Top 10 Best D&D Accessories You Should Own
The Way to Play
D&D can be easily played with some paper, a pencil, and dice and there has always been a beauty of just focusing on the basics. But, with DnD’s rising popularity, there has been an insane amount of accessories released to make the game more immersive and all-around better for everyone at the table.
These are the best accessories, in my opinion, for managing your game and creating a better experience for everyone and boosting the confidence at the table (and keep those avoidable slip-ups fromhappening as often).
Some honorable mentions that did not quite make my list are dice towers, custom DM screens ( the DM screen Reincarnated is a MUST), dungeon tiles, or tokens to mark status effects on minis or track inspiration.
Without further ado, these are the Top 10 DnD Accessories that will make for a better Dungeons and Dragons experience.
10. Exquisite Dice
Is this a fresh batch of mouth watering fruit or a ton of beautiful dice? I'll let you be the judge.
If you’re like me, you believe in the Dice Juju. Wasting good rolls, a die that rolls bad more often than others, or someone rubbing bad luck off on my dice are all real concerns for me. There’s really only one conceivable way to solve this: run off and stack up on some sweet dice.
Now, what if I told you there were dice out there crafted like artwork? Metal Dice, Granite dice, Dice made from bone or meteorite, Dice that are crafted from beautiful wood and laser-etched by a master craftsman. MY MOUTH IS WATERING.
The point is, if you want to play D&D like a baller, get some sweet dice. They may be mandatory to play the game but getting some baller dice is not quite the highest priority on the accessory list but if you can spare the cash, I’m not stopping you.
What Makes MasterCraft Dice Awesome?
- They allow you to invest yourself more in your game.
- They feel good to look at and hold.
- You can trade out dice when the others start rolling bad (dice juju is real)
- They help with immersion by getting dice that match your character
Get Your Own: Fancy DnD Dice
9. Critical Fail Deck
Get ready for the hilarity that these bad boys bring to a game. Combat just got more interesting *insert sunglasses*.
In my home games and, from what I have experienced in most other home games, there, usually, seems to be some sort of house rule on critical hits. Rules, as is, state that when a player rolls a critical hit or natural 20 they get to double their dice, whether that means rolling double the amount of dice or rolling the same amount of dice and doubling the result. Nothing, however, can be more disappointing than celebrating a critical hit only to roll 1s on your crit damage.
You will find many ways that DMs homebrew critical hits to keep them satisfying, the most popular being the max + roll rule. This rule allows the players to take the max they could roll on the dice then roll their regular damage and add it to the max roll. WAY more satisfying. But, if you’re a conniving DM like me, you want to balance stronger critical hits with more epic critical fails.
My solution: Critical Fail Deck. There is a menagerie of critical fumble tables that you can roll on or affects you can look up but my personal favorite is the DnD Critical Fail Deck. Just draw a card anytime you roll a natural 1 in combat and read the effect that corresponds with your type of attack whether it be melee weapon, ranged weapon, fists, or magic and enjoy the ensuing chaos.
What Makes Critical Fail Decks Awesome?
- They create hilarious, memorable moments in combat.
- They balance stronger critical hit homebrews.
- Pulling from a deck of cards to find out your fate is oddly satisfying. (Wait is this what Tarot Reading is all about?)
- They are easy to implement and add a lot more to the story within combat than just saying “you miss but, like, really bad”.
8. Recording Microphone
Hide how forgetful you might be and make every little thing you say seem planned with the best organization tool out there!
I suck at notes. I was always terrible at taking notes, even in school. I could write everything out but when I would look back at it, they were almost incomprehensible. That is where a good microphone comes in.
Sometimes, while in the midst of a session, I make up names or situations. I could make up someone’s entire backstory on the spot but when the players come back to it, I will have forgotten everything I said because, in the flow of the story, I didn’t make time to write it down. A good microphone can allow you to just make up whatever you please, then when you listen back through the session, you can pause or rewind and take notes at your leisure without interrupting the flow of the game.
There are many different microphones to choose from but what I would recommend is either getting your players to buy a $15-$20 Mic from Amazon and have them plug them into the phones. Sync up the audio by having everyone clap at the same time before starting the game, so later they can send in their audio and it is easy to mash together or you could invest in one of the cheaper condenser mics like the Yeti Snowball for around $100 but it might be a bit lower quality as it will pick up ambient background noise as well.
If you’re looking to post these recordings somewhere, it would be better to get more professional audio equipment but for note-taking, these are fantastic solutions!
