Dungeon Master's Tools

As the Dungeon Master, you oversee the game and weave together the story experienced by your players. You’re the one who keeps it all going, and this chapter is for you. It gives you new rules options, as well as some refined tools for creating and running adventures and campaigns. It is a supplement to the tools and advice offered in the dungeon master’s guide.

The chapter opens with optional rules meant to help you run certain parts of the game more smoothly. The chapter then goes into greater depth on several topics-encounter building, random encounters, traps, magic items, and downtime-which largely relate to how you create and stage your adventures.

The material in this chapter is meant to make your life easier. Ignore anything you find here that doesn’t help you, and don’t hesitate to customize the things that you do use. The game’s rules exist to serve you and the games you run. As always, make them your own.

Simultaneous Effects

Most effects in the game happen in succession, following an order set by the rules or the DM. In rare cases, effects can happen at the same time, especially at the start or end of a creature’s turn. If two or more things happen at the same time on a character or monster’s turn, the person at the game table-whether player or DM-who controls that creature decides the order in which those things happen. For example, if two effects occur at the end of a player character’s turn, the player decides which of the two effects happens first.

Falling

Falling from a great height is a significant risk for adventurers and their foes. The rule given in the player’s handbook is simple: at the end of a fall, you take 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet you fell, to a maximum of 20d6. You also land prone, unless you somehow avoid taking damage from the fall. Here are two optional rules that expand on that simple rule.

Rate of Falling

The rule for falling assumes that a creature immediately drops the entire distance when it falls. But what if a creature is at a high altitude when it falls, perhaps on the back of a griffon or on board an airship? Realistically, a fall from such a height can take more than a few seconds, extending past the end of the turn when the fall occurred. If you’d like high-altitude falls to be properly time-consuming, use the following optional rule.

When you fall from a great height, you instantly descend up to 500 feet. If you’re still falling on your next turn, you descend up to 500 feet at the end of that turn. This process continues until the fall ends, either because you hit the ground or the fall is otherwise halted.

Flying Creatures and Falling

A flying creature in flight falls if it is knocked prone, if its speed is reduced to 0 feet, or if it otherwise loses the ability to move, unless it can hover or it is being held aloft by magic, such as the fly spell.

If you’d like a flying creature to have a better chance of surviving a fall than a non-flying creature does, use this rule: subtract the creature’s current flying speed from the distance it fell before calculating falling damage. This rule is helpful to a flier that is knocked prone but is still conscious and has a current flying speed that is greater than 0 feet. The rule is designed to simulate the creature flapping its wings furiously or taking similar measures to slow the velocity of its fall.

If you use the rule for rate of falling in the previous section, a flying creature descends 500 feet on the turn when it falls, just as other creatures do. But if that creature starts any of its later turns still falling and is prone, it can halt the fall on its turn by spending half its flying speed to counter the prone condition (as if it were standing up in midair).

Sleep

Just as in the real world, D&D characters spend many hours sleeping, most often as part of a long rest. Most monsters also need to sleep. While a creature sleeps, it is subjected to the unconscious condition. Here are a few rules that expand on that basic fact.

Waking Someone

A creature that is naturally sleeping, as opposed to being in a magically or chemically induced sleep, wakes up if it takes any damage or if someone else uses an action to shake or slap the creature awake. A sudden loud noise-such as yelling, thunder, or a ringing bell-also awakens someone that is sleeping naturally.

Whispers don’t disturb sleep, unless a sleeper’s passive Wisdom (Perception) score is 20 or higher and the whispers are within 10 feet of the sleeper. Speech at a normal volume awakens a sleeper if the environment is otherwise silent (no wind, birdsong, crickets, street sounds, or the like) and the sleeper has a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 15 or higher.

Sleeping in Armor

Sleeping in light armor has no adverse effect on the wearer, but sleeping in medium or heavy armor makes it difficult to recover fully during a long rest.

When you finish a long rest during which you slept in medium or heavy armor, you regain only one quarter of your spent Hit Dice (minimum of one die). If you have any levels of exhaustion, the rest doesn’t reduce your exhaustion level.

Going without a Long Rest

A long rest is never mandatory, but going without sleep does have its consequences. If you want to account for the effects of sleep deprivation on characters and creatures, use these rules.

Whenever you end a 24-hour period without finishing a long rest, you must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion.

It becomes harder to fight off exhaustion if you stay awake for multiple days. After the first 24 hours, the DC increases by 5 for each consecutive 24-hour period without a long rest. The DC resets to 10 when you finish a long rest.

Adamantine Weapons

Adamantine is an ultrahard metal found in meteorites and extraordinary mineral veins. In addition to being used to craft adamantine armor, the metal is also used for weapons.

Melee weapons and ammunition made of or coated with adamantine are unusually effective when used to break objects. Whenever an adamantine weapon or piece of ammunition hits an object, the hit is a critical hit.

The adamantine version of a melee weapon or of ten pieces of ammunition costs 500 gp more than the normal version, whether the weapon or ammunition is made of the metal or coated with it.

Tying Knots

The rules are purposely open-ended concerning mundane tasks like tying knots, but sometimes knowing how well a knot was fashioned is important in a dramatic scene when someone is trying to untie a knot or slip out of one. Here’s an optional rule for determining the effectiveness of a knot.

The creature who ties the knot makes an Intelligence (Sleight of Hand) check when doing so. The total of the check becomes the DC for an attempt to untie the knot with an Intelligence (Sleight of Hand) check or to slip out of it with a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check.

This rule intentionally links Sleight of Hand with Intelligence, rather than Dexterity. This is an example of how to apply the rule in the Skills with Different Abilities section in chapter 7 of the player’s handbook.

Tool Proficiencies

Tool proficiencies are a useful way to highlight a character’s background and talents. At the game table, though, the use of tools sometimes overlaps with the use of skills, and it can be unclear how to use them together in certain situations. This section offers various ways that tools can be used in the game.

Tools and Skills Together

Tools have more specific applications than skills. The History skill applies to any event in the past. A tool such as a forgery kit is used to make fake objects and little else. Thus, why would a character who has the opportunity to acquire one or the other want to gain a tool proficiency instead of proficiency in a skill?

To make tool proficiencies more attractive choices for the characters, you can use the methods outlined below.

Advantage

If the use of a tool and the use of a skill both apply to a check, and a character is proficient with the tool and the skill, consider allowing the character to make the check with advantage. This simple benefit can go a long way toward encouraging players to pick up tool proficiencies. In the tool descriptions that follow, this benefit is often expressed as additional insight (or something similar), which translates into an increased chance that the check will be a success.

Added Benefit

In addition, consider giving characters who have both a relevant skill and a relevant tool proficiency an added benefit on a successful check. This benefit might be in the form of more detailed information or could simulate the effect of a different sort of successful check. For example, a character proficient with mason’s tools makes a successful Wisdom (Perception) check to find a secret door in a stone wall. Not only does the character notice the door’s presence, but you decide that the tool proficiency entitles the character to an automatic success on an Intelligence (Investigation) check to determine how to open the door.

Tool Descriptions

The following sections go into detail about the tools presented in the player’s handbook, offering advice on how to use them in a campaign.

Components

The first paragraph in each description gives details on what a set of supplies or tools is made up of. A character who is proficient with a tool knows how to use all of its component parts.

Skills

Every tool potentially provides advantage on a check when used in conjunction with certain skills, provided a character is proficient with the tool and the skill. As DM, you can allow a character to make a check using the indicated skill with advantage. Paragraphs that begin with skill names discuss these possibilities. In each of these paragraphs, the benefits apply only to someone who has proficiency with the tool, not someone who simply owns it.

With respect to skills, the system is mildly abstract in terms of what a tool proficiency represents; essentially, it assumes that a character who has proficiency with a tool also has learned about facets of the trade or profession that are not necessarily associated with the use of the tool.

In addition, you can consider giving a character extra information or an added benefit on a skill check. The text provides some examples and ideas when this opportunity is relevant.

Special Use

Proficiency with a tool usually brings with it a particular benefit in the form of a special use, as described in this paragraph.

Sample DCs

A table at the end of each section lists activities that a tool can be used to perform, and suggested DCs for the necessary ability checks.

Tools List

See the Items page for details on each tool.

Spellcasting

This section expands on the spellcasting rules presented in the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide, providing clarifications and new options.

Perceiving a Caster at Work

Many spells create obvious effects: explosions of fire, walls of ice, teleportation, and the like. Other spells, such as charm person, display no visible, audible, or otherwise perceptible sign of their effects, and could easily go unnoticed by someone unaffected by them. As noted in the Player’s Handbook, you normally don’t know that a spell has been cast unless the spell produces a noticeable effect.

But what about the act of casting a spell? Is it possible for someone to perceive that a spell is being cast in their presence? To be perceptible, the casting of a spell must involve a verbal, somatic, or material component. The form of a material component doesn’t matter for the purposes of perception, whether it’s an object specified in the spell’s description, a component pouch, or a spellcasting focus.

If the need for a spell’s components has been removed by a special ability, such as the sorcerer’s Subtle Spell feature or the Innate Spellcasting trait possessed by many creatures, the casting of the spell is imperceptible. If an imperceptible casting produces a perceptible effect, it’s normally impossible to determine who cast the spell in the absence of other evidence.

Identifying a Spell

See the Identify a Spell entry.

Invalid Spell Targets

A spell specifies what a caster can target with it: any type of creature, a creature of a certain type (humanoid or beast, for instance), an object, an area, the caster, or something else. But what happens if a spell targets something that isn’t a valid target? For example, someone might cast charm person on a creature believed to be a humanoid, not knowing that the target is in fact a vampire. If this issue comes up, handle it using the following rule.

If you cast a spell on someone or something that can’t be affected by the spell, nothing happens to that target, but if you used a spell slot to cast the spell, the slot is still expended. If the spell normally has no effect on a target that succeeds on a saving throw, the invalid target appears to have succeeded on its saving throw, even though it didn’t attempt one (giving no hint that the creature is in fact an invalid target). Otherwise, you perceive that the spell did nothing to the target.

Areas of Effect on a Grid

The Dungeon Master’s Guide includes the following short rule for using areas of effect on a grid.

