Dungeon Master's Workshop

As the Dungeon Master, you aren’t limited by the rules in the Player’s Handbook, the guidelines in this book, or the selection of monsters in the Monster Manual. You can let your imagination run wild. This chapter contains optional rules that you can use to customize your campaign, as well as guidelines on creating your own material, such as monsters and magic items.

The options in this chapter relate to many different parts of the game. Some of them are variants of rules, and others are entirely new rules. Each option represents a different genre, style of play, or both. Consider trying no more than one or two of the options at a time so that you can clearly assess their effects on your campaign before adding other options.

Before you add a new rule to your campaign, ask yourself two questions:

• Will the rule improve the game?
• Will my players like it?

If you’re confident that the answer to both questions is yes, then you have nothing to lose by giving it a try. Urge your players to provide feedback. If the rule or game element isn’t functioning as intended or isn’t adding much to your game, you can refine it or ditch it. No matter what a rule’s source, a rule serves you, not the other way around.

Beware of adding anything to your game that allows a character to concentrate on more than one effect at a time, use more than one reaction or bonus action per round, or attune to more than three magic items at a time. Rules and game elements that override the rules for concentration, reactions, bonus actions, and magic item attunement can seriously unbalance or overcomplicate your game.

Ability Options

The optional rules in this section pertain to using ability scores.

Proficiency Dice

This optional rule replaces a character’s proficiency bonus with a proficiency die, adding more randomness to the game and making proficiency a less reliable indicator of mastery. Instead of adding a proficiency bonus to an ability check, an attack roll, or saving throw, the character’s player rolls a die. The Proficiency Die table shows which die or dice to roll, as determined by the character’s level.

Whenever a feature, such as the rogue’s Expertise, lets a character double his or her proficiency bonus, the player rolls the character’s proficiency die twice instead of once.

This option is intended for player characters and nonplayer characters who have levels, as opposed to monsters who don’t.

Proficiency Dice

Skill Variants

A skill dictates the circumstances under which a character can add his or her proficiency bonus to an ability check. Skills define those circumstances by referring to different aspects of the six ability scores. For example, Acrobatics and Stealth are two different aspects of Dexterity, and a character can specialize in either or both.

You can dispense with skills and use one of the following variants. Choose whichever one best suits your campaign.

Ability Check Proficiency

With this variant rule, characters don’t have skill proficiencies. Instead, each character has proficiency in two abilities: one tied to the character’s class and one tied to the character’s background. The Ability Proficiencies by Class table suggests a proficiency for each class, and you choose which ability is tied to a given background. Starting at 1st level, a character adds his or her proficiency bonus to any ability check tied to one or the other of these two abilities.

Ability Check Proficiency by Class

The Expertise feature works differently than normal under this rule. At 1st level, instead of choosing two skill proficiencies, a character with the Expertise class feature chooses one of the abilities in which he or she has proficiency. Selecting an ability counts as two of the character’s Expertise choices. If the character would gain an additional skill proficiency, that character instead selects another ability check in which to gain proficiency.

This option removes skills from the game and doesn’t allow for much distinction among characters. For example, a character can’t choose to emphasize persuasion or intimidation; he or she is equally adept at both.

Background Proficiency

With this variant rule, characters don’t have skill or tool proficiencies. Anything that would grant the character a skill or tool proficiency provides no benefit. Instead, a character can add his or her proficiency bonus to any ability check to which the character’s prior training and experience (reflected in the character’s background) reasonably applies. The DM is the ultimate judge of whether the character’s background applies.

For example, the player of a character with the noble background could reasonably argue that the proficiency bonus should apply to a Charisma check the character makes to secure an audience with the king. The player should be encouraged to explain in specific terms how the character’s background applies. Not simply “I’m a noble,” but “I spent three years before starting my adventuring career serving as my family’s ambassador to the court, and this sort of thing is second nature to me now.”

This simple system relies heavily on players developing their characters' histories. Don’t let it result in endless debates about whether a character’s proficiency bonus applies in a given situation. Unless a player’s attempt to explain the relevance of the character’s background makes everyone else at the table roll their eyes at its absurdity, go ahead and reward the player for making the effort.

If a character has the Expertise feature, instead of choosing skills and tools to gain the benefit of that feature, the player defines aspects of his or her background to which the benefit applies. Continuing the noble example, the player might decide to apply Expertise to “situations where courtly manners and etiquette are paramount” and “figuring out the secret plots that court members hatch against one another.”

Personality Trait Proficiency

With this variant rule, characters don’t have skill proficiencies. Instead, a character can add his or her proficiency bonus to any ability check directly related to the character’s positive personality traits. For example, a character with a positive personality trait of “I never have a plan, but I’m great at making things up as I go along” might apply the bonus when engaging in some off-the-cuff deception to get out of a tight spot. A player should come up with at least four positive personality traits when creating a character.

When a character’s negative personality trait directly impacts an ability check, the character has disadvantage on the check. For example, a hermit whose negative trait is “I often get lost in my own thoughts and contemplation, oblivious to my surroundings” might have disadvantage on an ability check made to notice creatures sneaking up.

If a character has the Expertise feature, the player can apply its benefit to personality traits related to ability checks, instead of to skills or tools. If a character would gain a new skill or tool proficiency, the character instead gains a new positive personality trait.

This system relies heavily on players developing their characters' personalities. Make sure that different characters' traits—positive and negative—come into play with about the same frequency. Don’t let a player get away with a positive trait that always seems to apply and a negative trait that never does.

At your discretion, you can also tie a character’s ideals, bonds, and flaws to this system.

Hero Points

Hero points work well in epic fantasy and mythic campaigns in which the characters are meant to be more like superheroes than the average adventurer is.

With this option, a character starts with 5 hero point at 1st level. Each time the character gains a level, he or she loses any unspent hero points and gains a new total equal to 5 + half the character’s level.

A player can spend a hero point whenever he or she makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw The player can spend the hero point after the roll is made but before any of its results are applied. Spending the hero point allows the player to roll a d6 and add it to the d20, possibly turning a failure into a success. A player can spend only 1 hero point per roll.

In addition, whenever a character fails a death saving throw, the player can spend one hero point to turn the failure into a success.

New Ability Scores: Honor and Sanity

If you’re running a campaign shaped by a strict code of honor or the constant risk of insanity, consider adding one or both these new ability scores: Honor and Sanity.

These abilities function like the standard six abilities, with exceptions specified in each ability below.

Here’s how to incorporate these optional abilities at character creation:

• If your players use the standard array of ability scores, add one 11 to the array for each optional ability you add.
• If your players use the optional point-buy system, add 3 points to the number of points for each optional ability you add.
• If your players roll their ability scores, have them roll for the added ability scores.

If you ever need to make a check or saving throw for Honor or Sanity for a monster that lacks the score, you can use Charisma for Honor and Wisdom for Sanity.

Honor Score

If your campaign involves cultures where a rigid code of honor is part of daily life, consider using the Honor score as a means of measuring a character’s devotion to that code. This ability fits well in a setting inspired by Asian cultures, such as Kara-Tur in the Forgotten Realms. The Honor ability is also useful in any campaign that revolves around orders of knights.

Honor measures not only a character’s devotion to a code but also the character’s understanding of it. The Honor score can also reflect how others perceive a character’s honor. A character with a high Honor usually has a reputation that others know about, especially those who have high Honor scores themselves.

Unlike other abilities, Honor can’t be raised with normal ability score increases. Instead, you can award increases to Honor—or impose reductions—based on a character’s actions. At the end of an adventure, if you think a character ’s actions in the adventure reflected well or poorly on his or her understanding of the code, you can increase or decrease the character’s Honor by 1. As with other ability scores, a character’s Honor can’t exceed 20 or fall below 1.

Honor Checks

Honor checks can be used in social situations, much as Charisma would, when a character’s understanding of a code of conduct is the most defining factor in the way a social interaction will play out. You might also call for an Honor check when a character is in one of the following situations:

• Being unsure how to act with honor
• Surrendering while trying to save face
• Trying to determine another character’s Honor score
• Trying to use the proper etiquette in a delicate social situation
• Using his or her honorable or dishonorable reputation to influence someone else

Honor Saving Throws

An Honor saving throw comes into play when you want to determine whether a character might inadvertently do something dishonorable. You might call for an Honor saving throw in the following situations:

• Avoiding an accidental breach of honor or etiquette
• Resisting the urge to respond to goading or insults from an enemy
• Recognizing when an enemy attempts to trick a character into a breach of honor

Sanity Score

Consider using the Sanity score if your campaign revolves around entities of an utterly alien and unspeakable nature, such as Great Cthulhu, whose powers and minions can shatter a character’s mind.

A character with a high Sanity is level-headed even in the face of insane circumstances, while a character with low Sanity is unsteady, breaking easily when confronted by eldritch horrors that are beyond normal reason.

