Do not touch without consent"!!😎

The Ghost Walk Tattoo is actually extremely powerful if you give it to a Arcane Trickster Rogue. They can turn Invisible and Dash as a Bonus Action, meaning every other turn they can essentially just move normally through objects while remaining pretty much undetectable due to being invisible and having an incredibly high sneak skill (which they can use Pass Without Trace to make even stronger). Theirs no point in thr DM even asking for stealth rolls at that point and pretty much no consequence if they're caught lol 🤣

Mr. Log's way of making Top 10s. Here's the Top 10 *insert topic here* Number 1. Number 2. Number 2.1 Number 2.2 Number 2.3 Number 3. Number 4. But for real this is definitely a much better way to list Top 10s imo. So you're not completely stuck with just the Top 10 and are also informed of your other options in similar categories.

Silvery Barbs is the new (1st level) spell to cheese into a [Ring of Spell Storing]

For Ring of spell storing, if you have down time, use your highest level spell slot to store in, just in case of a counterspell

I had a cleric once who found a ring of spell storing. He'd either load up on Shield spells as you suggested here, or He'd drop Spirit Guardians into it and hand it over to the paladin. 😄

Criminally underrated

Force cube is a great defensive item, I can just prevent enemies from getting closer or even prevent attacks from entering. It can also benefit allies close to you as well

"Have you ever been in a campaign with no walls?" No, but a friend of mine has. It's one of the most bizarre things I've heard. Nothing but fucking open fields

Great, now I need to make a Tank to mess with my DM friend! Whatever will I do!

Niche case, but I'd argue the Ring of Protection could be a higher rarity because it's smaller/more concealable? Might have to take the cloak off for a formal event/might be taken if captured, but the ring could be hidden with a sleight of hand? Not really worth a whole tier of difference imo, but just a thought

I am currently playing a non-optimized artificer. You are able to create some magical items (limited number, fixed list) and the winged boots are coming in clutch.

11:17 - 1d4-1 is worse than 1d3. 1d4-1 means you could get 0 charges on a roll of 1, while on a 1d3 you get at least one. If you don't have virtual dice or an actual d3, just take 1d6/2

The number one item on this list further cements my belief that air genies are hugely underrated. Permanent invisibility with invocation. Has access to greater invisibility. Can see through walls with invocation. Can see through magical darkness with invocation. Can fly for free for an hour a day. Infinite eldritch blasts so no need for other spell slots. Can teleport for free if Eladrin. Just a few reasons for brokenness.

Some minor nitpicks; 1d4-1 is not equivalent to 1d3, you should use 1d6/2 rounded up instead. At 15:30 the text saying "This includes all weapon attacks [...]" is correct, the voice over saying it includes "all melee attacks" is not. The Melee Attacks section includes the Grappling and Shoving a Creature subsections, which each describe a special melee attack you can make using the Attack action that require a contested ability check instead of an attack roll. Someone could grapple a creature wearing a cloak of displacement without any issue to reduce their speed to 0 and make attack rolls normally.

I would have mentioned the bracers of defense and the stone of good luck. I'm not suggesting either are better than most of your list, but I feel that they should be talked about. Perhaps also the Staff of defense

I believe that one of the ways to get an absurdly high AC would be a Warforged Artificer at level 18

we convinced our dm to let us prepped spells longer then a round in the spell storing ring go off as regular spell time. cuz i already put in the time to cast the spell to store in the ring. i used it for tiny hut i was damn near unkillable. the only thing bringing down this 8 hour dome of protection is wish, disintegrate or an act of the gods. at the start of the game for a bard it was amazing no one had those spells

If your wondering why the Cloak is Uncommon while the Ring is Rare, that's because you can only wear 1 Cloak while you can wear multiple Rings.

I kinda wanna see Top 5th Level Spell and Top 6th Level Spell lists soon.

What about adamantine armor? Maybe its because I run a gritty game with lingering injuries on a criticals but, my players love it regardless.

