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Returning 35 results for 'been better design could rules'.
Folk Hero
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
Learn More
Backgrounds
Basic Rules (2014)
you.
Suggested Characteristics
A folk hero is one of the common people, for better or for worse. Most folk heroes look on their humble origins as a virtue, not a shortcoming, and their
.
d6
Flaw
1
The tyrant who rules my land will stop at nothing to see me killed.
2
I’m convinced of the significance of my destiny, and blind to my shortcomings and the risk of
Deep Dragon Wyrmling
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
Learn More
Monsters
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
"}
Ideal
1
Understanding. True power comes from the ability to discern other creatures’ motivations better than they can discern yours. (Any)
2
Kindred. All dragons are kin to one
it to the surface world. Lost and confused, the wyrmling has been captured by a group of cruel adventurers.
3
A deep dragon wyrmling whimsically rules over a worshipful group of kobolds, sending
Orcus
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
Learn More
Monsters
Out of the Abyss
chapter 7, "Treasure” of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.Orcus’s Lair
Orcus makes his lair in the fortress city of Naratyr, which is on Thanatos, the layer of the Abyss that he rules
tampering with the dead in my search to better understand death.”
61–80
“I want to achieve the everlasting existence of undeath.”
81–00
“I am awash in
Monsters
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon. (Though the Monster Manual doesn’t explicitly include dragon turtles in the variant rules for making a dragon a spellcaster, you can apply
those rules to these aquatic dragons.)
Dragon Turtle Personality Traits
d8;{"diceNotation":"1d8","rollType":"roll","rollAction":"Trait"}
Trait
1
I speak slowly and deliberately
Backgrounds
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
;
Suggested Characteristics
A folk hero is one of the common people, for better or for worse. Most folk heroes look on their humble origins as a virtue, not a shortcoming, and their home communities
1
The tyrant who rules my land will stop at nothing to see me killed.
2
I’m convinced of the significance of my destiny, and blind to my shortcomings and the risk of failure.
3
Backgrounds
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
with me to pursue my destiny.
d6
Flaw
1
The tyrant who rules my land will stop at nothing to see me killed.
2
I’m convinced of the significance of my destiny, and
city, especially hard drink.
5
Secretly, I believe that things would be better if I were a tyrant lording over the land.
6
I have trouble trusting in my allies.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Unearthed Arcana
Apocalyptic Subclasses August 21, 2025
Get ready for the end of a world with the latest innovations from the D&D Game Design Team! This document presents four new subclasses for the Druid (Circle
of Preservation), Fighter (Gladiator), Sorcerer (Defiled Sorcery), and Warlock (Sorcerer-King Patron). The material uses the rules in the Player's Handbook. Learn more about this playtest directly from the designers in this article!
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Descent into the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
Credits Lead Designer: Justice Ramin Arman
Designer: Dan Dillon
Rules Developer: Ron Lundeen
Art Director: Fury Galluzzi
Lead Editor: Judy Bauer
Editor: Hannah Rose
Graphic Designer
: Bill Benham, Siera Bruggeman, Robert Hawkey
Product Manager: Natalie Egan
D&D Beyond Product Manager: Jeff Turriff
Digital Design Team: Jay Jani, Sean Stoves, Adam Walton
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
as a launchpad tailored for organizations of your design. For example, the guild group patron could represent the Harpers or the Zhentarim of the Forgotten Realms, the Clifftop Adventurers’ Guild in
Eberron, or a homebrew league of caravan guards. Or perhaps a criminal syndicate, military force, or other category of patron better fits the party’s goals. Choose and customize the group patron that works best for your party and the types of adventures you want to explore.
compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
, Erin Roberts, James L. Sutter
Rules Developer: Jeremy Crawford
Editors: Sydney Adams, Judy Bauer, Janica Carter, Laura Hirsbrunner, Adrian Ng, Jason Tondro
Senior Graphic Designer: Trish Yochum
of Studio Operations: Kyle Brink
Game Architects: Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins
Design Manager: Steve Scott
Design Department: Justice Arman, Judy Bauer, Eytan Bernstein, Janica Carter
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Heroes of the Borderlands
, making sure the rules serve the group’s fun. Tutorials in each adventure teach you some of those rules, but you’ll want to reference the D&D Beyond Basic Rules to better understand them. Keep It Secret
explore. Then you use a combination of imagination and the game’s rules to determine the results of the adventurers’ decisions. Adjudicate the Rules. You oversee how the group uses the game’s rules
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Rules House rules include optional rules, such as those presented in chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and rules you create. If you plan to use any house rules, session zero is a good time to
discuss those rules with the players and solicit their input. House rules are best presented as experiments, and time will tell if they’re good for your game. If you introduce a house rule in session
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player’s Handbook
if it’s wielded in a way contrary to its design; if you use a Ranged weapon to make a melee attack or throw a Melee weapon that lacks the Thrown property, the weapon counts as an improvised weapon. An
improvised weapon follows the rules below. Proficiency. Don’t add your Proficiency Bonus to attack rolls with an improvised weapon. Damage. On a hit, the weapon deals 1d4 damage of a type the DM
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->D&D Beyond Basic Rules
if it’s wielded in a way contrary to its design; if you use a Ranged weapon to make a melee attack or throw a Melee weapon that lacks the Thrown property, the weapon counts as an improvised weapon. An
improvised weapon follows the rules below. Proficiency. Don’t add your Proficiency Bonus to attack rolls with an improvised weapon. Damage. On a hit, the weapon deals 1d4 damage of a type the DM
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Sage Advice Compendium
The Role of Rules Why even have a column like Sage Advice when a DM can just make a ruling? Rules are a big part of what makes D&D a game, rather than simply improvised storytelling. The game’s rules
are meant to help organize, and even inspire, the action of a D&D campaign. The rules are a tool, and we want our tools to be as effective as possible. No matter how good those tools might be, they
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
the griffon eggs they’ve found, or an architect to design their castle, they’re better off going to a large city than looking in a village.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Sage Advice & Errata
The Role of Rules Why even have Sage Advice when a DM can just make a ruling? Rules are a big part of what makes D&D a game, rather than simply improvised storytelling. The game’s rules are meant to
help organize, and even inspire, the action of a D&D campaign. The rules are a tool, and we want our tools to be as effective as possible. No matter how good those tools might be, they need a group of
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
increasingly powerful. This approach also allows you to break your design work down into smaller pieces. Create material such as adventures, NPCs, maps, and so on for one tier at a time. You only need to worry
about the details of the next tier as the characters approach it. Even better, as the campaign takes unexpected turns in response to the players’ choices, you don’t have to worry about redoing much work.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Candlekeep Mysteries
then have left little more than a few partially collapsed walls and archways to mark the fallen city aboveground, though its underground ruins are better preserved. If you have not yet staged a follow
inhabitants. Using Machil’s map, the characters can easily find the entrance to the Haven of the Red Quill. At your discretion, there might be other dungeon complexes of your own design hidden amid the
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
adventurers first arrive, but he might show up later (see “Aftermath”). Most creatures are reduced to one-twelfth their normal size as they approach Maddgoth’s castle, enabling them to better fit inside
. Either by design or because of some failing, the shrinking magic doesn’t affect all creatures, as adventurers who explore the castle will discover. THE ORIGINAL MADDGOTH'S CASTLE
Undermountain
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
tell you how to design new class features. The best place to start is by looking at other class features, or at spells, feats, or any other rules for inspiration. You’re almost certainly going to have
modify existing classes to better serve your game’s needs. Changing Proficiencies Changing a class’s proficiencies is a safe and simple way to modify a class to better reflect your world. Swapping
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player’s Handbook
Proficiency Characters and monsters are good at various things. Some are skilled with many weapons, while others can use only a few. Some are better at understanding people’s motives, and others are
better at unlocking the secrets of the multiverse. All creatures have a Proficiency Bonus, which reflects the impact that training has on the creature’s capabilities. A character’s Proficiency Bonus
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Proficiency Characters and monsters are good at various things. Some are skilled with many weapons, while others can use only a few. Some are better at understanding people’s motives, and others are
better at unlocking the secrets of the multiverse. All creatures have a Proficiency Bonus, which reflects the impact that training has on the creature’s capabilities. A character’s Proficiency Bonus
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Quests from the Infinite Staircase
Romeo and Juliet. It was a departure from the more expected adventure design of the time in that violent solutions to problems aren’t an automatic path to victory—inquisitive minds and compassionate
hearts carry the heroes further than strength of arms.