Sanity Checks

You might ask characters to make a Sanity check in place of an Intelligence check to recall lore about the alien creatures of madness featured in your campaign, to decipher the writings of raving lunatics, or to learn spells from tomes of forbidden lore. You might also call for a Sanity check when a character tries one of the following activities:

• Deciphering a piece of text written in a language so alien that it threatens to break a character’s mind
• Overcoming the lingering effects of madness
• Comprehending a piece of alien magic foreign to all normal understanding of magic

Sanity Saving Throws

You might call for a Sanity saving throw when a character runs the risk of succumbing to madness, such as in the following situations:

• Seeing a creature from the Far Realm or other alien realms for the first time
• Making direct contact with the mind of an alien creature
• Being subjected to spells that affect mental stability, such as the insanity option of the symbol spell
• Passing through a demiplane built on alien physics
• Resisting an effect conferred by an attack or spell that deals psychic damage

A failed Sanity save might result in short-term, long-term, or indefinite madness, as described in chapter 8, “Running the Game.” Any time a character suffers from long-term or indefinite madness, the character’s Sanity is reduced by 1. A greater restoration spell can restore Sanity lost in this way, and a character can increase his or her Sanity through level advancement.

Adventuring Options

This section provides options for changing how rests work, as well as for adding unusual things to your campaign, such as modern weapons.

Fear and Horror

The rules for fear and horror can help you sustain an atmosphere of dread in a dark fantasy campaign.

Fear

When adventurers confront threats they have no hope of overcoming, you can call for them to make a Wisdom saving throw. Set the DC according to the circumstances. A character who fails the save becomes frightened for 1 minute. The character can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of his or her turns, ending the effect on the character on a successful save.

Horror

Horror involves more than simple fright. It entails revulsion and anguish. Often it arises when adventurer see something completely contrary to the common understanding of what can and should occur in the world, or upon the realization of a dreadful truth.

In such a situation, you can call on characters to make a Charisma saving throw to resist the horror. Set the DC based on the magnitude of the horrific circumstances. On a failed save, a character gains a short-term or long-term form of madness that you choose or determine randomly, as detailed in chapter 8, “Running the Game.”

Healing

These optional rules make it easier or harder for adventurers to recover from injury, either increasing or reducing the amount of time your players can spend adventuring before rest is required.

Healer’s Kit Dependency

A character can’t spend any Hit Dice after finishing a short rest until someone expends one use of a healer’s kit to bandage and treat the character’s wounds.

Healing Surges

This optional rule allows characters to heal up in the thick of combat and works well for parties that feature few or no characters with healing magic, or for campaigns in which magical healing is rare.

As an action, a character can use a healing surge and spend up to half his or her Hit Dice. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll.

A character who uses a healing surge can’t do so again until he or she finishes a short or long rest. Under this optional rule, a character regains all spent Hit Dice at the end of a long rest. With a short rest, a character regains Hit Dice equal to his or her level divided by four (minimum of one dice).

For a more superheroic feel, you can let a character use a healing surge as a bonus action, rather than as an action.

Slow Natural Healing

Characters don’t regain hit points at the end of a long rest. Instead, a character can spend Hit Dice to heal at the end of a long rest, just as with a short rest.

This optional rule prolongs the amount of time that characters need to recover from their wounds without the benefits of magical healing and works well for grittier, more realistic campaigns.

Rest Variants

The rules for short and long rests presented in chapter 8 of the Player’s Handbook work well for a heroic-style campaign. Characters can go toe-to-toe with deadly foes, take damage to within an inch of their lives, yet still be ready to fight again the next day. If this approach doesn’t fit your campaign, consider the following variants.

Epic Heroism

This variant uses a short rest of 5 minutes and a long rest of 1 hour. This change makes combat more routine, since characters can easily recover from every battle. You might want to make combat encounters more difficult to compensate.

Spellcasters using this system can afford to burn through spell slots quickly, especially at higher levels. Consider allowing spellcasters to restore expended spell slots equal to only half their maximum spell slots (rounded down) at the end of a long rest, and to limit spell slots restored to 5th level or lower. Only a full 8-hour rest will allow a spellcaster to restore all spell slots and to regain spell slots of 6th level or higher.

Gritty Realism

This variant uses a short rest of 8 hours and a long rest of 7 days. This puts the brakes on the campaign, requiring the players to carefully judge the benefits and drawbacks of combat. Characters can’t afford to engage in too many battles in a row, and all adventuring requires careful planning.

This approach encourages the characters to spend time out of the dungeon. It’s a good option for campaigns that emphasize intrigue, politics, and interactions among other PCs, and in which combat is rare or something to be avoided rather than rushed into.

Firearms

If you want to model the swashbuckling style of The Three Musketeers and similar tales, you can introduce gunpowder weapon to your campaign that are associated with the Renaissance. Similarly, in a campaign where a spaceship has crashed or elements of modern-day Earth are present, futuristic or modern firearms might appear. The Firearms table provides examples of firearms from all three of those periods. The modern and futuristic items are priceless.

Proficiency

It’s up to you to decide whether a character has proficiency with a firearm. Characters in most D&D worlds wouldn’t have such proficiency. During their downtime, characters can use the training rules in the Player’s Handbook to acquire proficiency, assuming that they have enough ammunition to keep the weapons working while mastering their use.

Properties

Firearms use special ammunition, and some of them have the burst fire or reload property.

Ammunition

The ammunition of a firearm is destroyed upon use. Renaissance and modern firearms use bullets. Futuristic firearms are powered by a special type of ammunition called energy cells. An energy cell contains enough power for all the shots its firearm can make.

Burst Fire

A weapon that has the burst fire property can make a normal single-target attack, or it can spray a 10-foot-cube area within normal range with shots. Each creature in the area must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take the weapon’s normal damage. This action uses ten pieces of ammunition.

Reload

A limited number of shots can be made with a weapon that has the reload property. A character must then reload it using an action or a bonus action (the character’s choice).

Explosives

A campaign might include explosives from the Renaissance or the modern world (the latter are priceless), as presented in the Explosives table.

Bomb

As an action, a character can light this bomb and throw it at a point up to 60 feet away. Each creature within 5 feet of that point must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or take 3d6 fire damage.

Gunpowder

Gunpowder is chiefly used to propel a bullet out of the barrel of a pistol or rifle, or it is formed into a bomb. Gunpowder is sold in small wooden kegs and in water-resistant powder horns.

Setting fire to a container full of gunpowder can cause it to explode, dealing fire damage to creatures within 10 feet of it (3d6 for a powder horn, 7d6 for a keg). A successful DC 12 Dexterity saving throw halves the damage. Setting fire to an ounce of gunpowder causes it to flare for 1 round, shedding bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet.

Dynamite

As an action, a creature can light a stick of dynamite and throw it at a point up to 60 feet away. Each creature within 5 feet of that point must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

A character can bind sticks of dynamite together so they explode at the same time. Each additional stick increases the damage by 1d6 (to a maximum of 10d6) and the burst radius by 5 feet (to a maximum of 20 feet).

Dynamite can be rigged with a longer fuse to explode after a set amount of time, usually 1 to 6 rounds. Roll initiative for the dynamite. After the set number of rounds goes by, the dynamite explodes on that initiative.

Grenades

As an action, a character can throw a grenade at a point up to 60 feet away. With a grenade launcher, the character can propel the grenade up to 120 feet away.

Each creature within 20 feet of an exploding fragmentation grenade must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5d6 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

One round after a smoke grenade lands, it emits a cloud of smoke that creates a heavily obscured area in a 20-foot radius. A moderate wind (at least 10 miles per hour) disperses the smoke in 4 rounds; a strong wind (20 or more miles per hour) disperses it in 1 round.

Alien Technology

When adventurers find a piece of technology that isn’t from their world or time period, the players might understand what the object is, but the characters rarely will. To simulate a character’s ignorance about the technology, have the character make a series of Intelligence checks to figure it out.

To determine how the technology works, a character must succeed on a number of Intelligence checks based on the complexity of the item: two successes for a simple item (such as a cigarette lighter, calculator, or revolver) and four successes for a complex item (such as a computer, chainsaw, or hovercraft). Then consult the Figuring Out Alien Technology table. Consider making the item break if a character fails four or more times before taking a long rest.

A character who has seen an item used or has operated a similar item has advantage on Intelligence checks made to figure out its use.

Figuring Out Alien Technology

Firearms

Firearms

Plot Points

Plot points allow players to change the course of the campaign, introduce plot complications, alter the world, and even assume the role of the DM. If your first reaction to reading this optional rule is to worry that your players might abuse it, it’s probably not for you.

Using Plot Points

Each player starts with 1 plot point. During a session, a player can spend that point for one effect. The effect depends on your group’s approach to this optional rule. Three options are presented below.

