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Is your ranger a lone wanderer, traveling the barriers between planes and keeping dangerous entities from accessing the Material Plane? Perhaps they work in a lodge with other rangers, slaying enormous monsters that veer too close to a forest or nation. Whether peaceful or aggressive, loner or collaborator, your ranger will likely need the aid of some magic items as their adventures progress—for many enemies cannot be felled by wood and steel alone.
Below are some of our favorite items for rangers. If you see something you like but don’t seem to be able to add it to your character sheet, visit the D&D Beyond marketplace to ensure you own it. It can also be shared with you by a friend or DM with a master-tier subscription.
- Boots of elvenkind
- Bracers of archery
- Eagle whistle
- Gloves of swimming and climbing
- Last stand armor
- Moon sickle
- Nature’s mantle
- Oathbow
- Robe of eyes
- Scimitar of speed
Dungeon Masters’ Discretion
Some of these items may be unavailable for the setting in which you’re playing. Discuss interest in magic items with your DM, understanding that there are many reasons why a DM might not provide access to certain content.
Top 10 Magic Items for Rangers
1. Boots and Cloak of Elvenkind
Starting with some classics here today, the boots of elvenkind come to us all the way from the very first dungeon master’s guide in 1979. Their magic shrouds the noise of your steps, giving you advantage on Stealth checks that rely on silence. Whether your ranger is sneaking through the undergrowth of a forest or a noble’s mansion, silent movement could prove critical to your mission.
The boots pair well with another visitor from the original dungeon master’s guide: the cloak of elvenkind. Where the boots give you advantage on stealth checks to move silently, the cloak (if you spend an action to pull its hood up) imposes disadvantage on Perception checks made to see you. The cloak will also grant you advantage on all Stealth checks made to Hide.
If you think one stealthy item is sufficient, consider whether you have the room to attune to it, as the boots do not require attunement, but the cloak does.
2. Bracers of Archery
Are you more of a “hang out here in the trees and rain down arrows from afar” type or ranger or a “fire off a couple quick shots as I close the distance to attack with my trusty shortsword” ranger? Wherever you fall, if your ranger has even a passing affinity for a bow, they may enjoy these bracers of archery. An item as straightforward as it is effective, the bracers of archery grant a +2 bonus to damage rolls on ranged attacks with longbows and shortbows. Your ranger may outgrow them at some point for something fancier or more dynamic, but in lower and even middle tiers of play, these bracers are hard to beat.
3. Eagle Whistle
The eagle whistle is an interesting little token, granting you three opportunities to fly per day. Hope your ranger doesn’t use spells with verbal components much because if they’d like to fly they’ll have to continuously blow this whistle. While blowing the whistle continuously, they can fly twice as fast as their walking speed for a number of rounds equal to 5 + your Constitution modifier. Talking, holding your breath, or suffering some sort of suffocation effect before these rounds have elapsed would cause you to lose your flight.
But if there’s a hill giant swinging a club, and you need to grab 40 feet of air to shoot arrow after arrow from a safe range? Blow that whistle and fly like an– wait, eagles don’t whistle, do they?
4. Gloves of Swimming and Climbing
A ranger must be prepared for anything. Your party will likely rely on you for help avoiding environmental dangers and spotting threats, and look to you to lead them through unfamiliar terrain. The gloves of swimming and climbing allow you to swim or climb without spending extra movement and grant you a +5 bonus to Athletics checks made to try to do either. With a climbing speed, you could easily use your vertical movement to find a vantage point in combat or escape a sticky scenario. And if you’re looking to hide while you’re up there, the boots or cloak of elvenkind might be able to help.
Suppose you’re a little less worried about climbing and a little more worried about jumping very high or leaping from tree branch to tree branch. In that case, you may want to instead direct your attention to the boots of striding and springing, which will triple your jump distance and provide extra movement if you have 30 feet or less walking speed. Or wear both at once to practically prance through jungle canopies.
