Replicate Magic Item 5e: Artificer Infusion Guide

Last Updated on January 22, 2023

Artificers have some incredible features that let them stand out from the rest of the 5e class options. Their innovation in and out of battle allows them to truly prepare for any situation that could come their way.

We’ve already covered one of their most spectacular features in another article, but we’re not done talking about Artificer Infusions quite yet. There is an entire category of infusions, simply labeled “Replicate Magic Item,” that we really need to dive deep into to gain a true understanding and appreciation. 

In this article, we’ll be looking at the many different options for the Replicate Magic Item infusion and discussing how they work. We’ll also be looking at just how powerful these options are, which options you should learn, and how you might use them in a campaign.

What Is Replicate Magic Item?

Replicate Magic Item is a set of infusions grouped together under a single name. In lieu of an insanely long list of different unique infusions, about 50 infusions fit into this category. Each of these infusions allows you to enchant an item and give it the abilities of a preexisting 5e magic item.

At first glance, it might seem that you learn the Replicate Magic Item infusion and gain access to dozens of options that you can switch between from day to day. Unfortunately, that is not true, as it would be absolutely insanely overpowered.

Just to make this very clear, when you learn this infusion, you won’t just be writing down “Replicate Magic Item” along with a huge list of options. You’ll write the specific magic item like so: “Replicate Magic Item – Alchemy Jug.”

Now that we’re all on the same page, this is an amazing infusion with a lot of really powerful options. In addition to the extensive list of named magic items that you can replicate, you can also replicate ANY common magic item. Sure, there aren’t a lot of game-changing choices that are common rarity, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find something fun or impactful there.

With the basics out of the way, let’s look at this infusion in all its glory.

Replicate Magic Item

Using this infusion, you replicate a particular magic item. You can learn this infusion multiple times. Each time you do so, choose a magic item that you can make with it, picking from the Replicable Items tables. A table’s title tells you the level you must be in the class to choose an item from the table. Alternatively, you can choose the magic item from among the common magic items in the game, not including potions or scrolls.

In the tables, an item’s entry tells you whether the item requires attunement. See the item’s description in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for more information about it, including the type of object required for its making.

Replicable Magic Items (2nd-Level Artificer)

Replicable Magic Items (6nd-Level Artificer)

Replicable Magic Items (10th-Level Artificer)

Replicable Magic Items (14th-Level Artificer)

I know what you’re thinking; that is a lot of options to choose from. You’re definitely right, but fortunately, different tiers of items are unlocked at different levels. You won’t have to overwhelm yourself with choosing from the entire list. Instead, you’ll just have a few options that are unlocked, and the appropriate one for your build should become apparent.

The standard artificer infusions, the ones that were made specifically for the artificer class, are all very clear with listing what sort of item you’ll need to infuse. There’s a bit of a discrepancy here with Replicable Items because you have to figure out what sort of item you can “enchant.”

Some of them will be straightforward. If you’re replicating Winged Boots, you’ll want a set of boots to infuse. Others might be open to a bit more argument. The Alchemy Jug, for example, notes that it is a ceramic jug in the item’s description. DMs and players will have to decide whether the mundane object being infused needs to exactly be a ceramic jug, if it can be any type of jug, or just anything that can hold liquids. 

As we go more in-depth into each magic item you can replicate, I’ll be listing my interpretation of what sort of mundane item you need in order to use your infusion. Of course, I’m also a huge fan of working just outside of the rules. If you want to think of these as enchantments that you can put on any reasonable mundane item, go for it. 

Who am I to stop you from creating Gauntlets of Revealing or a Winged Helm?

Replicable Items

Now it’s time to go through every replicable magic item and talk about its merit. Naturally, we’ll be skipping over common items because they’re almost exclusively useless and cutesy items. 

For everything else, we’ll be talking about what the magic item does, how useful it is, and how it compares to other choices available to artificers. Without any further adieu, let’s get at it.

Replicable Magic Items (2nd-Level Artificer)

Alchemy Jug

Requires Attunement: No

Item: A jug

The alchemy jug is an item that allows you to produce ridiculous amounts of various liquids from water, to mayonnaise, to poison.