A player can spend no more than 1 plot point per session. You can increase this limit if you like, especially if you want the players to drive more of the story. Once every player at the table has spent a plot point, they each gain 1 plot point.

Option 1: What a Twist!

A player who spends a plot point gets to add some element to the setting or situation that the group (including you) must accept as true. For example, a player can spend a plot point and state that his or her character has found a secret door, an NPC appears, or a monster turns out to be a long-lost ally polymorphed into a horrid beast.

A player who wants to spend a plot point in this way should take a minute to discuss his or her idea with everyone else at the table and get feedback before settling on a plot development.

Option 2: The Plot Thickens

Whenever a player spends a plot point, the player to his or her right must add a complication to the scene. For example, if the player who spends the plot point decides that her character has found a secret door, the player to the right might state that opening the door triggers a magical trap that teleports the party to another part of the dungeon.

Option 3: The Gods Must Be Crazy

With this approach, there is no permanent DM. Everyone makes a character, and one person starts as the DM and runs the game as normal. That person’s character becomes an NPC who can tag along with the group or remain on the sidelines, as the group wishes.

At any time, a player can spend a plot point to become the DM. That player’s character becomes an NPC, and play continues. It’s probably not a good idea to swap roles in the middle of combat, but it can happen if your group allows time for the new DM to settle into his or her role and pick up where the previous DM left off.

Using plot points in this way can make for an exciting campaign as each new DM steers the game in unexpected directions. This approach is also a great way for would-be DMs to try running a game in small, controlled doses.

In a campaign that uses plot points this way, everyone should come to the table with a bit of material prepared or specific encounters in mind. A player who isn’t prepared or who doesn’t feel like DMing can choose to not spend a plot point that session.

For this approach to work, it’s a good idea to establish some shared assumptions about the campaign so that DMs aren’t duplicating efforts or trampling on each other’s plans.

Combat Options

The options in this section provide alternative ways to handle combat. The main risk of adding some of these rules is slowing down play.

Initiative Variants

This section offers different ways to handle initiative.

Initiative Score

With this optional rule, creatures don’t roll initiative at the start of combat. Instead, each creature has an initiative score, which is a passive Dexterity check: 10 + Dexterity modifier.

By cutting down on die rolls, math done on the fly, and the process of asking for and recording totals, you can speed your game up considerably—at the cost of an initiative order that is often predictable.

Side Initiative

Recording initiative for each PC and monster, arranging everyone in the correct order, and remembering where you are in the list can bog the game down. If you want quicker combats, at the risk of those combats becoming unbalanced, try using the side initiative rule.

Under this variant, the players roll a d20 for their initiative as a group, or side. You also roll a d20. Neither roll receives any modifiers. Whoever rolls highest wins initiative. In case of a tie, keep rerolling until the tie is broken.

When it’s a side’s turn, the members of that side can act in any order they choose. Once everyone on the side has taken a turn, the other side goes. A round ends when both sides have completed their turns.

If more than two sides take part in a battle, each side rolls for initiative. Sides act from the highest roll to lowest. Combat continues in the initiative order until the battle is complete.

This variant encourages teamwork and makes your life as a DM easier, since you can more easily coordinate monsters. On the downside, the side that wins initiative can gang up on enemies and take them out before they have a chance to act.

Speed Factor

Some DMs find the regular progression of initiative too predictable and prone to abuse. Players can use their knowledge of the initiative order to influence their decisions. For example, a badly wounded fighter might charge a troll because he knows that the cleric goes before the monster and can heal him.

Speed factor is an option for initiative that introduces more uncertainty into combat, at the cost of speed of play. Under this variant, the participants in a battle roll initiative each round. Before rolling, each character or monster must choose an action.

Initiative Modifiers

Modifiers might apply to a creature’s initiative depending on its size and the action it takes. For example, a creature that fights with a light weapon or casts a simple spell is more likely to act before a creature armed with a heavy or slow weapon. See the Speed Factor Initiative Modifiers table for details. If an action has no modifier listed, the action has no effect on initiative. If more than one modifier applies such as wielding a two-handed, heavy melee weapon, apply them all to the initiative roll.

Speed Factor Initiative Modifiers

Speed Factor Initiative Modifiers

Don’t apply the same modifier more than once on a creature’s turn. For example, a rogue fighting with two daggers gains the +2 bonus for using a light or finesse weapon only once. In the case of spellcasting, apply only the modifier from the highest-level spell.

Apply any modifiers for bonus actions to that creature’s turn, remembering never to apply the same modifier twice. For instance, a paladin casts a 2nd-level spell as a bonus action and then attacks with a shortsword. The paladin takes a -2 penalty for the spell and gains a +2 bonus for using a light weapon, for a total modifier of +0.

The table is only a starting point. You can refer to it when adjudicating any actions a character takes that you think should be faster or slower. Quick, easy actions should grant a bonus, while slow, difficult ones should incur a penalty. As a rule of thumb, apply a bonus or penalty of 2 or 5 for an action.

For example, a fighter wants to turn a winch to raise a portcullis. This is a complex, difficult action. You could rule that it incurs a -5 initiative penalty.

Rolling Initiative

After deciding on an action, everyone rolls initiative and applies modifiers, keeping the result secret. You then announce an initiative number, starting with 30 and working down (it helps to call out ranges of numbers at the start). Break any ties by having the combatant with the highest Dexterity act first. Otherwise, roll to determine who goes first.

Turns

On its turn, a creature moves as normal but must take the action it selected or take no action at all.

Once everyone has acted, the process repeats. Everyone in the battle selects an action, rolls initiative, and takes turns in order.

Action Options

This section provides new action options for combat. They can be added as a group or individually to your game.

• Climb onto a Bigger Creature
• Disarm
• Mark
• Overrun
• Shove Aside
• Tumble

Hitting Cover

When a ranged attack misses a target that has cover, you can use this optional rule to determine whether the cover was struck by the attack.

First, determine whether the attack roll would have hit the protected target without the cover. If the attack roll falls within a range low enough to miss the target but high enough to strike the target if there had been no cover, the object used for cover is struck. If a creature is providing cover for the missed creature and the attack roll exceeds the AC of the covering creature, the covering creature is hit.

Cleaving Through Creatures

If your player characters regularly fight hordes of lower-level monsters, consider using this optional rule to help speed up such fights.

When a melee attack reduces an undamaged creature to 0 hit points, any excess damage from that attack might carry over to another creature nearby. The attacker targets another creature within reach and, if the original attack roll can hit it, applies any remaining damage to it. If that creature was undamaged and is likewise reduced to 0 hit points, repeat this process, carrying over the remaining damage until there are no valid targets, or until the damage carried over fails to reduce an undamaged creature to 0 hit points.

Injuries

Damage normally leaves no lingering effects. This option introduces the potential for long-term injuries.

It’s up to you to decide when to check for a lingering injury. A creature might sustain a lingering injury under the following circumstances:

• When it takes a critical hit
• When it drops to 0 hit points but isn’t killed outright
• When it fails a death saving throw by 5 or more

To determine the nature of the injury, roll on the Lingering Injuries table. This table assumes a typical humanoid physiology, but you can adapt the results for creatures with different body types.

Lingering Injuries

Instead of using the effect described in the table, you can put the responsibility of representing a character’s lingering injury in the hands of the player. Roll on the Lingering Injuries table as usual, but instead of suffering the effect described for that result, that character gains a new flaw with the same name. It’s up to the player to express the lingering injury during play, just like any other flaw, with the potential to gain inspiration when the injury affects the character in a meaningful way.

Massive Damage

This optional rule makes it easier for a creature to be felled by massive damage.

When a creature takes damage from a single source equal to or greater than half its hit point maximum, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer a random effect determined by a roll on the System Shock table. For example, a creature that has a hit point maximum of 30 must make that Constitution save if it takes 15 damage or more from a single source.

System Shock

Morale

Some combatants might run away when a fight turns against them. You can use this optional rule to help determine when monsters and NPCs flee.

A creature might flee under any of the following circumstances:

• The creature is surprised.
• The creature is reduced to half its hit points or fewer for the first time in the battle.
• The creature has no way to harm the opposing side on its turn.

A group of creatures might flee under any of the following circumstances:

• All the creatures in the group are surprised.
• The group’s leader is reduced to 0 hit points, incapacitated, taken prisoner, or removed from battle.
• The group is reduced to half its original size with no losses on the opposing side.

To determine whether a creature or group of creatures flees, make a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw for the creature or the group’s leader. If the opposition is overwhelming, the saving throw is made with disadvantage, or you can decide that the save fails automatically. If a group’s leader can’t make the saving throw for whatever reason, have the creature in the group with the next highest Charisma score make the saving throw instead.

On a failed save, the affected creature or group flees by the most expeditious route. If escape is impossible, the creature or group surrenders. If a creature or group that surrenders is attacked by its conquerors, the battle might resume, and it’s unlikely that further attempts to flee or surrender will be made.

