There are very rare magic items that increase your stat score by two, such as the Manual of Bodily Health. these items say once you use them they lose their magic until a century passes. I can't find anywhere stating that it cannot increase your score above a 20.  Is it possible that if my character has the Manual of Bodily Health and lives 1000 years, he could have a Constitution score of 40 with a +15 Con modifier and a +15 to each level in HP?
34764
Can I increase an ability score over 30 with an item such as a Manual of Bodily Health?     [After reading] this book... your Constitution score increases by 2, as does your maximum for that score.
62908
My party has stumbled upon an abandoned library.  They've found some books that they want to read and study.  I've told them if they read and study the books they'll gain a proficiency bonus for the subject and one book will give them the knowledge to create a magic item.    Unfortunately, I'm not sure how long it should take to read and study these books. An hour or day seems too short.  Three to four weeks, reading a couple hours a day, is closer to what I spend in real life (and honestly reading just one book in real life does not give one any kind of proficiency).  Given what they're about to face, it would be best for them to get the bonuses and construct the magic item sooner rather than later, but I want to keep some air of realism too.    Are there any guidelines and, if not, are there tested and successful house rules I could use?  Obviously length, difficulty of the subject, intelligence of the reader, will have some effect on this.  So I'm hoping for something like \$D\div(I+1)\$ days for every 100 pages, where \$D\$ is the difficulty factor (based on language and subject) and \$I\$ is the character’s intelligence bonus.  Or maybe I'm just being too mathematical.    I'm more interested in balancing giving bonuses/knowledge through books, which I think should be somehow related to how long it takes to read a book.
43107
I'm a new DM. One of the PCs obtained , which raise the Strength score of the creature wearing and attuned to them to 19. Does this increase the modifier or any of the skill checks or damage rolls as well?  I'm not sure how having higher Strength is helpful if it doesn't.
103282
Suppose that in the course of an adventure, you come across some magic or otherwise special item (magic, or has special properties, or both); for instance, you find a necklace of resistance, or an animal with a hide that's immune to slash/pierce, or something of that nature.  Is it generally possible, either within the system itself or commonly in house rules, to allow characters to try to "repurpose" these items to craft weapons, armor or items that have special properties? Some mechanic that reduces the crafting cost, obviates the requirement to know a spell or have a feat, or makes it possible to create something not otherwise available. For instance, maybe you kill a medusa and tie its head on a stick... Or something.  I am very new to tabletop role playing, so forgive me if this is a silly question. I'm just thinking that, in "real" life, it seems like it could be possible to do this kind of thing, except, of course, no magic and not many special physical properties...
6463
I'm sure your first thought is, that's perfectly clear.  Unfortunately my group who aren't normally rules lawyers disagree.  Party encounters a  (MM p.211).  It has:     Damage Immunities: bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical   attacks not made with silvered weapons.   My reading of that is if the weapon has to be magical and silvered to hurt it.  So a +1 silver dagger will hurt it, but a +1 regular dagger or a +0 silver dagger won't.  The group's interpretation was that all three of those weapons would hurt and only a +0 regular dagger would be ineffective.    I would also note my interpretation would mean something like blade barrier would also not harm it since you could argue they're magical blades but nothing indicates that they're silvered.    This also appears to be the same wording for some undead so I'm not looking for a lycanthrope specific interpretation but something general for every time that wording is used.    Thanks in advance.
90286
WotC recently released the Basic Rules for the DM, and with it came a few items like the Amulet of Health:     Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)      Your Constitution is 19 while you wear this amulet. The amulet has no   effect on you if your Constitution is already 19 or higher.   The Basic Rules state at the end of Chapter 1, under "Beyond 1st Level":     When your Constitution modifier increases by 1, your hit point maximum   increases by 1 for each level you have attained. For example, when   Bruenor reaches 8th level as a fighter, he increases his Constitution   score from 17 to 18, thus increasing his Constitution modifier from +3   to +4. His hit point maximum then increases by 8.   But it doesn't explain what happens when the Constitution modifier decreases!  My players will soon get the Amulet as a reward, and I fear that they will just pass the item around to increase everyone's max HP; I want to prevent that. Are the HP lost when a character is no longer attuned to the Amulet?