Choose an intersection of squares as the point of origin of an area of effect, then follow the rules for that kind of area as normal (see the “Areas of Effect” section in chapter 10 of the Player’s Handbook). If an area of effect is circular and covers at least half a square, it affects that square.

That rule works, but it can require a fair amount of on-the-spot adjudication. This section offers two alternatives for determining the exact location of an area: the template method and the token method. Both of these methods assume you’re using a grid and miniatures of some sort. Because these methods can yield different results for the number of squares in a given area, it’s not recommended that they be combined at the table—choose whichever method you and your players find easier or more intuitive.

Template Method

The template method uses two-dimensional shapes that represent different areas of effect. The aim of the method is to accurately portray the length and width of each area on the grid and to leave little doubt about which creatures are affected by it. You’ll need to make these templates or find premade ones.

Making a Template

Making a template is simple. Get a piece of paper or card stock, and cut it in the shape of the area of effect you’re using. Every 5 feet of the area equals 1 inch of the template’s size. For example, the 20-foot-radius sphere of the fireball spell, which has a 40-foot diameter, would translate into a circular template with an 8-inch diameter.

Using a Template

To use an area-of-effect template, apply it to the grid. If the terrain is flat, you can lay it on the surface; otherwise, hold the template above the surface and take note of which squares it covers or partially covers. If any part of a square is under the template, that square is included in the area of effect. If a creature’s miniature is in an affected square, that creature is in the area. Being adjacent to the edge of the template isn’t enough for a square to be included in the area of effect; the square must be entirely or partly covered by the template.

You can also use this method without a grid. If you do so, a creature is included in an area of effect if any part of the miniature’s base is overlapped by the template.

When you place a template, follow all the rules in the Player’s Handbook for placing the associated area of effect. If an area of effect, such as a cone or a line, originates from a spellcaster, the template should extend out from the caster and be positioned however the caster likes within the bounds of the rules.

Diagrams 2.1 and 2.2 show the template method in action.

Token Method

The token method is meant to make areas of effect tactile and fun. To use this method, grab some dice or other tokens, which you’re going to use to represent your areas of effect.

Rather than faithfully representing the shapes of the different areas of effect, this method gives you a way to create square-edged versions of them on a grid easily, as described in the following subsections.

Using Tokens

Every 5-foot square of an area of effect becomes a die or other token that you place on the grid. Each token goes inside a square, not at an intersection of lines. If an area’s token is in a square, that square is included in the area of effect. It’s that simple.

Diagrams 2.3 through 2.6 show this method in action, using dice as the tokens.

Circles

This method depicts everything using squares, and a circular area of effect becomes square in it, whether the area is a sphere, cylinder, or radius. For instance, the 10-foot radius of flame strike, which has a diameter of 20 feet, is expressed as a square that is 20 feet on a side, as shown in diagram 2.3. Diagram 2.4 shows that area with total cover inside it.

Cones

A cone is represented by rows of tokens on the grid, extending from the cone’s point of origin. In the rows, the squares are adjoining side by side or corner to corner, as shown in diagram 2.5. To determine the number of rows a cone contains, divide its length by 5. For example, a 30-foot cone contains six rows.

Here’s how to create the rows. Starting with a square adjacent to the cone’s point of origin, place one token. The square can be orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to the point of origin. In every row beyond that one, place as many tokens as you placed in the previous row, plus one more token. Place this row’s tokens so that their squares each share a side with a square in the previous row. If the cone is orthogonally adjacent to the point of origin, you’ll have one more token to place in the row; place it on one end or the other of the row you just created (you don’t have to pick the side chosen in diagram 2.5). Keep placing tokens in this way until you’ve created all of the cone’s rows.

Lines

A line can extend from its source orthogonally or diagonally, as shown in diagram 2.6.

Encounter Building

This section introduces new guidelines on building combat encounters for an adventure. They are an alternative to the rules in “Creating Encounters” in chapter 3 of the dungeon master’s guide. This approach uses the same math that underlies the rules presented in that book, but it makes a few adjustments to the way that math is presented to produce a more flexible system.

This encounter-building system assumes that, as DM, you want to have a clear understanding of the threat posed by a group of monsters. It will be useful to you if you want to emphasize combat in your adventure, if you want to ensure that a foe isn’t too deadly for a group of characters, and if you want to understand the relationship between a character’s level and a monster’s challenge rating.

Building an encounter using these guidelines follows a series of steps.

Step 1: Assess the Characters

To build an encounter using this system, first take stock of the player characters. This system uses the characters' levels to determine the numbers and challenge ratings of creatures you can pit them against without making a fight too hard or too easy. Even though character level is important, you should also take note of each character’s hit point maximum and saving throw modifiers, as well as how much damage the mightiest characters can deal with a single attack. Character level and challenge rating are good for defining the difficulty of an encounter, but they don’t tell the whole story. You’ll make use of these additional character statistics when you select monsters for an encounter in step 4.

Step 2: Choose Encounter Size

Determine whether you want to create a battle that pits one creature against the characters, or if you want to use multiple monsters. If the fight is against a single opponent, your best candidate for that foe is one of the game’s legendary creatures, which are designed to fill this need. If the battle involves multiple monsters, decide roughly how many creatures you want to use before continuing with step 3.

Step 3: Determine Numbers and Challenge Ratings

The process for building fights that feature only one legendary monster is simple. The Solo Monster Challenge Rating table shows you which challenge rating (CR) to use for a legendary creature opposing a party of four to six characters, creating a satisfying but difficult battle. For example, for a party of five 9th-level characters, a CR 12 legendary creature makes an optimal encounter.

For a more perilous battle, match up the characters with a legendary creature whose challenge rating is 1 or 2 higher than optimal. For an easy fight, use a legendary creature whose challenge rating is 3 or more lower than the challenge rating for an optimal encounter.

Solo Monster Challenge Rating

If your encounter features multiple monsters, balancing it takes a little more work. Refer to the Multiple Monsters tables, which are broken up by level ranges, providing information for how to balance encounters for characters of 1st-5th level, 6th-10th level, 11th-15th level, and 16th-20th level.

First, you need to note the challenge rating for each creature the party will face. Then, to create your encounter, find the level of each character on the appropriate table. Each table shows what a single character of a given level is equivalent to in terms of challenge rating-a value represented by a ratio that compares numbers of characters to a single monster ranked by challenge rating. The first number in each expression is the number of characters of the given level. The second number tells how many monsters of the listed challenge rating those characters are equivalent to.

For example, reading the row for 1st-level characters from the 1st-5th Level table, we see that one 1st-level character is the equivalent of two CR 1/8 monsters or one CR 1/4 monster. The ratio reverses for higher challenge ratings, where a single monster is more powerful than a single 1st-level character. One CR 1/2 creature is equivalent to three 1st-level characters, while one CR 1 opponent is equivalent to five.

Multiple Monsters: 1st-5th Level

Let’s say you have a party of four 3rd-level characters. Using the table, you can see that one CR 2 foe is a good match for the entire party, but that the characters will likely have a hard time handling a CR 3 creature.

Using the same guidelines, you can mix and match challenge ratings to put together a group of creatures to oppose four 3rd-level characters. For example, you could select one CR 1 creature. That’s worth two 3rd-level characters, leaving you with two characters' worth of monsters to allocate. You could then add two CR 1/4 monsters to account for one other character and one CR 1/2 monster to account for the final character. In total, your encounter has one CR 1, one CR 1/2, and two CR 1/4 creatures.

Multiple Monsters: 6th-10th Level

For groups in which the characters are of different levels, you have two options. You can group all characters of the same level together, match them with monsters, and then combine all the creatures into one encounter. Alternatively, you can determine the group’s average level and treat each character as being of that level for the purpose of selecting appropriate monsters.

Multiple Monsters: 11th-15th Level

The above guidelines are designed to create a fight that will challenge a party while still being winnable. If you want to create an easier encounter that will challenge characters but not threaten to defeat them, you can treat the party as if it were roughly one-third smaller than it is. For example, to make an easy encounter for a party of five characters, put them up against monsters that would be a tough fight for three characters. Likewise, you can treat the party as up to half again larger to build a battle that is potentially deadly, though still not likely to be an automatic defeat. A party of four characters facing an encounter designed for six characters would fall into this category.

Multiple Monsters: 16th-20th Level

Weak Monsters and High-Level Characters

To save space on the tables and keep them simple, some of the lower challenge ratings are missing from the higher-level tables. For low challenge ratings not appearing on the table, assume a 1:12 ratio, indicating that twelve creatures of those challenge ratings are equivalent to one character of a specific level.

Step 4: Select Monsters

After using the tables from the previous step to determine the challenge ratings of the monsters in your encounter, you’re ready to pick individual monsters. This process is more of an art than a science.

In addition to assessing monsters by challenge rating, it’s important to look at how certain monsters might stack up against your group. Hit points, attacks, and saving throws are all useful indicators. Compare the damage a monster can deal to the hit point maximum of each character. Be wary of any monster that is capable of dropping a character with a single attack, unless you are designing the fight to be especially deadly.

In the same way, compare the monsters' hit points to the damage output of the party’s strongest characters, again looking for targets that can be killed with one blow. Having a significant number of foes drop in the first rounds of combat can make an encounter too easy.

Likewise, look at whether a monster’s deadliest abilities call for saving throws that most of the party members are weak with, and compare the characters' offensive abilities to the monsters' saving throws.

If the only creatures you can choose from at the desired challenge rating aren’t a good match for the characters' statistics, don’t be afraid to go back to step 3. By altering your challenge rating targets and adjusting the number of creatures in the encounter, you can come up with different options for building the encounter.

Step 5: Add Flavor

The events that unfold during an encounter have to do with a lot more than swinging weapons and casting spells. The most interesting confrontations also take into account the personality or behavior of the monsters, perhaps determining whether they can be communicated with or whether they’re all acting in concert. Other possible factors include the nature of the physical environment, such as whether it includes obstacles or other features that might come into play, and the ever-present possibility of something unexpected taking place.

If you already have ideas for how to flesh out your encounter in these ways, go right ahead and finish your creation. Otherwise, take a look at the following sections for some basic advice on adding flavor elements to the simple mechanics of the fight.

