Questions tagged [dnd-5e]
For questions about Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, an RPG published in 2014 by Wizards of the Coast. D&D 5e is a heroic fantasy RPG inspired by the mechanics and settings of all previous D&D editions. It was previously code-named D&D Next during the playtest period.
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Are images part of the rules?
The published rules book for D&D 5e contain both rules text, and images. All the text is rules text, there is no distinction between flavor text and rules text. But what about the images? Are they ...
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In Princes of the Apocalypse, is this monster “supposed to” kill a player character?
In Princes of the Apocalypse Ch. 6,
has plenty of time and warning to prepare for his encounter with the party, along with the spells to do so:
He is also in possession of a powerful magic item,
...
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What is the lowest CR creature that can defeat an Ancient Red Dragon in open combat, and how many of them does it take?
This Q&A explores a similar question with commoners specifically, but I wanted to pose a challenge that isn't defeated by kiting. As such, I figured I'd open the floor to all creatures with a ...
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Which is More Positively Effective, Math-Wise: Modifier Bonuses, or Expertise?
After my previous question about my character, I went off the deep end to find what role is needed in my party, exactly. Long-story short, we need a high DEX skill monkey. I'll have trouble with the ...
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Faerzress and other teleportation spells
In the D&D 5e module Out of the Abyss, one effect of faerzress is:
Any creature attempting to teleport into, within, or out of a faerzress-suffused area must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution ...
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Does the lightning damage clause of Lightning Lure check the target's distance before or after the creature would fall?
The Lightning Lure spell (Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Ch. 3) is able to lift a creature into the air, and a creature in the air without the ability to maintain that position falls immediately (...
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End of long rest vs finishing long rest
Is there a mechanical difference between abilities that say "at the end of a long rest" and abilities that say "when you finish a long rest"?
As an example, you regain hit points ...
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Does Polymorph Remove Exhaustion? [duplicate]
In Critical Role Campaign 2 Episode 118, jester was suffering a point of exhaustion from a failed survival roll and chose to cast polymorph on herself. Matt ruled that the point of exhaustion did not ...
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How many commoners would it take to defeat an Ancient Red Dragon in a straight battle?
I'm running a thought experiment to see how many DnD 5e commoners it would take to defeat an Ancient Red Dragon. Use the following constraints for the scenario:
For the commoners, use the stats on ...
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Why does Sacred Flame specify that the target gets no benefit from cover?
The description of sacred flame reads (emphasis added):
Flame-like radiance descends on a creature that you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d8 ...
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How does a Cloak of Displacement interact with truesight/blindsight?
Cloak of Displacement:
While you wear this cloak, it projects an illusion that makes you appear to be standing in a place near your actual location, causing any creature to have disadvantage on ...
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How does spare the dying ranged ability work exactly?
What’s the conditions that need to be met so that spare the dying can work as a ranged spell.
Basically what I’m asking is, do you need to see the target?
The spell doesn’t account for that and the ...
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In gridded combat, how many squares/cubes above ground can the caster of Earth Tremor be in order to affect the ground?
Our campaign uses the optional Using Miniatures rules (Dungeon Master's Guide Ch. 8) and the variant Playing on a Grid rules (Player's Handbook Ch. 9). If a spellcaster is not on the ground (due to ...
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Monkey Demon Boss Design
LATTER DAYS CAMPAIGN PLAYERS SHOULD SKIP THIS POST
In my campaign, there is a demon trapped in an artifact and forced to grant wishes. Though generally I rule wishes by intent and not trickery, this ...
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when should a player declare divine smite? [duplicate]
Should divine smite be declared before or after rolling and applying the melee weapon's base damage?
For example: a paladin and group have been ganging up on that session's miniboss and there's a ...
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How powerful is this homebrew Barbarian Path of the Colossus compared to other martial subclasses?
As DnD 5e has aged it's become more clear that Martial classes lack a fair amount compared to their spellcasting companions. They offer less utility, fewer defensive options, and in some cases fail to ...