80028
Me and my friends are pretty new to D&amp;D and are likely getting the majority of the rules wrong. I believe I understand AC: an AC of 16 means you must roll a die (+modifier) of 16 or greater to deal damage, and anything over that AC is taken as hitpoint damage?  What I was wondering was, at level 1, I believe I have a d10 halberd and a +4 strength modifier. However, the guards we're fighting have an AC of 16, making it completely impossible to even get past their AC. So we played it as if we could group attack, i.e. add up all our attack scores then remove whatever was excess of the AC from HP. Pretty sure we're playing some rules wrong, could anybody shed some light on the subject?  Not sure which version of D&amp;D I'm using. It's the free pdf version released in August:   I have read the armour class section of the rulebook. Is it perhaps that first you roll a d20 (+modififers) to see if you beat armour class, then you do a damage roll?
48366
Among the effects of Wild Shapes, these two:     Your game Statistics are replaced by the Statistics of the beast, but   you retain your alignment, personality, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and   Charisma scores. You also retain all of your skill and saving throw   proficiencies, in addition to gaining those of the creature. If the   creature has the same proficiency as you and the bonus in its stat   block is higher than yours, use the creature's bonus instead of yours.   If the creature has any legendary or lair actions, you can't use them.      You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other   source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing   so. However, you can't use any of your Special senses, such as   Darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense (PHB p.67, "Wild Shape")   Seem to come into conflict with each other when things like Draconic Resilience:     When you aren't wearing armor, your AC equals 13 + your Dexterity   modifier. (PHB p.102, "Draconic Bloodline")   and Barbarians:     While you are not wearing any armor, your Armor Class equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier. You can use a Shield and still gain this benefit.   and Monks:     Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a Shield, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier.   and Stone Sorcerers:     As an action, you can gain a base AC of 13 + your Constitution   modifier if you aren’t wearing armor, and your skin assumes a stony   appearance. This effect lasts until you end it as a bonus action, you   are incapacitated, or you don armor other than a shield.   How would these resolve?
27052
We've got a party with a Celestial Mystic (Book of Exalted Deeds), and I was reading about his level 9 ability, which grants him DR 10/Unholy. Would this be different from DR/evil, as in it would only be breached by unholy weapons, and not attacks from evil outsiders?  I'm asking this because I haven't seen any monsters or anything that have things like DR/Unholy, Holy, Axiomatic, etc. It's usually just Good/Evil/Lawful/Chaotic. Has anyone seen any material throughout the books like this? My intuition tells me it's a typo and should be DR 10/evil, but the errata doesn't say anything about this.
92491
The Fighter archetype "Champion" lists the skills "Improved Critical" and "Superior Critical", which state that my weapon attacks score a critical hit on natural 19-20 and natural 18-20, respectively. The description for either of these abilities don't explicitly state whether these attacks have the autohit properties of a natural 20 or not, though they could be interpreted to mean that. Given a single level 3 Champion fighter with no active magical effects fighting an enemy with infinite AC, would that fighter have a 5% chance to hit (nat 20 only), or a 10% chance to hit (nat 19+20)?
91916
From reading the current preview of the "Basic Rules" it looks like each ability score is now granted the possibility of being connected to a Saving Throw. In fact, certain classes get proficiency with a saves against a given attribute, such as a Fighter getting proficiency in saves for STR and CON. So instead of Reflex/Fort/Will saves, we have a save for each ability score.  At first glance, I really like this idea. A spell should clearly be able to be "defended" by something other than just DEX/CON/WIS.  However, I looked through the existing spell list and all of spells use only DEX/CON/WIS for saves.  What's going on here? Is this on purpose? Is this an oversight?   Why give Fighters proficiency in STR saves and then not print a single spell that uses that stat? (Note that Web appears to allow an STR "check" but not an STR "save" to escape, though this may be a mistake.)    My driver for this question was the oddity of inventing STR saves or INT saves and then not printing a single spell in the Basic set that used them. Based on the answers below, there are spells printed in the "playtest" set that do use these saves. So there is some reference material for what should be a STR save.  However, the answers below have even more and better information.
111055
Are there any drawbacks to using a wish spell to increase ability scores? If not then what would stop players from just using wish repeatedly and raising their ability scores to 30?  I'm just getting back into RPGs with D&amp;D 5e after not playing for years, and I seem to remember this being covered in the editions we played back then.