Monster Personality

To address the question of a monster’s personality, you can use the tables in chapter 4 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, use the Monster Personality table below, or simply jot down a few notes based on a creature’s Monster Manual description. During the battle, you can use these ideas to inform how you portray the monsters and their actions. To keep things simple, you can assign the same personality traits to an entire group of monsters. For example, one bandit gang might be an unruly mob of braggarts, while the members of another gang are always on edge and ready to flee at the first sign of danger.

Monster Personality

Monster Relationships

Do rivalries, hatreds, or attachments exist among the monsters in an encounter? If so, you can use such relationships to inform the monsters' behavior during combat. The death of a much-revered leader might throw its followers into a frenzy. On the other hand, a monster might decide to flee if its spouse is killed, or a mistreated toady might be eager to surrender and betray its master in return for its life.

Monster Relationships

Terrain and Traps

A few elements that make a battlefield something other than a large area of flat ground can go a long way toward spicing up an encounter. Consider setting your encounter in an area that would provide challenges even if a fight were not taking place there. What potential perils or other features might draw the characters' attention, either before or during the fight? Why are monsters lurking in this area to begin with-does it offer good hiding places, for instance?

To add details to an encounter area at random, look to the tables in appendix A of the dungeon master’s guide to determine room and area features, potential hazards, obstacles, traps, and more.

Random Events

Consider what might happen in an encounter area if the characters were to never enter it. Do the guards serve in shifts? What other characters or monsters might visit? Do creatures gather there to eat or gossip? Are there any natural phenomena-such as strong winds, earth tremors, or rain squalls-that sometimes take place in the area? Random events can add a fun element of the unexpected to an encounter. Just when you think a fight’s outcome is evident, an unforeseen event can make things more compelling.

A number of the tables in the dungeon master’s guide can suggest random events. The tables used for encounter location, weird locales, and wilderness weather in chapter 5 of that book are a good starting point for outdoor encounters. The tables in appendix A can be useful for indoor and outdoor encounters-especially the tables for obstacles, traps, and tricks. Finally, consult the random encounter tables in the next section of this book for inspiration.

Quick Matchups

The guidelines above assume that you are concerned about balance in your combat encounters and have enough time to prepare them. If you don’t have much time, or if you want simpler but less precise guidelines, the Quick Matchups table below offers an alternative.

This table gives you a way to match a character of a certain level with a number of monsters. The table lists the challenge ratings to use for including one, two, and four monsters per character for each level. For instance, looking at the 3rd-level entry on the table, you can see that a CR 1/2 monster is equivalent to one 3rd-level character, as are two CR 1/4 monsters and four CR 1/8 ones.

Quick Matchups

Random Encounters: A World of Possibilities

Chapter 3 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide provides guidance on using random encounters in your game. This section builds on that guidance, offering a host of random encounter tables for you to use when you determine that a random encounter is going to take place.

Using the monster lists in appendix B of that book as a basis, we’ve built a set of tables for each environment category: arctic, coastal, desert, forest, grassland, hill, mountain, swamp, Underdark, underwater, and urban. Within each category, separate tables are provided for each of the four tiers of play: levels 1-4, 5-10, 11-16, and 17-20.

Even though you can use these tables “out of the box,” the advice in the dungeon master’s guide still holds true: tailoring such tables to your game can reinforce the themes and flavor of your campaign. We encourage you to customize this material to make it your own. In the tables, a name in bold refers to a stat block in the monster manual.

Flight, or Fight, or..?

Each of the results on these tables represents a certain kind of challenge or potential challenge.

If you let the dice have their way and the result is a large number of monsters, the generated encounter might be too difficult or dangerous for the characters in their present circumstances. They might want to flee to avoid contact, or not to approach any closer after perceiving the monsters from a distance.

Of course, you also have the freedom to adjust the numbers, but it’s important to remember that not every encounter involving a monster needs to result in combat. An encounter might indeed be the prelude to a battle, a parley, or some other interaction. What happens next depends on what the characters try, or what you decide is bound to occur.

The tables also include entries for what the dungeon master’s guide calls “encounters of a less monstrous nature.” Many of these results cry out to be customized or detailed, which offers you an opportunity to connect them to the story of your campaign. And in so doing, you’ve taken a step toward making your own personalized encounter table. Now, keep going!

See the Encounter Generator for a complete list of all the tables available.

Traps Revisited

The rules for traps in the dungeon master’s guide provide the basic information you need to manage traps at the game table. The material here takes a different, more elaborate approach-describing traps in terms of their game mechanics and offering guidance on creating traps of your own using these new rules.

Rather than characterize traps as mechanical or magical, these rules separate traps into two other categories: simple and complex.

Simple Traps

A simple trap activates and is thereafter harmless or easily avoided. A hidden pit dug at the entrance of a goblin lair, a poison needle that pops from a lock, and a crossbow rigged to fire when an intruder steps on a pressure plate are all simple traps.

Elements of a Simple Trap

The description of a simple trap begins with a line that gives the trap’s level and the severity of the threat it poses. Following a general note on what the trap looks like and how it functions are three paragraphs that tell how the trap works in the game.

Level and Threat

A trap’s level is actually a range of levels, equivalent to one of the tiers of play (levels 1-4, 5-10, 11-16, and 17-20), indicating the appropriate time to use the trap in your campaign. Additionally, each trap poses either a moderate, dangerous, or deadly threat, based on its particular details.

Trigger

A simple trap activates when an event occurs that triggers it. This entry in a trap’s description gives the location of the trigger and the activity that causes the trap to activate.

Effect

A trap’s effect occurs after it activates. The trap might fire a dart, unleash a cloud of poison gas, cause a hidden enclosure to open, and so on. This entry specifies what the trap targets, its attack bonus or saving throw DC, and what happens on a hit or a failed saving throw.

Countermeasures

Traps can be detected or defeated in a variety of ways by using ability checks or magic. This entry in a trap’s description gives the means for counteracting the trap. It also specifies what happens, if anything, on a failed attempt to disable it.

Running a Simple Trap

To prepare for using a simple trap in play, start by making note of the characters' passive Wisdom (Perception) scores. Most traps allow Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect their triggers or other elements that can tip off their presence. If you stop to ask players for this information, they might suspect a hidden danger.

When a trap is triggered, apply its effects as specified in its description.

If the characters discover a trap, be open to adjudicating their ideas for defeating it. The trap’s description is a starting point for countermeasures, rather than a complete definition.

To make it easier for you to describe what happens next, the players should be specific about how they want to defeat the trap. Simply stating the desire to make a check isn’t helpful for you. Ask the players where their characters are positioned and what they intend to do to defeat the trap.

Making Traps Meaningful

If you want to improve the chance that the characters will come up against the traps you’ve set for them in an encounter or an adventure, it can be tempting to use a large number of traps. Doing so ensures that the characters will have to deal with at least one or two of them, but it’s better to fight that urge.

If your encounters or adventures are sown with too many traps, and if the characters are victimized over and over again as a result, they are likely to take steps to prevent further bad things from happening. Because of their recent experience, the characters can become overly cautious, and you run the risk of the action grinding to a halt as the players search every square inch of the dungeon for trip wires and pressure plates.

Traps are most effective when their presence comes as a surprise, not when they appear so often that the characters spend all their effort watching out for the next one.

Example Simple Traps

The following simple traps can be used to populate your adventures or as models for your own creations.

• Bear Trap
• Crossbow Trap
• Falling Portcullis
• Fiery Blast Trap
• Net Trap
• Pit Trap
• Poison Needle Trap
• Scything Blade Trap
• Sleep of Ages Trap

Designing Simple Traps

You can create your own simple traps by using the following guidelines. You can also adapt the example traps for different levels and severity of threat by modifying their DCs and damage values as shown below.

Purpose

Before diving into the details of your trap, think about its reason for being. Why would someone build such a trap? What is its purpose? Consider the trap’s creator (in the adventure), the creator’s purpose, and the location the trap protects. Traps have context in the world-they aren’t created for no reason-and that context drives the trap’s nature and effects.

Described below are a few of the general purposes a trap might have. Use them to inspire the creation of your own traps.

Alarm

An alarm trap is designed to alert an area’s occupants of intruders. It might cause a bell or a gong to sound. This type of trap rarely involves a saving throw, because the alarm can’t be avoided when the trap goes off.

Delay

Some traps are designed to slow down enemies, giving a dungeon’s inhabitants time to mount a defense or flee. The hidden pit is a classic example of this kind of trap. A 10-foot-deep pit usually deals little damage and is easy to escape, but it serves its purpose by impeding intruders. Other examples of delaying traps include collapsing walls, a portcullis that drops from the ceiling, and a locking mechanism that shuts and bars a door.

If a delaying trap has moving parts that directly threaten characters when they operate, the characters are usually required to make Dexterity saving throws to avoid harm.

Restrain

A restraining trap tries to keep its victims in place, leaving them unable to move. Such traps are often employed in conjunction with regular guard patrols, so that victims are periodically extricated and taken away to be dealt with. But in an ancient dungeon, the guards might be long gone.

Restraining traps usually require a successful Strength saving throw to be avoided, but some don’t allow saving throws. In addition to dealing damage, a restraining trap also renders a creature unable to move. Making a subsequent successful Strength check (using the trap’s saving throw DC) or dealing damage against the trap can break it and free the captive. Examples include a bear trap, a cage that drops from a ceiling, and a device that flings a net.

Slay

Some traps are designed to eliminate intruders, plain and simple. Their effects include poisoned needles that spring out when a lock is tampered with, blasts of fire that fill a room, poison gas, and other lethal measures. Saving throws-usually Dexterity or Constitution-allow creatures to avoid or mitigate the trap’s effects.

Level and Lethality

Before creating a trap’s effects, think about its level and its lethality.

Traps are divided into four level ranges: 1-4, 5-10, 11-16, and 17-20. The level you choose for a trap gives you a starting point for determining its potency.

To further delineate the trap’s strength, decide whether it is a moderate, dangerous, or deadly threat to characters in its level range. A moderate trap is unlikely to kill a character. A dangerous trap typically deals enough damage that a character hit by one is eager for healing. A deadly trap might reduce a creature to 0 hit points in one shot, and leaves most creatures hit by it in need of a short or long rest.

