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BASIC RULES D&D Basic Rules, Version 1.0, Released November 2018 |
Credits Lead Designers: Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, Christopher Perkins Design Team: James Wyatt, Rodney Thompson, Robert J. Schwalb, Peter Lee, Steve Townshend, Bruce R. Cordell |
Managing Editor: Jeremy Crawford Editing Team: Chris Sims, Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Kim Mohan |
Graphic Designers: Bree Heiss, Emi Tanji Interior Illustrator: Jaime Jones, Richard Whitters |
Additional Contributors: Matt Sernett, Chris Dupuis, Tom LaPille, Chris Tulach, Miranda Horner, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Steve Winter, Chris Youngs, Ben Petrisor, Tom Olsen |
Producer: Greg Bilsland Project Management: Neil Shinkle, Kim Graham, John Hay |
Brand and Marketing: Nathan Stewart, Liz Schuh, Chris Lindsay, Shelly Mazzanoble, Hilary Ross, Laura Tommervik, Kim Lundstrom, Trevor Kidd |
Based on the original D&D game created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, with Brian Blume, Rob Kuntz, James Ward, and Don Kaye Drawing from further development by J. Eric Holmes, Tom Moldvay, Frank Mentzer, Aaron Allston, Harold Johnson, David “Zeb” Cook, Ed Greenwood, Keith Baker, Tracy Hickman, Margaret Weis, Dougla... |
Playtesting provided by over 175,000 fans of D&D. Thank you! |
Available for download at DungeonsandDragons.com |
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, the dragon ampersand, Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. All characters and their disti... |
©2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Manufactured by Hasbro SA, Rue Emile-Boéchat 31, 2800 Delémont, CH. Represented by Hasbro Europe, 4 The Square, Stockley Park, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB11 1ET, UK. |
1 |
Introduction |
The Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game is about storytelling in worlds of swords and sorcery. It shares ele- ments with childhood games of make-believe. Like those games, D&D is driven by imagination. It’s about picturing the towering castle beneath the stormy night sky and imagining how a fantasy adventurer might rea... |
Dungeon Master (DM): After passing through the craggy peaks, the road takes a sudden turn to the east and Castle Ravenloft towers before you. Crumbling towers of stone keep a silent watch over the approach. They look like abandoned guardhouses. Beyond these, a wide chasm gapes, disappearing into the deep fog below. A l... |
Unlike a game of make-believe, D&D gives structure to the stories, a way of determining the consequences of the adventurers’ action. Players roll dice to resolve whether their attacks hit or miss or whether their adventurers can scale a cliff, roll away from the strike of a magical lightning bolt, or pull off some othe... |
Dungeon Master (DM): OK, one at a time. Phillip, you’re looking at the gargoyles? Phillip: Yeah. Is there any hint they might be creatures and not decorations? DM: Make an Intelligence check. Phillip: Does my Investigation skill apply? DM: Sure! Phillip (rolling a d20): Ugh. Seven. DM: They look like decorations to you... |
In the Dungeons & Dragons game, each player cre- ates an adventurer (also called a character) and teams up with other adventurers (played by friends). Working together, the group might explore a dark dungeon, a ru- ined city, a haunted castle, a lost temple deep in a jungle, or a lava-filled cavern beneath a mysterious... |
Or cast a spell to carry them over the chasm? Then the DM determines the results of the adventurers’ actions and narrates what they experience. Because the DM can improvise to react to anything the players at- tempt, D&D is infinitely flexible, and each adventure can be exciting and unexpected. The game has no real end... |
Each monster defeated, each adventure completed, and each treasure recovered not only adds to the continuing story, but also earns the adventurers new capabilities. This increase in power is reflected by an adventurer’s level. There’s no winning and losing in the Dungeons & Dragons game—at least, not the way those term... |
Worlds of Adventure |
The many worlds of the Dungeons & Dragons game are places of magic and monsters, of brave warriors and spectacular adventures. They begin with a foundation of medieval fantasy and then add the creatures, places, and magic that make these worlds unique. The worlds of the Dungeons & Dragons game exist within a vast cosmo... |
Introduction |
3 D&D Basic Rules (Version 1.0). Not for resale. Permission granted to print and photocopy this document for personal use only. |
Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Mystara, and Eberron settings are woven together in the fabric of the multiverse. Alongside these worlds are hundreds of thousands more, created by generations of D&D players for their own games. And amid all the richness of the multiverse, you might create a world of your own. All these worlds shar... |
Some worlds feature races unknown in other settings, such as Eberron’s warforged, soldiers created and imbued with life to fight in the Last War. Some worlds are dominated by one great story, like the War of the Lance that plays a central role in the Drag- onlance setting. But they’re all D&D worlds, and you can use th... |
Using These Rules |
The D&D Basic Rules document has four main parts. Part 1 is about creating a character, providing the rules and guidance you need to make the character you’ll play in the game. It includes information on the various races, classes, backgrounds, equipment, and other customiza- tion options that you can choose from. Many... |
Part 4 is especially for the Dungeon Master. It contains instructions for how to challenge the player characters with adversaries that are a good test of their abilities, plus dozens of ready-to-use monster descriptions. It also provides a sampling of magic items that the characters can earn as their rewards for vanqui... |
How to Play |
The play of the Dungeons & Dragons game unfolds ac- cording to this basic pattern. 1. The DM describes the environment. The DM tells the players where their adventurers are and what’s around them, presenting the basic scope of options that present themselves (how many doors lead out of a room, what’s on a table, who’s ... |
