“I've let adventurers put their toys in my hoard to steep once or twice. I can never get a good night's sleep while they're there, though. It's like an itch.”
— Fizban
Certain magic items can absorb the ambient magic of a dragon's hoard. The mightier the dragon, the more powerful the item becomes when it is steeped in the dragon's hoard. These items, called hoard items, have four states, which are summarized on the Hoard Item States table. A hoard item in its Slumbering state has certain base properties, and it gains additional properties when it enters the Stirring, Wakened, or Ascendant state.
| Hoard Item States | |
| State | Age |
| Slumbering | — |
| Stirring | Young |
| Wakened | Adult |
| Ascendant | Ancient |
A hoard item left to steep in a dragon's hoard absorbs power from the hoard. Older dragons' hoards are charged with more magic and can empower hoard items to higher states.
Ordinarily, a hoard item must steep in a dragon's hoard for 1 year to reach the maximum possible state allowed by the age of the hoard's dragon, as shown on the Hoard Item States table. For example, a hoard item that steeps in a young dragon's hoard for 1 year enters its Stirring state, while one that steeps in an ancient dragon's hoard for 1 year reaches the pinnacle of its power and enters its Ascendant state. If there are one or more hoard items steeping in a dragon's hoard, the dragon is aware of them. The dragon also knows what these hoard items are and what state (Slumbering, Stirring, Wakened, or Ascendant) each of them is in.
When a dragon is slain, the magic surrounding its hoard becomes volatile. This allows a hoard item to steep more quickly in the hoard. A hoard item steeped in a dragon's hoard for 8 hours rises one state (from Slumbering to Stirring, Stirring to Wakened, or Wakened to Ascendant), as long as the steeping begins within 1 hour of the dragon's death and occurs within the dragon's lair. Steeping in this way can't raise the state of the item beyond the state associated with the dragon's age—putting a Wakened item in a slain adult dragon's hoard does not make it Ascendant, for example.
Just as hoard items can grow in power by absorbing the ambient magic of a dragon's hoard, so too can these treasures fall back into slumber. If no creature is attuned to a hoard item and that item isn't in a dragon's hoard, the item decreases in power by one state every 30 days until it is Slumbering.
Hoard items often manifest strange qualities beyond their intended function, regardless of the state they're in. Roll once on the Draconic Quirks table to determine the quirk of a hoard item.
| Draconic Quirks | |
| d8 | Quirk |
| 1 | When resting on the ground, the item points in the direction of the last hoard it steeped in. |
| 2 | The item's bearer can speak and understand Draconic. |
| 3 | The item glows softly when within 60 feet of a Dragon or another hoard item. |
| 4 | The item's bearer gains a swimming speed equal to their walking speed. |
| 5 | The item's bearer has advantage on Intelligence (History) checks. |
| 6 | The item's bearer has advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks made against non-Dragons. |
| 7 | The item grants its bearer resistance to the damage type of the breath weapon of the last dragon whose hoard the item steeped in. |
| 8 | The item's bearer dreams of the dragon whose hoard the item last steeped in. |
Hoard items are presented here in alphabetical order. A hoard item's rarity changes depending on its current state, as shown in each item description.