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How can I remove smoke from a bag of holding?
If I fill a bag of holding with smoke, could I remove all of the smoke by reaching in, or would I have to turn the bag inside out to release the smoke? I feel like removing the smoke by hand wouldn't ...
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Can you use True Polymorph and an Intellect Devourer to potentially learn Deep Speech and a secret?
I have been thinking of making a homebrewed campaign where, as part of a bigger plot, the party needs to learn Deep Speech and a secret that a particular Intellect Devourer learnt from consuming the ...
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Will using a weapon not as intended (improvised) still generate "on-hit" effects?
I found this question asking whether a net as a melee weapon would still trigger the restrained condition: Can you make a Melee Weapon Attack with a Net?. The highest voted response suggested that ...
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Casting spells while out of hearing and sight
There are other questions addressing how casting attack spells while hidden blows your cover, but what if you are out of the range of perception for the target?
Some additional background: based on ...
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Can I misty step into a location I can see through Clairvoyance?
I hide in a bush that is 2000 feet from "a location familiar to [me] (a place [I] have visited or seen before)". I cast Clairvoyance to "create an invisible sensor" of sight in a ...
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Can an Intellect Devourer use Body Thief on body that already has an Intellect Devourer in its skull?
From looking at the mechanics of Body Thief I can't see why not, but I may be missing something.
The intellect devourer initiates an Intelligence contest with an
incapacitated humanoid [...] If it ...
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How long do Intellect Devourers live?
I can't see any information on the lifespan of an Intellect Devourer in the 5th edition of D&D monster manuals. Is there any information that says or hints in other sources/books, including past ...
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Can a creature controlled by Dominate Person warn his allies?
My D&D group has run into this problem multiple times and we were never able to find a solution to it according to the RAW.
Situation
If an enemy casts Dominate Person on a PC and commands him or ...
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How Do I Decrease Training Time?
Resources. Receiving training in a language or tool typically takes at least ten workweeks, but this time is reduced by a number of workweeks equal to the character’s Intelligence modifier (an ...
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Player charmed by Orb of Dragonkind: what can be done?
I have a player that has attuned to an Orb of Dragonkind and failed the check to avoid being charmed by it. This part of the item applies (emphasis mine):
While attuned to an orb, you can use an ...
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When is Animate Objects more effective than Fireball?
My wizard has both fireball, and animate objects.
Animate objects at first sight is such a cool and flavorful spell. I was excited when I got it because it is considered one of the highest output ...
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Flurry of Blows has to be done after the action. Why?
Monk's Ki feature Flurry of Blows is defined like this (PHB, page 78):
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus ...
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Can I spend additional ki points to make additional attacks with my Flurry of Blows bonus action?
I just re-read the rules about monks and I wonder how to interpret this from the PHB:
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes ...
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Potions crafting - homebrew ideas [closed]
I am not satisfied entirely with Dnd 5e potions crafting. I am considering to implement simple system, which doesnt take so much time of downtime activity to craft, but needs specific ingredients. For ...
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Optimizing Animate Objects spell against nonmagical damage immunities
Suppose I am a Wizard who likes to cast Animate Objects in combat. At my present level, I am likely to encounter foes with resistance or immunity to nonmagical physical damage. As detailed in this ...
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Does an opportunity attack allow a monk to use their unarmed bonus attack if they still have it and it’s still their turn?
I’m theorycrafting a new character with a buddy. We’re debating the following.
Say we have a monk with access to the dissonant whispers spell from something like the Fey Touched feat. When they cast ...
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How exactly do ability score adjusting magic items and ability score improvements interact? [duplicate]
Obviously the tomes and manuals are clear-cut in how they function, but when it comes to magic items that "overwrite" or "replace" an ability score with a value, such as gauntlets ...
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How can I word the rules for a custom Magic item that allows a caster to cast a spell (but still requires the spell slot and component)?