75954
I was thinking of a way for a humanoid (PC or NPC) to live forever in a D&amp;D setting, but through rather "common" and reproducible means, such that they will be available to many. By this logic I exclude cases such as a god giving immortality (or some other intervention) or a unique item granting an endless lifespan etc.  To cover all bases I will note that miracle and wish cannot do this directly, nor can true resurrection (and its lesser brethren) "restore to life a creature who has died of old age".  I had came up with the following ruse:   Reach your deathbed with at least 2 HD (or levels). Have someone kill you so that the cause of death will not be "old age". Have a druid cast reincarnate on you into a young body. You "recall the majority of your former life". I assume your memories, personality/identity and experiences are preserved.   Rinse and repeat. It's not that difficult to recover the 1 HD lost through the course of almost a lifetime. The material components are worth 1,000 gp - might not be easy to get, but surely possible.  Furthermore, it is stated that "A wish or a miracle spell can restore a reincarnated character to his or her original form.". I assume the "original form" is the aged humanoid at his or her deathbed - not the direction we are looking for, unless it means that the humanoid restores his race only.  Is there a flaw in this plan? Is there another way of doing it?
47473
Assuming you are level 1 and have access to any item that you can afford at character creation rolling the maximum amount of starting gold, how high can your permanent  AC become (permanently, not for any lesser set duration)?  Constraints:   Only , Unearthed Arcana is not legal for this character creation. All  are legal, all other races are illegal for character creation. Items are those that you can purchase. All skills, feats and abilities available to a player character are eligible. A sole player character has to achieve this AC on their own, without any help from allies (pet companions, PCs, NPCs etc.) Starting attributes can be rolled (that includes all 18s down the line) or achieved by point-buy. I have no preference for either.     Heavily related:   This linked question also includes temporary AC. My current question, however, is strictly about permanent AC.
60444
I am new to D&amp;D and I'm starting with the 5th edition. I have a question about how many hit points I have for a level. I am confused about the con modifier per level and if it is added to first level.  Let's say my con modifier is +3 and I decide to take 6 instead of rolling the d10 (as a Ranger).   Hit Points at 1st level: 10 + Constitution Modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution Modifier per ranger level after 1st.   At first level, my HP is 13. OK. That I understand. At the 2nd level is it 6 + 3 (con. modifier) equal to 9, then added to my first level's HP, for a total of 22? Or is it 6 + 3 (con modifier for first level) + 3 (con modifier for second level) equal to 12? Then is this added to the HP from first level?  If you could give me an example of, say, the first 4 levels of a ranger using the numbers I gave you (6 instead of d10 and +3 as a con modifier), that might make it easier to explain.
33125
Let's suppose you're facing an enemy that has resistance against non-magical weapons. Alas, you have no magical weapon, but you do have your trusty Alchemy Jug that you routinely use to produce mayonnaise. You grab the Jug and use it as an improvised weapon. Does it count as magical for the purpose of overcoming damage resistance?  (How resistant a magical item is to physical damage is a bit of DM's fiat. For the sake of this question, assume the Jug is indestructible.)
112114
I've noticed that for full table magic users (spells going up to 9th level), a new level spell slot opens up every two levels, it goes like this up until level 17 where it caps off at that point assumedly since there are no 10th level spell slots to be gained on levels 19 and 20.  It looks like there's some math going on behind the scenes here so I was wondering if anyone has had a crack at this and figured how similar tables could be constructed for homebrew content?  Context: I'm brewing together a system for a sorcerer which requires them to keep using spells to discharge their inner magic on a daily basis or risk their magic overflowing and potentially causing hilarious terrible things to happen to them and/or their party. I've got the capacity and mechanics down I just now need to figure out a way to keep the discharge effort consistent with the sorcerer gaining more and higher level spells as they level up.  To clear up some confusion I'll give an example situation.  Let's make it relatively simple and say I want a sorcerer to spend half of his magic every day or else he catches fire.  For 1st and 2nd level it's pretty straightforward:   1st level - player has two 1st level slots, has to use one to achieve 50% 2nd level - player has three 1st level slots, has to use two to achieve at least 50% 3rd level - this is where the problems start, player now has four 1st level slots and two 2nd level slots, using two 1st level spells and one 2nd level spell would be 50%, but what if they cast four 1st level spells, would that be the same? Is a 2nd level spell slot really twice as good as a 1st level spell slot? What about 3rd level spell slot?   I was looking for a mathematical formula which would detail the growth in slot amount and level to then perhaps somehow be able to extract an intrinsic value of a spell slot level, which would then allow me to assign a numerical figure to a casters spell budget, which I would be able to then apply percentage based goals upon.