In those cases, the DM decides what happens, often relying on the roll of a die to determine the results of an action. 3. The DM narrates the results of the adventurers’ actions. Describing the results often leads to another de- cision point, which brings the flow of the game right back to step 1. This pattern holds wh... |
Often the action of an adventure takes place in the imagination of the players and DM, relying on the DM’s verbal descriptions to set the scene. Some DMs like to use music, art, or recorded sound effects to help set the mood, and many players and DMs alike adopt different voices for the various adventurers, monsters, a... |
Game Dice |
The game uses polyhedral dice with different numbers of sides. You can find dice like these in game stores and in many bookstores. In these rules, the different dice are referred to by the letter d followed by the number of sides: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. For instance, a d6 is a six-sided die (the typical cube th... |
Introduction 4 D&D Basic Rules (Version 1.0). Not for resale. Permission granted to print and photocopy this document for personal use only. |
example, the number rolled is 71. Two 0s represent 100. Some ten-sided dice are numbered in tens (00, 10, 20, and so on), making it easier to distinguish the tens digit from the ones digit. In this case, a roll of 70 and 1 is 71, and 00 and 0 is 100. When you need to roll dice, the rules tell you how many dice to roll ... |
The D20 |
Does an adventurer’s sword swing hurt a dragon or just bounce off its iron-hard scales? Will the ogre believe an outrageous bluff? Can a character swim across a raging river? Can a character avoid the main blast of a fireball, or does he or she take full damage from the blaze? In cases where the outcome of an action is... |
All three follow these simple steps. 1. Roll the die and add a modifier. Roll a d20 and add the relevant modifier. This is typically the modifier de- rived from one of the six ability scores, and it sometimes includes a proficiency bonus to reflect a character’s par- ticular skill. (See chapter 1 for details on each ab... |
3. Compare the total to a target number. If the total equals or exceeds the target number, the ability check, attack roll, or saving throw is a success. Otherwise, it’s a failure. The DM is usually the one who determines target numbers and tells players whether their ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws succ... |
Advantage and Disadvantage |
Sometimes an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw is modified by special situations called advantage and dis- advantage. Advantage reflects the positive circumstances surrounding a d20 roll, while disadvantage reflects the opposite. When you have either advantage or disadvan- tage, you roll a second d20 when you... |
Specific Beats General |
This book contains rules, especially in parts 2 and 3, that govern how the game plays. That said, many racial traits, class features, spells, magic items, monster abilities, and other game elements break the general rules in some way, creating an exception to how the rest of the game works. Remember this: If a specific... |
Round Down |
There’s one more general rule you need to know at the outset. Whenever you divide a number in the game, round down if you end up with a fraction, even if the fraction is one-half or greater. |
Adventures |
The Dungeons & Dragons game consists of a group of characters embarking on an adventure that the Dungeon Master presents to them. Each character brings partic- ular capabilities to the adventure in the form of ability scores and skills, class features, racial traits, equipment, and magic items. Every character is diffe... |
The adventure is the heart of the game, a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. An adventure might be created by the Dungeon Master or purchased off the shelf, tweaked and modified to suit the DM’s needs and desires. In either case, an adventure features a fantastic setting, whether it’s an underground dungeon,... |
Introduction 5 D&D Basic Rules (Version 1.0). Not for resale. Permission granted to print and photocopy this document for personal use only. |
extras in an adventure. Often, one of the NPCs is a villain whose agenda drives much of an adventure’s action. Over the course of their adventures, the characters are confronted by a variety of creatures, objects, and situa- tions that they must deal with in some way. Sometimes the adventurers and other creatures do th... |
Adventures vary in length and complexity. A short ad- venture might present only a few challenges, and it might take no more than a single game session to complete. A long adventure can involve hundreds of combats, interac- tions, and other challenges, and take dozens of sessions to play through, stretching over weeks ... |
The Three Pillars of Adventure |
Adventurers can try to do anything their players can imagine, but it can be helpful to talk about their activities in three broad categories: exploration, social interaction, and combat. Exploration includes both the adventurers’ movement through the world and their interaction with objects and situations that require ... |
It might mean demanding that a captured scout reveal the secret entrance to the goblin lair, getting information from a rescued prisoner, pleading for mercy from an orc chieftain, or persuading a talkative magic mirror to show a distant location to the adventurers. The rules in chapters 7 and 8 support exploration and ... |
The Wonders of Magic |
Few D&D adventures end without something magical happening. Whether helpful or harmful, magic appears frequently in the life of an adventurer, and it is the focus of chapters 10 and 11. In the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, practitioners of magic are rare, set apart from the masses of people by their extraordinary talen... |
Without the sheer magical power and versatility of wizards and druids, every threat would be magnified tenfold. Magic is also a favored tool of villains. Many adven- tures are driven by the machinations of spellcasters who are hellbent on using magic for some ill end. A cult leader seeks to awaken a god who slumbers be... |
D&D Basic Rules (Version 1.0). Not for resale. Permission granted to print and photocopy this document for personal use only. Introduction |
6 |
RICHARD WHITTERS |
Part 1 Character Creation |
Subsets and Splits
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