The Workshop - Trickshot Darts (D&D 5e)

If you wield a weapon in a game of Dungeons and Dragons then there is a veritable treasure horde of fun and unique magical versions of that weapon for you to discover and wield as you slay your foes and fight for your ideals.

Provided that your weapon is a sword or a bow (or maybe an axe).

I joked with a colleague that I might call this series “Magical Weapons that aren’t Swords or Bows” but that feels unnecessarily glib even by my standards, but I want to take some time and create some options for weapons that are over-looked in favor of “better” weapons. And I’m going to start with one that is probably only ever taken by Monks, Wizards, and/or Sorcerers – the dart.

Seen often in proficiency lists, but not in use.

Trickshot Darts come six to a set and are magically linked to a belt that holds leather loops sized just perfectly for the darts and they are prized by warriors and sportsmen alike. Not only are they beautiful to behold – delicate and intricate etchings run along the shaft of the dart from the end all the way to the perfectly weighted tip, but they possess numerous qualities that a clever user can exploit in any number of scenarios, both in and out of combat. How about making a “foolish bet” that you can hit a target at 80 paces with one of these darts and then activating its magic to give it a little bit more distance and get your way with a minimum of fuss? Or curving your dart into a bullseye when an opponent has boxed you out with a conventional throw? Clever charlatans could find any number of uses for these items I’m sure.

Now, are they maybe a little bit on the powerful side for an uncommon magical item? Yeah, I’ll readily cop to that. But… they’re darts with a few limited tricks. They’re hardly going to break the game. The Rogue might get a few more unconventional sneak attacks sure, but at the end of the day it’s such an overlooked weapon choice where if this causes a few more people to give it a chance, then I’m happy.

What do you think? Do you have a player that would love this weapon? What weapon do you feel gets criminally underappreciated when it comes to unique magical versions in Dungeons and Dragons. Sound off below.

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Ben Erickson

Contributing Writer for d20 Radio

Mild mannered fraud analyst by day, incorrigible system tinker monkey by night, Ben has taken a strong interest in roleplaying games since grade school, especially when it comes to creation and world building. After being introduced to the idea through the Final Fantasy series and kit-bashing together several games with younger brother and friends in his earliest years to help tell their stories, he was introduced to the official world of tabletop roleplaying games through the boxed introductory set of West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game before moving into Dungeons and Dragons.