I DM for a party that would greatly benefit from having access to the spell Revivify, but the only caster in the party is a sorcerer. I’d like them to have access to raise dead effects, but not at the ...
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Would a Lich/Wizard casting Globe of Invulnerability, Prismatic Wall, and Shield (as needed) be "invincible"?
In Dnd 5e, would casting Globe of Invulnerability at 8th level (concentration) on a surprise round, then Prismatic Wall (action) around the caster at the top of the next round, and Shield (Reaction) ...
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Falling on Multiple Creatures Simultaneously
What is the RAW method of resolving situations where large or larger creatures fall on multiple creatures at once when splitting the damage? I have been just splitting the damage among all involved ...
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Can unarmed strikes be used with Dread Ambusher?
I’m currently playing an unarmed monk. The build is to run as many attacks as I can without going too far into multi-classing fighter (I’ll go two levels in to pick up action surge). I’m considering ...
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Is there any official holiday-themed content for D&D 5e?
Obviously, the various fantasy settings may have their own, special holidays, for example in the Forgotten Realms, there are five annual holidays falling between the months, like Midwinter oder ...
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Clarification on semantics around melee attacks
The game uses various ways of describing a physical melee attack:
Melee Weapon Attack
melee attack with/using a weapon
attack with/using a melee weapon, or attack with/using a weapon (without the ...
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Wavejumping: Newly Discovered Move Tech for Martials?
Was wondering how reasonable this ruling is RAW (RAI this was almost certainly not the intention but hey martials take what they can get). Ruling assume you're using Falling onto a Creature Rules ...
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Falling onto a Creature vs Moving Around Other Creatures Rules
So I was looking into the 'moving around other creatures' section in the PHB and found this
You can move through a nonhostile creature's space. In contrast, you can move through a hostile creature's ...
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Can a Gnoll Pack Lord target itself for Incite Rampage?
Incite Rampage (Recharge 5–6).
One creature the gnoll can see within 30 feet of it can use its reaction to make a melee attack if it can hear the gnoll and has the Rampage trait.
A Gnoll pack lord ...
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Do creatures attempt a saving throw immediately when a Whirlwind is moved onto them on a turn subsequent to the initial casting?
The Sage Advice Compendium (pp. 19-20) contains a ruling about the spell moonbeam and other similar spells. The ruling provides a list of spells that are covered by it:
blade barrier
cloudkill
cloud ...
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What's the benefit of choosing Cartomancy over Metamagic Adept?
I was looking at Cartomancer as a handy way to use normally tactically unwieldy spells in the heat of a fight. Here's the relevant quotes:
Card Tricks. You learn the Prestidigitation cantrip and can ...
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Possibility to gain magic items as feats, class features, or background
Besides the three "default" ways of getting a magic item by finding, buying, or crafting, are there other ways for a player to gain them? I found the second level artificer feature "...
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What happens when a level 14 bard uses Nimbus of Pathos on a wild shape Druid currently in wild shape?
Nimbus of Pathos states:
When this effect ends, the creature immediately drops to 0 hit points and is dying. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
By ...
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Can a whirlwind be moved in a straight line only? [duplicate]
The caster of a whirlwind spell can use a subsequent action to "move the whirlwind up to 30 feet in any direction along the ground." Is this up 30 feet in a straight line only? Or can the ...
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Precedence of Firearm Rarity compared to Magic Items
Has there ever been a precedence (whether official or third party) of comparing the rarity of Firearms to an equivalent magic item rarity?
I'm going to be starting in a new campaign of a slightly ...
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When should/can a player offer flavour suggestions over mechanics during character creation?
I made a character for a campaign that fell through about a year ago or so, but loved the concept so much that I wanted to revise it in broader strokes so it would be ready to personalize into another ...
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Does a Fireball whose damage type was changed via Awakened Spellbook still ignite flammable objects?
A Fireball spell "blossoms with a low roar into an explosion of flame. [...] The fire spreads around corners. It ignites flammable objects in the area that aren't being worn or carried."
If ...
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