Introduced in 2019's Eberron: Rising From the Last War and brought back for this year's Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the "prosthetic limb" item is a fantastic addition to Dungeons & Dragons 5e that allows players to better embody characters with disabilities and makes the game more accessible.
According to the text in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, a prosthetic limb "replaces a lost limb -- a hand, an arm, a foot, a leg, or a similar body part. While the prosthetic is attached, it functions identically to the part it replaces. You can detach or reattach it as an action, and it can't be removed against your will. It detaches if you die." This is a slight change from the version in Rising From the Last War, which notes one must attune to a prosthetic limb. However, with Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, a prosthetic limb no longer requires attunement, meaning players will have more slots available to attune to other magic items.
The prosthetic limb is a fantastic item, and the change to attunement is a great choice for making the game more accessible to players who might want to make a character that has lost a limb. As a common item, a prosthetic limb isn't particularly difficult to find, so DMs should allow players to either start with one or to easily acquire one should the need arise later in the campaign.
No longer needing to attune to the prosthetic limb also takes away the disadvantage posed by the limited number of items to which one can attune, which makes it a more appealing option than in Rising From the Last War. As campaigns progress, players often get access to more magic items, making the choice of what to attune to a difficult one. By freeing up one attunement slot, players will encounter pretty much no disadvantage for playing a character who is missing a limb.
Despite those positives, one drawback to the prosthetic limb might lay in its nature. As it's a wondrous item, a prosthetic limb may be affected by spells or effects undoing or stymying magic, such as Dispel Magic. However, Dungeons & Dragons allows DMs to alter rules as their discretion. Choosing to have prosthetic limbs hampered by magic may hurt a player's enjoyment of the game, so some DMs may opt to treat the item as if it's not subject to such rules, potentially even deciding to treat it as mechanical instead.
Overall, the prosthetic limb is a great item that allows players to embody characters with limb difference and thus makes the game more accessible. Additionally, the choice to have the limb only be removable only by the player emphasizes bodily autonomy. In the end, with help from DMs, players hoping to incorporate their lived experiences with disabilities into the game will find this Dungeons & Dragons item just one way to better find their bliss.
Dungeons & Dragons: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is available now.