5. Last Stand Armor
Planeswalkers, take note. Last stand armor is for those adventurers who tend to tangle with extraplanar entities and are determined to go down swinging. This armor can come in any type, but whether it’s padded or plate it will include a +1 bonus to its AC. If you die while wearing the armor, its magic activates: the armor is destroyed, and every celestial, fey, and fiend within 30 feet of you must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or be banished to their home plane (unless already there). While the impulse to defend an area from extraplanar threats fits many rangers, Horizon Walkers or Fey Wanderer rangers, in particular, might find the armor appealing.
The raw power of the armor itself is difficult to overstate. Banishment is a 4th-level concentration spell that, at its base level, only affects one target. With a 30-foot radius, your ranger’s last stand armor could affect over a dozen targets at once. There’s just the one catch where you have to die to use the armor’s effect. But, as long as you have a cleric with revivify at the ready, this shouldn’t be an issue!
6. Moon Sickle
What’s this? An item that increases a specific class’s spell attack bonus and save DC, and scales with the item’s rarity? Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything’s series of unique spellcaster items blesses us again.
The ranger’s moon sickle applies the aforementioned bonuses to magic—a +1 bonus for uncommon sickles, +2 for rare, and +3 for very rare—but it also provides druids and rangers with a healing bonus. Whenever you cast a spell that restores hit points and are holding the sickle, you can roll a d4 and add the total to the number of hit points restored. Attuning to this item essentially passively upcasts every cure wounds spell you cast by one level; more consequential healing magics like revivify would benefit from this bonus as well, allowing you to revive a fallen ally with more than 1 single hit point.
7. Nature’s Mantle
Admittedly, the nature’s mantle is often my top choice for a magic item when playing a ranger. Like the moon sickle, the nature’s mantle must be attuned to a druid or ranger. While you are wearing it, you can use it as a focus for your ranger spells; the cape itself looks positively incredible, so I assume you flourish it dramatically as part of the casting.
Nature’s mantle also allows your ranger to Hide as a bonus action, a very powerful boost to your action economy. You may grow out of this item when your ranger gets the Vanish ability at level 14, but it will not let you down in the meantime. For best results, pair this cape with the boots of elvenkind.
8. Oathbow
The oathbow is a bet you make with the universe. Speak its command words as you release the arrow to designate a target as your sworn enemy, and hope you can kill them before you need to use this bow to target someone else. Your sworn enemy does not benefit from half cover or three-quarters cover, nor do you suffer from disadvantage with long-range attacks against them, and your attacks deal an extra 3d6 piercing damage.
But, while targeting a creature, your attacks against any other target are at disadvantage. And your oath lasts until the sworn enemy dies or until dawn seven days later. If you make this oath and don’t kill the target in that encounter, you’re risking disadvantage on all other attacks for a week. If you make this oath at the opportune time, you’ll be a hero.
For less risk and less damage, consider the dragon wing bow we recommended for Dexterity-based fighters in this article.
9. Robe of Eyes
Never miss a thing. The robe of eyes grants you darkvision out to a range of 120 feet, the ability to see into the Ethereal Plane, sight in all directions, advantage on Perception checks that rely on sight, and the ability to see invisibility.
Don this robe and gaze deep into the darkness during your overnight watches, assured that if anything is out there, you’ll glimpse its movement.
10. Scimitar of Speed
The scimitar of speed is a relatively simple, fun way to increase your ranger’s effectiveness in battle. The scimitar’s base enchantment grants a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls, helping ensure you can take it into the late game if you’d like. It will also allow your ranger to attack with it as a bonus action on each of your turns.
Under normal circumstances, your ranger can only make a bonus action attack if they choose to dual wield and will experience reduced damage unless they take the Two-Weapon Fighting Fighting Style. However, by wielding the scimitar of speed in their main hand, you ranger can keep their shield or arcane focus in their offhand and still make that additional, full-damage attack per turn.
Building a ranger
With a magic item or two in hand, your ranger is well on its way to exploring new worlds. Time to restring that bow, sharpen your shortswords, and head to the Character Builder!
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.
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