Consult the following tables when determining a trap’s effects. The Trap Save DCs and Attack Bonuses table provides guidelines for a trap’s saving throw DC, check DC, and attack bonus. The check DC is the default for any check used to interact with the trap.

The Damage Severity by Level table lists the typical damage a trap deals at certain character levels. The damage values given assume that the trap damages one creature. Use d6s for damage in place of d10s for traps that can affect more than one creature at a time.

The Spell Equivalent by Level table shows the spell slot level that is appropriate for a given character level and the severity of danger posed by the trap. A spell is a great foundation to use as the design of a trap, whether the trap duplicates the spell (a mirror that casts charm person on whoever looks into it) or uses its effects (an alchemical device that explodes like a fireball).

The Deadly entry for characters of 17th level or higher suggests combining a 9th-level and a 5th-level spell into one effect. In this case, pick two spells, or combine the effects of a spell cast using a 9th-level and a 5th-level slot. For instance, a fireball spell of this sort would deal 24d6 fire damage on a failed saving throw.

Trap Save DCs and Attack Bonuses

Damage Severity by Level

Spell Equivalent by Level

Triggers

A trigger is the circumstance that needs to take place to activate the trap.

Decide what causes the trap to activate and determine how the characters can find the trigger. Here are some example triggers:

• A pressure plate that, when it is stepped on, activates the trap
• A trip wire that springs a trap when it is broken, usually when someone walks through it
• A doorknob that activates a trap when it is turned the wrong way
• A door or chest that triggers a trap when it is opened

A trigger usually needs to be hidden to be effective. Otherwise, avoiding the trap is usually easy.

A trigger requires a Wisdom (Perception) check if simply spotting it reveals its nature. The characters can foil a pit trap hidden by a leaf-covered net if they spot the pit through a gap in the leaves. A trip wire is foiled if it is spotted, as is a pressure plate.

Other traps require careful inspection and deduction to notice. A doorknob opens a door when turned to the left, but activates a trap when turned to the right. Such a subtle trap requires a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check to notice. The trigger is obvious. Understanding its nature is not.

The DC of the check, regardless of its type, depends on the skill and care taken to conceal the trap. Most traps can be detected with a successful DC 20 check, but a crudely made or hastily built trap has a DC of 15. Exceptionally devious traps might have a DC of 25.

You must then put some thought into what the characters learn with a successful check. In most cases, the check reveals the trap. In other cases, it uncovers clues, but foiling the trap still requires some deduction. The characters might succeed on the check but still trigger the trap if they don’t understand what they have learned.

Effects

Designing a trap’s effects is a straightforward process. The tables for saving throw DCs, attack bonuses, damage, and the like give you a starting point for most simple traps that deal damage.

For traps with more complex effects, your best starting point is to use the Spell Equivalent by Level table to find the best match for your trap’s intended effect. Spells are a good starting point because they are compact pieces of game design that deliver specific effects.

If you are using a spell as a starting point, check to see if you need to tweak its effects to fit the trap’s nature. For instance, you can easily change the damage type a spell delivers or the saving throw it requires.

Disarming a Simple Trap

Only one successful ability check is required to disarm a simple trap. Imagine how your trap operates, and then think about how the characters could overcome it. More than one kind of ability check might be possible. Some traps are so poorly concealed that they can be discovered or circumvented without active effort. For instance, a hidden pit trap is effectively disarmed as soon as the characters notice it. After that, they can simply walk around it, or they can climb down one side, walk across the bottom of the pit, and climb up the other side.

Once you determine how a trap can be disarmed or avoided, decide the appropriate ability and skill combinations that characters can use. A Dexterity check using thieves' tools, a Strength (Athletics) check, and an Intelligence (Arcana) check are all commonly used for this purpose.

A Dexterity check using thieves' tools can apply to any trap that has a mechanical element. Thieves' tools can be used to disable a trip wire or a pressure plate, disassemble a poison needle mechanism, or clog a valve that leaks poisonous gas into a room.

A Strength check is often the method for thwarting traps that can be destroyed or prevented from operating through the use of brute force. A scything blade can be broken, a sliding block can be held in place, or a net can be torn apart.

A magic trap can be disabled by someone who can undermine the magic used to power it. Typically, a successful Intelligence (Arcana) check enables a character to figure out how a magic trap functions and how to negate its effect. For instance, the character could discover that a statue that belches a jet of magical flame can be disabled by shattering one of its glass eyes.

Once you know what kind of check is called for, you then determine what happens on a failed attempt to disable the trap. Depending on the kind of check involved and the nature of the trap, you might determine that any failed check has negative consequences-usually involving the triggering of the trap. At other times, you could assign a number that the check must exceed to prevent the trap from going off. If the total of the check is equal to or lower than that number, the trap activates.

Placing a Simple Trap

Context and environment are critical when it comes to properly locating a trap. A swinging log trap that’s meant to knock characters aside is a mere inconvenience on a typical forest path, where it can be easily circumvented. But it’s a potentially deadly hazard on a narrow trail that hugs the side of a towering cliff face.

Choke points and narrow passages that lead to important places in a dungeon are good spots for traps, especially those that serve as alarms or restraints. The goal is to foil or delay intruders before they can reach a critical location, giving the dungeon’s denizens a chance to mount a defense or a counterattack.

A treasure chest, a door leading to a vault, or any other obstacle or container that bars the way to a valuable treasure is the ideal location for a slaying trap. In such instances, the trap is the last line of defense against a thief or intruder.

Alarm traps, since they pose no direct physical threat, are appropriate for areas that are also used by a dungeon’s denizens-assuming the residents know about the trap and how to avoid setting it off. Accidents can happen, but if a goblin stumbles inside its den and activates an alarm trap, there’s no real harm done. The alarm sounds, the guards arrive, they punish the clumsy goblin, and they reset the trap.

Complex Traps

A complex trap poses multiple dangers to adventurers. After a complex trap activates, it remains dangerous round after round until the characters avoid it or disable it. Some complex traps become more dangerous over time, as they accumulate power or gain speed.

Complex traps are also more difficult to disable than simple ones. A single check is not enough. Instead, a series of checks is required to slowly disengage the trap’s components. The trap’s effect degrades with each successful check until the characters finally deactivate it.

Most complex traps are designed so that they can be disarmed only by someone who is exposed to the trap’s effect. For example, the mechanism that controls a hallway filled with scything blades is on the opposite end from the entrance, or a statue that bathes an area in necrotic energy can be disabled only by someone standing in the affected area.

Describing a Complex Trap

A complex trap has all the elements of a simple trap, plus special characteristics that make the trap a more dynamic threat.

Level and Threat

A complex trap uses the same level and severity designations that a simple trap does.

Trigger

Just like a simple trap, a complex trap has a trigger. Some complex traps have multiple triggers.

Initiative

A complex trap takes turns as a creature does, because it functions over a period of time. This part of a trap’s description tells whether the trap is slow (acts on initiative count 10), fast (acts on initiative count 20), or very fast (acts on initiative count 20 and also initiative count 10). A trap always acts after creatures that have the same initiative count.

Active Elements

On a trap’s turn, it produces specific effects that are detailed in this part of its description. The trap might have multiple active elements, a table you roll on to determine its effect at random, or options for you to choose from.

Dynamic Elements

A dynamic element is a threat that arises or evolves while the trap functions. Usually, changes involving dramatic elements take effect at the end of each of the trap’s turns or in response to the characters' actions.

Constant Elements

A complex trap poses a threat even when it is not taking its turn. The constant elements describe how these parts of the trap function. Most make an attack or force a saving throw against any creature that ends its turn within a certain area.

Countermeasures

A trap can be defeated in a variety of ways. A trap’s description details the checks or spells that can detect or disable it. It also specifies what happens, if anything, on a failed attempt to disable it.

Disabling a complex trap is like disarming a simple trap, except that a complex trap requires more checks. It typically takes three successful checks to disable one of a complex trap’s elements. Many of these traps have multiple elements, requiring a lot of work to shut down every part of the trap. Usually, a successful check reduces a trap element’s effectiveness even if it doesn’t disable the trap.

Running a Complex Trap

A complex trap functions in play much like a legendary monster. When it is activated, the trap’s active elements act according to its initiative. On each of its initiative counts, after all creatures with that same initiative count have acted, the trap’s features activate. Apply the effects detailed in the trap’s description.

After resolving the effects of the trap’s active elements, check its dynamic elements to see if anything changes about the trap. Many complex traps have effects that vary during an encounter. A magical aura might do more damage the longer it is active, or a swinging blade might change which area of a chamber it attacks.

The trap’s constant elements allow it to have effects when it isn’t the trap’s turn. At the end of each creature’s turn, look at the trap’s constant elements to see if any of their effects are triggered.

Experience for Complex Traps

Overcoming a complex trap merits an experience point award, depending on the danger it poses. Judging whether a party has overcome a trap requires some amount of adjudication. As a rule of thumb, if the characters disable a complex trap or are exposed to its effects and survive, award them experience points for the effort according to the table below.

Complex Trap Experience Awards

Example Complex Traps

The following complex traps can be used to challenge characters or to inspire your own creations.

• Path of Blades
• Poisoned Tempest
• Sphere of Crushing Doom

Designing Complex Traps

Creating a complex trap takes more work than building a simple one, but with some practice, you can learn the process and make it move quickly.

Familiarize yourself with the advice on designing a simple trap before proceeding with the guidelines on complex traps.

Purpose

Complex traps are typically designed to protect an area by killing or disabling intruders. It is worth your time to consider who made the trap, the trap’s purpose, and its desired result. Does the trap protect a treasure? Does it target only certain kinds of intruders?

Level and Lethality

Complex traps use the same level designations and lethality descriptors that simple traps do. Refer to that section for a discussion of how level and lethality help determine saving throw and check DCs, attack bonuses, and other numerical elements of a complex trap.

Map

A complex trap has multiple parts, typically relies on the characters' positions to resolve some of its effects, and can bring several effects to bear in each round. The traps are called complex for a reason! To begin the design process, consider drawing a map of the area to be affected by the trap on graph paper, using a scale of 5 feet per square. This level of detail allows you to develop a clear idea of what the trap can do and how each of its parts interact. Your map is the starting point and context for the rest of the design process.