I've officially found 3 magic items one of my bbeg will be using

AC 23 isn’t ‘unhittable’ outside of critical hits. Any attack of +4 or greater can hit without a critical. Don’t roll a 1d4-1 to represent a 1d3. That changes the odds of the results from being 33.3% each to 50% for a 1 and 25% each for a 2 or 3. The Tarrasque doesn’t have a ranged attack in its stat block. But characters (including NPCs and monsters) aren’t limited to just the actions in their stat blocks. Any creature (with an appropriate physiology) can use other actions, like improvised weapon attacks. Meaning a Tarrasque can throw something. And per Sage Advice, the Tarrasque would be able to throw rocks like a giant. The DM would use the Rock rules for Giants (from the Monsters Manual). Rock: Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, range 60/240 ft., one target. Hit: 28 (4d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 17 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

My guess the diffrence in rarity between the cloak of protection and the ring of protection is that you can wear more then one ring but not more then one cloak

I'd justify the cloak of protection being less rare due to all of the other defensive cloaks available. (It has more competition for that slot) That's an in world explanation, Or they just messed up, that's entirely possible too lol.

For the cloak vs ring of protection rarity id imagine it’s roleplaying reasons. A cloak with +1 to ac isn’t that special really, it’s just armor which is common enough. A ring is much more impressive though cuz it’s just a little ring that’s somehow shielding your whole body.

You forgot the "Ascendant Scale Ornament" from the Fizban's book. (+1 AC, immunity to charmed and frightened and a reaction to absorbo one instance of a damage type)

Don't forget Absorb Elements' secondary effect! It's a) cinematic as hell and b) damage is damage

serpent scale armor, 15 + 5 --- 20 from medium armor, seems powerfull enough for me to be rare, it shouldnt be uncommon!

Rod of rulership. Basically jedi mind trick cranked up

I'm surprised the _Cloak of Invisibility_ was mentioned instead of _Ring of Invisibility_ One has these conditions and caveats, whereas the other is just outright invisibility with no strings tied.

Have a melee valor bard (yeah I know, but probably the best stat block I've ever rolled so it works well) with what I consider the best set of attuned items I've had in 5e; Displacer cloak, Ring of spell turning and a Flame tongue great sword. Have gotten some serious millage out of those defenses. Early in a fight she typically face tanks relying heavily on healing word or mass healing word (magic secrets pick up) to do ranged healing on a bonus action so she can keep flailing her sword about. Those baked in cloak/ring defenses frustrate the hell out of my DM, it makes her a tough nut to crack for sure. Mid to late fight utility spells may come out if needed and she will fade back to pass tanking duties to the actual tanks, but when that cloak and ring defense work and she can stay in the fight with the melees up front? Game over. Collect loot.

I often pair a Cloakof Protection with the Stone of Good Luck. The Stone also grants +1 to saves, but also to ability checks.

Serpent scale armor is +2 studded leather. That went from legendary to uncommon by being labeled medium Armor.

The serpent scale armor is effectively a +2 AC for light/medium armor that wants Dex. So basically its a Ranger only item. Animated shield is really really bad IF you have to always use your first bonus action in a combat to speak its word and it deactivates if your CC'ed by a spell. But if your DM waves that whole thing, it lets a 2h weapon user or a grappler get that +2 AC if they wouldn't be using a bracers of defense. If only it didn't need atonement...

I guess the uncommon cloak and rare ring thing with the same effects have different rarities because it’s not uncommon to be limited to only one cloak, but you have ten fingers for rings

I was hoping for some stuff that doesn't require attunement. I'm playing a level 18 barbarian, I have a belt of giant strength, a very rare weapon and winged boots attuned but my unarmored AC is 14 mostly from a low dex score. I do have bracers of defence, but too many enemies have been able to counter me by flying so I need the boots more. The only other thing I could get to bump my AC is a +2 or +3 breastplate, but I was hoping for something else

Ring of Spell Storing ... two Absorb Elements, two Shield and one Silvery Barbs

Cube of Force is the most OP defensive item in D&D

Thanks for the list. How about the ring of invisibility?

3:39 My guess is that you can pretty much just wear one cloak while you can wear a great number of rings.

Does pariahs shield's force damage redirection capable of being reduced if you have armor of force resistance?

As soon as I saw Elven chain I was like: Let'ss gooo. I decided id join my first ever Dnd campaign on roll 20, and decided to go for a rogue high elf. Lots of languages, high dex. Problem is it's only light armour so i only have 14 ac. So it should be good if I find it

Don't know if you'd add the endless smoking bottle it's great for field control when things don't have blind sight/fighting

Would the bonus of the animated shield stack on top of a normal shield's ac bonus if you chose to hold another shield ?

