Skip Navigation
The Handy Haversack

Magical Miscellany

Magic is everywhere in D&D. Many creatures in the D&D multiverse exist solely because of the influence of magic, spellcasters harness magical energy every day in the form of spells, and supernatural power thrums at the heart of the magic items sought by adventurers. This chapter is all about those last two things—spells and magic items.

The chapter first presents new spells for player characters and monsters to use. Those spells are followed by suggestions on customizing the look of your spells. The chapter then offers a selection of new magic items, including artifacts of mythic power and magic items that can be printed on one’s body in the form of tattoos.

The DM decides how the options in this chapter appear in a campaign and may choose to use some, all, or none of them, so make sure to let your DM know which options you’d most like to use in play.

In her lab, Tasha confers with the demon lord Graz’zt through a magic mirror

Spells

Well, darn. Whatever could have happened to the spells Mordenkainen’s Bountiful Back-Patting, Heward’s Hot Air, and all the rest? I’m sure I submitted the spells they insisted I include herein. Seems they got lost in the shuffle. Shame.

  • Tasha

This section contains new spells that the DM may add to a campaign, making them available to player character and monster spellcasters alike. The Spells table lists the new spells, ordering them by level. The table also notes the school of magic of a spell, whether it requires concentration, whether it bears the ritual tag, and which classes have access to it.

If you’d like to use any of these spells, talk to your DM, who may allow some, all, or none of them.

Level Spell School Conc. Ritual Class
0 Booming Blade Evocation No No Artificer, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
0 Green-Flame Blade Evocation No No Artificer, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
0 Lightning Lure Evocation No No Artificer, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
0 Mind Sliver Enchantment No No Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
0 Sword Burst Conjuration No No Artificer, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
1st Tasha’s Caustic Brew Evocation Yes No Artificer, Sorcerer, Wizard
2nd Summon Beast Conjuration Yes No Druid, Ranger
2nd Tasha’s Mind Whip Enchantment No No Sorcerer, Wizard
3rd Intellect Fortress Abjuration Yes No Artificer, Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
3rd Spirit Shroud Necromancy Yes No Cleric, Paladin, Warlock, Wizard
3rd Summon Fey Conjuration Yes No Druid, Ranger, Warlock, Wizard
3rd Summon Shadowspawn Conjuration Yes No Warlock, Wizard
3rd Summon Undead Necromancy Yes No Warlock, Wizard
4th Summon Aberration Conjuration Yes No Warlock, Wizard
4th Summon Construct Conjuration Yes No Artificer, Wizard
4th Summon Elemental Conjuration Yes No Druid, Ranger, Wizard
5th Summon Celestial Conjuration Yes No Cleric, Paladin
6th Summon Fiend Conjuration Yes No Warlock, Wizard
6th Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise Transmutation Yes No Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
7th Dream of the Blue Veil Conjuration No No Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
9th Blade of Disaster Conjuration Yes No Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

Personalizing Spells

When I first learned magic from Baba Yaga, I couldn’t help but add spectral chicken legs to all my spells. She said she wasn’t a fan, but I caught her grinning a few times. So of course I still add those legs. What use is magic if you can’t harness it to amuse your mom?

  • Tasha

Just as every performer lends their art a personal flair and every warrior asserts their fighting styles through the lens of their own training, so too can a spellcaster use magic to express their individuality. Regardless of what type of spellcaster you’re playing, you can customize the cosmetic effects of your character’s spells. Perhaps you wish the effects of your caster’s spells to appear in their favorite color, to suggest the training they received from a celestial mentor, or to exhibit their connection to a season of the year. The possibilities for how you might cosmetically customize your character’s spells are endless. However, such alterations can’t change the effects of a spell. They also can’t make one spell seem like another—you can’t, for example, make a magic missile look like a fireball.

When customizing your spellcaster’s magic, consider developing a theme—often, the broader and more versatile the better. You may describe your caster’s magic whenever you wish, particularly when it makes an interesting addition to a story. You may also use it to reinforce other choices you’ve made for your character, like making a bard’s spells tied more closely to their favored art form or a cleric’s spells themed around their deity.

For example, the fireball of a wizard with a fondness for storms might erupt to look like burning clouds or a burst of red lightning (without affecting the spell’s damage type), while the same wizard’s haste spell might limn the target in faint thunderheads.

Alternatively, a cleric who serves a moon god might radiate faint moonlight around their hands when they cast cure wounds, or their shield of faith might surround the target with glimmering crescent moons.

Further still, a druid could choose a cherry blossom theme for their magic, causing delicate branches and pink leaves to grow when they cast entangle or shillelagh, and their faerie fire spell could appear more like wind-tossed petals than flames.

The Magic Themes table offers just a few suggestions that might inspire you while personalizing your character’s spells.

Magic Themes

d10 Theme
1 Book pages, origami, quills, and ink, all accompanied by rustling sounds and library scents
2 Brine-scented shapes of sharks, jellyfish, octopi, and other sea creatures
3 Food or utensils that carry the scent of cuisine from the spellcaster’s homeland
4 Rich, copper scents accompanied by what appears to be the caster’s own imbalanced humors
5 Bursts and strokes of watercolor painted by an invisible brush
6 Transparent weapons, armor, miniature war machines, and phantom soldiers
7 Golden rays that carry faint warmth and the hint of windblown sand
8 Rowdy barnyard animals accompanied by the warm scents of coops and stables
9 Manifestations of deep emotions, like the faint shackles of melancholy, sepia shades of nostalgia, or heart-shaped bursts of affection
10 Tiny whimsical or fearsome beings from the spellcaster’s inescapable, recurring dreams

A farmer sorcerer hurls magic missiles that look like chickens

Magic Items

This section presents magic items that can be introduced into any campaign. Here you’ll find items of all rarities, including artifacts. Magic spellcasting focuses for every spellcasting class are also available here. And some of the items in this section represent a new type of wondrous item: magic tattoos.