A failed saving throw isn’t always to the adventurers' benefit. For example, an ogre that flees from combat might put the rest of the dungeon on alert or run off with treasure that the characters had hoped to plunder.

Creating a Monster

The Monster Manual contains hundreds of ready-to-play monsters, but it doesn’t include every monster that you can imagine. Part of the D&D experience is the simple joy of creating new monsters and customizing existing ones, if for no other reason than to surprise and delight your players with something they’ve never faced before.

The first step in the process is coming up with the concept for your monster. What makes it unique? Where does it live? What role do you want it to serve in your adventure, your campaign, or your world? What does it look like? Does it have any weird abilities? Once you have the answers to these questions, you can start figuring out how to represent your monster in the game.

Modifying a Monster

Once you have an idea for a monster, you’ll need statistics to represent it. The first question you should ask yourself is: Can I use statistics that already exist?

A stat block in the Monster Manual might make a good starting point for your monster. Imagine, for example, that you want to create an intelligent arboreal predator that hunts elves. There is no such monster in the Monster Manual, but the quaggoth is a savage humanoid predator with a climbing speed. You could borrow the quaggoth stat block for your new monster, changing nothing but the creature’s name. You can also make minor tweaks, such as replacing the quaggoth’s language, Undercommon, with one that’s more appropriate, such as Elvish or Sylvan.

Need a fiery phoenix? Take the giant eagle or roc, give it immunity to fire, and allow it to deal fire damage with its attacks. Need a flying monkey? Consider a baboon with wings and a flying speed. Almost any monster you can imagine can be built using one that already exists.

Adapting a stat block is far less time-consuming than creating one from scratch, and there are changes you can make to an existing monster that have no effect on its challenge rating, such as swapping languages, changing its alignment, or adding special senses. However, once you change the creature’s offensive or defensive ability, such as its hit points or damage, its challenge rating might need to change, as shown later.

Switching Weapons

If a monster wields a manufactured weapon, you can replace that weapon with a different one. For example, you could replace a hobgoblin’s longsword with a halberd. Don’t forget to change the damage and the attack’s reach where appropriate. Also be aware of the consequences of switching from a one-handed weapon to a two-handed weapon, or vice versa. For example, a hobgoblin wielding a halberd (a two-handed weapon) loses the benefit of its shield, so its AC decreases by 2.

Adding a Special Trait

Another simple way to customize a monster is to add a special trait. You can add a special trait of your own devising or pick up a special trait from one of the many creatures in the Monster Manual. For example, you can create a goblin-spider hybrid by giving the normal goblin the Spider Climb special trait, turn an ordinary troll into a two-headed troll by giving it the Two Heads special trait, or turn an owlbear into a flying owlbear by giving it wings and a giant owl’s flying speed.

Creating Quick Monster Stats

If all you need are simple stats for a monster of a particular challenge rating, follow the steps here. If you want to create something more akin to the monster stat blocks in the Monster Manual, skip ahead to the “Creating a Monster Stat Block” section.

Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating

Step 1. Expected Challenge Rating

Pick the expected challenge rating (CR) for your monster. Knowing the monster’s expected challenge rating will help you figure out the monster’s proficiency bonus and other important combat statistics. Don’t worry about getting the challenge rating exactly right; you can make adjustments in later steps.

A single monster with a challenge rating equal to the adventurers' level is, by itself, a fair challenge for a group of four characters. If the monster is meant to be fought in pairs or groups, its expected challenge rating should be lower than the party’s level.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your monster must have a challenge rating equal to the level of the characters to be a worthy challenge. Keep in mind that monsters with a lower challenge rating can be a threat to higher-level characters when encountered in groups.

Step 2. Basic Statistics

Use the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table to determine the monster’s Armor Class, hit points, attack bonus, and damage output per round based on the challenge rating you chose in step 1.

Step 3. Adjust Statistics

Raise or lower the monster’s Armor Class, hit points, attack bonus, damage output per round, and save DC as you see fit, based on whatever concept you have in mind for the monster. For example, if you need a well-armored monster, increase its Armor Class.

Once you’ve made the desired adjustments, record the monster’s statistics. If there are any other statistics you think the monster needs (such as ability scores), follow the appropriate steps under “Creating a Monster Stat Block.”

Step 4. Final Challenge Rating

Calculate the monster’s final challenge rating, accounting for the adjustments you made in step 3.

Defensive Challenge Rating

Read down the Hit Points column of the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table until you find your monster’s hit points. Then look across and note the challenge rating suggested for a monster with those hit points.

Now look at the Armor Class suggested for a monster of that challenge rating. If your monster’s AC is at least two points higher or lower than that number, adjust the challenge rating suggested by its hit points up or down by 1 for every 2 points of difference.

Offensive Challenge Rating

Read down the Damage/Round column of the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table until you find your monster’s damage output per round. Then look across and note the challenge rating suggested for a monster that deals that much damage.

Now look at the attack bonus suggested for a monster of that challenge rating. If your monster’s attack bonus is at least two points higher or lower than that number, adjust the challenge rating suggested by its damage output up or down by 1 for every 2 points of difference.

If the monster relies more on effects with saving throws than on attacks, use the monster’s save DC instead of its attack bonus.

If your monster uses different attack bonuses or save DCs, use the ones that will come up the most often.

Average Challenge Rating

The monster’s final challenge rating is the average of its defensive and offensive challenge ratings. Round the average up or down to the nearest challenge rating to determine your monster’s final challenge rating. For example, if the creature’s defensive challenge rating is 2 and its offensive rating is 3, its final rating is 3.

With the final challenge rating, you can determine the monster’s proficiency bonus using the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table. Use the Experience Points by Challenge Rating table to determine how much XP the monster is worth. A monster of challenge rating 0 is worth 0 XP if it poses no threat. Otherwise, it is worth 10 XP.

Creating a monster isn’t just a number-crunching exercise. The guidelines in this chapter can help you create monsters, but the only way to know whether a monster is fun is to playtest it. After seeing your monster in action, you might want to adjust the challenge rating up or down based on your experiences.

Experience Points by Challenge Rating

Creating a Monster Stat Block

If you want a full monster stat block, use the following method to create your new monster.

The introduction to the Monster Manual explains all the components of a monster’s stat block. Familiarize yourself with that material before you begin. In the course of creating your monster, if you find yourself unable to make a decision, let the examples in the Monster Manual guide you.

Once you have a monster concept in mind, follow the steps below.

Step 1. Name

A monster’s name should be given as much consideration as any other aspect of the monster, if not more.

Your monster might be based on a real-world creature or a monster from myth, in which case its name might be obvious. If you need to invent a name, keep in mind that the best names either reflect the monster’s appearance or nature (such as the mimic and the owlbear) or have a nice ring to them (such as the chuul and the thri-kreen).

Step 2. Size

Make your monster whatever size you want: Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, or Gargantuan.

A monster’s size determines which die is used to calculate its hit points in step 8. Size also determines how much space the monster occupies, as discussed in the Player’s Handbook.

Step 3. Type

A monster’s type provides insight into its origins and nature. The Monster Manual describes each monster type. Choose the type that best fits your concept for the monster.

Step 4. Alignment

If your monster has no concept of morals, it is unaligned. Otherwise, it has an alignment appropriate to its nature and moral outlook, as discussed in the Player’s Handbook.

Step 5. Ability Scores and Modifiers

Monsters, like player characters, have the six ability scores. A monster can’t have a score lower than 1 or higher than 30 in any ability.

A monster’s score in any ability determines its ability modifier, as shown in the Ability Scores and Modifiers table in the Player’s Handbook.

If you can’t decide what a monster’s ability scores should be, look for comparable monsters in the Monster Manual and mimic their ability scores. For example, if your monster is roughly as smart as a human commoner, give it an Intelligence of 10 (+0 modifier). If it’s as strong as an ogre, give it a Strength of 19 (+4 modifier).

Step 6. Expected Challenge Rating

Choose a challenge rating for your monster. See step 1 under “Creating Quick Monster Stats” for more information. You will use the proficiency bonus in later steps, so jot it down now or remember it.

Step 7. Armor Class

A monster’s Armor Class has a direct bearing on its challenge rating, and vice versa. You can determine your monster’s Armor Class in one of two ways.

Use the Table

You can choose an appropriate AC based on the monster’s expected challenge rating, as shown in the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table. The table provides the baseline AC for a monster of a specific challenge rating. Feel free to adjust the AC as you see fit. For example, the baseline AC for a challenge rating 1 monster is 13, but if your monster is well armored, raise its AC accordingly. Don’t worry if the monster’s AC isn’t matching up with the expected challenge rating for the monster. Other factors can affect a monster’s challenge rating, as shown in later steps.