Each liquid has a different maximum quantity, and the jug can only produce one type of liquid a day, but still, this is a really fun item.

Aside from providing fresh water, there really aren’t any incredibly straightforward uses for an item such as this. Fortunately, there are a lot of creative uses that really let this item shine.

Create beer to get guards drunk, slowly amass a stockpile of poison, clean up a crime scene with vinegar, trap fairies with honey. An alchemy jug is limited only by your imagination (and its mechanical limits per day).

This is a good option but more so for those artificers who really enjoy letting their creative side loose. If you want immediate application for your magic items, you should probably seek out another choice.

Bag of Holding

Requires Attunement: No

Item: A bag

Bags of holding might as well be legendary rarity at this point with all of the creative uses people have come up with for this simple item.

The bag holds an extradimensional space, which allows you to store just an insane amount of your supplies and equipment inside of it.

Of course, you can also use this item to decapitate foes, suffocate enemies, or even create a gate to the Astral Plane. Even without creative uses though, this is an invaluable utility item that makes a party’s life immensely easier.

Cap of Water Breathing

Requires Attunement: No

Item: A cap (hat) or similar piece of headwear

This item creates a bubble of air around your head that allows you to breathe normally underwater.

Unfortunately, this item only activates when you speak its command word underwater, eliminating most possibilities of exciting applications above the surface. 

It’s a good item, but it’s really only going to be useful if you’re playing in a campaign that is centered around nautical themes.

Goggles of Night

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Goggles, glasses, or a similar item

These goggles increase your darkvision by 60 feet. Even if you already have darkvision, this is a huge benefit, often doubling your effective sight range. 

This item is really useful if you chose one of the few races that lack darkvision and probably only B tier if you do have it already.

Rope of Climbing

Requires Attunement: No

Item: 60’ Rope

You can use any normal rope to climb, but this item is magic, so obviously, it’s going to have a few extra benefits.

You can command this rope to securely tie itself to a specific location, and you can even make it knot itself, creating footholds every foot along the way and giving anyone who uses it advantage on climbing checks.

The reason I bump this into the A-tier ranking is that just about every adventure you go on can include some level of traversal.

Having a magical rope that will never miss its target is a huge bonus and will allow you to come up with a myriad of creative solutions to problems in your way.

Once you have easy access to flight spells, you’ll probably replace this, but that doesn’t make it any less of an impactful infusion.

Sending Stones

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Two stones

Being able to cast a 3rd-level spell for free once a day (or twice, one for each stone) is a pretty nice ability early on. That being said, this is a pretty situational ability.

You can always use it for communication if the party splits up, but more often than not, this is the kind of item you use to send messages to far-off allies.

If you’re in the kind of campaign where you’ll need to do a lot of communicating with people you’re not close to, grab this infusion.

Of course, you can also just craft your own set of sending stones after a few levels, so you won’t need to hold onto this forever.

Wand of Magic Detection

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Wand (any nice stick will do in a pinch)

This might be a very exciting item for anyone without access to spells, but you already have Detect Magic in your spell list.

Not to mention, you can cast it as a ritual, so this item isn’t really saving you any spell slots. It’s honestly just a waste of resources.

Wand of Secrets

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Wand (any nice stick will do in a pinch)

This wand allows you to find secret doors and traps, but it only has three charges each day. There’s no doubt this is useful, but it’s really just a shortcut that some quick searching and investigation can do equally well.

Your DM should never really make anything impossible to find without this specific magic item.

Replicable Magic Items (6th-Level Artificer)

Boots of Elvenkind

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Boots

Your steps make no sound, and you have advantage on stealth checks when wearing these boots.

Advantage is a mechanic that will always be beneficial, even if it’s just negating the disadvantage someone might receive from their armor. 

Cloak of Elvenkind

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Cloak

Perception checks made to find you have disadvantage (which also impacts passive perception), and you get advantage on stealth checks made to hide.

This doesn’t specifically have to be a result of the hide action, so if you’re “hiding,” you get the advantage. 

This is just insanely powerful because it affects both rolls in a contest. Your foe gets a worse roll, and you get a better roll, dramatically increasing your odds of successfully hiding.