The defender sword which technically stack with dual wielding And the ring of invisibility

HOLY SHIT IS THIS FUCKING HIRU BUT FUCKING D&D!???!?!???? WHY DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS CHANNEL SOONER

Stone of Good Luck? Anyone? Boosts saving throws and ability checks, which include proficiency and initiative (Dex based) and, if your DM is generous, death saving throws. It has a larger affect than most other items and is uncommon.

For a d3 roll a d6 if you get over 3 subtract 3.

One good item to pick up is The Stone of Good Luck.

The ring of protection has a higher rarity vs the cloak of protection because of the slot type. This isn't an official rule in 5e, but many of the official tables reinforce it, probably as a hold over from 4e. If it is a holdover rule, you get 2 ring slots, which means you have twice the opportunity to wear a ring of protection versus a cloak of protection. Having two ring slots effectively doubles the demand for the item right? Instant higher rarity via supply/demand bottleneck.

I imagine the ring of protection is rare and the cloak is uncommon because a ring is easier to conceal, it has more hit points, durability, and AC, plus it takes up less space, and you can wear more than 1 ring but can only wear 1 cloak

Ah yes, extra AC will help... (laughs in advantage, +5 to hit and proficiency bonus, and +3 weapon) -barbarians probably (already dedicated to max con and dex, with a shield) also for ghoststep, it says "when you end in a SOLID OBJECT" not creature so you can avoid damage by ending inside a creature

3:30 specifically I don't believe the cloak is supposed to work with armor where as the ring can

Does the shield spell protect against nonmagical attacks such as arrows or sling shots?

Characters isn't demigods at 17th level it is your choice of adventure that makes it seem that way not even 20th level reach that status

Bracers of Defense. +2 AC so long as you aren't wearing armor or shield.

The exact wording for the ring a spell storing is 5 Levels of spells? So what that means is you can have unlimited cantrips in there for your non caster buddy to use as well

Technically I dont think theres a rule for it in 5e, but the ring of protection may be higher rarity as you can wear many rings but only only cloak

Now I say go with Ring of Spell Storing with 3 shield, 1 silvery barbs and 1 Absorb Elements.

How many cloaks can you wear vs. how many rings can you wear? The answer might help explain the difference in rarity.

does this guy do yugioh content as well? I swear ive heard his voice and his text style before

There is another disadvantage of the cloak of invisibility over the cloak of displacement. If you fight something with truesight like a dragon the cloak of invisibility won't do anything while the cloak of displacemant would still work. BTW: How about turning this into a format where you'd equip a character of different classes with the best (defensive) items for each slot and make a video discussing your choices?

I feel that +3 Fullplate needed a special honorable mention at the end. It is the single best AC item that does not require attunement.

3:39 Maybe because there are other cloaks so it's better to have a Ring so it doesn't take the space? I dunno

I don't know if a ring of spell storing is apropos of this list because it doesn't inherently have those spells. If your casters in the party are druids and clerics, you don't get those spells at all.

Tho he doesn't have Ring of Evasion but a Barbarian-Rogue in my campaign survived 3 Fire Breath without took any damage thanks to danger sense + evasion.

The reason for cloak and ring of protection rarity gap is because you can wear 2 rings . but only one cloak.

Add adamantine armor- it functions like regular armor, but it cancels critical hits into normal hits. Not super powerful, but more fun for the DM than a bladesinger wizard wearing a cloak of displacement

Just a question that I've never had answered in the 4 years of playing I had, how many items can you be attuned to at the same time? (referring to any class that's not artificer)

When you roll 1d3 to restore magic item charges, it's better to roll 1d6 and treat 1-2 as 1 and 3-4 as 2 and 5-6 as 3, than it is to roll 1d4-1. That way you're replicating the odds of 1d3, without actually rolling such a cursed dice

5:30 - This is PERFECT armor for a Ranger as they get Medium Armor prof but are commonly going DEX builds.

hol up didnt know deul logs was here lol

gg

Hi

Cloak of displacement on my lv 5 21 armor ranger would be a LITTLE busted

Ring of protection is rare because having both of them be uncommon would make it too easy to get +2 to AC and all saves, and it would be very strong. Why the ring specifically I have no idea though, maybe just because rings tend to be strong so they chose it to be the rare one