What type of degree would you need to invent things?

the only qualification needed is you brain... but education helps for sure so one can better protect own inventions, market them, write proper papers etc.

you would really need to do a bachelors in some kind of engineering and go on to do masters and phd to be able to research at a constant basis. Chances are only then will u know ur stuff so brilliantly that u could invent something.. of course with just a bachelors u could still invent something but chances r low.. i mean in history some famous mathematicians have invented stuff at ages as low as 13 ! look at Gauss as an example

I once apologized to an engineer for not having his degree, and he said that engineers and inventors are two different types. Engineers learn how to solve certain problems, which method to use in which cases. They use what amount to 'cookbooks' full of tables and graphs. They are not paid to innovate; they are paid to find the best and cheapest solution to a given problem, e.g. how to heat and cool a warehouse in a given location, and find it promptly. The inventor asks himself if there is a better way to do something, which is a different matter. It requires the ability to challenge the customary assumptions and conventional methods, perhaps even to try something that's not supposed to be possible, e.g. perpetual motion or vertical flight. Engineers are whizzes at math, while inventors think qualitatively. You need animal cunning and ingenuity, not a degree. Persistence also helps a lot, and a willingness to fail. I recently had to build a device to see if it would work; it did not, nor was it the first time that had happened to me. So you need a good tolerance for frustration. You also need a good day job if you like to eat regularly.

You don't need any kind of degree to invent things. Sometimes too much education is a hindrance to invention. Many of mankinds most important inventions and ideas came from people without degrees.

I agree an engineering degree may not be the best choice for an inventor. This might sound weird but you may want to consider a business degree. The best thing you can do is figure out how to make a living being an inventor. To do this it would help if you understand how businesses work including contracts, copyright, and patent laws.