Not all dangers while adventuring are from enemies, monsters, and beasts. Whether urban or rural, the very environment a hero must traverse in order to complete their quest (or the battlefield they find themselves on) can present a multitude of hazards. Be sure to pay attention to the environment around your character as they move through it, and be wary of any hidden threats — or anything you can leverage to get the upper hand in a fight.

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Falling

When a creature falls, it takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it falls (maximum 20d6) and lands prone. A creature that falls into water takes half damage, or no damage if it dives with a successful Athletics check (DC equal to the distance it falls divided by 5). 

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Suffocating

Drowning, strangulation, smothering, strange alternate planes of reality with no air — many situations can lead to suffocation. A creature can hold its breath for a number of minutes equal to 1 plus its Constitution modifier (minimum of 30 seconds). Once a creature is out of breath, it begins suffocating and can survive for a number of rounds equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum 1 round).

At the start of its next turn, the suffocating creature drops to 0 hit points and is dying. It cannot regain hit points or be stabilized until it can breathe again.

For example, during a storm at sea, a creature with a Constitution of 16 is dragged beneath the ocean by debris tangled around its legs. It can hold its breath for 4 minutes, at which time it has 3 rounds before it drops to 0 hit points.

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Underwater

A creature that cannot breathe water begins to suffocate underwater once it cannot hold its breath. In addition, creatures without swim speeds have disadvantage on attacks made using any weapons other than a dagger, dueling dagger, javelin, shortsword, spear, or trident. Ranged weapon attacks automatically miss beyond their normal range underwater, and bludgeoning and fire damage are halved. A creature that takes damage while holding its breath underwater must succeed on a concentration check or immediately begin suffocating as if its breath had run out.

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Vision and Light

Most creatures rely on sight for even the most mundane, everyday tasks. Adventurers are no different, and the amount of light in a given area  impacts their ability to perform both in and out of combat. Other environmental features, like fog or heavy rain, may obscure a creature’s vision and cause difficulty.

A lightly obscured area is one that creates a minimal, but not insignificant, amount of visual impairment. A moderately wooded area, lingering smoke from a sacked town, dim lighting, and the like can all cause an area to be lightly obscured. When within this area, creatures have disadvantage on Perception checks that rely on sight.

An area that is heavily obscured may be a shoreline cloaked in dense fog, a jungle full of thick foliage and hanging vines, or darkness (magical or otherwise), that obstructs vision completely. A creature in this area is considered blind.

Three types of lighting exist within an area: bright light, dim light, and darkness.

Bright light is the most common. Even on a cloudy day the sun provides bright light, as do torches, bonfires, magical lights, and other similar sources (though often within a limited radius). Most creatures suffer no penalties from being in a brightly lit area.

Dim light creates a lightly obscured area. Dim light is typically found on the outer reaches of artificial light sources, such as the depths of a room lit only by candles or the outer ring of a bonfire. Dim light can also be found during dawn or twilight, or beneath a full moon.

Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Creatures venturing out at night, delving underground, or traveling into a windowless dungeon without any alternate sources of light will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage.

Blindsight

Not everything relies on vision to sense the world. A creature with blindsight is not affected by darkness or other heavily or lightly obscured areas, and can see through invisibility, within a certain radius. Creatures adapted to the darkness (like bats and moles) or creatures without eyes (like purple worms) have blindsight.

Figments. Creatures that do not rely on visual sight, noted as having blindsight (blind beyond this range), are immune to visual illusions (such as those created by minor illusion).

Darkvision

Many creatures within the realms of medieval fantasy are gifted with sensitive sight. Darkvision allows a creature to see within darkness as if it were dim light, and dim light as if it were bright light, though the creature cannot perceive colors while in darkness, only shades of gray.

Truesight

Some especially powerful creatures, like particularly old dragons, have truesight. This allows a creature to see in normal or magical darkness, perceive invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect illusions and succeed on its saving throw against them, and perceive the original form of a shapechanger or creature that is transformed by magic. A creature with truesight can also see into the Ethereal Plane.

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Food and Water

Creatures need to eat and drink in order to survive, and often in the wilderness, the opportunity to find fresh food and water can be limited.

A creature that takes a long rest must consume food and water or it suffers a level of fatigue (see the Supply rules).

Time

Time is an important aspect of adventuring. For Narrators, time serves multiple purposes and roughly outlines the flow of an adventure. Choosing which scale of time to use in any given situation is a matter of context.

The most common span of time is a round, which takes place during combat and other situations where time is of the essence. A round lasts 6 seconds.

Minutes are the second most common. Most involved actions take a length of time using minutes. For example, an adventuring party spends roughly a minute proceeding through a dungeon corridor, to find a treasure room which they investigate for 10 minutes to find a hidden chest that the rogue spends roughly a minute checking to discover the deadly poison dart booby trap cunningly hidden in the mechanism.

Hours are appropriate for exploring a city or a limited area of land. A sudden whim by a wizard to visit a particular reagent shop on the other side of the city would take hours just as it may take an hour or so for a druid to lead their party members to a defensible cave in the ominous and quickly darkening woods.

Days are generally used for long periods of time during a journey or adventure. Traveling from one city to another, getting lost in the wilderness, and a journey into the unseen depths of the world are all good examples of using days.

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Movement

Adventurers come across a wide array of terrain and obstacles during their travels. For simplicity’s sake a Narrator is always free to summarize movement without determining exact distances or time frames. However, in some cases it’s important to know the general time frame (minutes, hours, days, and so on) that it takes to go from one area to another.

When it comes to determining the time frames of movement, the most important factors are the Speed or travel pace of an individual or party and the terrain being traversed.

