Picture Kellnor, a burly, Conan-looking Barbarian standing with a mighty weapon in each hand. In one, he holds a demonic sword stolen from the Cult of Asmodeus. In the other is Azuredge, a glowing battleaxe forged by the legendary archwizard Ahghairon. This intelligent weapon is inhabited by the spirit of Lady Lauroun, a legendary hero of Waterdeep. It operates under rules remarkably similar to Thor’s Mjolnir: it becomes impossibly heavy to hold if the character trying to wield it isn’t worthy, and it can be thrown through the air before returning to its owner’s hand.
Unfortunately for Kellnor, Azuredge demands that its wielder remain virtuous, so sharing a wielder with an evil sword was non-negotiable.
Even the numbers made Kellnor’s choice practically inevitable. The demon sword was +2. Azuredge was +3. And so, after extracting the Eye of Golorr hidden inside the sword’s hilt, Kellnor simply dropped it outside the entrance to the cult’s hideout and moved on. The rest of the do-gooders in the party wanted nothing to do with it.
This happened in a heavily modified version of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist that I ran for my Dungeons & Dragons group years ago. The adventure involves navigating several warring factions while trying to recover three Eyes of Golorr that unlock the key to a massive hoard of treasure hidden in the city. I placed one of the Eyes inside the sword myself, transforming it into an important piece of the campaign’s central mystery. But by also introducing Azuredge, I brought that sword’s story to an abrupt end.
What if Kellnor had kept it? Would the Cult of Asmodeus have hunted him for the rest of his life? Might the sword have slowly corrupted him into joining the cult — perhaps even becoming its new leader? Those storytelling possibilities vanished once a more powerful weapon came along.
It’s one of D&D’s most persistent problems: Characters become more powerful, but most of the objects accompanying them do not. A sword might carry years of history, embody a relationship with a mentor, or represent a defining victory. Eventually, however, its wielder finds something with a larger bonus and better abilities. Sentiment gets shoved into the backpack.
The latest D&D book, Arcana Unleashed, offers an official solution. A new Evolving Magic Item system allows equipment to increase in rarity and unlock additional features as its wielder reaches important milestones, potentially transforming an uncommon, generic magic item into a legendary relic.
“Do you want to keep using your less-good item, or do you want a more powerful item, and you just keep your incredibly important-to-you heirloom in your backpack?” Arcana Unleashed lead designer Amanda Hamon asked Polygon in a video interview. “That’s a decision that we don’t necessarily want players to have to make. That’s what this is solving.”
Magic items can level up with their heroes
Evolving magic items aren’t entirely new to D&D. A version of the idea first appeared in Weapons of Legacy from 3.5e, in which mundane “legacy items” accrue experience points and level up with their owners. 5th Edition also has some previous, more specialized interpretations, as well. The Vestiges of Divergence from Critical Role’s Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, for example, awaken into progressively more powerful forms. The Dragon's Wrath Weapons in Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons also gain strength but through prolonged exposure to a dragon’s hoard.
The difference is that those objects are bound to particular settings, histories, circumstances, or a previous edition’s ruleset. Arcana Unleashed turns that idea into a flexible system that can be applied to virtually any campaign or object.
“This is a little bit more setting- and context-agnostic,” Hamon said. “It doesn’t specifically have to be an item that’s in a dragon hoard. It doesn’t specifically have to be tied to a certain campaign or a certain storyline.”
The system emerged during an early brainstorming session about what kind of new rules Arcana Unleashed could introduce. Designer Carl Sibley suggested evolving magic items, an idea that immediately caught Hamon’s attention. The two developed the concept together, with Sibley drafting the rules and the book’s ready-made evolving items before designer Makenzie De Armas reviewed an early version.
The resulting framework accommodates different levels of complexity. Its simplest option formally codifies a trick that many DMs already use: Instead of replacing a character’s cherished +1 longsword with an unrelated +2 longsword, the original weapon simply becomes +2.
“Many DMs have already been doing this, I think, for a long time,” Hamon said. “Rather than going through the rigmarole of, ‘You’ve lost the sword, you found this other sword,’ they just level up.”
Random progression or deliberate evolution
Arcana Unleashed provides a tidy progression system to take even simple magic items like a +1 sword and evolve it over time. Tables for Rare, Very Rare, and Legendary magic item properties are provided. DMs can roll on these tables or select specific properties to help shape the nature of the weapon. A low-level Paladin’s generic sword might pick up “Crusading” and become rare, allowing them to cast Crusader’s Mantle to infuse allies’ attacks with radiant damage. At very rare, maybe it picks up Paralyzing, which grants access to Hold Monster. At legendary, the Heliacal property lets the user cast Sunburst, summoning a burst of radiant light that deals a great deal of damage.