Cloak of the Manta Ray

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Hooded cloak

This cloak lets you breathe underwater and gives you a swimming speed of 60 feet. Much like the Cap of Water Breathing, this is really only useful if you’re going to be spending a lot of time underwater.

It should also be the natural replacement for the Cap of Water Breathing in such a setting.

Eyes of Charming

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Crystal Lenses (glasses)

These lenses allow you to cast Charm Person (Spell Save DC 13) three times a day.

This is a pretty impactful ability, and if you can give it to a creature without spellcasting, your party can have a good way to charm humanoids when the need arises.

That being said, 13 is a devastatingly low DC and basically stops being functional once you’re in 2nd-tier play.

Gloves of Thievery

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Gloves

These gloves, which are invisible while worn, give you a +5 bonus to sleight-of-hand checks and dexterity checks made to pick locks.

This is a huge bonus and one that should definitely be given to any character who is already making these checks. If you can afford the space in your infusion lineup, definitely fit this in.

Lantern of Revealing

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Lantern

This is a great lantern with the ability to burn far longer than your average hooded lantern. Oh, and it makes invisible creatures and objects visible while its light is shed on them.

This is really nice if and when you encounter invisible things. I don’t think those situations are anywhere near common enough to warrant a whole known infusion being dedicated to sniffing them out.

Pipes of Haunting

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Pipes (wind instrument)

This requires proficiency with wind instruments, so rather than explain the whole thing, I’ll just say that if your bard doesn’t have a way to frighten people, you can consider making this for them. Otherwise, pretend it doesn’t exist.

Ring of Water Walking

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Ring

This ring lets you walk across any liquid as if it were solid ground. Any liquid! Sure, most of the time this is just going to be water, but there are some interesting scenarios to be explored here. 

Unlike the water-breathing items, this can really be useful in a wide range of campaigns.

Even if it’s only useful once every few sessions, it’ll still be worth it because the benefit of this is likely going to allow you to do some pretty insane things.

Replicable Magic Items (10th-Level Artificer)

Boots of Striding and Springing

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Boots

The only real benefit of these boots is that you can jump three times your normal distance. This is so rarely useful, especially since you could just be grabbing the winged-boots infusion instead.

Boots of the Winterlands

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Boots

Resistance to cold damage, the ability to ignore difficult terrain caused by snow and ice, and the ability to tolerate incredibly cold temperatures without taking any exhaustion levels.

This is a really great item if and when you’re dealing with frigid environments. It’s highly situational, but you’ll know if you’re playing in a campaign where this is going to be useful.

Bracers of Archery

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Bracers

These bracers give the wielder proficiency in short and long bows along with a +2 bonus to damage rolls made with these weapons. For a 10th-level infusion, this is just awful.

Brooch of Shielding

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Brooch

This gives you resistance to force damage and immunity to Magic Missile. This would be great if force damage was a common type for your enemies to be dealing, but it’s really not.

The only scenarios where this is going to be useful is if you’re playing in a very high magic setting where just about everyone you encounter is some kind of caster.

Otherwise, you’re better off just increasing your AC from some other infusion.

Cloak of Protection

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Cloak

A +1 bonus to AC and saving throws is such a nice bonus to have that your allies might just beg you to infuse a cloak for them as well. 

Eyes of the Eagle

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Crystal Lenses (glasses)

Advantage on sight-based perception checks and the ability to make out incredibly small details on creatures and objects that are great distances away from you.

This is that Tolkien elf vision we love to see, and it’s a huge benefit. It’s great on a ranged attacker, be that spells or weapons, especially if the character you give it to has a feat that lets them attack from incredible distances.

Gauntlets of Ogre Power

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Gauntlets

These gauntlets give you a strength score of 19. Now, you might think this sounds amazing (sometimes I do too), but hear me out. By 10th level, anyone that should have a strength score of 19 will already have one.

You don’t need one as an artificer because the martial artificer subclasses can use intelligence instead of strength. 

If you really want to be a “strong” artificer, take the Armor of Magical Strength infusion as early as you can.

The only real reason to take this is if you want to use a Hammer of Thunderbolts because attunement to these gauntlets is a prerequisite.

