Ten Items Your Character Should Already Have
Most adventurers spend their gold on weapons, armor, and whatever the party needs to not die in the next dungeon. That’s sensible. It’s also how you end up wedged under a boulder with nothing but a longsword and regret.
The basic adventuring gear table is easy to ignore. It shouldn’t be. A handful of items sitting in that list cost almost nothing and solve problems that spells and class features simply don’t cover. Here are ten worth your attention before you ever roll initiative.
The Ones That Fight for You
Alchemist’s Fire is 50 gold, which makes it the most expensive item on this list by a mile, but it earns that price. It’s a sticky, adhesive fluid that ignites on contact with air, meaning it needs no spark, no tinder, no survival check from a skeptical DM. In a blizzard, in a swamp, in a cave with no dry wood, you throw this and you have fire. It does 1d4 fire damage per turn once applied, and extinguishing it requires a DC 10 Dexterity check. The combat applications are real, but the utility applications are better. Dip arrows in it. Cut a distant rope. Never argue with a DM about whether you can light a fire again.
Oil is the budget cousin. It costs almost nothing, it doesn’t ignite itself, but that’s also the point. You control when it goes. Lay a trail, set your explosive, light it from somewhere safe. Oil is patient in a way Alchemist’s Fire isn’t.
Ball bearings are Looney Tunes logic that the rules actually support. Scatter them across a floor, and anything moving through that space has to deal with the consequences. One bag, one action, one very bad day for whatever’s chasing you.
The Ones That Move the World
Block and tackle is a set of pulleys that multiplies your lifting capacity by four. A character with 10 Strength can normally lift 300 pounds. With a block and tackle, that becomes 1,200 pounds. Add the rest of the party, and you’re moving small vehicles. There is no campaign that doesn’t eventually ask someone to move something enormous, and this is the answer that costs 1 gold piece instead of a spell slot.
Rope should require no argument. 50 feet of hemp rope, 2 hit points, DC 17 Strength check to break. You need rope for climbing, for binding, for rigging with your block and tackle, for Mage Hand to thread across a chasm so the whole party can cross. Always have rope. Buy more rope than you think you need.
The Ones You Didn’t Think Of
A crowbar gives you advantage on Strength checks where leverage applies. It’s also a blunt instrument that costs 2 gold and doesn’t matter if you leave it behind. Strict DMs won’t let you pry open a door with your greatsword; they will let you do it with a crowbar.
A lock is a barbarian you never have to feed. It holds a door. It doesn’t require concentration, doesn’t take up a turn, doesn’t need a rest. Lock the room behind you, interrogate in peace.
Manacles are rope that can’t be burned, gnawed through, or worked loose by someone with patient fingers and a free hand. They’re also faster than tying a knot under pressure. If you need to restrain a fire elemental, manacles are your only option. They’re not replacing rope; they’re handling the cases rope can’t.
Sealing wax sounds like a bureaucrat’s tool, which is exactly what makes it dangerous. Anything sealed with wax looks official. Carve yourself a crude stamp, put it on a letter, and suddenly you’re an envoy of someone important. It also waterproofs containers, conceals small items inside a solid wax block, and makes airtight seals on flasks.
The Best One
A sack costs one copper piece. One. And if you put it over a wizard’s head, they cannot cast spells with verbal components, which is most of them. While they spend their turn pulling burlap off their face, they are not casting Fireball. This is not a trick that requires magic, class features, or preparation. It requires one copper piece and the willingness to commit.
Two hundred sacks cost less than a crowbar. Think about that.