Speed

Every creature capable of movement has a Speed, measured in feet, that it can move in a single round. Travel pace is used when it comes to longer time periods of moment that take place over minutes, hours, or days as detailed in  Exploration . Of course the world is wide and vast, leading to exceptions in mounts and methods of travel...

Vehicles

Not all travel is done by foot. Vehicles and mounts are used by many adventurers to help travel the vast distances of the world.

Land-based vehicles can choose at which pace to move while water-based vehicles are restricted by the speed of the vehicle. A water-based vehicle gains no benefits from a slow pace, but has no penalties for moving at a fast pace. Depending on the vehicle and crew size, a ship can travel up to 24 hours a day.

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Special Movement

Not all travel can be accomplished by simply walking from one point to another. Adventurers may be forced to climb, swim, or leap to reach their final destinations—nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling

Movement using these three methods is similar to traveling through difficult terrain though there are some key differences. First, it costs a creature an extra foot to move for every foot spent. Worse, if a creature is moving in actual difficult terrain, it costs two feet to move for every foot spent. Moving by climbing or swimming through normal terrain by a creature with the corresponding speed costs no additional movement.

A Narrator may apply additional checks in certain scenarios, such as climbing a particularly slippery surface or swimming in churning water.

For example, a berserker with a 30 foot movement speed only moves 15 feet on their turn while trying to climb a mountain. Should that same berserker try climbing that same mountain during a snowstorm, they would only move 7 feet, and may even need to pass an Athletics check to maintain a hold or risk falling into the roaring water below.

Jumping

The distance a creature can jump is determined both by the method attempted and their Strength score. 

A long jump requires a creature to move at least 10 feet by foot immediately before making its jump and the distance covered is a number of feet up to its Strength score. Each foot covered by a jump costs the same in movement.

A Narrator can also request a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear low obstacles, which must be no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance. A failure indicates that instead of jumping over such an obstacle, a creature crashes into it.

Landing is also a fair challenge. Should a creature land in difficult terrain, perhaps jumping over a table in the kitchen only to land on a freshly mopped floor on the other side, the creature must make an additional DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) to actually land on its feet. Should it fail, it instead falls prone.

A high jump is a bit more complex. To make a running high jump, a creature must move 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump, leaping up into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + its Strength modifier (minimum of 0 feet). To make a standing high jump, a creature need not move beforehand, but only jumps half the distance it would have doing a running high jump.

When a creature’s jumping distance exceeds its Speed, it can jump up to a distance equal to twice its Speed in a single leap so long as it takes no other movement on that turn other than to jump. In either case, a creature uses up a foot of movement for every foot it covers jumping. There are a few special scenarios for high jumping though.

First, a creature can extend its arms up to half its height during a jump. Thus a creature can reach above itself equal to the height of a jump plus 1.5 times its height. In addition, the Narrator may allow a creature to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than it could otherwise.

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Traveling

The majority of rules regarding exploration are in the Exploration chapter, but some extend beyond journeys and into shorter forays as well.

Marching Order

When it’s relevant to the game— during a dungeon crawl or while traveling through a forest they know is brimming with bandits — the Narrator should have the party establish who is in the lead (and therefore the most likely to be targeted if a trap is triggered) and who is in the back (the first targeted in a flanking ambush). When it isn’t an important element to what’s currently happening in the game, whichever character is taking the lead on roleplaying is assumed to be in front of their companions.

Encounters and Threats

Whether or not creatures notice a hidden threat is determined by their passive Perception scores. When players encounter other characters or creatures while traveling, both parties can choose what happens next. Either party can choose to attack, talk, flee, or wait to see what the other group does. In addition, a Narrator can decide whether or not a party is surprised by the other if combat ensues (see Chapter 8: Combat ).

Stealth 

A party looking to avoid threats can choose to travel at a slow pace and employ stealth, making a group Stealth check, typically using Dexterity. A party with reasonable cover can do more than avoid ambushes — they may well surprise or sneak past their enemies.

The world is vast and full of danger. From the cramped and darkened tunnels of a subterranean labyrinth to the wide open expanse of the plains, the worlds you explore are bound to be full of wonder and woe in equal measure. This chapter covers the basics of adventuring through that world, including movement, social interactions, time and more.

Throughout game sessions the Narrator envisions and describes the setting, places, and situations your characters experience as the party becomes immersed in the world. Your character reacts to the circumstances and obstacles placed before them, developing their personality and honing their talents. For better or worse as the dice roll, the Narrator relates the outcomes of the party’s actions as the group continues through various adventures until a campaign reaches its end.

Agonized

• An agonized creature has disadvantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution ability checks.
• An agonized creature is unable to maintain concentration, and automatically fails ability checks made to do so.
• A creature immune to the rattled condition is immune to the agonized condition.

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Amnesiac

• An amnesiac creature cannot apply their proficiency bonus to any skill or tool checks, or communicate in or understand languages other than its primary language.
• A creature immune to the confused condition is immune to the amnesiac condition.

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Blinded

• A blinded creature can't see and it automatically fails ability checks that require sight.
• Attack rolls against a blinded creature are made with advantage, and the creature's attack rolls are made with disadvantage.

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Bloodied

• A creature is bloodied when reduced to half its hit points or less.

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Charmed

• A charmed creature can't take any hostile action against the charmer.
• Ability checks the charmer makes to socially interact with the charmed creature have advantage.

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Confused

• A confused creature can't take reactions.
• On its turn a confused creature rolls a d8 to determine what it does. 
  • On a 1 to 4, a confused creature does nothing. 
  • On a 5 or 6, a confused creature takes no action or bonus action and uses all its movement to move in a randomly determined direction. 
  • On a 7 or 8, a confused creature makes a melee attack against a randomly determined creature within its reach or does nothing if it can't make such an attack.

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Deafened

• A deafened creature can't hear and automatically fails ability checks that require hearing.