Gloves of Missile Snaring

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Gloves

You can use your reaction to reduce the incoming damage of a ranged-weapon attack while wearing these gloves, potentially even catching it if you reduce the damage to 0.

This is awesome for anyone wearing this, especially a character who is a bit more susceptible to taking damage.

Gloves of Swimming and Climbing

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Gloves

Climbing and swimming don’t cost you extra movement, and you gain a +5 bonus to athletic checks in order to do either.

If you’re doing a lot of environmental traversal, this might come in handy. Otherwise, leave it be.

Hat of Disguise

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Hat

An at-will first-level spell is pretty nice but not really game changing. Still, if you or someone in your party is keen on disguises already, this can definitely prove invaluable.

Headband of Intellect

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Headband

This turns the wearer’s Intelligence to 19 unless it’s already higher than that.

This follows a similar trail of logic to the gauntlets of ogre strength, just maybe a bit more so since Intelligence-focused classes don’t tend to be very M.A.D. builds.

Helm of Telepathy

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Helm

Being able to cast Detect Thoughts and Suggestion at will are great, but a DC of 13 is so abysmally low at this point in the game that it’s really just worthless.

Personally, I would let an artificer replace the DC with their own, making this B or even A tier. As it stands though, it’s pretty much a garbage infusion.

Medallion of Thoughts

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Medallion

This is just another item that allows you to cast Detect Thoughts with a DC of 13, except this one isn’t at will; it’s based on charges. Hard pass. You can go for Helm of Telepathy if you really want some minor telepathy.

Necklace of Adaptation

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Necklace

This item allows you to breathe normally in any environment and gives you advantage on saves against harmful gases and vapors, which can even include a handful of draconic-breath weapons.

This is great, especially if you’re commonly dealing with enemies that produce AOE gaseous attacks. Even without those circumstances, you can use it to breathe underwater or in low-oxygen environments.

Periapt of Wound Closure

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Pendant

This is a great item for someone who dies often. It automatically stabilizes you if you’re dying at the beginning of your turn, and it doubles the amount of hit points you regain whenever you roll a hit die. 

Pipes of the Sewers

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Pipes (wind instrument)

This is similar to the Pipes of Haunting, except it comes with a much cooler ability. If you want your bard to be able to summon and control swarms of rats, this is the infusion to take.

Yes, this is a very niche ability, but it’s so cool and has a lot of uses if your bard is clever.

Quiver of Ehlonna

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Quiver

This quiver has several compartments, each of which is an extradimensional space that can hold far more than a normal quiver could.

It’s basically a full storage unit for any ranged combatant and might even be enough space for all of the party’s weapons if you’re smart about it.

Free storage is great, and while a bag of holding could realistically do the same thing, you can always draw whatever you need from it just as you would with a normal quiver or scabbard.

Ring of Jumping

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Ring

This is another case where we’re getting an at-will 1st-level spell. Jump is useful, but this ring only allows the wearer to cast it on themselves.

Again, flight is probably just going to be a better option most of the time, unless a character in your party is already particularly good at jumping.

Ring of Mind Shielding

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Ring

This ring protects you from most mental magic, such as Detect Thoughts or any spell that might identify you. It also protects you from telepathy, allowing you to be in control of who can telepathically communicate with you.

Many high-level threats have some form of telepathic abilities, and they’re often the most deadly abilities you could encounter. If this can keep the wearer safe from even a portion, it’s definitely worth it.

Slippers of Spider Climbing

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Light Shoes

These shoes allow you to walk around on vertical surfaces and ceilings while leaving your hands free and give you a climbing speed equal to your walking speed.

This is like having an everlasting 2nd-level spell being cast on you. Just ask any dhampir; adding a whole dimension to what you can traverse is incredible. It’s great in and out of combat and will open up a whole lot of doors for you.

I also think this is a great item to theme for an artificer. You could call them gravitron boots or something like that and make it much more based in science than magic or at least in scientific magic.

Ventilating Lungs

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: …. Lungs?

These mechanical lungs give you almost the exact same abilities as the Necklace of Adaptation, plus the ability to cast Gust of Wind once a day by breathing.

It’s really significantly powerful, and it can’t be dispelled or shut down by any sort of antimagic field. As weird as it is, these iron lungs are getting the S-tier ranking.