This updated version of the adventure reimagines Caerwyn and Porphura’s—originally Porpherio’s—garden as the Eternal Garden, a domain in the Feywild, and the Green Man as the Gardener, the benevolent archfey who rules it.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Combat Encounters Design your adventure for one of the four tiers, as set forth in chapter 1 of the Player’s Handbook: tier 1 includes levels 1–4, tier 2 is levels 5–10, tier 3 is levels 11–16, and
2, five 13th-level characters for tier 3, and five 18th-level characters for tier 4. Use that assumption when creating combat encounters, whether you use the encounter-building rules in the Dungeon
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tomb of Annihilation
Credits Designers: Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, Steve Winter
Additional Design: Adam Lee
Story Consultants: Pendleton Ward, James Lowder
Story Creators: Christopher Perkins, Adam Lee
, Richard Whitters
Lead Rules Developer: Jeremy Crawford
Managing Editors: Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins
Editors: Michele Carter, Scott Fitzgerald Gray
Editorial Assistance: Matt Sernett
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
Running This Chapter In this chapter, the characters explore the halls of Lavoglia, better known as the Palace of Heart’s Desire. Most likely, they’ve learned of Zybilna’s betrayal at the hands of
’ experience as entertaining as possible: Read the description of Iggwilv’s Cauldron in appendix A. Read this chapter in its entirety, and reacquaint yourself with the “Rules of Conduct” and “Death in
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual
the rules for monster customization and encounter building in the Dungeon Master’s Guide—to build your own adventures. Consult appendix B for monster lists that will help your adventure building. What’s
New in the 2025 Version?
This is the 2025 version of the fifth edition Monster Manual. If you’ve read the 2014 version, much of this book will feel familiar, since the fundamental rules and variety
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Lost Mine of Phandelver
issues as they come up.
When in doubt, make it up! It’s better to keep the game moving than to get bogged down in the rules.
It’s not a competition. The DM isn’t competing against the player
The Dungeon Master The Dungeon Master (DM) has a special role in the Dungeons & Dragons game. The DM is a referee. When it’s not clear what ought to happen next, the DM decides how to apply the rules
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Quests from the Infinite Staircase
Credits Lead Designer: Justice Ramin Arman
Art Director: Emi Tanji
Designers: Dan Dillon, Carl Sibley
Rules Developers: Jeremy Crawford, Makenzie De Armas, Ron Lundeen, Carl Sibley
Lead
Design Department: Justice Ramin Arman, Makenzie De Armas, Amanda Hamon, Ron Lundeen, Ben Petrisor, Patrick Renie, F. Wesley Schneider, Jason Tondro, James Wyatt
Editorial Department: Judy Bauer, Janica
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Flee, Mortals! Rule Primer
).
Behind the Design: Save Ends Effects
Save ends effects are one way of saving space in stat blocks and making them less complex for GMs to run at the table. Much like how stat blocks just reference the
poisoned condition instead of spelling its rules out each time, we didn’t want to fill up the pages by repeating long sentences similar to this one: “A target poisoned in this way can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on themself on a success.”
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
. “The faster I talk, think, and invent, the faster I can improve my designs.” Ideal. “Not only can I make that, I can make it better!” Bond. “Through invention, we make a more interesting world.” Flaw
was the boilerdrak used in Vogler.) The stranger also hired her to design another device, which he was supposed to pick up today. Instead, the goblinoids showed up and demanded she turn over “the
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Noteworthy Features Those familiar with Hazlan know the following facts: The wizard Hazlik rules Hazlan. His apprentices have free rein to exploit the land and its people to further their magical
experiments. Inhabitants claim the eyelike design called the Eye of Hazlik bears Hazlik’s blessing and wards off dangerous magic. Magic is unreliable in Hazlan, resulting in dangerous side effects. The
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
, discuss with your group how much fear ties into the game’s rules. Would you prefer to keep frightful reactions narrative, or would you like to use game rules that present additional challenges and
benefits? Ask your DM about the possibility of using the rules for inspiration to motivate fearful character reactions, as detailed in the “Fear and Stress” section of chapter 4. Using this system, a
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Spelljammer: Adventures in Space->Light of Xaryxis
shall be marooned.
Article 4: No Shipboard Conflicts. All disputes shall be settled on land.
At your discretion, Captain Gargenhale’s code can include additional rules, perhaps of your own design
character who can tolerate undead allies better than he can. When the two parties come to an agreement, Gargenhale bows deeply and invites the characters aboard his ship to celebrate their alliance with a