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Doomed

• A doomed creature dies at a time determined by the Narrator, or within 13 (2d12) hours. 
• A doomed creature continues to be doomed even after it dies. Magic equivalent to a 7th-level or higher spell can remove the doomed condition (such as regenerate cast on a living creature, resurrection , true resurrection , or wish ).

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Encumbered

• An encumbered creature's Speed is reduced to 5 ft.

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Enervated

• An enervated creature can’t use psionic powers or features that require psionic points. 
• An enervated creature suffers a –2 penalty on all ability checks, saving throws, and attacks. 

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Enraged

• If an enraged creature can see or hear any enemies within 60 feet, it must move directly towards the closest. If it is in reach of an enemy, it must attack that enemy.
• An enraged creature has disadvantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma checks.
• An enraged creature is unaffected by the frightened condition or the placid condition.
• A creature immune to the charmed condition is immune to the enraged condition.

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Frightened

• A frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while it is able to see the source of its fear.
• A frightened creature can't willingly move closer to the source of its fear.

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Fixated

Bewitching beauty, forbidden knowledge, and artifacts that capture the mind—fixated is a condition where the afflicted are wholly captivated. Fixated is considered a moderate condition for the purposes of calculating a monster’s damage, unless it also limits a target’s actions, in which case it is considered severe.

• A fixated creature has disadvantage on Investigation and Perception checks to perceive or examine creatures or objects other than the source of its fixation.
• A fixated creature must spend 2 feet of movement for every 1 foot of movement away from the source of its fixation
• A creature that is immune to being charmed is also immune to being fixated.

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Grappled

• A grappled creature's Speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from bonuses to movement speeds.
• If the grappler becomes incapacitated the condition ends.
• If an effect removes the grappled creature from the reach of the grappler or grappling effect (such as when a creature is shoved away by the Doubleteam combat maneuver) the condition ends.

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Incapacitated

• An incapacitated creature can’t take actions, bonus actions, or reactions.

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Invisible

• An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid of magic or a special sense (it gains no benefits from this condition against creatures still able to see it).
• An invisible creature is heavily obscured for the purpose of hiding. 
• An invisible creature's location can be detected by noises it makes or tracks it leaves.
• Attack rolls against an invisible creature are made with disadvantage .
• An invisible creature makes attack rolls with advantage .

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Manic

• A manic creature is convulsed with laughter and can only take an action or a move on its turn.
• A creature immune to the charmed condition is immune to the manic condition.

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Paralyzed

• A paralyzed creature is incapacitated and can't move or speak.
• A paralyzed creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws . 
• Attack rolls against a paralyzed creature have advantage .
• Any attack that hits a paralyzed creature is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5 feet.

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Petrified

• A petrified creature (and all of its mundane possessions) is transformed into a solid inanimate substance (usually stone). 
• A petrified creature’s weight is increased by a factor of ten and it ceases aging.
• A petrified creature is incapacitated, can't move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings.
• A petrified creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws .
• A petrified creature has resistance to all damage.
• A petrified creature is immune to poison and disease (time spent petrified does not affect the duration of a poison or disease already in its system).

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Placid

• A placid creature cannot take hostile or aggressive actions.
• A creature immune to the frightened condition is immune to the placid condition.

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Poisoned

• A poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

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Prone

• A prone creature's only movement option is to crawl (every 1 foot of movement while crawling costs 1 extra foot) until it stands up.
• Standing up requires half a creature’s movement.
• A prone creature makes melee attack rolls with disadvantage .
• An attack roll against a prone creature is made with advantage if the attacker is within 5 feet. Otherwise, the attack roll is made with disadvantage .

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Rattled

• A rattled creature cannot benefit from expertise dice .
• A creature that is immune to being stunned is immune to being rattled.
• A rattled creature cannot take reactions.

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Restrained

• A restrained creature's Speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from bonuses to speed.
• Attack rolls against a restrained creature are made with advantage .
• A restrained creature makes attack rolls with disadvantage .
• The restrained creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws .

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Slowed

• A slowed creature's Speed is halved.
• A slowed creature takes a −2 penalty to AC and Dexterity saving throws .
• A slowed creature cannot take reactions.
• On its turn, a slowed creature can take either an action or a bonus action, not both. In addition, it can't make more than one melee or ranged attack during its turn.

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Stunned

• A stunned creature is incapacitated (see the condition), can't move, and can speak only falteringly.
• The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws .
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage .
• A creature that is immune to being stunned is immune to being rattled.

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Unconscious

• An unconscious creature is incapacitated, can't move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings.
• An unconscious creature drops whatever it's holding and falls prone.
• An unconscious creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws .
• Attack rolls against an unconscious creature are made with advantage .
• Any attack that hits an unconscious creature is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5 feet.

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Tracked Conditions

Various challenges, obstacles, and magics can lead to either fatigue or strife. An effect can give a creature one or more levels of fatigue or strife (detailed in the effect's description).

If a creature suffering from fatigue or strife fails to resist another effect that causes a level of the tracked condition, its current level increases by the amount specified in the effect's description.

A creature suffers the effect of its current level in a tracked condition as well as all lower levels. For example, a creature suffering level 3 fatigue has its Speed halved, it cannot Sprint, and it makes Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution checks with disadvantage.

An effect that removes a tracked condition reduces its level as specified in the effect's description, with all tracked condition effects ending when a creature's condition level is reduced below 1.

Finishing a long rest at a safe haven reduces a creature's fatigue and strife levels by 1, provided that the creature has also had Supply to get the most from its rest. A creature does not require a haven to recover from the first level of fatigue or strife, but does still require a long rest. Also, being raised from the dead reduces all of a creature’s tracked conditions by 1.