Determine an Appropriate AC

Alternatively, you can determine an appropriate AC based on the type of armor the monster wears, its natural armor, or some other Armor Class booster (such as the mage armor spell). Again, don’t worry if the monster’s AC isn’t matching up with the expected challenge rating for the monster.

If your monster wears manufactured armor, its Armor Class is based on the type of armor worn (see the Player’s Handbook for armor types). If the monster carries a shield, apply the shield bonus to its AC as normal.

A monster that doesn’t wear armor might have natural armor, in which case it has an AC equal to 10 + its Dexterity modifier + its natural armor bonus. A monster with a thick hide generally has a natural armor bonus of +1 to +3. The bonus can be higher if the creature is exceptionally well armored. A gorgon, for example, is covered in steely plates and has a natural armor bonus of +9.

Step 8. Hit Points

A monster’s hit points have a direct bearing on its challenge rating, and vice versa. You can determine your monster’s hit points in one of two ways.

Use the Table

You can start with the monster’s expected challenge rating and use the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table to determine an appropriate number of hit points. The table presents a range of hit points for each challenge rating.

Assign Hit Dice

Alternatively, you can assign a number of Hit Dice to a monster, then calculate its average hit points. Don’t worry if the hit points aren’t matching up with the expected challenge rating for the monster. Other factors can affect a monster’s challenge rating, as shown in later steps, and you can always adjust a monster’s Hit Dice and hit points later on.

A monster can have as many Hit Dice as you want, but the size of the die used to calculate its hit points depends on the monster’s size, as shown in the Hit Dice by Size table. For example, a Medium monster uses d8s for hit points, so a Medium monster with 5 Hit Dice and a Constitution of 13 (+1 modifier) has 5d8 + 5 hit points.

A monster typically has average hit points based on its Hit Dice. For example, a creature with 5d8 + 5 hit points has an average of 27 hit points (5 × 4.5 + 5).

Hit Dice by Size

Step 9. Damage Vulnerabilities, Resistances, and Immunities

Decide whether your monster has vulnerability, resistance, or immunity to one or more types of damage (see the Player’s Handbook for descriptions of the various damage types). Assign a vulnerability, resistance, or immunity to a monster only when it’s intuitive. For example, it makes sense for a monster made of molten lava to have immunity to fire damage.

Giving a monster resistances and immunities to three or more damage types (especially bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage) is like giving it extra hit points. However, adventurers have more resources at higher levels to counteract such defenses, making resistances and immunities less relevant at higher levels.

Effective Hit Points

If a monster has resistance or immunity to several damage types especially bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons and not all the characters in the party possess the means to counteract that resistance or immunity, you need to take these defenses into account when comparing your monster’s hit points to its expected challenge rating. Using the Effective Hit Points Based on Resistances and Immunities table, apply the appropriate multiplier to the monster’s hit points to determine its effective hit points for the purpose of gauging its final challenge rating. (The monster’s actual hit points shouldn’t change.)

For example, a monster with an expected challenge rating of 6, 150 hit points, and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons effectively has 225 hit points (using the 1.5 multiplier for resistances) for the purpose of gauging its final challenge rating.

Monsters don’t normally have vulnerability to more than one or two types of damage. Vulnerabilities don’t significantly affect a monster’s challenge rating, unless a monster has vulnerabilities to multiple damage types that are prevalent, especially bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing. For such a strange monster, reduce its effective hit points by half. Or even better, eliminate the vulnerabilities and give the brittle monster fewer hit points.

Effective Hit Points Based on Resistances and Immunities

Step 10. Attack Bonuses

A monster’s attack bonuses have a direct bearing on its challenge rating, and vice versa. You can determine a monster’s attack bonuses in one of two ways.

Use the Table

You can start with the monster’s expected challenge rating and use the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table to determine an appropriate attack bonus for all the monster’s attacks, regardless of its ability scores.

The table provides the baseline attack bonus for each challenge rating. Feel free to adjust the attack bonus as you see fit to match whatever concept you have in mind. For example, the baseline attack bonus for a challenge rating 1 monster is +3, but if your monster needs more accuracy, raise its bonus accordingly. Don’t worry if the monster’s attack bonus isn’t matching up with the expected challenge rating for the monster. Other factors can affect a monster’s challenge rating, as shown in later steps.

Calculate Attack Bonuses

Alternatively, you can calculate a monster’s attack bonuses the same way players calculate the attack bonuses of a character.

When a monster has an action that requires an attack roll, its attack bonus is equal to its proficiency bonus + its Strength or Dexterity modifier. A monster usually applies its Strength modifier to melee attacks and its Dexterity modifier to ranged attacks, although smaller monsters sometimes use Dexterity for both.

Again, don’t worry if the attack bonuses aren’t matching up with the expected challenge rating for the monster. You can always adjust a monster’s attack bonuses later.

Step 11. Damage

A monster’s damage output the amount of damage it deals every round has a direct bearing on its challenge rating, and vice versa. You can determine a monster’s damage output in one of two ways.

Use the Table

You can start with the monster’s expected challenge rating and use the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table to determine how much damage the monster should deal every round. The table presents a range at each challenge rating. It doesn’t matter how this damage is apportioned or distributed; for example, a monster might deal the damage every round with a single attack, or the damage could be split among multiple attacks against one or more foes.

Choose the type of damage based on how you imagine the damage being delivered. For example, if the monster is attacking with razor-sharp claws, the damage it deals is probably slashing damage. If its claws are poisonous, some portion of the damage might be poison damage instead of slashing damage.

If you want the damage output to vary slightly from round to round, you can translate the damage range into a single die expression (for a monster with one attack) or multiple die expressions (for a monster with multiple attacks). For example, a challenge rating 2 monster deals 15-20 damage per round. If you imagine the creature having a Strength of 18 (+4 modifier), you could give it one melee attack that deals 3d8 + 4 (average 17.5) damage, split the damage output into two separate attacks that deal 1d10 + 4 (average 9) damage each, or use any other combination where the average damage output falls within the desired range.

Base the Damage on the Weapon

Alternatively, you can use a die expression to represent the damage that a monster deals with each of its attacks based on whatever weapon it is using.

Don’t worry if the damage output isn’t matching up with the expected challenge rating for the monster. Other factors can affect a monster’s challenge rating, as will be discussed in later steps, and you can always adjust a monster’s damage output later on.

Some monsters use natural weapons, such as claws or tail spikes. Others wield manufactured weapons.

If a monster has natural weapons, you decide how much damage it deals with those attacks, as well as the type of damage. See the Monster Manual for examples.

If a monster wields a manufactured weapon, it deals damage appropriate to the weapon. For example, a greataxe in the hands of a Medium monster deals 1d12 slashing damage plus the monster’s Strength modifier, as is normal for that weapon.

Big monsters typically wield oversized weapons that deal extra dice of damage on a hit. Double the weapon dice if the creature is Large, triple the weapon dice if it’s Huge, and quadruple the weapon dice if it’s Gargantuan. For example, a Huge giant wielding an appropriately sized greataxe deals 3d12 slashing damage (plus its Strength bonus), instead of the normal 1d12.

A creature has disadvantage on attack rolls with a weapon that is sized for a larger attacker. You can rule that a weapon sized for an attacker two or more sizes larger is too big for the creature to use at all.

Overall Damage Output

To determine a monster’s overall damage output, take the average damage it deals with each of its attacks in a round and add them together. If a monster has different attack options, use the monster’s most effective attacks to determine its damage output. For example, a fire giant can make two greatsword attacks or one rock attack in a round. The greatsword attacks deal more damage, so that attack routine determines the fire giant’s damage output.

If a monster’s damage output varies from round to round, calculate its damage output each round for the first three rounds of combat, and take the average. For example, a young white dragon has a multiattack routine (one bite attack and two claw attacks) that deals an average of 37 damage each round, as well as a breath weapon that deals 45 damage, or 90 if it hits two targets (and it probably will). In the first three rounds of combat, the dragon will probably get to use its breath weapon once and its multiattack routine twice, so its average damage output for the first three rounds would be (90 + 37 + 37) ÷ 3, or 54 damage (rounded down).

When calculating a monster’s damage output, also account for special off-turn damage-dealing features, such as auras, reactions, legendary actions, or lair actions. For example, a balor’s Fire Aura deals 10 fire damage to any creature that hits the balor with a melee attack. The aura also deals 10 fire damage to all creatures within 5 feet of the balor at the start of each of the balor’s turns. If you assume that one character in the party is within 5 feet of the balor at all times, hitting it with a melee weapon every round, then the balor’s damage output per round increases by 20.