What Makes a Recording Microphone Awesome?
- Organization within the game becomes a lot stronger.
- Much easier to recall information that happens within the game, possibly hearing details that you did not hear while you were at the table.
- Become more confident in making up details on the fly, knowing you will be able to note them down later.
- You can record your mixtape and sell it for cash money.
- Listen back to recall great memories made with your friends.
7. Dice Tray
#SmellYourWyrmwood is a thing, join the revolution and get one of your own!
The beautiful Dice Tray. There is just something about rolling in a dice tray that makes you feel more like a proper D&D player. Sure, you could roll on the table but your dice could end up across the table, in another player’s lap, or bouncing off the floor. In a dice tray, your dice will land much more softly, and bouncing them off the inside walls is so satisfying.
There are many types of Dice Trays out there from the cheap fold out felt trays to the exquisitely crafted Wyrmwood dice trays. You could also be like I was for a while and use the top of a box to roll in. Whatever you do, rolling in a dice tray will make rolling dice that much more enjoyable.
What Makes a Dice Tray Awesome?
- The sound the dice makes when bouncing off the walls of the tray or against the cushion at the bottom.
- Keep your dice on the table, near you, and never have to fish around to find runaway dice.
- Look more professional or, perhaps, more like a professional nerd at the table.
- Organizing dice for quick access to the proper D4-D20.
6. Combat Tiers
If I saw those spiders, I would definitely be flying straight up as well! Wait, no, the spiders are up there! RUN RUN RUN!
Now, THESE are fancy! I first saw these things on Critical Role when Matt Mercer took them out to show combat that extended to flying or levitating above the battlefield. Before this, I thought the only option to show elevation in combat was putting a dice under my miniature with a number showing how many squares up I was.
These clear plates have laser etched squares to easily navigate them while at height and are a much better way to exemplify elevated combat than miniatures on dice. They’re stable, quick, and easy to use.
If you have players with easy access to flying and you’re using a battle mat, I would say these are a MUST.
What Makes Combat Tiers Awesome?
- Represent elevated combat accurately without trying to recall how high up a particular character is.
- Keep better track of combat positioning and avoid the scenarios of, “oh yea, sorry actually he’s up in the air so you can’t reach him.”
- Take your games to the next LEVEL! Huuuhhh Huuhhhhh how about that one?
- Avoid your miniatures from falling off of dice and forgetting what elevation they were located. It happens a lot more than you would think.
5. Miniatures
This could be the beginning of your newest addiction or maybe you can control yourself, ehhh MAYBE...
The Miniatures rabbit hole can be quite addicting, players have it a bit easier as they can go onto one of the sweet miniature making programs like Hero Forge and make their character, then have it shipped to them. But, if you’re a DM, this can become quite the addiction.
Seeing physical representations of the creatures in your mind or within the pages of the monster manual can be amazing for immersion or terrifying for your players. My recommendation, if you’re looking to amass an army of miniatures, is to challenge yourself by getting a small box of miniatures at a time. Use your latest box and make a rule for yourself to use the miniatures from your newest set to inform your group’s adventure. This way, you already have the miniature for the creatures you’re imagining within the dungeon and you didn’t have to pay premium prices by finding the exact miniature you needed online and having it shipped.
If you’re strapped for money or you just don’t have space to house your miniatures and you still want to play on a battle mat, consider using candy, like Skittles or M&Ms to represent your monsters. This way when your players defeat a monster, they get to eat a piece of candy. DM brownie points.
What Makes Miniatures Awesome?
- Immerse yourself further into the game by having a physical representation of your character or monsters.
- Easily be able to figure out which character is which or which creature is which in the craziness of combat.
- Keep better track of character movements without relying on memory or “theatre of the mind”.
4. Battle Mat
You'll be glad to have this bad boy when you can motion to the map to answer your players questions rather than re-explaining the scene every turn.
There’s nothing more exhilarating in D&D than the DM saying “Roll Initiative” and an amazing map being revealed. The Battle Mat is an easy, quick way to draw out the general layout of the combat zone without investing all the money it takes to buy dungeon tiles or the time to make your own. With a mat, you can just whip out a marker and layout the arena.
Battle Mats can come dry-erase or wet-erase. Dry-erase markers are easier to find at your local stores but make sure the players don’t touch on them too much because your map will start to disappear. With a wet-erase mat, the players will be able to move their pieces around as they please without messing up the mat but the markers are a bit harder to find and you have to keep a damp rag nearby to adjust the map on the fly.