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Optional Conditions

Corruption

Gate Pass Gazette #20

• A tracked condition with multiple levels, with increasing effects at higher levels, see Corruption .
• At first level, can be cured with a lesser restoration or greater restoration spell.

The Turn-Based Action rules can be used for more than combat and are also ideal for most high-octane situations. There are several alternative scenarios where an additional layer of granularity can provide new challenges and strategies for the participants.

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Suspended Movement

Adventures can take you under the sea, into the sky, or adrift in the Astral Plane. These scenarios aren't anchored to the ground and expand your movement options to a whole new dimension.

Participants in these Turn-Based Action scenarios are able to move in any direction they choose and have their movement suspended vertically from any ground. The conditions of this suspension depend on the environment.

While participants are suspended in a large body of water:

• Bludgeoning and fire damage are halved.
• Ranged weapon attacks beyond the weapon's normal range automatically miss their target.
• Unless the weapon is thrown, attacks made with ranged weapons have disadvantage .
• Dexterity ability checks and melee weapon attacks have disadvantage unless the attacker has a swim speed.

While participants are aloft in the sky:

• When a creature is knocked prone , restrained , or otherwise has no fly speed it automatically begins to fall.
• Willing movement made vertically downward costs half the distance (in feet) that it normally would. A creature that moves 10 feet downward only spends 5 feet of its movement to do so.

While participants are adrift in an intangible, space-like environment such as the Astral Plane:

• Creatures and objects have vulnerability to psychic damage unless they have proficiency in either Wisdom or Intelligence saving throws .
• A creature's Speed is determined by its thoughts. Each creature gains a fly speed equal to 30 feet + (5 feet × its Intelligence modifier).

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Rolling Movement

Races, chases, horseback embraces, action alongside a train car, and falling down the side of a building all come with an assumption that each participant of the Turn-Based Action scenario is moving.

While in a rolling movement scenario:

• The Narrator determines the direction and the base speed of the scene per round, typically either 30 feet or the base Speed of the second slowest active participant.
• The World Actions phase of Turn-Based Action occurs at the start of each participant's turn, affecting only them.
• Participants cannot use their basic movement to move further forward without Dashing or performing an improvised action. They can still move sideways or slow down.
• Participants that become too distant from the action must find a way to return themselves, wait for active participants to move the action back to them, or wait until the end of the scenario.

The Narrator typically controls all characters that aren't the PCs. However, players may command mounts and hirelings, summon familiars, or conjure squads of reinforcements to tip the scales of any Turn-Based Action encounter in their favor.

Any creatures or summons under your control can take their movement at any point on your turn. Identical creatures and summons move as a group provided each is adjacent to one other member.

You can use your bonus action to command a single creature or group of creatures to take their actions. For groups, this means each member performs the same action against the same target or towards the same goal.

For group ability checks:

1. Roll the ability check for one member of the group.
2. For Strength group ability checks, add +1 for every other member of the group. The Narrator should determine how many members of the group can meaningfully contribute to the check.

For group attack rolls:

1. The attack roll becomes a Dexterity saving throw made by the target. If the attack is already based on a saving throw, skip step 2.
2. The DC of the Dexterity saving throw equals 8 + the highest attack bonus among creatures in the group. On a failure the target takes the attack's damage and any additional effects, or half damage and no additional effects on a success.
3. Add +1 to the DC and damage for every other member of the group.

The action hardly happens in a featureless void. Craggy roads, chandeliers of suspect quality, and figures reaching out from the mists for fresh blood can all greatly shape the way you move through the world.

World benefits and world penalties are objects, obstacles, and field conditions in the immediate area. They might provide you with bonuses, or can slow you down and provide another source of danger.

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Difficult Terrain

One of the most common forms of world penalties is difficult terrain. Anything from dense bramble, precarious steps, or tenacious mud can slow you down from your normal movement speed.

Every foot of movement you take within difficult terrain costs 1 extra foot. Multiple hazards that would cause difficult terrain in a space do not stack. However, additional conditions that increase the cost of movement (such as crawling while prone ) stack with difficult terrain.

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Cover

A common world benefit presents cover for participants that stumble on it. Larger obstacles such as trees and stone walls can help to keep creatures out of sight and out of harm's way.

Cover provides you with protection from attacks and effects that originate on the other side of it. There are three degrees of cover: half, three-quarters, and total cover. If you are behind multiple sources of cover, you only gain the benefits from the most protective source of cover.

Half cover is provided by obstacles that block at least half of your body, such as a tree trunk or another creature. Half cover provides you with a +2 bonus to AC, saving throws , and ability checks made to hide.

Three-quarters cover obscures three-quarters of your body, like an arrow slit or a castle wall. It provides you with a +5 bonus to AC, saving throws , and ability checks made to hide.

Total cover keeps you completely concealed from the other side. You cannot be targeted directly by attacks , spells , or ability checks, although spells that target an area of effect and checks to search the area might still reach you.

Those who seek adventure do so knowing that they face the risk of injury and death. A fall onto sharpened stakes of a cunning pit trap, the scimitar swung recklessly by the dastardly pirate, a druid’s summoned lightning striking from a clear sky, or the deadly bite of a giant serpent—all can damage or kill even the mightiest of creatures.

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Hit Points

Hit points represent a creature's stamina, willpower, and the luck needed to survive deadly challenges. Creatures with a lot of hit points are harder to kill, while those with few hit points are more fragile.

A creature’s current hit points can be any number from their hit point maximum down to 0. A creature loses hit points when taking damage, subtracting the damage value from current hit points down to a minimum of 0, and regains hit points when it receives healing, adding hit points, up to its hit point maximum.

When a character loses hit points they aren’t necessarily taking physical harm, rather they are avoiding otherwise fatal blows, and their ability to keep doing so is whittled away as they take further damage and their hit points decrease.

Loss of hit points has no effect on a creature’s capabilities until it drops to 0 hit points. 