Attack Riders

Many monsters have attacks that do more than deal damage. Some effects that can be added to an attack to give it a flavorful twist include:

• Adding damage of a different type to the attack

• Having the monster grapple the target on a hit

• Allowing the monster to knock the target prone on a hit

• Imposing a condition on the target if the attack hits and the target fails a saving throw

Step 12. Save DCs

A monster might have an attack or some other trait that requires a target to make a saving throw. The save DCs to resist such effects have a direct bearing on the monster’s challenge rating, and vice versa. You can determine save DCs in one of two ways.

Use the Table

You can start with the monster’s expected challenge rating and use the Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating table to determine an appropriate save DC for any effect that requires a target to make a saving throw.

Calculate the DCs

Alternatively, you can calculate a monster’s save DCs as follows: 8 + the monster’s proficiency bonus + the monster’s relevant ability modifier. You choose the ability that best applies.

For example, if the effect is a poison, the relevant ability is probably the monster’s Constitution. If the effect is similar to that of a spell, the relevant ability might be the monster’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.

Don’t worry if the save DCs aren’t matching up with the expected challenge rating for the monster. Other factors can affect a monster’s challenge rating, as shown in later steps, and you can always adjust the save DCs later on.

Step 13. Special Traits, Actions, and Reactions

Some special traits (such as Magic Resistance), special actions (such as Superior Invisibility), and special reactions (such as Parry) can improve a monster’s combat effectiveness and potentially increase its challenge rating.

The Monster Features table lists various features that you can plunder from the Monster Manual. The table notes which features increase a monster’s effective Armor Class, hit points, attack bonus, or damage output for the purpose of determining its challenge rating. (The features don’t actually change the monster’s statistics.) Features that have no effect on a monster’s challenge rating are noted with a dash (—).

When assigning special traits, actions, or reactions to a monster, keep in mind that not all monsters need them. The more you add, the more complex (and harder to run) the monster becomes.

Innate Spellcasting and Spellcasting

The impact that the Innate Spellcasting and Spellcasting special traits have on a monster’s challenge rating depends on the spells that the monster can cast. Spells that deal more damage than the monster’s normal attack routine and spells that increase the monster’s AC or hit points need to be accounted for when determining the monster’s final challenge rating. See the “Special Traits” section in the introduction of the Monster Manual for more information on these two special traits.

Step 14. Speed

Every monster has a walking speed. (Immobile monsters have a walking speed of 0 feet.) In addition to its walking speed, a monster might have one or more other speeds, including a burrowing, climbing, flying, or swimming speed.

Flying Monster

Increase the monster’s effective Armor Class by 2 (not its actual AC) if it can fly and deal damage at range and if its expected challenge rating is 10 or lower (higher-level characters have a greater ability to deal with flying creatures).

Step 15. Saving Throw Bonuses

If you want a monster to be unusually resistant to certain kinds of effects, you can give it a bonus to saving throws tied to a particular ability.

A saving throw bonus is best used to counteract a low ability score. For example, an undead monster with a low Wisdom score might need a Wisdom saving throw bonus to account for the fact that it’s more difficult to charm, frighten, or turn than its Wisdom would indicate.

A saving throw bonus is equal to the monster’s proficiency bonus + the monster’s relevant ability modifier.

A monster with three or more saving throw bonuses has a significant defensive advantage, so its effective AC (not its actual AC) should be raised when determining its challenge rating. If it has three or four bonuses, increase its effective AC by 2. If it has five or more bonuses, increase its effective AC by 4.

Step 16. Final Challenge Rating

At this point, you have all the statistical information you need to calculate the monster’s final challenge rating. This step is identical to step 4 under “Creating Quick Monster Stats.” Calculate the monster’s defensive challenge rating and its offensive challenge rating, then take the average to get its final challenge rating.

Step 17. Skill Bonuses

If you want a monster to be proficient in a skill, you can give it a bonus equal to its proficiency bonus on ability checks related to that skill. For example, a monster with sharp senses might have a bonus on Wisdom (Perception) checks, while a duplicitous monster might have a bonus on Charisma (Deception) checks.

You can double the proficiency bonus to account for heightened mastery. For example, a doppelganger is so good at deceiving others that its bonus on Charisma (Deception) checks is equal to double its proficiency bonus + its Charisma modifier.

Skill bonuses have no bearing on a monster’s challenge rating.

Step 18. Condition Immunities

A monster can be immune to one or more debilitating conditions, and these immunities have no bearing on its challenge rating. For descriptions of the various conditions, see appendix A of the Player’s Handbook.

As with damage immunities, condition immunities should be intuitive and logical. For example, it makes sense that a stone golem can’t be poisoned, since it’s a construct without a nervous system or internal organs.

Step 19. Senses

A monster might have one or more of the following special senses, which are described in the Monster Manual: blindsight, darkvision, tremorsense, and truesight. Whether the monster has special senses or not has no bearing on its challenge rating.

Passive Perception Score

All monsters have a passive Wisdom (Perception) score, which is most often used to determine whether a monster detects approaching or hidden enemies. A monster’s passive Wisdom (Perception) score is 10 + its Wisdom modifier. If the monster has proficiency in the Perception skill, its score is 10 + its Wisdom (Perception) bonus.

Step 20. Languages

Whether a monster can speak a language has no bearing on its challenge rating.

A monster can master as many spoken languages as you want, although few monsters know more than one or two, and many monsters (beasts in particular) have no spoken language whatsoever. A monster that lacks the ability to speak might still understand a language.

Telepathy

Whether or not a monster has telepathy has no bearing on its challenge rating. For more information on telepathy, see the Monster Manual.

Monster Features

NPC Stat Blocks

Appendix B of the Monster Manual contains stat blocks for common NPC archetypes such as bandits and guards, as well as tips for customizing them. Those tips include adding racial traits from the Player’s Handbook, equipping NPCs with magic items, and swapping armor, weapons, and spells.

If you want to take an NPC stat block and adapt it for a specific monster race, apply the ability modifiers and add the features listed in the NPC Features table. If the NPC’s AC, hit points, attack bonus, or damage changes, recalculate its challenge rating.

Creating NPCs from Scratch

If you need completely new statistics for an NPC, you have two options:

• You can create an NPC stat block (similar to the ones in the Monster Manual) as you would a monster stat block, as discussed in the previous section.
• You can build the NPC as you would a player character, as discussed in the Player’s Handbook.

If you decide to build an NPC the same way you build a player character, you can skip choosing a background and instead pick two skill proficiencies for the NPC.

The NPC Features table summarizes the ability modifiers and features of various nonhuman races, as well as various creatures from the Monster Manual with a challenge rating lower than 1. Apply these modifiers and add these features to the NPC’s stat block, then determine the NPC’s challenge rating just as you would for a monster. Features that can affect a monster’s challenge rating are listed in the Monster Features table. The NPC’s proficiency bonus is determined by its level, just like a character, rather than by its challenge rating.

If the monster you want to use isn’t listed on the table, use the process described below under “Monsters with Classes.”

NPC Features

Monsters with Classes

You can use the rules in chapter 3 of the Player’s Handbook to give class levels to a monster. For example, you can turn an ordinary werewolf into a werewolf with four levels of the barbarian class (such a monster would be expressed as “Werewolf, 4th-level barbarian”).

Start with the monster’s stat block. The monster gains all the class features for every class level you add, with the following exceptions:

• The monster doesn’t gain the starting equipment of the added class.
• For each class level you add, the monster gains one Hit Die of its normal type (based on its size), ignoring the class’s Hit Die progression.
• The monster’s proficiency bonus is based on its challenge rating, not its class levels.

Once you finish adding class levels to a monster, feel free to tweak its ability scores as you see fit (for example, raising the monster’s Intelligence score so that the monster is a more effective wizard), and make whatever other adjustments are needed. You’ll need to recalculate its challenge rating as though you had designed the monster from scratch.

Depending on the monster and the number of class levels you add to it, its challenge rating might change very little or increase dramatically. For example, a werewolf that gains four barbarian levels is a much greater threat than it was before. In contrast, the hit points, spells, and other class features that an ancient red dragon gains from five levels of wizard don’t increase its challenge rating.

Creating a Spell

When creating a new spell, use existing spells as guidelines. Here are some things to consider:

• If a spell is so good that a caster would want to use it all the time, it might be too powerful for its level.
• A long duration or large area can make up for a lesser effect, depending on the spell.
• Avoid spells that have very limited use, such as one that works only against good dragons. Though such a spell could exist in the world, few characters will bother to learn or prepare it unless they know in advance that doing so will be worthwhile.
• Make sure the spell fits with the identity of the class. Wizards and sorcerers don’t typically have access to healing spells, for example, and adding a healing spell to the wizard class list would step on the cleric’s turf.

Spell Damage

For any spell that deals damage, use the Spell Damage table to determine approximately how much damage is appropriate given the spell’s level. The table assumes the spell deals half damage on a successful saving throw or a missed attack. If your spell doesn’t deal damage on a successful save, you can increase the damage by 25 percent.

