11 D&D Accessories You Need in 2020

Dungeons & Dragons is back with a vengeance. The king of roleplaying games recently saw a resurgence in popularity thanks to shows such as Relics and Rarities, Critical Role, The Big Bang Theory, and Stranger Things.

Thanks to this rise in pop-culture, more and more people are trying it out. Why not enhance the experience with some cool D&D accessories?

Not sure which cool D&D stuff to get first? We’ve got your back! We’ve listed 11 — we like to go one step beyond — accessories you should hunt down today:

1. Dice Pouches

You can never have too much dice. One set might seem enough until you have to cast fireball, which uses 8d6 dice, or when your paladin crits on a high-level smite. You’ll eventually buy more and what’s a better way to store them than a medieval or fantasy-looking dice pouch?

These Dungeons and Dragons accessories often look like they mimic old coin pouches but you can also opt for a small treasure chest. For the creative, why not look for a dice chest that looks like a Mimic monster, complete with teeth and cruel eyes?

2. Clear Flight Stands

If you’ve watched D&D shows like Critical Role, you’ve seen a flight stand in action. These help people visualize characters that can levitate.

You might not find them necessary for a low-level party but once a wizard learns to levitate, these flight stands suddenly become a necessity. These are also more pleasing to the eye compared to simply propping a “flying” character on top of a box.

3. Dice Tray

Rolling dice is fun and all but there are times when people roll too hard or too fast. Dice might roll off the table and into the abyss, lurking somewhere until someone steps on them.

Fortunately, you can avoid this issue with a decent dice tray. You can shop here for dice trays and find one that better suits your tastes.

4. Dice Tower

Yes, a dice tray gets the job done but sometimes people cheat. You might meet a D&D player who likes to “toss” their d4 upwards in hopes that it’ll land on a high number. Avoid this by getting a dice tower.

Towers feature 2-3 slanted levels inside, guaranteeing any dice you toss inside will move and roll. At the bottom, there’s a small dice tray to catch the die and ensure it won’t roll off too far.

5. Initiative Tracker

Low-tier games are easy to track but things get hectic as characters level up and combat encounters start introducing larger hordes of enemies. For a Dungeon Master, this can get too chaotic and it’s easy to forget the initiative order.

Getting an initiative tracker can fix this. There are multiple kinds of trackers too; some function like basic lists on paper while others are cards that you hang and display on top of the DM screen.

6. Condition Markers

Sticking with the issue of managing hectic combat, don’t you find it frustrating when people forget who got poisoned, blinded, or knocked down? Conditions are difficult to track because there’s no visualization for them.

There is a workaround. You can get condition markers, which look like colored rings. Simply assign colors to different conditions and then place a ring around a miniature — or hand it to a player if you don’t use miniatures — to remind everyone about their current condition. You can assign “poisoned” to green rings and then place it on a miniature anytime that character gets poisoned in combat, for example.

7. Spell Markers

How big is the radius of a fireball spell and do the enemies in the dungeon room fit within the boundaries? Looking up the details on the Player’s Handbook and then counting grids on a map can become tedious and it can ruin the pace of the game. Fix this by getting spell markers!

Spell markers are clear, plastic tools that you simply overlay on the grid map to measure cones, circles, lines, and other spell ranges. The measurements are universal for most maps using 1×1-inch grids but make sure you ask about the measurements before purchasing.

8. Miniatures!

You can’t talk about D&D accessories without mentioning miniatures!

Of course, some people prefer theater of the mind but even then, having a few miniatures can prove useful. At the very least, you can use them to motivate the players to roleplay more and keep the miniatures of their characters by their dice trays.

The real benefit, however, is for combat on a grid map. Using miniatures enhances the gameplay and atmosphere by giving everyone a visual representation of the events unfolding in the game.

Can’t find a readymade miniature with a design suited for your character? Try out services like Hero Forge. These allow you to design a custom miniature, which you can then paint yourself.

9. Battle Grid

Visualizing a D&D game requires both miniatures and a battle grid. Most grid maps nowadays feature squares that measure 1×1-inches. It’s up to you to decide whether each square represents 5 feet, 10 feet, or a few meters in the game world.

Before you buy one, make sure you check whether you need to use wet erase or dry erase pens. This can save you from a load of trouble when it comes to cleaning the map later on.

10. Customizable DM Screen

Buying the official D&D DM screen is a good start but some people might not find all the information useful. The official DM screen, for example, doesn’t showcase the chart for calculating an encounter or how to compute a monster’s Challenge Rating.

The best solution is to get a customizable DM screen, one in which you can change out the pages. The good news is there are some already available out there and you can also find great fan-made DM screens with a quick Google search. You may also find good templates on DMs Guild, the official digital market for all things D&D.

11. Character Journal

Using the official D&D character sheet is fine but why not make things more epic and thematic by getting a character journal? You’ll use the first few pages similarly to a sheet, writing down your health, AC, skills, and more. However, the rest of the journal is for writing down campaign notes, names of NPCs or places, and jotting down other valuable information.

You might want to use it like a wizard’s spellbook too!

Enhance Your Games With the Best D&D Accessories!

You can play Dungeons and Dragons with nothing but pens, paper, and some dice but don’t stop there. Use these 11 amazing D&D accessories to fully immerse yourselves into the game.

That said, enhancing your roleplaying session doesn’t end here. If you want more tips and lists like this one, you should check out our other posts now. You may discover what you need to make your next D&D session even more memorable!