Don’t limit yourself to one room. Look at the passages and rooms around the area of the trap and think about the role they can play. The trap might cause doors to lock and barriers to fall into place to prevent escape. It could cause darts to fire from the walls in one area, forcing characters to enter rooms where other devices trigger and threaten them.

Consider how terrain and furniture can add to the trap’s danger. A chasm or a pit might create a buffer that allows a trap to send bolts of magic at the characters, while making it difficult or even impossible for them to reach the runes they must deface to foil that attack.

Think of your map like a script. Where do the characters want to go? What does the trap protect? How can the characters get there? What are their likely escape routes? Answering these questions tells you where the trap’s various elements should be placed.

Active Elements

A complex trap’s active elements work the same way as a simple trap’s effects, except that a complex trap activates in every round. Otherwise, the guidelines for picking saving throw DCs, attack bonuses, and damage are the same. To make your trap logically consistent, make sure the elements you design can activate each round. For instance, ordinary crossbows rigged to fire at the characters would need a mechanism for reloading them between attacks.

In terms of lethality, it’s better to have multiple dangerous effects in a trap than a single deadly one. For example, the Path of Blades trap uses two dangerous elements and one moderate element.

It’s useful to create multiple active elements, with each affecting a different area. It’s also a good idea to use a variety of effects. Some parts of the trap might deal damage, and others might immobilize characters or isolate them from the rest of the party. A bashing lever might knock characters into an area engulfed by jets of flame. Think about how the elements can work together.

Constant Elements

In addition to the active steps a complex trap takes, it should also present a continual hazard. Often, the active and constant effects are the same thing. Imagine a hallway filled with whirling saw blades. On the trap’s turn, the blades attack anyone in the hall. In addition, anyone who lingers in the hallway takes damage at the end of each of their turns, accounting for the constant threat that the blades pose.

A constant element should apply its effect to any creature that ends its turn in that element’s area. If an active element presents a threat when it isn’t the trap’s turn, define the threat it poses as a constant element. As a rule of thumb, keep the saving throw DC or attack bonus the same as for the active element but reduce the damage by half.

Avoid filling the entire encounter area with constant elements. Part of the challenge of a complex trap lies in figuring out which areas are safe. A moment’s respite can help add an element of pacing to an encounter with a complex trap and give the characters the feeling that they aren’t in constant peril. For example, walls that slam together might need to reset between slams, making them harmless when it isn’t their turn to act.

Dynamic Elements

Just as a battle is more interesting if the monsters change their tactics or unveil new abilities in later rounds, so too are complex traps more fun if their nature changes in some way. The whirling blades that protect a treasure chest do more damage each round as they speed up. The poison gas in a room grows thicker as more of it floods the chamber, dealing greater damage and affecting line of sight. The necrotic aura around an idol of Demogorgon produces random effects each time its active element is triggered. As water floods a chamber, the characters must swim across areas they could walk through just a round or two earlier.

Since a complex trap remains active over the course of several rounds, it might be possible to predict its future behavior by examining how it functions. This information can give its targets a much better chance of thwarting it. To minimize this possibility, design your trap so that it presents multiple threats that can change each round. The changes can include how a trap targets creatures (different attacks or saving throws), the damage or effects it produces, the areas it covers, and so on. Some traps might have a random effect each round, while others follow a carefully programmed sequence of attacks.

Dynamic elements usually occur according to a schedule.

For a room that floods, you can plan out how the rising water level affects the area each round. The water might be ankle deep at the end of the first round, knee deep the next, and so on. Not only does the water bring a risk of drowning, it also makes it harder to move across the area. On the other hand, the rising water level might allow characters to swim to the upper reaches of the chamber that they couldn’t get to from the floor.

Dynamic elements can also come into play in reaction to the characters' actions. Disarming one element of the trap might make the others deadlier. Disabling a rune that triggers a fire-breathing statue might cause the statue to explode.

Triggers

The advice on triggers given for simple traps also applies to complex traps, with one exception. Complex traps have multiple triggers, or are designed such that avoiding a trigger prevents intruders from reaching the area the trap guards. Other complex traps use magical triggers that activate on specific cues, such as when a door opens or someone enters an area without wearing the correct badge, amulet, or robe.

Look at your map and consider when you want the trap to spring into action. It’s best to have a complex trap trigger after the characters have committed to exploring an area. A simple trap might activate when the characters open a door. A complex trap that triggers so early leaves the characters still outside the trapped room, in a place where they could decide to close the door and move on. A simple trap aims to keep intruders out. A complex trap wants to lure them in, so that when it activates, the intruders must deal with the trap before they can escape.

The trigger for a complex trap should be as foolproof as you can make it. A complex trap represents a serious expenditure of effort and magical power. No one builds such a trap and makes it easy to avoid. Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks might be unable to spot a trigger, especially a magical one, but they can still give hints about the trap before it triggers. Bloodstains, ashes, gouges in the floor, and other clues of that sort can serve as evidence of the trap’s presence.

Initiative

A complex trap acts repeatedly, but unlike characters and monsters, traps don’t roll for initiative. As mechanical or magical devices, their active elements operate in a periodic manner. When designing a complex trap, you need to decide when and how often its active elements produce their effects.

In a trap with multiple active elements that work in concert, those different elements would act on different initiative counts. For instance, on initiative count 20, blades sweep across a treasure vault, driving the characters back into the hallway. On initiative count 10, magic darts fire from statues in the hallway while a portcullis falls to confine the characters.

Initiative 10

If a trap’s active element takes time to build up its effects, then it acts on initiative count 10. This option is good for a trap that functions alongside allied monsters or other guardians; the delay before it acts can give guards the chance to move out of its area or force characters into the area before the trap triggers.

Initiative 20

If an element is designed to surprise intruders and hit them before they can react, then it acts on initiative count 20. This option is generally best for a complex trap. Think of it as the default. Such a trap acts quickly enough to take advantage of most characters, with nimble characters like rogues, rangers, and monks having the best chance to move out of the area before the element activates.

Initiative 20 and 10

Some active elements are incredibly fast acting, laying waste to intruders in a few moments unless countered. They act on initiative count 20 and 10.

Defeating Complex Traps

A complex trap is never defeated with a single check. Instead, each successful check foils some part of it or degrades its performance. Each element of the trap must be overcome individually to defeat the trap as a whole.

As part of determining how your trap can be overcome, look at your map and consider where the characters must be located to attempt an action that can foil part of the trap. As a rule, the characters should need to be near or adjacent to an element to have a chance of affecting it. An element can be designed so that it protects itself. A fighter might be able to break a whirling blade, but moving close enough to attack it requires giving the blade a chance to strike.

What methods are effective against your trap? Obvious candidates are activities covered by the same sorts of checks used to defeat simple traps, but use your knowledge of the trap’s design to identify other options. A valve that leaks poison gas into a room can be stopped up. A statue that emits a deadly aura can be pushed over and smashed. Attacks, spells, and special abilities can all play a role in undermining a trap.

Leave room for improvisation by the characters. Don’t create a few predetermined solutions and wait for the players to figure out the right approach. If you understand the mechanism behind how a trap works, that makes it much easier for you to respond to the players' ideas. If a character wants to try something you haven’t allowed for, pick an ability, assess the chance of success, and ask for a roll.

Shutting down one part of a complex trap usually requires multiple successes. As a default, it takes three successful checks or actions to disable an element. The first successful check might reduce the element’s saving throw DC or attack bonus. The second successful check might halve the element’s damage, and the final successful check shuts it down.

For elements that don’t attack, allow each successful check to reduce that element’s effectiveness by one-third. A lock’s DC is decreased, or a gate opens wide enough to allow a Small character to squeeze through it. A mechanism pumping poison gas into the room becomes defective, causing the gas’s damage to increase more slowly or not at all.

It takes time to disable a complex trap. Three characters can’t make checks in rapid succession to disarm a complex trap in a matter of seconds. Each would get in another character’s way and disrupt the effort. Once a character succeeds on a check, another character can’t attempt the same check against the same trap element until the end of the successful character’s next turn.

Not all of the characters' options need to be focused on stopping a trap from operating. Think of what characters can do to mitigate or avoid a trap’s effects. Making the trap vulnerable to this sort of effort is a way to engage characters who might be ill-suited to confront the trap directly. A successful Intelligence (Religion) check might provide insight into the imagery displayed by a trap in a temple or shrine, giving other characters a clue about how and where to direct their efforts. A character could stand in front of a dart trap while holding a shield that the darts can target harmlessly, while other characters trigger that element as they work to disable it.

If a character wants to try something you haven’t allowed for, pick an ability, assess the chance of success, and ask for a roll.

Shutting down one part of a complex trap usually requires multiple successes. As a default, it takes three successful checks or actions to disable an element. The first successful check might reduce the element’s saving throw DC or attack bonus. The second successful check might halve the element’s damage, and the final successful check shuts it down.

For elements that don’t attack, allow each successful check to reduce that element’s effectiveness by one-third. A lock’s DC is decreased, or a gate opens wide enough to allow a Small character to squeeze through it. A mechanism pumping poison gas into the room becomes defective, causing the gas’s damage to increase more slowly or not at all.

It takes time to disable a complex trap. Three characters can’t make checks in rapid succession to disarm a complex trap in a matter of seconds. Each would get in another character’s way and disrupt the effort. Once a character succeeds on a check, another character can’t attempt the same check against the same trap element until the end of the successful character’s next turn.

Not all of the characters' options need to be focused on stopping a trap from operating. Think of what characters can do to mitigate or avoid a trap’s effects. Making the trap vulnerable to this sort of effort is a way to engage characters who might be ill-suited to confront the trap directly. A successful Intelligence (Religion) check might provide insight into the imagery displayed by a trap in a temple or shrine, giving other characters a clue about how and where to direct their efforts. A character could stand in front of a dart trap while holding a shield that the darts can target harmlessly, while other characters trigger that element as they work to disable it.

Complex Traps and Legendary Monsters

A complex trap is like a legendary monster in some ways. It has several tricks it can use on its turn, and it remains a threat throughout the round, not just on its turn. The trap’s active elements are like a legendary creature’s normal actions, and its constant elements are equivalent to legendary actions-except they are tied to specific areas in the trapped room.