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Damage Rolls

Weapons, spells, and monster attacks specify the damage they deal. You roll the damage die or dice, add any modifiers, and apply the damage to your target. Magic, special abilities, and other factors can grant a bonus, or occasionally a penalty, to damage. With a penalty it is possible to deal 0 damage, but never negative damage.

When attacking with a weapon, you add your ability modifier (the same modifier used for the attack roll) to the damage. A spell tells you which dice to roll for damage and whether to add any modifiers.

Any time an effect deals damage to more than one target at the same time, roll the damage once for all targets. For example when a wizard casts fireball, the spell’s damage is rolled once for all creatures caught in its area of effect.

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Critical Hits

When you score a critical hit, you double the attack’s damage against the target (including static modifiers). A critical hit can be turned into a regular hit by sacrificing an equipped shield (see Chapter 4: Equipment) or choosing to suffer fatigue (see Fatigue below).

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Damage Types

Attacks, weapons, harmful spells, and other damaging effects deal different types of damage. Although damage types have no rules of their own, other rules (such as damage resistance) rely on damage types.

The damage types follow, with examples to aid a Narrator assigning a type of damage to a new effect.

• Acid. The caustic spray of a black dragon’s breath and the corrosive touch of an ooze deal acid damage. 
• Bludgeoning. Blunt hits—punches, hammerblows, and being crushed in a giant’s grip—deal bludgeoning damage.
• Cold. The numbing chill from a ray of frost and the frigid blast of a white dragon’s breath deal cold damage.
• Fire. A hot stove, a burning building, a conjured flame, and the inferno of a red dragon’s breath all deal fire damage.
• Force. Pure magical energy focused to strike at the enemy, force damage is supernatural and dealt mostly by spells (including magic missile and spiritual weapon ).
• Lightning. The spark from a faulty gnomish gadget, a bolt of electricity striking from a storm, and a blue dragon’s breath deal lightning damage.
• Necrotic. The touch of a ghost withers flesh and wounds the soul. Necrotic damage is dealt by necromantic magic and the void of undeath.
• Piercing. Attacks that puncture and impale—arrows, daggers, spears, and monstrous bites with sharp teeth—deal piercing damage.
• Poison. Envenomed stings, bites and coated blades, toxic toadstools, and the noxious exhalations of a green dragon deal poison damage.
• Psychic. Monsters with psionic powers and attacks on the mind itself by illusion or enchantment magic deal psychic damage.
• Radiant. An angel’s smiting weapon or a divine guiding bolt deal radiant damage, burning flesh and searing the spirit with raw power.
• Slashing. Cuts and swipes—whether from swords, axes, or monstrous talons—deal slashing damage.
• Thunder. The resonant power of the storm and a concussive burst of sound, such as from the thunderwave spell, each deals thunder damage.

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Ongoing Damage

Some attacks, spells, and effects deal ongoing damage. This hit point loss happens at the end of each of your turns. Unless the effect states a damage type, the hit point loss is unaffected by damage resistance or vulnerability (see below).

Ongoing damage could be caused by burning oil, a psychic echo, corrosive ooze, a bleeding wound, or another pernicious element.

The ongoing damage continues until the duration ends, or a creature uses an action to end the effect, as described by the effect that caused it.

For example, a fire elemental’s touch will cause its target to catch on fire. The burning creature takes 1d10 ongoing fire damage at the end of each of its turns until a creature uses an action to smother the flames.

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Damage Resistance, Vulnerability and Immunity

Some creatures and objects are exceedingly difficult or unusually easy to hurt with certain types of damage.

A creature or an object with resistance to a damage type takes only half the damage whenever it takes damage from that type.

A creature or an object with vulnerability to a damage type takes twice the damage whenever it takes damage from that type.

Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after all other modifiers to damage. For example, an imp is resistant to cold damage and is hit by a powerful ray of frost for 25 cold damage. The imp is also sitting in a magical cage which reduces all damage by 5. The 25 damage is first reduced by 5 and then halved, so the imp takes 10 cold damage.

Multiple instances of resistance or vulnerability affecting the same damage type count as only one instance. For example, if that imp with resistance to cold damage was additionally protected by a magical spell that granted resistance to all damage, the cold damage it takes is still only reduced by half (not reduced by three-quarters).

Some creatures and objects are immune to certain types of damage, or damage inflicted by mundane weapons. Damage immunity does not modify damage dealt; instead the immune creature is unaffected by damage of that type. Furthermore, some creatures are immune to certain conditions.

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Fatigue, Death, and Doom

When you take damage you risk injury, unconsciousness, and death.

Massive Damage and Instant Death

Massive damage can injure or kill you instantly. If you are reduced to 0 hit points after taking an amount of damage equal to or greater than 20 + three times your character level (or Hit Dice for creatures), you make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw . On a failure, you die instantly, while on a successful result you live, but suffer one level of fatigue and one level of strife.

For example, an 3rd-level cleric with 24 hit points is subjected to a black dragon’s acid breath, taking 54 acid damage and being reduced to 0 hit points. Because they took massive damage (29 or more), the cleric must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw to avoid instant death.

If the sorcerer had succeeded on their saving throw against the breath weapon to take half as much damage, or if they had had resistance to acid damage, they would have only taken 27 acid damage, and although still reduced to 0 hit points wouldn’t have taken massive damage (and so isn’t at risk of instant death).

Dropping to 0 Hit Points

If damage reduces you to 0 hit points and fails to kill you, you are unconscious . This unconsciousness ends if you regain any hit points.

Falling unconscious during an encounter is traumatic and inflicts a level of fatigue (see below).