In either format, though, you can even find battle mats that have pre-printed terrain like jungle, fields, desert, or dungeon so that when you draw on top of it and your players will feel a bit more immersed than they would on the plain yellow mat. Make sure you get all the waves out of your mat before sitting down to play though, a wavy mat is the worst.
What Makes a Battle Mat Awesome?
- Track combat, dungeons, traps, or hazards on the battlefield easily without clarifying character positions during combat.
- Keep precise positioning of characters in mind and use all the tactics within combat easily and efficiently by seeing exactly what your character’s situation is.
- It allows for smoother combat so that players are not asking for clarification of their character’s position or the enemies every round while using “theatre of the mind”.
3. Clear Sheet Protectors with Dry-erase Markers
Simple but effective. Just like I like my Pokemon. Crossover Achieved.
There are a lot of different ways to track changes to your character sheet nowadays but this is still my favorite. Before, I used to use my regular paper character sheet and when anything needed to be added I would write it in and when I needed to change something or level up abilities or HP I would need to erase, ruining my character sheet over time. With a sheet protector, you can make all the small adjustments you want without messing up your character sheet by using a dry or wet erase marker on the plastic protector!
With this method you can also draw in circles for your spell slots or class abilities and bubble them in when they are used, then when you have a long/short rest just rub your finger across and erase them.
What Makes Clear Sheet Protectors with Dry-erase Markers Awesome?
- Keep better organization of changing stats like gold, HP, status effects, or class resources.
- Draw on your friend’s character sheet without ruining it.
- Keeps your character sheet looking nice instead of marked all over with tons of math coating the outside margins.
2. Spell Book Cards (D&D Spell 5e app)
A Trading Card Game I can really get into, got any fireballs? Go Fish.
Spellcasting is the hardest part of DnD from knowing what your spells do exactly, ranges, concentration or not, what kind of save needs to be made, or the damage that needs to be rolled. If you’re in a group that will allow you to play the same character for a while, the Spell Book Cards are great and you can just buy the expansions when new spells are released but I’ve come to love the D&D Spell 5e app as well.
With the spell cards you can get some of the clear card sleeve pages and label the rows with the different spell levels, then put your cards in and even keep up with your slots (like in the method with the sheet protector and dry-erase markers). You can have something physical to look at and feel like a real wizard looking through their spellbook.
The D&D Spell 5e app has every spell in the game already downloaded into it and if anyone creates a homebrew spell, it can be easily added as well as adding new spells that the app hasn’t quite updated with yet. You can also create a character profile and assign all of your spells to that character. Then, while you’re playing, you can have the app open and look at exactly what each spell does by clicking on its name.
If you’re a DM with this app, you can quickly use the search function to look up a spell that a player is attempting to cast and call for the appropriate save or clarify the components quickly without halting play to have the player explain the spell details. This is a MUST for me, I don’t think I could DM without it.
What Makes Spell Book Cards or the D&D Spell 5e App Awesome?
- Too many things to list. Let’s start with a better understanding of your character’s spells.
- Quickly recall the specifics of your spells without flipping through a book.
- Have your prepared spells at your fingertips.
- Be a real wizard.
- Organize the craziest part of the entire game.
1. Binder
Display your character binder proudly on the first shelf your guests when they walk into your house or... hide it under your bed.
Probably the most boring on the list but definitely the most essential. Some people enjoy using notebooks to keep up with everything but, with a binder, you can easily put any papers you need in sheet protectors and mark on them like in number 3. Keep any printouts for the game, maps, or notes by putting in loose-leaf paper.
A binder is so essential in my home games that I give every player a binder to keep track of all their things before the campaign even starts. Putting in dividers can easily help players separate their notes, handouts, and character data. For a DM it can help to organize specifics for different cities (or if you’re like me you might have different small binders for every city), creatures, campaign notes, or tables.
What Makes a Binder Awesome?
- Organize all the resources you need or all the handouts you accrue throughout a campaign.
- Easily insert new sheets before or after existing pages without ripping out any paper.
- Keep all your notes and character information organized to easily recall whenever you need it.
- Easy to take with you and using the rings can also let you carry your other supplies like your dice in a bag, pencils, dry-erase markers, pens, or minis.
If you enjoyed this article you might also enjoy:
- [Top 15] Most Powerful D&D Monsters
- The Best D&D Classes (Ranked from Worst to Best)
- Top 25 Best D&D Villains of All Time
