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I somehow managed to create a handout for the magic item tables, but have been unable to do so with any other dmg tables. I'm not sure how I managed for the magic items tables and now cannot replicate it with any other table. These are mostly consumable items with some wondrous items thrown in. A/B are probably more of the same. Level 0-3 scrolls, +1 ammunition, common potions, bag of holding and so on. I bet there are other sets of tables for the other item types and a table to roll on to determine type. Dmg Dungeon Master's Guide tce Tasha's Cauldron of Everything xge Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

by Mike Shea on 26 May 2015

The 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide is packed with useful information for your 5e Dungeons and Dragons game. One of its most useful features is the huge amount of random tables. Random tables are a fantastic tool of the Lazy Dungeon Master. They break you out of ruts and give you interesting and deep options for your adventure without hardly any preparation before your game. They are also a fantastic aid to help us improvise right at the table.

Breaking Out of Stereotypes

One of the most useful features of random tables is their ability to help us break out of stereotypes and cliches. When we're thinking on our feet it can be hard for us to come up with something new instead of falling back to something familiar. Our NPCs could start to look and act the same or every castle seems to feel like the ones in your favorite TV show. Random tables can help us break out of these ruts. They point us in a completely unexpected direction when we might be tempted to head in a straight and well traveled line.

The Random Table Index

Unfortunately, the Dungeon Master's Guide doesn't include an index of all of the random charts in the book. This makes it hard for us to find the chart we need when we need it while our game is running fast and furious. Where the DMG falls, however, we can pick it up on our own.

Below you will find a list of all of the charts in the 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide. You can also download a PDF of the random table index printable on a single piece of paper you can cut to size and tape inside your copy of the DMG itself.

Here's the index itself.

Not All Random Tables Are Created Equal

Not all tables end up being that useful when we're running our game. The Dungeon Master's Guide contains nearly 150 random tables yet only a handful of these may come up as you run your adventure. We've highlighted some of the more useful tables you might want to reference. The random table index PDF includes a second index with just these useful charts in case you don't want an exhaustive index and just want the ones you'll reference the most. These highlighted tables may become staples in your game to add the most interest and excitement with just a quick roll of the dice.

Top Random Tables in the DMG

Two Tables in the Player's Handbook

There are also two tables in the 5th Edition Player's Handbook that are also useful for a dungeon master to have on hand. These are the 'Wild Magic Surge' table on page 104 and the 'Trinkets' table on page 160 and 161 of the Player's Handbook. It's worth keeping these referenced as well and both can be found in the random table index PDF.

Fuel For Your Imagination

A random table is simply a way to spark a white hot flame in the furnace of your imagination. Our brains are the most powerful systems on earth for coming up with creative situations, ideas, and stories. These random tables are simply an ignition switch to help us avoid falling back to the familiar and get us thinking in a new direction. This index is designed to help you get the most out of the excellent fantastic tables in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Use it well.

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From D&D Wiki

• 1Magic Items
  • 1.5Activating an Item
  • 1.6Magic Items
  • 1.7Sentient Magic Items
    • 1.7.1Creating Sentient Magic Items

Magic items are gleaned from the hoards of conquered monsters or discovered in long‑lost vaults. Such items grant capabilities a character could rarely have otherwise, or they complement their owner's capabilities in wondrous ways.

Attunement

Some magic items require a creature to form a bond with them before their magical properties can be used. This bond is called attunement, and certain items have a prerequisite for it. If the prerequisite is a class, a creature must be a member of that class to attune to the item. (If the class is a spellcasting class, a monster qualifies if it has spell slots and uses that class's spell list.) If the prerequisite is to be a spellcaster, a creature qualifies if it can cast at least one spell using its traits or features, not using a magic item or the like.
Without becoming attuned to an item that requires attunement, a creature gains only its nonmagical benefits, unless its description states otherwise. For example, a magic shield that requires attunement provides the benefits of a normal shield to a creature not attuned to it, but none of its magical properties.
Attuning to an item requires a creature to spend a short rest focused on only that item while being in physical contact with it (this can't be the same short rest used to learn the item's properties). This focus can take the form of weapon practice (for a weapon), meditation (for a wondrous item), or some other appropriate activity. If the short rest is interrupted, the attunement attempt fails. Otherwise, at the end of the short rest, the creature gains an intuitive understanding of how to activate any magical properties of the item, including any necessary command words.
An item can be attuned to only one creature at a time, and a creature can be attuned to no more than three magic items at a time. Any attempt to attune to a fourth item fails; the creature must end its attunement to an item first. Additionally, a creature can't attune to more than one copy of an item. For example, a creature can't attune to more than one ring of protection at a time.
A creature's attunement to an item ends if the creature no longer satisfies the prerequisites for attunement, if the item has been more than 100 feet away for at least 24 hours, if the creature dies, or if another creature attunes to the item. A creature can also voluntarily end attunement by spending another short rest focused on the item, unless the item is cursed.

Wearing and Wielding Items

Using a magic item's properties might mean wearing or wielding it. A magic item meant to be worn must be donned in the intended fashion: boots go on the feet, gloves on the hands, hats and helmets on the head, and rings on the finger. Magic armor must be donned, a shield strapped to the arm, a cloak fastened about the shoulders. A weapon must be held.
In most cases, a magic item that's meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or they magically adjust themselves to the wearer. Rare exceptions exist. If the story suggests a good reason for an item to fit only creatures of a certain size or shape, you can rule that it doesn't adjust. For example, drow-­made armor might fit elves only. Dwarves might make items usable only by dwarf-­sized and dwarf-­shaped folk.
When a nonhumanoid tries to wear an item, use your discretion as to whether the item functions as intended. A ring placed on a tentacle might work, but a yuan-­ti with a snakelike tail instead of legs can't wear boots.

