5 Jolly Magic Items To Gift To Your Players

Hooray! It’s Christmas time! Seeing as Santa is still busy making the gifts, we at High Level Games have taken it upon ourselves to gift you and your players preemptively, in an aggressive first strike against Santa. Our plans for jovial domination are not yet realized, and as such, this is primarily a way to distract you all long enough to not notice our Santa bots replacing the actual mythical figure. It’s time to receive our gifts!

1) The Coal Cannon
This is perfect for any campaign setting that has just a little bit of flintlock technology in it. Also suitable for magic settings. The coal cannon is the weapon Santa uses to fight off people who decide to assault the North Pole directly. It is a handheld cannon that takes one round to load with a piece of mundane coal. However, after being loaded, it grinds the coal up into shards and fires them at high velocity. As such, anyone within a ten foot cone in front of the user has to make a dexterity saving throw or be subjected to 3d10 piercing damage. There is, of course the option to heat the coal cannon. Once loaded, if the wielder waits a round or longer before firing the coal cannon, it begins to heat the coals, causing Xd6 fire damage where X is the number of rounds waited, on top of the base 3d10. However, if more than two rounds are waited, there is a 15% chance the coal cannon explodes. This destroys the item and causes 3d10 piercing damage and 5d6 fire damage to everyone in a 10 foot radius around the explosion.

An item like this is very useful, however it holds a lot of danger for the average user, particularly if they don’t know the full capabilities of the coal cannon. The item itself would be considered very rare or similarly difficult to come by, as Santa only produces a few of these: one for himself and some for his most elite guard.

2) The Cracker of Nuts
All know of the Nutcracker. It’s a simple tool often decorated during the holiday season to enhance feelings of Jolliness. However, this is no simple nutcracker. This is the Cracker of Nuts. The Cracker of Nuts is exactly the same in appearance to a normal holiday nutcracker, with the exception of it being labeled as “The Cracker of Nuts” on the base of the figurine in golden text, and it having truesight out to thirty feet. When any item small enough to fit inside the mouth of an average nutcracker is placed inside its mouth, the item transforms into a number of walnuts equal in value to the item used, oftentimes spilling out of the Cracker of Nuts mouth. Additionally, if walnuts are within the line of sight of the Cracker of Nuts, it transforms into a six foot tall version of itself and begins stomping on, or otherwise cracking all walnuts within sight.

The only issue with this otherwise comedic item is that there was a minor mistake in its creation. Once per year, on the 18th day of the 12th month, the Cracker of Nuts attempts to crack skulls as well as Nuts. On this day, any creature within the line of sight of the Cracker of Nuts is considered a walnut for the purposes of this magic item, and the Cracker of Nuts will commence the cracking. The Cracker of nuts has an AC of 18 (natural armor) and 225 hitpoints. It can take one action, being Crack, which deals 3d6 bludgeoning damage. His stats are listed below. The Cracker of Nuts is kept in a dungeon, in a cell by himself for the 12th month of the year, if it is located in a city or village.

The Cracker of Nuts:
STR:26
DEX:8
CON:20
INT:2
WIS:8
CHA:10

3) The Chains of Krampus
We have begun to dabble in NSFNL (Not Safe For Naughty List) content. If you are on the naughty list, this is a very dangerous item indeed. These midnight black chains are warm to the touch and make anyone of evil alignment feel guilty when within ten feet of them. If the manacles are clamped onto a creature of evil alignment, the creature is considered frightened of the being that attached the chains on to it. Additionally, if the creature who put the chains on issues a command to the bearer of the chains, the creature must make a saving throw as per the Geas spell, with a difficulty class of 22. Lastly, as a bonus action, the creature who attached the chains can cause spikes to protrude inside the manacles, causing 2d4 piercing damage and causing the creature wearing the manacles to become petrified until a bonus action is used to release the creature from their petrification. The manacles have no effects on good or neutral aligned creatures, or Krampus himself. Fiends take 8d12 damage from the spikes inside the manacles when activated.

4) Hat of Festivities (Christmas Edition)
The Hat of Festivities is a fickle little item. However the Christmas variety is the least unpredictable. It grants the wearer a +2 to their AC as well as access to the Ray of Frost, Friends and Prestidigitation cantrips. Additionally the christmas edition grants the wearer resistance to frost damage. Hat of Festivities cannot be worn by anyone on the Naughty List (decided by the DM) and the hat will actively move off the heads of those on the Naughty List. Hats of Festivities only exist for the month in which their assigned holiday occurs, after which they disappear until they reappear the following year in a new location.

5) Gift of Giving
A delicate yet beloved magic item. The Gift of Giving appears around people who have just survived a hardship, such as a victorious army, a child surviving a sickness, an adventuring party narrowly escaping death and other similar situations. When someone opens the beautifully wrapped box and reaches in, roll percentile dice. A table is below to tell the DM what to give the character accordingly. The Gift of Giving is said to be a living creature that is made purely of sorrow, wanting only to spread cheer and kindness. When all creatures involved in the hardship have pulled something out of the box, it disappears, leaving behind the smell of peppermint in the air and a small note that says something kind to either the collective or each individual that took a gift.

01-25% - Trinket or Common Magical Item
26-50% - Uncommon or Rare Magical Item
51-75% - Very Rare or Legendary Magical Item
76-100% - Artefact or Gift they wanted as a child (because they can be just as important to a player)


I hope this helped spread some Holiday Cheer. Please, wherever you’re reading this, whatever holiday you’re celebrating, take a moment today and really bask in the knowledge that you’re here, and there’s so much good you can do in this world. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  

Jarod Lalonde is a young roleplayer and writer whose passion for both lead him here. He’s often sarcastic and has a +5 to insult. Dungeons and Dragons is his favorite platform. Although he’s not quite sure if it’s Cthulhu whispering to him in the small hours of the night, or just persistent flashbacks to the Far Realm.

Picture Reference: https://www.tribality.com/2014/12/24/dd-5e-holiday-adventure-the-darkest-night/