You can use different damage dice than the ones in the table, provided that the average result is about the same. Doing so can add a little variety to the spell. For example, you could change a cantrip’s damage from 1d10 (average 5.5) to 2d4 (average 5), reducing the maximum damage and making an average result more likely.

Spell Damage

Healing Spells

You can also use the Spell Damage table to determine how many hit points a healing spell restores. A cantrip shouldn’t offer healing.

Creating a Magic Item

Creating a Magic Item

The magic items in chapter 7, “Treasure,” are but a few of the magic treasures that characters can discover during their adventures. If your players are seasoned veterans and you want to surprise them, you can either modify an existing item or come up with something new.

Modifying an Item

The easiest way to invent a new item is to tweak an existing one. If a paladin uses a flail as her main weapon, you could change a holy avenger so that it’s a flail instead of a sword. You can turn a ring of the ram into a wand, or a cloak of protection into a circlet of protection, all without altering the item’s properties.

Other substitutions are equally easy. An item that deals damage of one type can easily deal damage of another type. A flame tongue sword could deal lightning damage instead of fire, for example. One capability can replace another, so a potion of climbing can easily become a potion of stealth.

You can also modify an item by fusing it with properties from another item. For example, you could combine the effects of a helm of comprehending languages with those of a helm of telepathy into a single helmet. This makes the item more powerful (and probably increases its rarity), but it won’t break your game.

Finally, remember the tools that are provided for modifying items in chapter 7, “Treasure.” Giving an item an interesting minor property, a quirk, or sentience can alter its flavor significantly.

Creating a New Item

If modifying an item doesn’t quite do the trick, you can create one from scratch. A magic item should either let a character do something he or she couldn’t do before, or improve the character’s ability to do something he or she can do already. For example, the ring of jumping lets its wearer jump greater distances, thus augmenting what a character can already do. A ring of the ram, however, gives a character the ability to deal force damage.

The simpler your approach, the easier it is for a character to use the item in play. Giving the item charges is fine, especially if it has several different abilities, but simply deciding that an item is always active or can be used a fixed number of times per day is easier to manage.

Power Level

If you make an item that lets a character kill whatever he or she hits with it, that item will likely unbalance your game. On the other hand, an item whose benefit rarely comes into play isn’t much of a reward and probably not worth doling out as one.

Use the Magic Item Power by Rarity table as a guide to help you determine how powerful an item should be, based on its rarity.

Magic Item Power by Rarity

Maximum Spell Level

This column of the table indicates the highest-level spell effect the item should confer, in the form of a once-per-day or similarly limited property. For example, a common item might confer the benefit of a 1st-level spell once per day (or just once, if it’s consumable). A rare, very rare, or legendary item might allow its possessor to cast a lower-level spell more frequently.

Maximum Bonus

If an item delivers a static bonus to AC, attack rolls, saving throws, or ability checks, this column suggests an appropriate bonus based on the item’s rarity.

Attunement

Decide whether the item requires a character to be attuned to it to use its properties. Use these rules of thumb to help you decide:

• If having all the characters in a party pass an item around to gain its lasting benefits would be disruptive, the item should require attunement.
• If the item grants a bonus that other items also grant, it’s a good idea to require attunement so that characters don’t try to collect too many of those items.

Creating New Character Options

If the options for player characters in the Player’s Handbook don’t meet all the needs of your campaign, consult the following sections for advice on creating new race, class, and background options.

Creating a Race or Subrace

This section teaches you how to modify existing races, as well as create new ones. The most important step in customizing or designing races for your campaign is to start with the story behind the race or subrace you wish to create. Having a firm idea of a race’s story in your campaign will help you make decisions during the creation process. Ask yourself several questions:

• Why does my campaign need the race to be playable?
• What does the race look like?
• How would I describe the race’s culture?
• Where do the members of this race live?
• Are there interesting conflicts built into the race’s history and culture that make the race compelling from a storytelling standpoint?
• What is the race’s relationship to the other playable races?
• What classes and backgrounds are well suited to members of the race?
• What are the race’s signature traits?
• In the case of a new subrace, what sets it apart from the other subraces of the parent race?

Compare the race you have in mind with the other race options available to players, to make sure that the new race doesn’t pale in comparison to the existing options (which would result in the race being unpopular) or completely overshadow them (so that players don’t feel as if the other options are inferior).

When the time comes to design the game elements of the race, such as its traits, take a look at the game’s existing races and let them inspire you.

Cosmetic Alterations

A simple way to modify an existing race is to change its appearance. Changes to a race’s appearance need not affect its game elements. For example, you could transform halflings into anthropomorphic mice without changing their racial traits at all.

Cultural Alterations

In your world, elves might be desert nomads instead of forest dwellers, halflings might live in cloud cities, and dwarves might be sailors instead of miners. When you change the culture of a race, you can also make minor alterations to the race’s proficiencies and traits to reflect that culture.

For example, imagine that the dwarves of your world are seafarers and inventors of gunpowder. You could add the pistol and musket to the list of weapons that dwarves are proficient with, and give them proficiency with waterborne vehicles instead of artisan’s tools. These two small changes tell a different story than the default assumptions about dwarves in the Player’s Handbook, without changing the power level of the race.

Creating a New Subrace

Creating a new subrace is more involved than making some minor tweaks to existing racial features, but it does have the advantage of increasing the diversity of options for a particular race, rather than replacing some options with other ones.

The following example walks through the creation of an elf subrace: the eladrin. This subrace has history in the D&D multiverse, so you already have some stories to draw on when building its traits.

Example Subrace: Eladrin

Creatures of magic with strong ties to nature, eladrin live in the twilight realm of the Feywild. Their cities sometimes cross over to the Material Plane, appearing briefly in mountain valleys or deep forest glades before fading back into the Feywild.

The elf subraces in the Player’s Handbook include an ability score increase, a weapon training feature, and two or three additional traits. Given the story of the eladrin and their magical nature, an increase to an eladrin character’s Intelligence is appropriate. There’s no need to alter the basic weapon training shared by high elves and wood elves.

An ability that sets the eladrin apart from other elves is their ability to step through the boundary between the planes, disappearing for a moment before reappearing somewhere else. In the game, this is reflected in a limited use of the misty step spell. Since misty step is a 2nd-level spell, this ability is potent enough that the subrace doesn’t need additional traits. This leaves us with the following Elf (Eladrin).

Creating a New Race

When creating a race from scratch, begin with the story and proceed from there. Compare your creation to the other races of your world, and borrow freely from the traits of other races. As an example, consider the aasimar, a race similar to the tiefling but with a celestial heritage.

Example Race: Aasimar

Whereas tieflings have fiendish blood in their veins, aasimar are the descendants of celestial beings. These folk generally appear as glorious humans with lustrous hair, flawless skin, and piercing eyes. Aasimar often attempt to pass as humans in order to right wrongs and defend goodness on the Material Plane without drawing undue attention to their celestial heritage. They strive to fit into society, although they usually rise to the top, becoming revered leaders and honorable heroes.

You might decide to use the aasimar as a counterpoint to the tiefling race. The two races could even be at odds, reflecting some greater conflict between the forces of good and evil in your campaign.

Here are our basic goals for the aasimar:

• Aasimar should make effective clerics and paladins.
• Aasimar should be to celestials and humans what tieflings are to fiends and humans.

Given that aasimar and tieflings are like two sides of the same coin, the tiefling makes a good starting point for coming up with the new race’s traits. Since we want aasimar to be effective paladins and clerics, it makes sense to improve their Wisdom and Charisma instead of Intelligence and Charisma.

Like tieflings, aasimar have darkvision. Instead of resistance to fire damage, we give them resistance to radiant damage to reflect their celestial nature. However, radiant damage isn’t as common as fire damage, so we give them resistance to necrotic damage as well, making them good at facing undead.

The tiefling’s Infernal Legacy trait is a good model for a similar trait to reflect a magical, celestial heritage, replacing the tiefling’s spells with spells of similar levels that more closely match the aasimar’s celestial ancestry. However, the aasimar’s expanded resistance might require limiting this trait to basic utility spells.

Filling in the remaining details, we end up with the following Aasimar.

Modifying a Class

The classes in the Player’s Handbook capture a wide range of character archetypes, but your campaign world might have need of something more. The following section discusses ways to 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 out one skill or tool proficiency for another doesn’t make a character any stronger or weaker, but doing so can change the flavor of a class in subtle ways.

For example, a prominent guild of rogues in your world might worship a patron deity, performing secret missions in that deity’s name. To reflect this cultural detail, you could add Religion to the list of skills that a rogue character can choose as a proficiency. You could even mandate that skill as one of the choices for rogues who belong to this guild.