Depending on the properties chosen, however, that same sword might instill fear in its foes, cast ice magic, and even reverse gravity. Making these selections randomly is definitely in the spirit of the game, but it strikes me as a more interesting option for the DM to select properties based on the specific actions of the player. Maybe if this same hypothetical Paladin slays a vampire, the sword itself gains the Withering property, allowing the wielder to cast Blight or Vampiric Touch.
“The thing that took the longest to fine-tune is to really present a balanced version of the way that those magic items would increase in rarity,” Hamon said. The designers needed to create “mechanically equivalent options that weren’t just the same and actually had flavor potential to them.”
For anyone who doesn’t want to construct an entire progression, Arcana Unleashed also includes five ready-made evolving items: the Blossom Rod, Idol of Good Fortune, Keyholes Dagger, Staff of Skulls, and Waveswept Weapon. Each retains its underlying identity while growing more powerful over time — with flavorful upgrade names to boot.
The Blossom Rod develops from “Budding” to “Flowering” and finally “Somniferous,” progressing from rejuvenating plants to summoning a plague of bumblebees and releasing sleep-inducing pollen.
An evolving item can also help a player explore an aspect of their character that isn’t necessarily represented by their class. Hamon offered the example of giving the Blossom Rod to a Paladin who loves the wilderness. Its progression can support something as simple as a hobby or interest, lead the character toward multiclassing into Druid or Ranger, or simply allow them to develop abilities that a conventional Paladin would never possess.
“This is a really, really good way to support that exploration of the character during play,” Hamon said, “or lean into something that the player is interested in doing from the very beginning.”
Another interesting ready-made weapon is the Staff of Skulls, which has some blatant necromancer vibes. But it doesn’t suddenly give its wielder access to a wide variety of dark magic. It can definitely complement a Wizard build focused on necromancy, but just as easily, the party might defeat an actual necromancer. Then the Rogue or Monk might walk away with that staff. At first, they can use it to cast Chill Touch. Eventually, they can point it at an enemy and crush them from the inside with necrotic damage. No magical affinity needed.
For any pirate-themed adventures on the open seas, a Waveswept Weapon seems ideal. At first, it just does the silly parlor trick of transforming fresh water into saltwater. But later forms allow its owner to breathe underwater, swim faster than normal, and eventually fly through the air on a salty sea breeze. That seems ideal for a young sailor who gradually evolves into a mighty pirate king.
A relic should grow with its hero
Although Arcana Unleashed loosely associates these upgrades with D&D’s traditional character level-up system, evolving items aren’t meant to collect experience points or automatically become stronger every few levels. Hamon recommends connecting each evolution to a significant development in the story.
“When the characters unveil something, or when they defeat something, or when they learn something, or when they make a decision, those items would start to unlock their potential,” Hamon said.
That last possibility — a decision — may be the most interesting. A carefully designed evolution doesn’t merely reward a player for completing an adventure. It asks them to define what the object, and perhaps their character, will become.
In the current campaign I run, the characters have gradually recovered a collection of ancient objects called the Relics of Anur. One of them, the Arm of Daro, is a magical prosthetic wielded by a Ranger named Iona. (Yes, it’s loosely inspired by the Eye and Hand of Vecna.) When the time came for the arm to evolve after the party completed a notable leg of the adventure, I offered Iona’s player four possible Aspects based on the previous wielders of the Relic (an idea I lifted from the video game Hades): Miroku, Khan, Elric, and Aran. I’m not entirely sure the player understood every reference here, which I don’t fault them for, but they selected Elric.
Inspired by Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, the Aspect of Elric allows the wielder to manifest an armblade that boosts AC and allows them to use their reaction to make a counterattack, but it also grants them access to several useful transmutation spells — along with Shatter at a range of touch to evoke the FMA villain Scar’s use of alchemy to deconstruct rather than create. Iona’s player could have wound up with an overpowered vortex in their palm like the lecherous monk from Inuyasha, the powers of Ms. Marvel, or Samus Aran’s arm cannon. But they made their choice.
As is the case with any Evolving Magic Item, there are no objectively correct upgrades. An element of randomness can be just enough to keep a player invested in whatever new direction this brings their character in. But it can just as easily play a meaningful part in the broader narrative of a campaign. That’s the difference between an evolving item and a conventional piece of treasure. Finding a stronger sword changes a character’s stats. Watching the same sword transform in response to a discovery, victory, or moral decision makes it part of that character’s arc.
“The underlying concept of these evolving magic items is that they are actually very, very powerful,” Hamon said. “It’s just that the character isn’t able to unlock their full potential until they continue to unveil some of those story elements or make some of those narrative achievements.”
Had these rules existed when I ran Dragon Heist, Kellnor’s sword might have survived its encounter with Azuredge. The player still would have faced a choice, but it would have been between two possible stories rather than a +2 and a +3 bonus. That’s the promise of evolving magic items: A cool weapon no longer has to be discarded simply because the adventure has outgrown it. Instead, it can grow into the next adventure alongside the player.