Not every magic item needs to be the Hand of Vecna. Some can just be… slightly magical.

These items would radiate magic weakly when detected for, which can help confuse players searching for powerful magic items only. And they may your world seem generally more enchanted.

1. Mirror

Glass was still rather rare and very expensive in medieval times, so if you want your “medieval” fantasy to include nice, big, high-quality mirrors, you can simply stipulate that they are created with a bit of magic.

2. Spyglass

Telescopes were invented in the Renaissance, so if you want once to exist in an earlier, period, you can think of it as an artificer’s lightly enchanted item.

3. Compass

Compasses of a primitive sort date to ancient times, and liquid-suspended compasses were in use in the High Middle Ages. Dry compasses suspended on bearings came later, so these could be considered magical.

4. Magnet

While ferrous magnets have been known since ancient times–usually called “lodestone”–electromagnets of course had to wait for electricity to be invented. You can rush that development by imagining lodestones that can be magically turned off and on.

You can also imagine magical magnets that attract all kinds of metals or other materials that ferrous magnets aren’t attracted to.

5. Elevator

Elevators (and cranes) powered by human or animal power walking a treadmill (or inside a big wheel) existed in medieval times (and probably ancient times). It’s not a big stretch to imagine one powered by magic. They should be very simple, just a bare platform or similar dangerous thing.

6. Paper

The writing material of the Middle Ages was parchment, which was made of animal skin (the finest variety of which was vellum). Rice and hemp paper as well as papyrus were known from ancient times. But none of these were cheap and plentiful. If you want paper to be cheap and plentiful in your world, you can say that wood-pulp paper has been invented with the help of a little magic.

7. Automaton

An automaton is an animated creature, in this case enchanted, that can perform simple acts and interactions. With more powerful magic, such a creature becomes a construct, complete with thoughts and capable of complex activity. But a basic automaton–from a small figurine to a mounted bear–can be very entertaining on its own. Such a thing should not be capable of combat or even talking (generally speaking), but might walk around, dance, move things from place to place, etc.

8. Fountain

Fountains are beautiful things, but it takes a lot of work to keep them clean and functional. A little bit of magic, however, could make a fountain that lasts for many decades or even hundreds of years and yet remains clean and in good working order. The water in such a fountain need not be magical itself, so the enchantment keeping it working might confuse heroes into thinking that drinking the water would have enchanting effects.