Dying and Death Saving Throws

Whenever you start your turn with 0 hit points and you’re not stable (see below), you are dying and you must make a special saving throw called a death saving throw to determine whether you slip closer to death or cling to life. Unlike other saving throws, a death saving throw isn’t tied to an ability score, but can be affected by spells and features that modify your chances of succeeding on a saving throw.

Roll a d20. If the result is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. However, a single success or failure won’t spare or kill you. On your third success, you become stable. On your third failure, you die. These successes and failures don’t need to be consecutive—keep track of both until you collect three of a kind. The number of both is reset to zero when you regain any hit points or become stable.

Rolling a 1 or 20. When you make a death saving throw and roll a 1 on the d20, you suffer one level of fatigue and one level of strife. If you roll a natural 20, you regain 1 hit point, immediately regain consciousness, and are able to take the rest of your turn.

Being Attacked at 0 Hit Points. If you take damage from an attack while you’re on 0 hit points, the attacker can choose to make you suffer a death saving throw failure, one level of fatigue, or one level of strife. 

Other Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any other damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. At the Narrator's discretion, depending on the nature of the damage, such as blasting steam or errant magic, this may instead inflict a level of fatigue or strife.

When you take massive damage (20 + character level or more damage) while on 0 hit points you risk instant death.

Stabilizing a Creature

Healing a creature on 0 hit points is the best way to save it. Where healing is unavailable, the creature can be stabilized so that it doesn’t die due to failed death saving throws.

As an action, you can administer first aid to an unconscious creature to attempt to stabilize them, with a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

A stable creature doesn’t make death saving throws, even though it has 0 hit points, but it does remain unconscious. The creature stops being stable and must start making death saving throws again if it takes any damage. A stable creature that isn’t healed regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours.

Fatigue

Sometimes during an encounter, a creature will gain an injury representing a serious wound. This is represented by fatigue.

You gain a level of fatigue when:

• Each time you take damage that makes you fall unconscious during an encounter.

• You are hit by a critical hit while at 0 hit points.

• When you take a critical hit, you can use your reaction to block it, turning the critical hit into a regular hit and suffering a level of fatigue (if you have a shield, you can Sacrifice Shield instead). Once you have turned a critical hit into a regular hit in this way, you cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

The effects of fatigue gained during combat are only felt after the encounter in which they were inflicted has ended. During the heat of battle it is easy to fight on without realizing the extent of your injuries.

A creature can survive multiple such injuries and continue adventuring; however injuries are not to be ignored lightly. If you gain 7 levels of fatigue, you are doomed to die (see below), as your combined injuries mean you’re beyond the aid of all but the most powerful healing magics.

A creature can recover from the initial level of fatigue during a long rest anywhere, but recovering from two or more levels of fatigue requires long rests taken at a Haven, reducing its level of fatigue by one each time.

Doomed

A doomed creature has sustained damage to their body, mind, and spirit that puts it beyond the help of normal recovery and lesser magic. While the symptoms of a doomed creature’s injuries might be removed, only powerful spells such as regeneration or resurrection can spare it from death or restore it to life.

Suffering the effects of 7 or more levels of fatigue is one way to become doomed; however at the Narrator's discretion a creature might become doomed for any number of other reasons.

For more details on the doomed condition see Conditions .

Monsters, NPCs, and Death

Rather than falling unconscious, accruing injuries, or making death saving throws, a monster that drops to 0 hit points usually dies immediately.

Essential villains and important nonplayer characters are common exceptions. The Narrator might have any nonplayer character follow the same rules as player characters, or they might become doomed the moment they hit 0 hit points—allowing them a final dramatic action or speech before they succumb and die.

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Knocking a Creature Out

Rather than killing, sometimes an attacker wants to incapacitate their foe, perhaps because they’ve sworn not to kill or simply to interrogate the enemy for information. When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. This choice is made the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious, gains a level of fatigue, and is stable.

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Healing and Recovery

Damage which doesn’t kill you isn't permanent, and even death can be reversed with powerful magic. Rest can restore a creature’s hit points, and magical means such as cure wounds and a potion of healing can remove damage in an instant.

Any time a creature receives healing, hit points regained are added to their current hit points. A creature’s hit points can’t exceed their hit point maximum, so hit points regained in excess of this number have no effect. For example, a cleric casts cure wounds to heal a ranger 6 hit points. If the ranger has 10 current hit points and a maximum of 13 hit points, they regain 3 hit points to their maximum (not 6).

A creature that has died can’t regain hit points until magic such as the revivify spell has restored them to life.

Recovering From Fatigue

Recovering from fatigue is more difficult than restoring hit points.

A creature can recover from the initial level of fatigue during a long rest anywhere, but recovering from two or more levels of fatigue requires long rests taken at a Haven, reducing its level of fatigue by one each time.

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Temporary Hit Points

Some spells and special abilities confer temporary hit points to a creature, a separately tracked buffer against damage.

When you have temporary hit points and take damage, the temporary hit points are lost first, and any leftover damage is then subtracted from your normal hit points. For example, if you have 5 temporary hit points and take 8 damage, you lose the temporary hit points and then take 3 damage.

Healing can’t restore temporary hit points because they are separate from your actual hit points, however they can exceed your hit point maximum. A creature can be at full hit points and receive temporary hit points.

Temporary hit points can’t be added together—if you have temporary hit points and receive more of them, you decide whether to keep the temporary hit points you have or gain the new temporary hit points. For example, if a spell grants you 10 temporary hit points when you already have 5, you can have either 10 or 5 (not 15).

If you have 0 hit points, receiving temporary hit points doesn’t restore you to consciousness or make you stable. They still absorb damage directed at you while you’re in that state, but only true healing can save you.

Unless a feature that grants temporary hit points has a duration, they last until they’re depleted or you finish a long rest .

Attacks all follow a simple structure, whether it is a melee attack with a sword, a ranged attack with a bow, or a spell attack. If it ever needs to be determined whether an action counts as an attack, it is an attack if you are making an attack roll.

