Last Updated on November 13, 2023
Cloak of Invisibility (D&D)
Wondrous item, legendary (requires attunement)
While wearing this cloak, you can pull its hood over your head to cause yourself to become invisible. While you are invisible, anything you are carrying or wearing is invisible with you. You become visible when you cease wearing the hood. Pulling the hood up or down requires an action.
Deduct the time you are invisible, in increments of 1 minute, from the cloak’s maximum duration of 2 hours. After 2 hours of use, the cloak ceases to function. For every uninterrupted period of 12 hours, the cloak goes unused, it regains 1 hour of duration.
Source: Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG)
Cost: The Cloak of Invisibility is worth 90,000 gold pieces. This is according to our Magic Item Price Guide, the final decision is up to your Dungeon Master.Â
What Is the Cloak of Invisibility?
The Cloak of Invisibility is a legendary wondrous item that — once attuned — allows the wearer to become invisible for up to two hours at a time. Becoming invisible is a matter of using an action to raise the cloak’s hood.
Once the cloak has been activated for two hours, it requires 12 hours without being used to regain an hour of charge and a full 24 hours to be fully restored.
Also, even though in combat you could theoretically activate the cloak for a single round (about 6 seconds) and then remove it again, time spent invisible is counted in 1-minute intervals, minimum.
How Good Is the Cloak of Invisibility?
Obviously, as a legendary item, the Cloak of Invisibility is a powerful piece of adventuring gear typically worn by only the most powerful and experienced heroes (or villains).
To get an idea of just how good it is, let’s look at how being Invisible works in D&D 5e and how the invisibility granted by the cloak compares to other ways of becoming magically unseen.
Invisible
- An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid of magic or a special sense. For the purpose of hiding, the creature is heavily obscured. The creature’s location can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves.
- Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage, and the creature’s attack rolls have advantage.
First of all, this cloak virtually guarantees that you can move around undetected except for the sound you make and the tracks you leave behind.
It continues working if you attack with it activated.
This is not only a huge boost to your weapon (or spell) attacks’ effectiveness, but it is also going to hugely increase your survivability; enemies are much more likely to attack things they can see.
You can also use the Cloak of Invisibility for all manner of other applications, from ambushing, eavesdropping on, following, and stealing from enemies to convincing a gaggle of gullible peasants or goblins that you’re a ghost.
It’s also a great way to hide important items in the middle of a chaotic scene as anything you’re carrying also turns invisible. Put the cloak on an especially strong character and have them carry the entire party past enemy guards.
Cloak of Invisibility vs. Invisibility, Greater Invisibility, and Ring of Invisibility
There are plenty of other ways to turn yourself and other people invisible in D&D 5e with the Cloak of Invisibility being one of the rarest and most expensive. So let’s see how it stacks up against…
Invisibility: A 2nd-level illusion spell that renders the caster or a creature they touch invisible for up to an hour (or until they end the spell or break concentration). If the invisible creature attacks or casts a spell, the effect ends.
This is probably the first means of turning invisible that a character in D&D will get access to, and while it’s an effective way to spy on enemies, set up an ambush, and get advantage on the first attack of the fight, its effectiveness is short-lived.
Greater Invisibility: A 4th-level illusion spell that turns the target invisible for up to a minute unless the caster’s concentration is broken. This works more or less the same as the cloak but with the cost of a spell slot and a much shorter duration.
Ring of Invisibility: Another legendary magic item that, like the cloak, turns the wearer invisible with an action. However, the invisibility functions more like the Invisibility spell than Greater Invisibility and ends whenever the wearer attacks or casts a spell. However, there is no limit to how many times the wearer can then reactivate the ring.Â
I played my first tabletop RPG (Pathfinder 1e, specifically) in college. I rocked up late to the first session with an unread rulebook and a human bard called Nick Jugger. It was a rocky start but I had a blast and now, the better part of a decade later, I play, write, and write about tabletop RPGs (mostly 5e, but also PBtA, Forged in the Dark and OSR) games for a living, which is wild.