You can also change armor and weapon proficiencies to reflect certain aspects of your world. For example, you could decide that the clerics of a particular deity belong to an order that forbids the accumulation of material goods, other than magic items useful for their divine mission. Such clerics carry a staff, but they are forbidden from wearing armor or using weapons other than that staff. To reflect this, you could remove the armor and weapon proficiencies for clerics of this faith, making them proficient with the quarterstaff and nothing else. You could give them a benefit to make up for the loss of proficiencies something like the monk’s Unarmored Defense class feature, but presented as a divine blessing.

Changing Spell Lists

Modifying a class’s spell list usually has little effect on a character’s power but can change the flavor of a class significantly. In your world, paladins might not swear their oaths to ideals, but instead swear fealty to powerful sorcerers. To capture this story concept, you could build a new paladin spell list with spells meant to protect their masters, drawn from the sorcerer or wizard lists. Suddenly, the paladin feels like a different class.

Be cautious when changing the warlock spell list. Since warlocks regain their spell slots after a short rest, they have the potential to use certain spells more times in a day than other classes do.

Restricting Class Access

Without changing the way a class functions, you can root it more firmly in the world by associating the class with a particular race or culture.

For example, you might decide that bards, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards represent the magical traditions of four different races or cultures. The bardic colleges might be closed to everyone except elves, dragonborn might be the only creatures capable of becoming sorcerers, and all warlocks in your world might be human. You could break that down still further: bards of the College of Lore could be high elves, and bards of the College of War could be wood elves. Gnomes discovered the school of illusion, so all wizards who specialize in that school are gnomes. Different human cultures produce warlocks with different pacts, and so on. Similarly, different cleric domains might reflect entirely separate religions associated with different races or cultures.

You decide how flexible you want to be in allowing a player character to break these restrictions. Can a half-elf live among the elves and study their bardic traditions? Can a dwarf stumble into a warlock pact despite having no connection to a culture that normally produces warlocks? As always, it’s better to say yes and use the player’s desire as an opportunity to develop the character’s story and that of your world, rather than shutting down possibilities.

Substituting Class Features

If one or more features of a given class don’t exactly fit the theme or tone of your campaign, you can pull them out of the class and replace them with new ones. In doing so, you should strive to make sure that the new options are just as appealing as the ones you are removing, and that the substitute class features contribute to the class’s effectiveness at social interaction, exploration, or combat just as well as those being replaced.

Ultimately, a class exists to help a player express a particular character concept, and any class feature you replace is also removing an aspect of that character. Substituting a class feature should be done only to fit a specific need for your campaign, or to appeal to a player trying to create a specific kind of character (perhaps one modeled after a character from a novel, TV series, comic book, or movie).

The first step is to figure out what class feature or group of class features you’re going to replace. Then you need to evaluate what each feature provides to the class, so that the features you are adding don’t make the class over- or underpowered. Ask yourself the following questions about a feature you’re replacing:

• What impact does replacing the feature have on exploration, social interaction, or combat?
• Does replacing the feature affect how long the party can continue adventuring in a day?
• Does the feature consume resources provided elsewhere in the class?
• Does the feature work all the time, or is it regained after a short rest, a long rest, or some other length of time?

Armed with answers to these questions, you can start designing new features that replace the ones you are removing. It’s fine if the new class features drift closer to exploration, social interaction, or combat than the ones you are replacing, but be wary of going too far. For example, if you replace an exploration-focused feature with something purely combat focused, you’ve just made that class more powerful in combat, and it could overshadow the other classes in a way that you didn’t intend.

There’s no formula that can 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 players using them are comfortable with the fact that you might need to go back and make some changes after seeing them in play.

Creating New Class Options

Each class has at least one major choice point. Clerics choose a divine domain, fighters choose a martial archetype, wizards choose an arcane tradition, and so forth. Creating a new option doesn’t require you to remove anything from the class, but any new option you add should be compared to existing options to make sure it’s no more or less powerful, yet remains distinctive in flavor. Like anything in class design, be prepared to playtest your ideas and make changes if things aren’t playing out the way you want them to.

Once you have the concept for the class option in mind, it’s time to design the specifics. If you’re not sure where to begin, look at the existing options and see what class features they provide. It’s perfectly acceptable for two class options to have similar features, and it’s also fine to look at other classes for examples of mechanics you can draw on for inspiration. As you design each class feature, ask the following questions:

• How does the class feature reinforce the story or theme of the class option?
• Is there an existing feature that can be used as a model?
• How does the new class feature compare to other features of the same level?

Variant: Spell Points

One way to modify how a class feels is to change how it uses its spells. With this variant system, a character who has the Spellcasting feature uses spell points instead spell slots to fuel spells. Spell points give a caster more flexibility, at the cost of greater complexity.

In this variant, each spell has a point cost based on its level. The Spell Point Cost table summarizes the cost in spell points of slots from 1st to 9th level. Cantrips don’t require slots and therefore don’t require spell points.

Instead of gaining a number of spell slots to cast your spells from the Spellcasting feature, you gain a pool of spell points instead. You expend a number of spell points to create a spell slot of a given level, and then use that slot to cast a spell. You can’t reduce your spell points total to less than 0, and you regain all spent spell points when you finish a long rest.

Spells of 6th level and higher are particularly taxing to cast. You can use spell points to create one slot of each level of 6th or higher. You can’t create another slot of the same level until you finish a long rest.

The number of spell points you have to spend is based on your level as a spellcaster, as shown in the Spell Points by Level table. Your level also determines the maximum-level spell slot you can create. Even though you might have enough points to create a slot above this maximum, you can’t do so.

The Spell Points by Level table applies to bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard. For a paladin or ranger, halve the character’s level in that class and then consult the table. For a fighter or rogue, divide the character’s level in that class by three.

This system can be applied to monsters that cast spells using spell slots, but it isn’t recommended that you do so. Tracking spell point expenditures for a monster can be a hassle.

Spell Point Cost

Spell Points by Level

Creating a Background

A well-crafted background can help a player create a character that feels like an exciting addition to your campaign. It helps define the character’s place in the world, rather than what a character is in terms of game mechanics.

Instead of focusing on a generic character background, such as merchant or wanderer, think about the factions, organizations, and cultures of your campaign and how they might be leveraged to create flavorful backgrounds for player characters. For example, you could create an acolyte of Candlekeep background that is functionally similar to a sage background, but which ties a character more closely to a place and organization in your world.

A character with the acolyte of Candlekeep background probably has friends among the Avowed the monks who maintain the great library at Candlekeep. The character can enter the library and consult its lore freely, while others must donate a rare or valuable tome of knowledge before they are allowed entry. Candlekeep’s enemies are the character’s enemies, and its allies, the character’s friends. Acolytes of Candlekeep are generally regarded as learned sages and protectors of knowledge. It’s possible to envision many interesting interactions as NPCs discover the character’s background and approach the character in search of assistance.

To create your own background, follow these steps.

Step 1. Root It in Your World

To ground a new background in your campaign’s setting, determine what element of your campaign the background is tied to: a faction, an organization, a trade, a person, an event, or a location.

Step 2. Suggest Personal Characteristics

Create tables of suggested characteristics' personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws' that fit the background, or plunder entries from the tables presented in the Player’s Handbook. Even if your players don’t use the tables, this step helps you paint a picture of the background’s place in your world. The tables need not be extensive; two or three entries per table are enough.

Step 3. Assign Proficiencies or Languages

Choose two skill proficiencies and two tool proficiencies for the background. You can replace tool proficiencies with languages on a one-for-one basis.

Step 4. Include Starting Equipment

Make sure your background offers a package of starting equipment. In addition to a small amount of money that a character can use to buy adventuring gear, the starting equipment should include items that a character would have acquired prior to becoming an adventurer, as well as one or two items unique to the background.

For example, starting equipment for a character with the acolyte of Candlekeep background might include a set of traveler’s clothes, a scholar’s robe, five candles, a tinderbox, an empty scroll case engraved with the symbol of Candlekeep, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp. The scroll case might be a gift given to an acolyte of Candlekeep who embarks on a life of adventure. At your discretion, it might also contain a useful map.

Step 5. Settle on a Background Feature

Choose an existing background feature or create a new one, as you prefer. If you choose an existing feature, add or tweak a few details to make it unique.

For example, the acolyte of Candlekeep background might have the Researcher feature of the sage (as presented in the Player’s Handbook), with the additional benefit that the character is allowed to enter Candlekeep without paying the normal cost.

A background feature should avoid strict game benefits, such as a bonus to an ability check or an attack roll. Instead, the feature should open up new options for roleplaying, exploring, and otherwise interacting with the world.

For example, the sage’s Researcher feature is designed to send the character on adventures. It doesn’t provide information or an automatic success for a check. Instead, if a character with the sage background fails to recall information, he or she instead knows where to learn it. This might be a pointer to another sage or to a library long lost within an ancient tomb.

The best background features give characters a reason to strike out on quests, to make contact with NPCs, and to develop bonds to the setting you’ve devised.