1. Select a Target: Choose a target within your attack’s reach or range: a creature, an object, or a location in space. Generally, you must have line of sight and line of effect to attack a target, but that can vary (such as firing an arrow through a glass window, or swinging a sword at where you assume a hidden target is located).
2. Apply Modifiers: The Narrator determines whether the target has cover and if you have advantage or disadvantage on your attack roll. Certain abilities, spells, or effects can apply additional modifiers or expertise dice to your attack roll.
3. Resolve the Attack: You make your attack roll, rolling a d20 and applying your modifier with the bonuses or penalties from above. On a hit, you roll damage and apply any additional effects of the attack.

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Attack Rolls

When you attack a target, the result of your attack roll determines if it hits or misses. An attack roll is a d20 roll plus the appropriate modifiers (usually proficiency bonus and either Strength or Dexterity modifiers). If the total of the roll plus modifiers equals or exceeds the target’s Armor Class (AC), the attack hits. Objects and monsters have their own AC scores, while a character’s AC is determined by their armor, ability scores, features, traits, and magic items.

Critical Hits and Fumbles. A natural 20 on an attack roll is a critical hit and is always successful. On the flip side, rolling a natural 1 on an attack roll is considered a critical fumble and always misses.
 

Modifiers to the Roll

When making an attack roll, a character typically adds an ability modifier and their proficiency bonus to the roll. Monsters and other NPCs use whatever modifier is provided in their statistics (though they typically follow the same formulas).

• Ability Modifier: Melee attacks use the attacker’s Strength or Dexterity modifier depending on the weapon used, while ranged attacks usually use the attacker’s Dexterity modifier unless they are thrown.
• Spell attacks utilize the spellcasting ability of the spellcaster, determined by the class or trait which grants the spell.
• Proficiency Bonus: You add your proficiency bonus when attacking with a weapon you are proficient with, or when you are attacking with a spell.
• Nonproficient attacks do not add your proficiency bonus.
• Miscellaneous Modifiers: Sometimes you will gain other modifiers to your roll. These can come from combat maneuvers, spells, features, traits, or any ability that adds an expertise die. Magical weapons also often grant bonuses to attack rolls.

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Unseen Attackers and Targets

Whether through stealth, environmental effects, or spells like invisibility , attackers and targets often go unseen. When you attack a target that you cannot see, but whose location you know, you have disadvantage on your attack roll. 

Being unseen does not always mean hidden; you may know the location of an invisible target that is not using the Hide action to move quietly. However, if a target is both unseen and undetected, you must guess what square it occupies, and the Narrator will typically say that an attack missed if you guessed wrong so as not to give more information about the target’s location.

Likewise, if your target cannot see you, you have advantage on your attack rolls against it. If you are hidden when you make your attack, you give away your location after making the attack.

In situations where your target is unseen by you and you are unseen by your target (such as if both you and your target are invisible, or if you are fighting in magical darkness), all attack rolls are made at disadvantage .

Some creatures and characters have additional senses, like blindsight, that allow them to sense targets without vision. A creature is only unseen to them if they are unable to perceive it.

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Ranged Attacks

Ranged attacks can be many things, from projectile weapons like bows and crossbows, to thrown weapons like handaxes or javelins, or even the more exotic like ranged spell attacks or monstrous attacks such as acid spit or launched spikes.

Range

Ranged attacks come with a range, and your target must be within that range. If a ranged attack has a single range, you cannot make an attack at a target beyond that range. If a ranged attack has two ranges (a normal range and a long range), attacks made at targets further than the normal range are made at disadvantage , and targets beyond long range cannot be targeted. 

Ranged Attacks in Close Combat

It is difficult to aim a ranged attack when a foe is next to you. When you make a ranged attack while you are within the reach of a hostile creature, you make the attack with disadvantage .

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Melee Attacks

A melee attack is an attack made in hand-to-hand combat. These can be attacks with manufactured weapons, unarmed attacks, or natural weapons like claws, teeth, or horns. Some spells utilize melee attacks as well.

Most creatures have a reach of 5 feet, allowing them to make melee attacks against any creature within 5 feet of them. Larger creatures, or creatures using reach weapons, can have larger reach (noted in their attack entries).

Opportunity Attacks

The melee attack rolls you make are not the only times a character swings their weapon in a round. There are feints, parries, and other movements that are not rolled. As such, if someone drops their guard, they open themselves up to attack. Such an attack is called an opportunity attack.

You can use your reaction to attempt an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach. An opportunity attack is a single melee attack against the provoking creature made immediately before the creature leaves your reach.

The Disengage action can be used to avoid provoking opportunity attacks. Movement through teleportation does not provoke opportunity attacks, and unless noted otherwise neither does forced movement (such as if you are pushed away by a creature or effect, or if you move past a creature while falling).

Two-Weapon Fighting

When you take the Attack action and attack with a weapon that does not have the heavy property that you are wielding in one hand, you can use your bonus action to attack with a different dual-wielding melee weapon that you are holding in your off-hand. You do not add your ability modifier to the damage roll of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative. If a weapon has the thrown property, you can make a ranged weapon attack with it instead.

If you have the Extra Attack feature, you can use your bonus action to make two attacks with the weapon in your off-hand.

Natural Weapons and Unarmed Strikes

All creatures are proficient with their natural weapons and unarmed strikes. Unless otherwise noted, an unarmed strike deals bludgeoning damage equal to 1 + Strength modifier.

Attacks made with natural weapons and unarmed strikes are considered to be melee weapon attacks, and a thrown weapon is considered to be a ranged weapon attack. Creatures have a reach of 5 feet with their melee weapon attacks, though larger creatures may have greater reach.

