both before design contacts rules - Search

Changeling

Species Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse

physician. Personas can even be passed down through a family, allowing a younger changeling to take advantage of contacts established by the persona’s previous users. Creating Your Character At 1st

level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race, follow these additional rules during character creation. Ability

Criminal / Spy Legacy

Backgrounds Basic Rules (2014)

You are an experienced criminal with a history of breaking the law. You have spent a lot of time among other criminals and still have contacts within the criminal underworld. You’re far closer

than most people to the world of murder, theft, and violence that pervades the underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society

Ancient Dragon Turtle

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

Criminal - Baldur's Gate

Backgrounds Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus

spent a lot of time among other criminals and still have contacts within the criminal underworld. You’re far closer than most people to the world of murder, theft, and violence that pervades the

underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society. Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth Tool Proficiencies: One

Apocalyptic Subclasses August 21, 2025

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!

Inside the House

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica

Inside the House House Dimir has a clandestine aspect hidden from all but its most important members. The guildmaster, Lazav, and his direct contacts guide and manipulate the covert operations of the

“Spell: Encode Thoughts” later in this section) and telepathic couriers. By design, you don’t have much interaction with other members of your guild. You might never meet your primary guild contact face

Credits

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

Commerce

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)

merchant has far-reaching contacts across the region. Traveling merchants pass on gossip and adventure hooks to the characters as they conduct their business. Since merchants make their living

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.

Morgrave Chartacters

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Forge of the Artificer

, and they gain other benefits from having a group patron. (If you use the group patron rules in Eberron: Rising from the Last War or Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, you can use the benefits listed

here instead of the ones in those books; you can use the information on the University and Academy patrons to flesh out the characters’ contacts, fields of study, and so on.) The Archaeologist background

Improvised Weapons

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

Improvised Weapons

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

The Role of Rules

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

The Boromar Clan

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

associate of the clan, you’ll be expected to respect the hierarchy and follow the rules, and you might be targeted by Daask just as if you were a Boromar yourself. If you have a contact in the Boromar Clan

, you might know someone on the Boromar Contacts table. Boromar Contacts d6 Contact 1 Sundry (gnome) is a fence who runs a pawn shop in the Bazaar of Dura and has ties to many smugglers, sailors

The Role of Rules

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

Character Advancement

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.

Combat Encounters

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

Credits

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

Introduction: How to Use a Monster

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

Credits

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

Save Ends Effects

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.”

Noteworthy Features

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

Prepare to Be Scared

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

Credits

compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

George, Amanda Hamon, Cassandra Khaw, Renee Knipe, Kira Magrann, Molly Ostertag, Ben Petrisor, Jessica Price, Taymoor Rehman, Jessica Ross, John Stavropoulos, Jabari Weathers, James Wyatt Rules

Design: Trystan Falcone, Emi Tanji, Trish Yochum Cover Illustrators: Scott M. Fischer, Anna Podedworna Interior Illustrators: Helder Almeida, Mark Behm, Eric Belisle, Zoltan Boros, Christopher Burdett

Credits

compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Spelljammer: Adventures in Space->Boo’s Astral Menagerie

Credits Project Lead & Writer: Christopher Perkins Art Director: Kate Irwin Rules Developer: Jeremy Crawford Editors: Judy Bauer, Kim Mohan Senior Graphic Designer: Trish Yochum

Irwin, Bob Jordan, Emi Tanji, Trish Yochum Design Manager: Steve Scott Design Department: Sydney Adams, Judy Bauer, Makenzie De Armas, Dan Dillon, Amanda Hamon, Ben Petrisor, Taymoor Rehman, F

Credits

compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Spelljammer: Adventures in Space->Light of Xaryxis

Credits Project Lead: Christopher Perkins Writers: Justice Ramin Arman, Sadie Lowry, Jeffrey Ludwig Art Director: Kate Irwin Adventure Developers: Dan Dillon, Christopher Perkins Rules

Design Manager: Steve Scott Design Department: Sydney Adams, Judy Bauer, Makenzie De Armas, Dan Dillon, Amanda Hamon, Ben Petrisor, Taymoor Rehman, F. Wesley Schneider, James Wyatt Art Department

Credits

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

Credits

compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Spelljammer: Adventures in Space->Astral Adventurer’s Guide

Credits Project Lead: Christopher Perkins Writers: Christopher Perkins, Jeremy Crawford, Ari Levitch Art Directors: Kate Irwin, Richard Whitters Rules Developers: Jeremy Crawford, Dan

Design Manager: Steve Scott Design Department: Sydney Adams, Judy Bauer, Makenzie De Armas, Dan Dillon, Amanda Hamon, Ben Petrisor, Taymoor Rehman, F. Wesley Schneider, James Wyatt Art Department

Shipwright

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Influence 1 Grand Designs. You are working on plans and schematics for a new, very fast ship. You must examine as many different kinds of vessels as possible to help ensure the success of your design. 2

the navy. You easily recognize and determine the quality of such items. 5 Low Places. You have contacts in the smuggling outfits along the coast; you occasionally repair the criminals’ ships in exchange

Chapter 3: Classes

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)

among various deities. While the fighter has contacts in a mercenary company or army, the cleric might know a number of priests, paladins, and devotees who share his faith. Your class gives you a

continuing to advance as a barbarian. Elves are known to combine martial mastery with magical training and advance as fighters and wizards simultaneously. Optional rules for combining classes in this

Guilds and Guild Law

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

in the legal code of Waterdeep, but guilds are mentioned in the oldest surviving legal documents — penned by Ahghairon himself — and the rules of Guild Law are respected by wise city folk. Guilds

Stonecutters, Masons, Potters, and Tile-makers design and craft any decorative elements of wood, stone, or ceramics, and after the Most Careful Order of Skilled Smiths and Metalforgers has manufactured

The Fashion Show

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos

the event. Fashion Show Rumors d6 Rumor 1 Another designer stole the student’s design and is trying to pass it off as their own work! 2 An alumni designer is here to watch and recruit models for

outfit’s value, along with some comparable outfits also being sold at the auction. Buying Fashions. A character can bid on a design being auctioned off, ultimately winning it for the price listed in the

Modifying a Class

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

some missteps, as features that seem good on the surface fall apart in play. That’s all right. Everything you design will need to be playtested. When introducing new class features, be sure the

Arrival at Korth

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fated Flight of the Recluse

human’s dragonmark and garb suggests high ranking in House Cannith. If the check succeeds by 5 or more, the character recognizes the human as Zorlan d’Cannith, the Cannith baron that rules Cannith

d’Cannith’s field of expertise: warforged—specifically undead ones. Through his extensive contacts, he has been arranging for the delivery of dead warforged for years for use in his experimentation

Battle Balloon

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Acquisitions Incorporated

an original design created by the Heuristic Arcane Research and Development department of Acquisitions Incorporated. But the wizards of Halruaa developed similar skyships in ages past, and the Cult of

. The standard design of an Acquisitions Incorporated-grade airship features an enormous balloon covered in a rope net. Trailing lines connect the balloon to the vessel of metal and wood suspended

Ship of the Dead

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

to abide by the following rules: Article 1: Don’t Eat Each Other. No crew member shall partake of another crew member’s flesh or drink their blood. Article 2: No Hymns. Many crew members’ ears are

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