Although a legendary creature can move, improvise actions, and so forth, a trap is set to a specific script-an aspect that has the potential to make a complex trap stale and predictable. That’s where dynamic elements come in. They keep the players on their toes and make dealing with a complex trap feel like a challenging, evolving situation.

Downtime Revisited

It’s possible for the characters to start a campaign at 1st level, dive into an epic story, and reach 10th level and beyond in a short amount of game time. Although that pace works fine for many campaigns, some DMs prefer a campaign story with pauses built into it—times when adventurers are not going on adventures. The downtime rules given in this section can be used as alternatives to the approach in the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide, or you can use the material here to inspire the creation of your own options.

By engaging the characters in downtime activities that take weeks or even months to complete, you can give your campaign a longer time line—one in which events in the world play out over years. Wars begin and end, tyrants come and go, and royal lines rise and fall over the course of the story that you and the characters tell.

Downtime rules also provide ways for characters to spend—or be relieved of—the monetary treasure they amass on their adventures.

The system presented here consists of two elements. First, it introduces the concept of rivals. Second, it details a number of downtime activities that characters can undertake.

Rivals

Rivals are NPCs who oppose the characters and make their presence felt whenever the characters are engaging in downtime. A rival might be a villain you have featured in past adventures or plan to use in the future. Rivals can also include good or neutral folk who are at odds with the characters, whether because they have opposing goals or they simply dislike one another. The cultist of Orcus whose plans the characters have foiled, the ambitious merchant prince who wants to rule the city with an iron fist, and the nosy high priest of Helm who is convinced the characters are up to no good are all examples of rivals.

A rival’s agenda changes over time. Though the characters engage in downtime only between adventures, their rivals rarely rest, continuing to spin plots and work against the characters even when the characters are off doing something else.

Creating a Rival

In essence, a rival is a somewhat specialized NPC. You can use chapter 4 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide to build a new NPC for this purpose, or pick one from your current cast of supporting characters and embellish that NPC as described below.

It’s possible for the characters to have two or three rivals at a time, each with a separate agenda. At least one should be a villain, but the others might be neutral or good; conflicts with those rivals might be social or political, rather than manifesting as direct attacks.

The best rivals have a connection with their adversaries on a personal level. Find links in the characters' backstories or the events of recent adventures that explain what sparked the rival’s actions. The best trouble to put the characters in is trouble they created for themselves.

Rival

To add the right amount of detail to a rival you want to create, give some thought to what that NPC is trying to accomplish and what resources and methods the rival can bring to bear against the characters.

Goals

An effective rival has a clear reason for interfering with the characters' lives. Think about what the rival wants, how and why the characters stand in the way, and how the conflict could be resolved. Ideally, a rival’s goal directly involves the characters or something they care about.

Assets

Think about the resources the rival can marshal. Does the character have enough money to pay bribes or to hire a small gang of mercenaries? Does the rival hold sway over any guilds, temples, or other groups? Make a list of the rival’s assets, and consider how they can be used.

Plans

The foundation of a rival’s presence in the campaign is the actions the rival takes or the events that occur as a result of that character’s goals. Each time you resolve one or more workweeks of downtime, pick one of the ways a rival’s plans might be advanced and introduce it into play.

Think about how a rival might operate in order to bring specific plans to fruition, and jot down three or four kinds of actions the rival might undertake. Some of these might be versions of the downtime activities described later in this section, but these are more often efforts that are specific to the rival.

A rival’s action might be a direct attack, such as an assassination attempt, that you play out during a session. Or it might be a background activity that you describe as altering the campaign in some way. For example, a rival who wants to increase the prestige of the temple of a war god might hold a festival with drink, food, and gladiatorial games. Even if the characters aren’t directly involved, the event becomes the talk of the town.

Some elements of a rival’s plans might involve events in the world that aren’t under the rival’s control. Whether such an event can be easily anticipated or not, the rival’s plans might include contingencies for taking advantage of such happenings.

Downtime Activities

Downtime activities are tasks that usually take a workweek (5 days) or longer to perform. These tasks can include buying or creating magic items, pulling off crimes, and working at a job. A character selects a downtime activity from among those available and pays the cost of that activity in time and money. You, as DM, then follow the rules for the activity to resolve it, informing the player of the results and any complications that ensue.

Consider handling downtime away from the game table. For example, you could have the players pick their downtime activities at the end of a session, and then communicate about them by email or text, until you next see them in person.

Resolving Activities

The description of each activity tells you how to resolve it. Many activities require an ability check, so be sure to note the character’s relevant ability modifiers. Follow the steps in the activity, and determine the results.

Most downtime activities require a workweek (5 days) to complete. Some activities require days, weeks (7 days), or months (30 days). A character must spend at least 8 hours of each day engaged in the downtime activity for that day to count toward the activity’s completion.

The days of an activity don’t need to be consecutive; you can spread them over a longer period of time than is required for the activity. But that period of time should be no more than twice as long as the required time; otherwise you should introduce extra complications (see below) and possibly double the activity’s costs to represent the inefficiency of the character’s progress.

Complications

The description of each activity includes a discussion of complications you can throw at the characters. The consequences of a complication might spawn entire adventures, introduce NPCs to vex the party, or give the characters headaches or advantages in any number of other ways.

Each of these sections has a table that offers possible complications. You can roll to determine a complication randomly, pick one from the table, or devise one of your own, and then share it with the player.

Example Downtime Activities

The following activities are suitable for any character who can afford to pursue them. As DM, you have the final say on which activities are available to the characters. The activities you allow might depend on the nature of the area where the characters are located. For example, you might disallow the creation of magic items or decide that the characters are in a town that is too isolated from major markets for them to buy such items.

Buying a Magic Item

Purchasing a magic item requires time and money to seek out and contact people willing to sell items. Even then, there is no guarantee a seller will have the items a character desires.

Resources

Finding magic items to purchase requires at least one workweek of effort and 100 gp in expenses. Spending more time and money increases your chance of finding a high-quality item.

Resolution

A character seeking to buy a magic item makes a Charisma (Persuasion) check to determine the quality of the seller found. The character gains a +1 bonus on the check for every workweek beyond the first that is spent seeking a seller and a +1 bonus for every additional 100 gp spent on the search, up to a maximum bonus of +10. The monetary cost includes a wealthy lifestyle, for a buyer must impress potential business partners.

As shown on the Buying Magic Items table, the total of the check dictates which table in the Dungeon Master’s Guide to roll on to determine which items are on the market. Or you can roll for items from any table associated with a lower total on the Buying Magic Items table. As a further option to reflect the availability of items in your campaign, you can apply a -10 penalty for low magic campaigns or a +10 bonus for high magic campaigns. Furthermore, you can double magic item costs in low magic campaigns.

Using the Magic Item Price table, you then assign prices to the available items, based on their rarity. Halve the price of any consumable item, such as a potion or a scroll, when using the table to determine an asking price.

You have final say in determining which items are for sale and their final price, no matter what the tables say.

If the characters seek a specific magic item, first decide if it’s an item you want to allow in your game. If so, include the desired item among the items for sale on a check total of 10 or higher if the item is common, 15 or higher if it is uncommon, 20 or higher if it is rare, 25 or higher if it is very rare, and 30 or higher if it is legendary.

Buying Magic Items

Magic Item Price

Complications

The magic item trade is fraught with peril. The large sums of money involved and the power offered by magic items attract thieves, con artists, and other villains. If you want to make things more interesting for the characters, roll on the Magic Item Purchase Complications table or invent your own complication.

Magic Item Purchase Complications

Carousing

Carousing is a default downtime activity for many characters. Between adventures, who doesn’t want to relax with a few drinks and a group of friends at a tavern?

Resources

Carousing covers a workweek of fine food, strong drink, and socializing. A character can attempt to carouse among lower-, middle-, or upper-class folk. A character can carouse with the lower class for 10 gp to cover expenses, or 50 gp for the middle class. Carousing with the upper class requires 250 gp for the workweek and access to the local nobility.

A character with the noble background can mingle with the upper class, but other characters can do so only if you judge that the character has made sufficient contacts. Alternatively, a character might use a disguise Kit and the Deception skill to pass as a noble visiting from a distant city.

Resolution

After a workweek of carousing, a character stands to make contacts within the selected social class. The character makes a Charisma (Persuasion) check using the Carousing table.

Carousing

Contacts are NPCs who now share a bond with the character. Each one either owes the character a favor or has some reason to bear a grudge. A hostile contact works against the character, placing obstacles but stopping short of committing a crime or a violent act. Allied contacts are friends who will render aid to the character, but not at the risk of their lives.

Lower-class contacts include criminals, laborers, mercenaries, the town guard, and any other folk who normally frequent the cheapest taverns in town.

Middle-class contacts include guild members, spellcasters, town officials, and other folk who frequent well-kept establishments.

Upper-class contacts are nobles and their personal servants. Carousing with such folk covers formal banquets, state dinners, and the like.

Once a contact has helped or hindered a character, the character needs to carouse again to get back into the NPC’s good graces. A contact provides help once, not help for life. The contact remains friendly, which can influence roleplaying and how the characters interact with them, but doesn’t come with a guarantee of help.

You can assign specific NPCs as contacts. You might decide that the barkeep at the Wretched Gorgon and a guard stationed at the western gate are the character’s allied contacts. Assigning specific NPCs gives the players concrete options. It brings the campaign to life and seeds the area with NPCs that the characters care about. On the other hand, it can prove difficult to track and might render a contact useless if that character doesn’t come into play.

Alternatively, you can allow the player to make an NPC into a contact on the spot, after carousing. When the characters are in the area in which they caroused, a player can expend an allied contact and designate an NPC they meet as a contact, assuming the NPC is of the correct social class based on how the character caroused. The player should provide a reasonable explanation for this relationship and work it into the game.

Using a mix of the two approaches is a good idea, since it gives you the added depth of specific contacts while giving players the freedom to ensure that the contacts they accumulate are useful.

The same process can apply to hostile contacts. You can give the characters a specific NPC they should avoid, or you might introduce one at an inopportune or dramatic moment.

At any time, a character can have a maximum number of unspecified allied contacts equal to 1 + the character’s Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). Specific, named contacts don’t count toward this limit—only ones that can be used at any time to declare an NPC as a contact.