On your turn, you typically have an action, a bonus action, and your movement. You can use one of the following actions, an action gained from your class, magic item, or trait, or an action that you improvise. Monsters have their own action options in their statistics.

When you want to perform an action not detailed here, the Narrator determines whether the action is possible and what kind of roll you need to make to determine if you succeed or fail.

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Attack

Making an attack can be anything from swinging a sword, firing an arrow, or punching or kicking. Attacks are either melee attacks or ranged attacks. See the Making an Attack  section for the rules that govern attacks. In addition to regular attacks, you may choose to use a special melee attack such as a shove, a disarm, or a grapple. These special melee attacks are described later in this chapter.

Certain class and monster features, like Extra Attack or Multiattack, allow you to make more than one attack with a single action.

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Cast a Spell

Many spells have a casting time of an action. Some, though, use a reaction, bonus action, minutes, or hours to cast. See Chapter 11: Spellcasting for the rules that govern spells.

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Dash

When you take the Dash action, you can use your action to move your speed (in addition to the movement you can make every turn).

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Disengage

When you take the Disengage action, you take a defensive, guarded retreat and your movement does not provoke opportunity attacks during that turn. 

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Dodge

When you take the Dodge action, instead of attacking you focus on avoiding attacks. Until the start of your next turn, attacks against you are made with disadvantage if you can see the attacker, and you make Dexterity saving throws with advantage . You cannot take the Dodge action when your Speed is reduced to 0.

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Fall Back

Whenever a creature takes the Press the Attack action against you, you can use your reaction to yield ground. You move backwards 5 feet, and your attacker does not gain an expertise die against you from using Press the Attack. As part of its action, your attacker can move 5 feet towards you.

Neither you nor the attacker provoke opportunity attacks from this movement.

A creature using the Rage class feature cannot choose to Fall Back.

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Help

When you take the Help action, you aid another creature in completing a task. The creature you aid gains advantage on the next ability check it makes to perform the task you are helping with before the start of your next turn.

You can also help a friendly creature in attacking a creature. You must be able to target the creature with an attack , or otherwise threaten it. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, its next attack roll against the target is made with advantage .

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Hide

When you take the Hide action, you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check opposed by the passive Perception scores of creatures able to observe you. If you succeed, you gain the benefits described in the Unseen Attackers and Targets section later in this chapter.

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Press the Attack

Before you take the Attack action, you can use a bonus action to designate one creature within your reach which is not currently the target of a Press the Attack action. Until the beginning of your next turn, your melee attacks against that creature gain an expertise die , and all attacks against you are made with advantage . You cannot gain expertise dice in this way on attacks made at disadvantage .

When you Press the Attack, your target can use its reaction to Fall Back.

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Ready

When you take the Ready action, you prepare an action to be used when a certain trigger comes to pass. You first choose a perceivable circumstance that will trigger your reaction. Then you choose an action you will take in response to that trigger (such as making an attack, or using Dash to move your speed). When the trigger occurs, you can use your reaction immediately after, or you can decide to ignore the trigger, wasting your readied action.

Only spells with a casting time of 1 action can be readied. When you take the Ready action to cast a spell, you first cast it normally and then concentrate on the spell to be released when the trigger is met.

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Search

When you take the Search action, you focus your attention on finding something. Without using the Search action, your passive Investigation and passive Perception scores determine whether you notice a hidden creature or object. Using the Search action gives you an additional chance. Depending on the nature of your search, the Narrator may call for a Wisdom (Perception) check or an Intelligence (Investigation) check.

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Sprint

When you take the Sprint action, you focus all your effort on moving as fast as possible to the exclusion of everything else. 

• You may not take any other actions, bonus actions, or reactions other than your move Speed for the turn. 
• If you are unencumbered, your Speed is quadrupled for one turn; if you are encumbered or wearing heavy armor, your Speed is tripled for one turn. 
• You must Sprint in a straight line each turn, although you can change direction each time you Sprint. 
• You may Sprint for a number of turns equal to your Constitution modifier. Each turn you Sprint after that, you make a Constitution (Athletics) check (DC 10 + 1 per previous check made in the last minute) or you suffer a level of fatigue from either tiredness or a minor sprain or injury. You recover fatigue suffered from sprinting at a rate of one level per minute. 
• You cannot Sprint if you are suffering from one or more levels of fatigue.
• Attacks against you are made with advantage until the start of your next turn.

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Tumble

You can use an action or bonus action to Tumble through a hostile creature’s space by deftly diving or rolling past. Make a Dexterity saving throw against the target’s combat maneuver DC. On a success, you can move through the hostile creature’s space once this turn. If you have proficiency with Acrobatics, you gain an expertise die on the save (or you gain a 1d6 expertise die if you also have the tumbling specialty.) The creature can choose to just let you pass and no save is required.

If you are smaller than the target, you have advantage . If you are larger than the target, you have disadvantage (though if you are two or more sizes larger than the target, you can move through the hostile creature’s space without making a save). You still provoke opportunity attacks if you move beyond a creature’s reach.

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Use a Basic Maneuver

You can always choose to Disarm, Grapple, Knockdown, Overrun, or Shove as a basic maneuver instead of making an attack. See Chapter 10: Combat Maneuvers for the rules that govern basic maneuvers.

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Use a Combat Maneuver

Many combat maneuvers are used alongside making an attack , but some have their own action costs. See Chapter 10: Combat Maneuvers for the rules that govern combat maneuvers.

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Use an Object

Normally, you use an object while performing another action, such as drawing a sword while running forward. You are also able to interact with one object for free on your turn without spending an action (like opening an unlocked door, undoing a peace bond on a weapon, or tearing down a wanted poster). When an object otherwise requires your action for its use (like administering or drinking a potion), you take the Use an Object action, which can also be useful when you need to interact with more than one object on your turn.