The Magic Items table lists all the magic items in this chapter and notes the rarity of each one. The table also indicates whether an item requires attunement. All the items use the magic items rules in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

Magic Items

Rarity Item Attunement
Common Illuminator’s Tattoo Yes
Common Masquerade Tattoo Yes
Common Prosthetic Limb No
Common+ Spellwrought Tattoo No
Uncommon+ +1 All-Purpose Tool Yes
Uncommon+ +1 Amulet of the Devout Yes
Uncommon+ +1 Arcane Grimoire Yes
Uncommon+ Barrier Tattoo (small) Yes
Uncommon+ +1 Bloodwell Vial Yes
Uncommon Coiling Grasp Tattoo Yes
Uncommon Eldritch Claw Tattoo Yes
Uncommon Feywild Shard Yes
Uncommon Guardian Emblem Yes
Uncommon+ +1 Moon Sickle Yes
Uncommon Nature’s Mantle Yes
Uncommon+ +1 Rhythm-Maker’s Drum Yes
Rare Alchemical Compendium Yes
Rare Astral Shard Yes
Rare Astromancy Archive Yes
Rare Atlas of Endless Horizons Yes
Rare Bell Branch Yes
Rare Devotee’s Censer Yes
Rare Duplicitous Manuscript Yes
Rare Elemental Essence Shard Yes
Rare Far Realm Shard Yes
Rare Fulminating Treatise Yes
Rare Heart Weaver’s Primer Yes
Rare Libram of Souls and Flesh Yes
Rare Lyre of Building Yes
Rare Outer Essence Shard Yes
Rare Planecaller’s Codex Yes
Rare Protective Verses Yes
Rare Reveler’s Concertina Yes
Rare Shadowfell Brand Tattoo Yes
Rare Shadowfell Shard Yes
Very Rare Absorbing Tattoo Yes
Very Rare Cauldron of Rebirth Yes
Very Rare Crystalline Chronicle Yes
Very Rare Ghost Step Tattoo Yes
Very Rare Lifewell Tattoo Yes
Legendary Blood Fury Tattoo Yes
Artifact Baba Yaga’s Mortar and Pestle Yes
Artifact Crook of Rao Yes
Artifact Demonomicon of Iggwilv Yes
Artifact Luba’s Tarokka of Souls Yes
Artifact Mighty Servant of Leuk-o Yes
Artifact Teeth of Dahlver-Nar Yes

Who doesn’t love magic items? The desire for them is one of the few things Mordenkainen and I have in common. And magic tattoos—they’re especially fun. I think tattoos are a reason robes are so popular with wizards. Robes cover the ankle and lower-back tattoos so many of us got as apprentices. Don’t even ask.

  • Tasha

Magic Tattoos

Blending magic and artistry with ink and needles, magic tattoos imbue their bearers with wondrous abilities. Magic tattoos are initially bound to magic needles, which transfer their magic to a creature.

Once inscribed on a creature’s body, damage or injury doesn’t impair the tattoo’s function, even if the tattoo is defaced. When applying a magic tattoo, a creature can customize the tattoo’s appearance. A magic tattoo can look like a brand, scarification, a birthmark, patterns of scale, or any other cosmetic alteration.

The rarer a magic tattoo is, the more space it typically occupies on a creature’s skin. The Magic Tattoo Coverage table offers guidelines for how large a given tattoo is.

An orc artist creates a tattoo on his elf friend

Magic Tattoo Coverage

Tattoo Rarity Area Covered
Common One hand or foot or a quarter of a limb
Uncommon Half a limb or the scalp
Rare One limb
Very Rare Two limbs or the chest or upper back
Legendary Two limbs and the torso

Magic Item Descriptions

The following magic items are presented in alphabetical order.

  • Absorbing Tattoo
  • Alchemical Compendium
  • +1 All-Purpose Tool
  • +1 Amulet of the Devout
  • +1 Arcane Grimoire
  • Astral Shard
  • Astromancy Archive
  • Atlas of Endless Horizons
  • Baba Yaga’s Mortar and Pestle
  • Baba Yaga’s Pestle
  • Barrier Tattoo (Small)
  • Bell Branch
  • Blood Fury Tattoo
  • +1 Bloodwell Vial
  • Cauldron of Rebirth
  • Coiling Grasp Tattoo
  • Crook of Rao
  • Crystalline Chronicle
  • Demonomicon of Iggwilv
  • Devotee’s Censer
  • Duplicitous Manuscript
  • Eldritch Claw Tattoo
  • Elemental Essence Shard
  • Far Realm Shard
  • Feywild Shard
  • Fulminating Treatise
  • Ghost Step Tattoo
  • Guardian Emblem
  • Heart Weaver’s Primer
  • Illuminator’s Tattoo
  • Libram of Souls and Flesh
  • Lifewell Tattoo
  • Luba’s Tarokka of Souls
  • Lyre of Building
  • Masquerade Tattoo
  • Mighty Servant of Leuk-O
  • +1 Moon Sickle
  • Nature’s Mantle
  • Outer Essence Shard
  • Planecaller’s Codex
  • Prosthetic Limb
  • Protective Verses
  • Reveler’s Concertina
  • +1 Rhythm-Maker’s Drum
  • Shadowfell Brand Tattoo
  • Shadowfell Shard
  • Spellwrought Tattoo
  • Teeth of Dahlver-Nar