Complications

Characters who carouse risk bar brawls, accumulating a cloud of nasty rumors, and building a bad reputation around town. As a rule of thumb, a character has a 10 percent chance of triggering a complication for each workweek of carousing.

Lower-Class Carousing Complications

Middle-Class Carousing Complications

Upper-Class Carousing Complications

Crafting an Item

A character who has the time, the money, and the needed tools can use downtime to craft armor, weapons, clothing, or other kinds of nonmagical gear.

Resources and Resolution

In addition to the appropriate tools for the item to be crafted, a character needs raw materials worth half of the item’s selling cost. To determine how many workweeks it takes to create an item, divide its gold piece cost by 50. A character can complete multiple items in a workweek if the items' combined cost is 50 gp or lower. Items that cost more than 50 gp can be completed over longer periods of time, as long as the work in progress is stored in a safe location.

Multiple characters can combine their efforts. Divide the time needed to create an item by the number of characters working on it. Use your judgment when determining how many characters can collaborate on an item. A particularly tiny item, like a ring, might allow only one or two workers, whereas a large, complex item might allow four or more workers.

A character needs to be proficient with the tools needed to craft an item and have access to the appropriate equipment. Everyone who collaborates needs to have the appropriate tool proficiency. You need to make any judgment calls regarding whether a character has the correct equipment. The following table provides some examples.

If all the above requirements are met, the result of the process is an item of the desired sort. A character can sell an item crafted in this way at its listed price.

Crafting Magic Items

Creating a magic item requires more than just time, effort, and materials. It is a long-term process that involves one or more adventures to track down rare materials and the lore needed to create the item.

Potions of healing and spell scrolls are exceptions to the following rules. For more information, see “Brewing Potions of Healing” later in this section and the “Scribing a Spell Scroll” section, below.

To start with, a character needs a formula for a magic item in order to create it. The formula is like a recipe. It lists the materials needed and steps required to make the item.

An item invariably requires an exotic material to complete it. This material can range from the skin of a yeti to a vial of water taken from a whirlpool on the Elemental Plane of Water. Finding that material should take place as part of an adventure.

The Magic Item Ingredients table suggests the challenge rating of a creature that the characters need to face to acquire the materials for an item. Note that facing a creature does not necessarily mean that the characters must collect items from its corpse. Rather, the creature might guard a location or a resource that the characters need access to.

Magic Item Ingredients

If appropriate, pick a monster or a location that is a thematic fit for the item to be crafted. For example, creating mariner’s armor might require the essence of a water weird. Crafting a staff of charming might require the cooperation of a specific arcanaloth, who will help only if the characters complete a task for it. Making a staff of power might hinge on acquiring a piece of an ancient stone that was once touched by the god of magic—a stone now guarded by a suspicious androsphinx.

In addition to facing a specific creature, creating an item comes with a gold piece cost covering other materials, tools, and so on, based on the item’s rarity. Those values, as well as the time a character needs to work in order to complete the item, are shown on the Magic Item Crafting Time and Cost table. Halve the listed price and creation time for any consumable items.

Magic Item Crafting Time and Cost

To complete a magic item, a character also needs whatever tool proficiency is appropriate, as for crafting a nonmagical object, or proficiency in the Arcana skill.

If all the above requirements are met, the result of the process is a magic item of the desired sort.

Complications

Most of the complications involved in creating something, especially a magic item, are linked to the difficulty in finding rare ingredients or components needed to complete the work. The complications a character might face as byproducts of the creation process are most interesting when the characters are working on a magic item: there’s a 10 percent chance for every five workweeks spent on crafting an item that a complication occurs. The Crafting Complications table provides examples of what might happen.

Crafting Complications

Brewing Potions of Healing

Potions of healing fall into a special category for item crafting, separate from other magic items. A character who has proficiency with the herbalism kit can create these potions. The times and costs for doing so are summarized on the Potion of Healing Creation table.

Potion of Healing Creation

Crime

Sometimes it pays to be bad. This activity gives a character the chance to make some extra cash, at the risk of arrest.

Resources

A character must spend one week and at least 25 gp gathering information on potential targets before committing the intended crime.

Resolution

The character must make a series of checks, with the DC for all the checks chosen by the character according to the amount of profit sought from the crime.

The chosen DC can be 10, 15, 20, or 25. Successful completion of the crime yields a number of gold pieces, as shown on the Loot Value table.

To attempt a crime, the character makes three checks: Dexterity (Stealth), Dexterity using thieves' tools, and the player’s choice of Intelligence (Investigation), Wisdom (Perception), or Charisma (Deception).

If none of the checks are successful, the character is caught and jailed. The character must pay a fine equal to the profit the crime would have earned and must spend one week in jail for each 25 gp of the fine.

If only one check is successful, the heist fails but the character escapes.

If two checks are successful, the heist is a partial success, netting the character half the payout.

If all three checks are successful, the character earns the full value of the loot.

Loot Value

Complications

A life of crime is filled with complications. Roll on the Crime Complications table (or create a complication of your own) if the character succeeds on only one check. If the character’s rival is involved in crime or law enforcement, a complication ensues if the character succeeds on only two checks.

Crime Complications

Gambling

Games of chance are a way to make a fortune—and perhaps a better way to lose one.

Resources

This activity requires one workweek of effort plus a stake of at least 10 gp, to a maximum of 1,000 gp or more, as you see fit.

Resolution

The character must make a series of checks, with a DC determined at random based on the quality of the competition that the character runs into. Part of the risk of gambling is that one never knows who might end up sitting across the table.

The character makes three checks: Wisdom (Insight), Charisma (Deception), and Charisma (Intimidation). If the character has proficiency with an appropriate gaming set, that tool proficiency can replace the relevant skill in any of the checks. The DC for each of the checks is 5 + 2d10; generate a separate DC for each one. Consult the Gambling Results table to see how the character did.

Gambling Results

Complications

Gambling tends to attract unsavory individuals. The potential complications involved come from run-ins with the law and associations with various criminals tied to the activity. Every workweek spent gambling brings a 10 percent chance of a complication, examples of which are on the Gambling Complications table.

Gambling Complications

Pit Fighting

Pit fighting includes boxing, wrestling, and other nonlethal forms of combat in an organized setting with predetermined matches. If you want to introduce competitive fighting in a battle-to-the-death situation, the standard combat rules apply to that sort of activity.

Resources

Engaging in this activity requires one workweek of effort from a character.

Resolution

The character must make a series of checks, with a DC determined at random based on the quality of the opposition that the character runs into. A big part of the challenge in pit fighting lies in the unknown nature of a character’s opponents.

The character makes three checks: Strength (Athletics), Dexterity (Acrobatics), and a special Constitution check that has a bonus equal to a roll of the character’s largest Hit Die (this roll doesn’t spend that die). If desired, the character can replace one of these skill checks with an attack roll using one of the character’s weapons. The DC for each of the checks is 5 + 2d10; generate a separate DC for each one. Consult the Pit Fighting Results table to see how the character did.

Pit Fighting Results

Complications

Characters involved in pit fighting must deal with their opponents, the people who bet on matches, and the matches' promoters. Every workweek spent pit fighting brings a 10 percent chance of a complication, examples of which are on the Pit Fighting Complications table.

Pit Fighting Complications

Relaxation

Sometimes the best thing to do between adventures is relax. Whether a character wants a hard-earned vacation or needs to recover from injuries, relaxation is the ideal option for adventurers who need a break. This option is also ideal for players who don’t want to make use of the downtime system.

Resources

Relaxation requires one week. A character needs to maintain at least a modest lifestyle while relaxing to gain the benefit of the activity.

Resolution

Characters who maintain at least a modest lifestyle while relaxing gain several benefits. While relaxing, a character gains advantage on saving throws to recover from long-acting diseases and poisons. In addition, at the end of the week, a character can end one effect that keeps the character from regaining hit points, or can restore one ability score that has been reduced to less than its normal value. This benefit cannot be used if the harmful effect was caused by a spell or some other magical effect with an ongoing duration.

Complications

Relaxation rarely comes with complications. If you want to make life complicated for the characters, introduce an action or an event connected to a rival.

Religious Service

Characters with a religious bent might want to spend downtime in service to a temple, either by attending rites or by proselytizing in the community. Someone who undertakes this activity has a chance of winning the favor of the temple’s leaders.

Resources

Performing religious service requires access to, and often attendance at, a temple whose beliefs and ethos align with the character’s. If such a place is available, the activity takes one workweek of time but involves no gold piece expenditure.

Resolution

At the end of the required time, the character chooses to make either an Intelligence (Religion) check or a Charisma (Persuasion) check. The total of the check determines the benefits of service, as shown on the Religious Service table.

Religious Service

A favor, in broad terms, is a promise of future assistance from a representative of the temple. It can be expended to ask the temple for help in dealing with a specific problem, for general political or social support, or to reduce the cost of cleric spellcasting by 50 percent. A favor could also take the form of a deity’s intervention, such as an omen, a vision, or a minor miracle provided at a key moment. This latter sort of favor is expended by the DM, who also determines its nature.

Favors earned need not be expended immediately, but only a certain number can be stored up. A character can have a maximum number of unused favors equal to 1 + the character’s Charisma modifier (minimum of one unused favor).

Complications

Temples can be labyrinths of political and social scheming. Even the best-intentioned sect can fall prone to rivalries. A character who serves a temple risks becoming embroiled in such struggles. Every workweek spent in religious service brings a 10 percent chance of a complication, examples of which are on the Religious Service Complications table.

Religious Service Complications

Research

Forewarned is forearmed. The research downtime activity allows a character to delve into lore concerning a monster, a location, a magic item, or some other particular topic.

Resources

Typically, a character needs access to a library or a sage to conduct research. Assuming such access is available, conducting research requires one workweek of effort and at least 50 gp spent on materials, bribes, gifts, and other expenses.

Resolution

The character declares the focus of the research—a specific person, place, or thing. After one workweek, the character makes an Intelligence check with a +1 bonus per 50 gp spent beyond the initial 50 gp, to a maximum of +6. In addition, a character who has access to a particularly well-stocked library or knowledgeable sages gains advantage on this check. Determine how much lore a character learns using the Research Outcomes table.

Research Outcomes

Each piece of lore is the equivalent of one true statement about a person, place, or thing. Examples include knowledge of a creature’s resistances, the password needed to enter a sealed dungeon level, the spells commonly prepared by an order of wizards, and so on.

