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Magic items by rarity

D&D 5e Legendary Magic Items

The D&D 5e SRD includes 43 legendary magic items. Match the rarity to your party's tier when seeding a hoard. Tap any item for its full rules text.

43 results

What's at legendary rarity

43 items, made up of 22 wondrous items and 9 rings, with 12 more across other groups. 30 of them require attunement — 70% of the tier, and that percentage is the number that matters when you are stocking a hoard. A character can only be attuned to three items at once, so handing out four attunement items at the same rarity gives the player a decision rather than four upgrades.

When to hand these out

Legendary items are campaign objects. There should be a reason this one exists, someone who wants it back, and a consequence to carrying it. Handing one over as loot from a random hoard wastes it; the interesting version is that acquiring it is itself the adventure, and keeping it causes problems.

What they do to the game

A legendary item can outclass a character's own class features, which is worth thinking about before it enters play — it is easy for the item to become more interesting than its owner. Many have drawbacks, sentience or attunement requirements, and those are the most valuable part of the design rather than flavour to skip.

Common questions

How many legendary magic items are in the D&D 5e SRD?
The SRD lists 43 legendary items. The SRD is the free subset of the rules, so the Dungeon Master's Guide contains more at this rarity.
What level should a party be for legendary items?
As a rough guide, uncommon items suit levels 1 to 5, rare 5 to 10, very rare 11 to 16, and legendary 17 and up. Common items are safe at any level, and artifacts are story objects rather than tier-appropriate rewards. These are guidelines rather than rules — what matters is whether the specific item invalidates the encounters you have planned.
Do legendary items require attunement?
Some do and some do not; each item's entry states it. Attunement is the real limit on magic items rather than rarity, because a character can only be attuned to three items at once, which forces a genuine choice once the party has a few.

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