Uses for All that Equipment
You’ve created a character, got your fancy new armor and shiny weapon, plus a backpack full of gear you don’t give another thought to. It’s only when you are wandering through a dungeon in search of kobolds to slaughter, and you need some rope to climb down the 40-foot pit that you search through your equipment list. When you get back to town, you’re shopping consists of purchases magic items, not looking for a flask of oil and a new hooded lantern.
Adventuring equipment has many benefits, but we tend to gloss over them. First, most of these items are dirty cheap, ranging in price from five copper pieces to five whole pieces of gold. You can afford these items pretty much all the time, but why would you want them? In the heat of battle, your thoughts do not go to the steel mirror you have in your backpack. But it’s that same steel mirror has a significant role when you are creeping down the dungeon hallway and hear something around the corner. A +1 weapon will probably cost over 1,000 gold pieces, while the mirror, which could very well save your life, only costs 5 gold pieces.
I love adventuring gear and the myriad of uses the items have. Let’s take a look at some of these mundane items and what we can do with them.
Ball Bearings
If you don’t know about the beauty of ball bearings, let me be the first to say you don’t know what you are missing. Most people think they are only to be used when a pack of Gnolls is chasing them, dropping them on the ground in hopes that their enemies will fall prone. Broaden your mind, for the ball bearing is a magical yet non-magical piece of adventuring gear. Jam one of those round little beauties into a keyhole to prevent it from being opened. Found that poisonous dart trap but can’t figure out how to disarm it? Shove a ball bearing in the dart hole. If you’re staring down that pit in the floor wondering how deep it is, take a ball bearing, drop it down the pit and listen. Even if Intelligence is your Dump Stat, you should be able to figure out its depth by the length of time from when you drop it to when you hear it hit bottom. Better yet, cast the light cantrip on one of them and drop it down there. When the light goes out, you know it’s deeper than 40 feet. And once you’re at the bottom of that pit, use the same bright ball bearing and roll down the next hallway to see what’s up ahead. Who knows, you may even set off a poisonous dart trap.
10 Foot Pole
Everyone would carry a mundane 10-foot pole if the minds at WotC added one simple word - collapsable. I don’t agree with the collapsible pole being a magic item, but I’m not in charge so I didn’t get a vote. If you are like me (and god, for you’re sake I hope you aren’t), it’s hard to get past the silliness of imaging Grok the Barbarian carrying around a pole that long. Does it get in the way when you’re swinging a battle axe? Are you forced to carry it like a lance when you’re somewhere with a low ceiling? These are the places my mind goes when I think about purchasing one, making it impossible for me to purchase it. If I could collapse it down to 2 feet, it would be a staple in my bag of adventuring gear.
Now that aside, everyone needs this item. It’s like the 50 feet of rope you are always lugging around. You always have it, never think about it, but are happy it’s in your backpack when it’s needed. If you need to poke or prod something, whether it be a body, a suspicious floor tile, or that chest you know for sure isn’t a mimic, a 10-foot pole is what you want. Say that body lying on the floor turns out not to be a dead body, and it springs to life, wanting to do nothing more than claw your eyes out. By discovering this with your trusty pole, you may have just prevented a surprise attack. More importantly, you are not in the immediate melee range of medium or smaller creatures. Your new not-so-dead friend will be forced to spend half its movement getting up and moving another 5 feet to use those nasty claws.
Poking things isn’t the only thing the pole is good for. Buy some string, and you have an impromptu fishing pole. It can work as a level when needed. Convince your DM that using it to pole vault over that 20-foot hole in the ground gives you advantage on your checks. Use it to push your small boat across the marsh, so you don’t have to get your fancy boots wet. Stick the head of the kobold champion on top of it and watch them beg and cower as you match into their camp as you carry it aloft. Then, once you have claimed the camp as your own and the remaining kobolds have become your army of wannabe mini dragons, use it as a flag pole to raise your colors for all to see.
Caltrops (bag of 20)
These bad boys are the lego pieces of the fantasy world. Step on one, and you’ll know it. A three-legged piece of metal, the caltrop is an incredible piece of gear that everyone should have 20 of. We mentioned above dropping ball bearings to slow down an enemy in hot pursuit of you and the treasure you probably stole. The caltrop is the ball bearing on steroids. Per the Player’s Handbook, the ball bearing does the following:
As an action, you can spill these tiny metal balls from their pouch to cover a level, square area that is 10 feet on a side. A creature moving across the covered area must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. A creature moving through the area at half speed doesn't need to make the save.
Now compare that to the caltrop.
As an action, you can spread a bag of caltrops to cover a square area that is 5 feet on a side. Any creature that enters the area must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or stop moving this turn and take 1 piercing damage. Taking this damage reduces the creature’s walking speed by 10 feet until the creature regains at least 1 hit point. A creature moving through the area at half speed doesn’t need to make the save.
The DC difference alone makes the caltrop the go-to item you should drop when being chased. Add to that the potential to take damage and reduce the speed or your pursuer by 10 feet, and I have no problem spending a gold piece and then essentially throwing it away. Give a bag to your owl familiar and have it release them directly onto or in front of an enemy. It’s not an attack, so based on RAW, this shouldn’t be an issue. You can also use them to wedge shut doors and windows or perhaps launch them at your foes via the catapult spell. For such a small investment, there’s a lot you can do with these simple pieces of metal.
Other Items to keep in mind include:
Parchment - At 1 silver piece, parchment is cheaper than paper but just as effective. If you want to write a letter or jot down important information, like that strange symbol on the side of the temple, you’ll need something to write on. If you’re one of the few players smart enough to map out the lost dungeon of the mind flayer, you better have something to draw on. Just remember to invest in an ink pen too!
Steel Mirror - As noted above, you can peer around the corner with one when your rogue is off stealing something. You can also use it to blind a foe when fighting in the sun, gaze upon yourself when you purchase those fancy clothes or watch a Tabaxi chase the reflection of light you move around using the mirror.
Chalk - Another extremely underrated item. Marking rooms in a dungeon with chalk helps if you get lost (you didn’t buy the parchment to make a map, did you?), and a simple little set of symbols can designate which rooms have traps, doors you may not have opened, and so on. Trust me, this helps when you are running for your life, and you can’t remember which door to go through to get out. One other quick note on chalk. If your enemy goes can go invisible on you, chalk dust either blown onto them or scattered on the floor can help you locate them.
Holy Water - If you don’t have a paladin in your group, you should at least have some holy water. You can covertly unmask undead, demons, devils, and the like by offering them a glass of holy water, dipping your hand in it before shaking hands, or if you’re rude, spitting it at them if they get a little to close for comfort. It’s a powerful weapon too, as you can use it as a melee weapon or a ranged weapon against the above mentioned creatures, doing 2d6 damage on a hit.
With so many items and so many uses, it’s impossible to cover them all here, so please share your ideas with us in the comment section below!
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