Sage Advice Compendium Questions and answers about the rules of fifth edition Compiled Answers Dungeons & Dragons appear in Sage Advice, a monthly column on the D&D website (dnd.wizards.com). This Sage Advice answers that are relevant to the current state document compiles most of them and organizes them by of the rules are compiled here. An answer that has become topic, after first noting what the game’s official rules ref- obsolete isn’t included in this compilation. erences are. The Role of Rules If you have a question that you’d like addressed in Sage Advice, please contact the game’s rules manager, Jeremy Why even have a column like Sage Advice when a DM Crawford, on Twitter (@JeremyECrawford). If the ques- can just make a ruling? Rules are a big part of what makes tion is too long for a tweet, please email it to sageadvice@ D&D a game, rather than simply improvised storytelling. wizards.com. The game’s rules are meant to help organize, and even in- spire, the action of a D&D campaign. The rules are a tool, Rules References and we want our tools to be as effective as possible. No matter how good those tools might be, they need a group of The fifth edition of D&D has three official rulebooks, each players to bring them to life and a DM to guide their use. of which was first published in 2014: The DM is key. Many unexpected things can happen in • Player’s Handbook (abbreviated PH) a D&D campaign, and no set of rules could reasonably ac- • Monster Manual (abbreviated MM) count for every contingency. If the rules tried to do so, the • Dungeon Master’s Guide (abbreviated DMG) game would become unplayable. An alternative would be The free Basic Rules contains portions of those three books for the rules to severely limit what characters can do, which and can be downloaded here: would be counter to the open-endedness of D&D. The direc- tion we chose for the current edition was to lay a foundation http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules of rules that a DM could build on, and we embraced the Play in the Adventurers League, the D&D organized play DM’s role as the bridge between the things the rules ad- program, is also governed by the Adventurers League Play- dress and the things they don’t. er’s Guide. In a typical D&D session, a DM makes numerous rules decisions—some barely noticeable and others quite obvi- Errata ous. Players also interpret the rules, and the whole group keeps the game running. There are times, though, when the Corrections have been issued for the early printings of the design intent of a rule isn’t clear or when one rule seems to fifth edition Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dun- contradict another. geon Master’s Guide and can be downloaded at the follow- Dealing with those situations is where Sage Advice ing locations: comes in. This column doesn’t replace a DM’s adjudication. http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/PH-Errata.pdf Just as the rules do, the column is meant to give DMs, as http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/MM-Errata.pdf well as players, tools for tuning the game according to their tastes. The column should also reveal some perspectives http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/DMG-Errata.pdf that help you see parts of the game in a new light and that The corrections have been incorporated into more recent aid you in fine-tuning your D&D experience. printings of the books, as well as into the Basic Rules. When I answer rules questions, I often come at them We have also issued corrections for the adventures Hoard from one to three different perspectives. of the Dragon Queen and Princes of the Apocalypse: RAW. “Rules as written”—that’s what RAW stands for. When I dwell on the RAW interpretation of a rule, I’m http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/HotDQ-Errata.pdf studying what the text says in context, without regard to the http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/PotA-Errata.pdf designers’ intent. The text is forced to stand on its own. Whenever I consider a rule, I start with this perspective; it’s important for me to see what you see, not what I wished A corrected version of any of these books includes one of we’d published or thought we published. the following lines near the bottom of its credits page: RAI. Some of you are especially interested in knowing This printing includes corrections to the first printing. the intent behind a rule. That’s where RAI comes in: “rules This printing includes corrections. as intended.” This approach is all about what the designers meant when they wrote something. In a perfect world, RAW Official Rulings and RAI align perfectly, but sometimes the words on the page don’t succeed at communicating the designers’ intent. Official rulings on how to interpret unclear rules are made Or perhaps the words succeed with one group of players in Sage Advice. The public statements of the D&D team, or but fail with another. anyone else at Wizards of the Coast, are not official rulings; When I write about the RAI interpretation of a rule, I’ll they are advice. One exception: the game’s rules manager, be pulling back the curtain and letting you know what the Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford), can make official D&D team meant when we wrote a certain rule. rulings and usually does so in Sage Advice and on Twitter. RAF. Regardless of what’s on the page or what the de- signers intended, D&D is meant to be fun, and the DM is the ringmaster at each game table. The best DMs shape the Version 1.14 @2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC. Permission granted to print and photocopy this document for personal use only. Page 1 game on the fly to bring the most delight to his or her play- Unarmored Defense (Monk): 10 + your Dexterity modifier ers. Such DMs aim for RAF, “rules as fun.” + your Wisdom modifier. We expect DMs to depart from the rules when running Draconic Resilience (Sorcerer): 13 + your Dexter- a particular campaign or when seeking the greatest hap- ity modifier. piness for a certain group of players. Sometimes my rules Natural Armor: 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your natural answers will include advice on achieving the RAF interpre- armor bonus. This is a calculation method typically used tation of a rule for your group. only by monsters and NPCs, although it is also relevant I recommend a healthy mix of RAW, RAI, and RAF! to a druid or another character who assumes a form that has natural armor. Why does the errata change X and not Y? The errata for the first printing of the Player’s Handbook sparked a num- These methods—along with any others that give you a for- ber of questions. Why did we make the changes we made? mula for calculating your AC—are mutually exclusive; you Why didn’t we make other changes? Did we change certain can benefit from only one at a time. If you have access to things, such as Empowered Evocation, because they were more than one, you pick which one to use. For example, if overpowered? you’re a sorcerer/monk, you can use either Unarmored De- The answer to such questions is straightforward: we fixed fense or Draconic Resilience, not both. Similarly, a druid/ mistakes in the text. The errata fixes text that was incom- barbarian who transforms into a beast form that has natu- plete or off the mark in the original printing of the book. In ral armor can use either the beast’s natural armor or Unar- the new edition, the errata process is strictly for the cor- mored Defense (you aren’t considered to be wearing armor rection of such things. Rebalancing and redesigning game with natural armor). elements is the domain of playtesting, Unearthed Arcana What about a shield? A shield increases your AC by 2 articles, new design, and possible revision later in the edi- while you use it. For example, if you’re unarmored and use tion’s lifespan. a shield, your AC is 12 + your Dexterity modifier. Keep in We play the game often, and we regularly review Twitter mind that some AC calculations, such as a monk’s Unar- posts, Reddit discussions, website forums, survey results, mored Defense, prohibit the use of a shield. emails, and customer service reports about the game. You Once you have your base AC, it can be temporarily mod- have concerns about the contagion spell? We know about ified by situational bonuses and penalties. For instance, them. You feel the Beastmaster is underpowered? We’ve having half cover gives you a +2 bonus to your AC, and had our eye on that subclass for a while. In fact, we have three-quarters cover gives a +5 bonus. Spells sometimes a long list of things in the game that we keep an eye on modify AC as well. Shield of faith, for example, grants a tar- and that we expect to experiment with in the months and get a +2 bonus to AC until the spell ends. years ahead. Magic items can also enhance your AC. Here are a few But that experimentation is unrelated to errata. Correc- examples: +1 chain mail gives you an AC of 17, a ring of tions—that’s what errata is about.