As DM, you are the final arbiter concerning exactly what a character learns. For a monster or an NPC, you can reveal elements of statistics or personality. For a location, you can reveal secrets about it, such as a hidden entrance, the answer to a riddle, or the nature of a creature that guards the place.

Complications

The greatest risk in research is uncovering false information. Not all lore is accurate or truthful, and a rival with a scholarly bent might try to lead the character astray, especially if the object of the research is known to the rival. The rival might plant false information, bribe sages to give bad advice, or steal key tomes needed to find the truth.

In addition, a character might run into other complications during research. Every workweek spent in research brings a 10 percent chance of a complication, examples of which are on the Research Complications table.

Research Complications

Scribing a Spell Scroll

With time and patience, a spellcaster can transfer a spell to a scroll, creating a spell scroll.

Resources

Scribing a spell scroll takes an amount of time and money related to the level of the spell the character wants to scribe, as shown in the Spell Scroll Costs table. In addition, the character must have proficiency in the Arcana skill and must provide any material components required for the casting of the spell. Moreover, the character must have the spell prepared, or it must be among the character’s known spells, in order to scribe a scroll of that spell.

If the scribed spell is a cantrip, the version on the scroll works as if the caster were 1st level.

Spell Scroll Costs

Complications

Crafting a spell scroll is a solitary task, unlikely to attract much attention. The complications that arise are more likely to involve the preparation needed for the activity. Every workweek spent scribing brings a 10 percent chance of a complication, examples of which are on the Scribe a Scroll Complications table.

Scribe a Scroll Complications

Selling a Magic Item

Selling a magic item is by no means an easy task. Con artists and thieves are always looking out for an easy score, and there’s no guarantee that a character will receive a good offer even if a legitimate buyer is found.

Resources

A character can find a buyer for one magic item by spending one workweek and 25 gp, which is used to spread word of the desired sale. A character must pick one item at a time to sell.

Resolution

A character who wants to sell an item must make a Charisma (Persuasion) check to determine what kind of offer comes in. The character can always opt not to sell, instead forfeiting the workweek of effort and trying again later. Use the Magic Item Base Prices and Magic Item Offer tables to determine the sale price.

Magic Item Base Prices

Magic Item Offer

Complications

The main risk in selling a magic item lies in attracting thieves and anyone else who wants the item but doesn’t want to pay for it. Other folk might try to undermine a deal in order to bolster their own business or seek to discredit the character as a legitimate seller. Every workweek spent trying to sell an item brings a 10 percent chance of a complication, examples of which are on the Magic Item Sale Complications table.

Magic Item Sale Complications

Training

Given enough free time and the services of an instructor, a character can learn a language or pick up proficiency with a tool.

Resources

Receiving training in a language or tool typically takes at least ten workweeks, but this time is reduced by a number of workweeks equal to the character’s Intelligence modifier (an Intelligence penalty doesn’t increase the time needed). Training costs 25 gp per workweek.

Complications

Complications that arise while training typically involve the teacher. Every ten workweeks spent in training brings a 10 percent chance of a complication, examples of which are on the Training Complications table.

Training Complications

Work

When all else fails, an adventurer can turn to an honest trade to earn a living. This activity represents a character’s attempt to find temporary work, the quality and wages of which are difficult to predict.

Resources

Performing a job requires one workweek of effort.

Resolution

To determine how much money a character earns, the character makes an ability check: Strength (Athletics), Dexterity (Acrobatics), Intelligence using a set of tools, Charisma (Performance), or Charisma using a musical instrument. Consult the Wages table to see how much money is generated according to the total of the check.

Wages

Complications

Ordinary work is rarely filled with significant complications. Still, the Work Complications table can add some difficulties to a worker’s life. Each workweek of activity brings a 10 percent chance that a character encounters a complication.

Work Complications

Awarding Magic Items

Magic items are prized by D&D adventurers of all sorts and are often the main reward in an adventure. The rules for magic items are presented, along with the Treasure Hoard tables, in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. This section expands on those rules by offering you an alternative way of determining which magic items end up in the characters' possession and by adding a collection of common magic items to the game. The section ends with tables that group magic items according to rarity.

The system in the dungeon master’s guide is designed so that you can generate all treasure randomly, and the tables also govern the number of magic items the characters receive. In short, the tables do the work. But a DM who’s designing or modifying an adventure might prefer to choose the magic items that come into play. If you’re in that situation, you can use the rules in this section to personalize your treasure hoards while staying within the game’s limits for how many items the characters should ultimately accumulate.

Distribution by Rarity

This alternative method of treasure determination focuses on choosing magic items based on their rarity, rather than by rolling on the tables in the dungeon master’s guide. This method uses two tables: Magic Items Awarded by Tier and Magic Items Awarded by Rarity.

Magic Items Awarded by Tier

By Tier

The Magic Items Awarded by Tier table shows the number of magic items a D&D party typically gains during a campaign, culminating in the group’s having accumulated one hundred magic items by 20th level. The table shows how many of those items are meant to be handed out during each of the four tiers of play. The emphasis on characters receiving more items during the second tier (levels 5-10) than in other tiers is by design. The second tier is where much of the play occurs in a typical D&D campaign, and the items gained in that tier prepare the characters for higher-level adventures.

By Rarity

The Magic Items Awarded by Rarity table takes the numbers from the Magic Items Awarded by Tier table and breaks them down to show the number of items of each rarity the characters are expected to have when they reach the end of a tier.

Magic Items Awarded by Rarity - Minor

Magic Items Awarded by Rarity - Major

Minor and Major Items

Both tables in this section make a distinction between minor magic items and major magic items. This distinction exists in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, yet those terms aren’t used there. In that book, the minor items are those listed on Magic Item Tables A through E, and the major items are on Magic Item Tables F through I. As you can see from the Treasure Hoard tables in that book, major magic items are meant to be handed out much less frequently than minor items, even at higher levels of play.

Behind the Design: Magic Item Distribution

The dungeon master’s guide assumes a certain amount of treasure will be found over the course of a campaign. Over twenty levels of typical play, the game expects forty-five rolls on the Treasure Hoard tables, distributed as follows:

• Seven rolls on the Challenge 0-4 table

• Eighteen rolls on the Challenge 5-10 table

• Twelve rolls on the Challenge 11-16 table

• Eight rolls on the Challenge 17+ table

Because many of the table results call for more than one magic item, those forty-five rolls will result in the characters obtaining roughly one hundred items. The optional system described here yields the same number of items, distributed properly throughout the spectrum of rarity, while enabling you to control exactly which items the characters have a chance of acquiring.

Choosing Items Level by Level

You decide when to place an item in an adventure that you’re creating or modifying, usually because you think the story calls for a magic item, the characters need one, or the players would be especially pleased to get one.

When you want to select an item as treasure for an encounter, the Magic Items Awarded by Rarity table serves as your item budget. Here’s how to use it:

1. Jot down a copy of the table in your notes, so that you can make adjustments to the numbers as you select items to be placed in an adventure.

2. Refer to the line in the Level/CR column that corresponds to one of the following values (your choice): the level of the player characters, the challenge rating of the magic item’s owner, or the challenge rating of the group of creatures guarding the item. The entries in that row of the table indicate the total number of items that would be appropriate for the characters to receive by the end of the tier represented by that row.

3. Choose a magic item of any rarity for which the entry in this row is not 0.

4. When the characters obtain an item, modify your notes to indicate which part of your budget this expenditure came from by subtracting 1 from the appropriate entry on the table.

In the future, if you choose an item of a rarity that’s not available in the current tier but is still available in a lower tier, deduct the item from the lower tier. If all lower tiers also have no items available of a given rarity, deduct the item from a higher tier.

Choosing Items Piecemeal

If you prefer a more free-form method of choosing magic items, simply select each magic item you want to give out; then, when the characters acquire one, deduct it from the Magic Items Awarded by Rarity table in your notes. Whenever you do so, start with the lowest tier, and deduct the item from the first number you come across in the appropriate rarity column for the item, whether its minor or major. If that tier doesn’t have a number greater than 0 for that rarity, go up a tier until you find one that does, and deduct the magic item from that number. Following this process, you will zero out each row of the table in order, going from the lowest levels to the highest.

Overstocking an Adventure

The magic item tables in this section are based on the number of items the characters are expected to receive, not the number of items that are available in an adventure. When creating or modifying an adventure, assume that the characters won’t find all the items you place in it, unless most of the loot is in easy-to-find locations. Here’s a good rule of thumb: an adventure can include a number of items that’s 25 percent higher than the numbers in the tables (round up). For example, an adventure designed to take characters from 1st to 4th level might include fourteen items rather than eleven, in the expectation that three of those items won’t be found.

Are Magic Items Necessary in a Campaign?

The D&D game is built on the assumption that magic items appear sporadically and that they are always a boon, unless an item bears a curse. Characters and monsters are built to face each other without the help of magic items, which means that having a magic item always makes a character more powerful or versatile than a generic character of the same level. As DM, you never have to worry about awarding magic items just so the characters can keep up with the campaign’s threats. Magic items are truly prizes. Are they useful? Absolutely. Are they necessary? No.

Magic items can go from nice to necessary in the rare group that has no spellcasters, no monk, and no NPCs capable of casting magic weapon. Having no magic makes it extremely difficult for a party to overcome monsters that have resistances or immunity to nonmagical damage. In such a game, you’ll want to be generous with magic weapons or else avoid using such monsters.

Common Magic Items

The dungeon master’s guide includes many magic items of every rarity. The one exception are common items; that book includes few of them. This section introduces more of them to the game. These items seldom increase a character’s power, but they are likely to amuse players and provide fun roleplaying opportunities.

The magic items are presented in alphabetical order.

Magic Item Tables

The items in the Items page are classified as minor or major according to the tables originally found in this section.

Recharging without a Dawn

Some magic items can be used a limited number of times but are recharged by the arrival of dawn. What if you’re on a plane of existence that lacks anything resembling dawn? The DM should choose a time every 24 hours when such magic items recharge on that plane of existence.

Even on a world that experiences dawn each day, the DM is free to choose a different time-perhaps noon, sunset, or midnight-when certain magic items recharge.