Winged Boots

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Boots

Obviously, the item that’s been referenced as a superior option in many instances is going to take the S-tier ranking.

Four hours of flight speed equal to your walking speed is an absolutely incredible amount of time to spend in the air. You can ration that out or use it all at once, and they recharge 2 hours every 12 hours that they aren’t in use. 

These are really one of the most incredible options that you will get to infuse, and you’d be hard pressed to find a reason not to take them.

Replicable Magic Items (14th-Level Artificer)

Amulet of Health

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Amulet

This turns the wearer’s Constitution score into a 19 unless it was already higher than that.

Since constitution is normally a secondary ability, there are probably a few members of your party who haven’t been able to boost themselves up as high as they’d like to by this point in the game, so you can definitely infuse up one or two of these.

Arcane Propulsion Arm

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Prosthetic Arm

Instead of this, grab the Arcane Propulsion Armor infusion, which is basically this whole magic item with a few added abilities on top. You’re welcome.

Belt of Hill Giant Strength

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Belt

A Belt of Hill Giant Strength gives its wearer a strength score of 21, which is higher than you’d be able to boost it with ASIs, even if it doesn’t necessarily mean a higher strength modifier.

The big draw here is that you can infuse both this and the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength so that you can wield a Hammer of Thunderbolts.

Boots of Levitation

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Boots

These boots allow you to cast Levitate on yourself at will. This is great, but it’s really not any better than winged boots, and you already have access to those.

Boots of Speed

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Boots

Double your walking speed, and creatures have disadvantage on opportunity attacks against you for 10 minutes of the day.

Even if you don’t have a monk in your party, I guarantee someone can make incredible use of this.

Bracers of Defense

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Bracers

A +2 bonus to AC if you’re not wearing armor or a shield. Only unarmored combatants can really benefit from this, which means barbarians, wizards, and monks are the main suspects in the running.

If you’ve got one of these that could use an AC boost, infuse it up, and hand it out.

Cloak of the Bat

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Cloak

This item gives you advantage on stealth checks, lets you fly while in darkness, and lets you Polymorph into a bat. What more occult magic can you ask for?

This is an incredible item for anyone who sneaks around in the dark, especially a rogue or warlock that already has some darkness-centered features.

Dimensional Shackles

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Shackles

If you’re going up against extraplanar beings, be they demons or angels, this is going to come in handy.

It’s basically a free 30 days of trapping the creature and stopping it from any form of extra-dimensional travel short of physically walking it through a portal.

Gem of Seeing

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Gem

This gem has three charges that you can expend to gain 120 feet of truesight. Especially at higher levels, this is an ability (or sense) that is invaluable for finding hidden threats or secret messages.

Horn of Blasting

Requires Attunement: No

Item: Horn (instrument)

This is a cool item, but it isn’t worth the risk. You get to deal some damage and make a loud noise at the cost of a 20% chance that the horn will explode in your hands and deal 10d6 fire damage to you.

Ring of Free Action

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Ring

You ignore difficult terrain, and you can’t be paralyzed, restrained, or have your movement speed decreased by magical means. This is huge.

Some of the worst abilities are ones that halt your movement, and this little ring can allow you to completely disregard those.

Ring of Protection

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Ring

This has the same benefit as a Cloak of Protection, but now you (or a vulnerable member of the party) can have two items that increase your AC and saving throws. 

Ring of the Ram

Requires Attunement: Yes

Item: Ring

This is a unique little item that allows you to use one to three of its charges to create a spectral ram’s head.

That head either makes a ranged attack with a +7 bonus that deals 2d10 force damage per charge spent or it tries to break an object and makes a strength check with a +5 bonus per charge spent.

Either way, you’re going to be doing some significant damage with this.

You can think of this like trading an infusion slot for one to three spell slots. In my eyes, that’s a good deal, but it depends on how you’re building your artificer.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of options to consider, so I hope you take the time to really look at them all and find what works for you. Hopefully, the rating will make that a lot easier. I know that just seeing some color coding is already helpful, but it was beyond useful when someone sat down with me and really explained the benefits of each infusion in its own right.

As always, happy adventuring.