Multiple Items of the Same Kind

Use common sense to determine whether more than one of a given kind of magic item can be worn. A character can't normally wear more than one pair of footwear, one pair of gloves or gauntlets, one pair of bracers, one suit of armor, one item of headwear, and one cloak. You can make exceptions; a character might be able to wear a circlet under a helmet, for example, or to layer two cloaks.

Paired Items

Items that come in pairs—such as boots, bracers, gauntlets, and gloves—impart their benefits only if both items of the pair are worn. For example, a character wearing a boot of striding and springing on one foot and a boot of elvenkind on the other foot gains no benefit from either.

Activating an Item

Activating some magic items requires a user to do something special, such as holding the item and uttering a command word. The description of each item category or individual item details how an item is activated. Certain items use the following rules for their activation.
If an item requires an action to activate, that action isn't a function of the Use an Item action, so a feature such as the rogue's Fast Hands can't be used to activate the item.

Command Word

A command word is a word or phrase that must be spoken for an item to work. A magic item that requires a command word can't be activated in an area where sound is prevented, as in the area of the silence spell.

Consumables

Some items are used up when they are activated. A potion or an elixir must be swallowed, or an oil applied to the body. The writing vanishes from a scroll when it is read. Once used, a consumable item loses its magic.

Spells

Some magic items allow the user to cast a spell from the item. The spell is cast at the lowest possible spell level, doesn't expend any of the user's spell slots, and requires no components, unless the item's description says otherwise. The spell uses its normal casting time, range, and duration, and the user of the item must concentrate if the spell requires concentration. Many items, such as potions, bypass the casting of a spell and confer the spell's effects, with their usual duration. Certain items make exceptions to these rules, changing the casting time, duration, or other parts of a spell.
A magic item, such as certain staffs, may require you to use your own spellcasting ability when you cast a spell from the item. If you have more than one spellcasting ability, you choose which one to use with the item. If you don't have a spellcasting ability—perhaps you're a rogue with the Use Magic Device feature—your spellcasting ability modifier is +0 for the item, and your proficiency bonus does apply.

Charges

Some magic items have charges that must be expended to activate their properties. The number of charges an item has remaining is revealed when an identify spell is cast on it, as well as when a creature attunes to it. Additionally, when an item regains charges, the creature attuned to it learns how many charges it regained.

Magic Items

Common

Uncommon

Rare

Very Rare

Legendary

Artifacts

Sentient Magic Items

Some magic items possess sentience and personality. Such an item might be possessed, haunted by the spirit of a previous owner, or self-­aware thanks to the magic used to create it. In any case, the item behaves like a character, complete with personality quirks, ideals, bonds, and sometimes flaws. A sentient item might be a cherished ally to its wielder or a continual thorn in the side.
Most sentient items are weapons. Other kinds of items can manifest sentience, but consumable items such as potions and scrolls are never sentient.
Sentient magic items function as NPCs under the GM's control. Any activated property of the item is under the item's control, not its wielder's. As long as the wielder maintains a good relationship with the item, the wielder can access those properties normally. If the relationship is strained, the item can suppress its activated properties or even turn them against the wielder.

Creating Sentient Magic Items

When you decide to make a magic item sentient, you create the item's persona in the same way you would create an NPC, with a few exceptions described here.

Abilities

A sentient magic item has Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You can choose the item's abilities or determine them randomly. To determine them randomly, roll 4d6 for each one, dropping the lowest roll and totaling the rest.

Communication

A sentient item has some ability to communicate, either by sharing its emotions, broadcasting its thoughts telepathically, or speaking aloud. You can choose how it communicates or roll on the following table.

Senses

With sentience comes awareness. A sentient item can perceive its surroundings out to a limited range. You can choose its senses or roll on the following table.

Alignment

A sentient magic item has an alignment. Its creator or nature might suggest an alignment. If not, you can pick an alignment or roll on the following table.

Special Purpose

You can give a sentient item an objective it pursues, perhaps to the exclusion of all else. As long as the wielder's use of the item aligns with that special purpose, the item remains cooperative. Deviating from this course might cause conflict between the wielder and the item, and could even cause the item to prevent the use of its activated properties. You can pick a special purpose or roll on the following table.

Conflict

A sentient item has a will of its own, shaped by its personality and alignment. If its wielder acts in a manner opposed to the item's alignment or purpose, conflict can arise. When such a conflict occurs, the item makes a Charisma check contested by the wielder's Charisma check. If the item wins the contest, it makes one or more of the following demands:

• The item insists on being carried or worn at all times.
• The item demands that its wielder dispose of anything the item finds repugnant.
• The item demands that its wielder pursue the item's goals to the exclusion of all other goals.
• The item demands to be given to someone else.

If its wielder refuses to comply with the item's wishes, the item can do any or all of the following:

• Make it impossible for its wielder to attune to it.
• Suppress one or more of its activated properties.
• Attempt to take control of its wielder.

If a sentient item attempts to take control of its wielder, the wielder must make a Charisma saving throw, with a DC equal to 12 + the item's Charisma modifier. On a failed save, the wielder is charmed by the item for 1d12 hours. While charmed, the wielder must try to follow the item's commands. If the wielder takes damage, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success. Whether the attempt to control its user succeeds or fails, the item can't use this power again until the next dawn.

Dmg Magic Item Tables List

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Dmg Magic Item Tables Template