Adventures hold the promise—but not a guarantee—of finding magic items. Hundreds of magic items are detailed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, since the DM decides when you find such an item. Here’s what you need to know about using magic items.
Some magic items are indistinguishable from their nonmagical counterparts, while others are conspicuously magical. Handling a magic item is enough to give you a sense that it is extraordinary, but learning a magic item’s properties isn’t automatic.
The Identify spell is the fastest way to reveal an item’s properties. Alternatively, you can focus on one magic item during a Short Rest while being in physical contact with the item. At the end of the rest, you learn its properties and how to use them (but not any curse the item might bear).
Sometimes a magic item carries a clue to its properties. The command word to activate a ring might be etched inside the band, or a feathered design might hint that it’s a Ring of Feather Falling.
Wearing or experimenting with an item can also offer hints about its properties. In the specific case of Potions, a little taste is enough to tell the taster what a potion does. Other items might require more experimentation. For example, if your character puts on a Ring of Swimming, the DM might say, “Your movement feels strangely fluid.” Perhaps you then dive into a river to see what happens. The DM would then say you swim unexpectedly well.
Some magic items require a creature to form a bond—called Attunement—with them before the creature can use an item’s magical properties. Without becoming attuned to an item that requires Attunement, you gain only its nonmagical benefits unless its description states otherwise. For example, a magic Shield that requires Attunement provides the benefits of a normal Shield if you aren’t attuned to it, but none of its magical properties.
Attuning to an item requires you 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 Wand), or some other appropriate activity. If the Short Rest is interrupted, the Attunement attempt fails. Otherwise, at the end of the Short Rest, you’re attuned to the magic item and can access its full magical capabilities.
You can be attuned to no more than three magic items at a time. Any attempt to attune to a fourth item fails; you must end your Attunement to an item first. Additionally, you can’t attune to more than one copy of an item. For example, you can’t attune to more than one Ring of Protection at a time.
Your Attunement to an item ends if you no longer satisfy the prerequisites for Attunement, if the item has been more than 100 feet away for at least 24 hours, if you die, or if another creature attunes to the item. You can also voluntarily end Attunement by spending another Short Rest focused on the item unless the item is cursed.
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 feet, gloves on hands, hats and helmets on a head, and rings on a 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. Magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or they magically adjust themselves to the wearer.
You can’t wear more than one of certain magic items. You 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, or one cloak. The DM might make exceptions.
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.