I have been a DM for 35 years, and now we are embarking on 5th ed. I am playing a 1st level Barbarian. Due to Ideals and Bonds and stuff, I am letting other party members get the “kill” on stuff I have done basically all the damage to. The DM is only awarding XP to the final “kill shot” which means I am no XP. That would be fine if he was awarding me Inspiration, but he’s not...  Is there any guidance for DMs that I can show him that says I should get some of the XP for doing most of the damage to an opponent?
58647
At this point, I am unclear as to how to handle encounter XP. Does each surviving party member receive a proportional share, or the full amount? That is, assume a 4-character party had completed an encounter worth 400 XP. Would each party member receive 100 XP, or 400 XP?
83712
I'm a new DM with a group of very new players. I've read through the rules and some of the Player's Handbook (I just haven't finished it yet). We are still within the first arc of the campaign and have plenty of time to figure everything out and for the players to reach the end goal, so I'm not super worried about them leveling up super quickly. Everyone is currently level 1, just so that had something to start out with.   Something I have yet to understand is leveling up within classes. What do I need the players to achieve in order to level up? Is it something I just decide when I think they're "ready", or do they gain experience points or something with each battle? I understand what the players will gain when they level up (like the spells and features and bonus actions and stuff). Is this covered more clearly in the handbook?
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?
60868
Inspired by the efforts to kill a , the GM in me got in a fight with the engineer.  Per the text from Death Saves, taking damage while you have 0 hit points will cause a death saving throw failure (PHB, 197).  Of the first bullet, what qualifies as a source of damage? Specifically, how does evaluate an attack that has multiple components, such as:        An attack action that is able to take multiple attacks, each requiring an attack roll. Fighter     A spell that can produce multiple elements, each require an attack roll. Eldritch Blast, Scorching Ray      RAW, I expect each would be an independent source. As a GM, this seems overly brutal against the party, and a bit anti climatic against a non player character that has been raised to using death saves.
96249
While I've been running my campaign, I'm starting to get stumped. I am playing with a party of four, and we recently switched from 3.5 to Pathfinder, but the problem was the same in both situations.  No matter what I throw at the party, they seem to have no problems. Even if I put them up against something that is supposed to be 'Epic' or 'overwhelming' in terms of CR, they make out just fine. The one exception to this is when I had several encounters in one day that taxed them to near death. Usually I have about two encounters a day, but that day I had four encounters, with two of them being APL+1 and the other two being APL+2, and that was challenging. But other than that nothing seems to faze them!  How can I make the game more challenging without making it harder?  Just for reference, the party is fairly standard, and low level (level 4):   Wizard (tends to resort to mind-affecting spells, or grease if the creature is immune) Cleric (heals a lot, but always has spells / healing left over) Rogue (sneak attack, of course, which is more potent in Pathfinder) Fighter (gets enlarged and in-charge'd)
120198
Are there rules for creating level 0 characters in 5e? I've been running a campaign where the players begin sub-standard and 1st Level characters are generated in-game as the story unfolds. I just made them all begin with a couple of hp and 9's across the board for ability scores (since I wanted them at a disadvantage compared to the average human, and to fail at a generic DC10 task more often than succeed).  It was a real grind, with many opportunities for TPK (total party kill) when faced with even a single challenge rating 1/2 adversary (obviously I fudged the dice a little to prevent this). Are there published rules for this?  If there aren’t published rules for this, has anyone tried doing something like this? Any first hand experience on how it has played out would be welcome.
69668
Some friends and I want to start playing D&amp;D (5e), but none of us, DM included (not me) have played before to any great extent. The DM and I have some cursory experience with 4e, but have never been able to play to any great extent. Is this advisable, or should we play with existing groups first? We live in a relatively remote area, making it hard to find experienced players.
120600
Context: the last version I played was AD&amp;D (ie. 1e) where characters could (technically) progress to unlimited levels. Looking at the 5e PHB I get a sense that 20th level is now a concrete ceiling in terms of character level, and no progression beyond that is possible -- but I can't find it explicitly stated anywhere. Is this the case?   (NB. I'd have no objection to a Lvl20 limit, but I'd like to know for definite, since of course it has a major impact on how one plans a multi-class character).
28290
I'm reading through the new DM D&amp;D Basic Rules, but I'm confused about the challenge rating of a monster.  Does the challenge rating assume a single PC or a group of PC's? As a CR3 a challenge for 1 PC (like with 4th Edition), or for a group of PC's? If so, for how large a group? How should a DM choose monster with more or less PC's?
39859
I am currently running Lost Mines of Phandelver for a fluid group of about 10 people. We play once a week and on a given night 4-6 people will show up. We've been doing this for 4 months now. I have very limited experience as a DM so for all intents and purposes, I am new. At this point most of the players have a working understanding of how their classes work and what their various class and race specific quirks and abilities are.  Whenever someone forgets something relating to their class, I'll pass them the PHB or basic rules and let them look it up on their own. If there are questions regarding the rules, I look up the answer myself. I've never explicitly stated this but it's the precedent. It is very important that players are expected to be as self sufficient as possible because we have a large group and I'm stretched thin.  I have a problem player (PP) who wanted to be a sorcerer. I told him that he'd have to keep track of his spells and more stats than everyone else and that he'd probably have more fun playing a non-magic class but he insisted. I handed him the PHB to choose his spells and he chose all of them at random.  Below are the primary issues, most of which come up during combat, and what I've done to remedy them:   PP does not know what any of his spells do but tries to cast them anyway. Whenever he casts a spell I'll ask him what it does or if he has the requisite materials and he'll say he doesn't know. This turns into me pausing the flow of the game to look up the spell, explain it to him, and then continue. I have tried asking him to write his spells down but that results in the next problem. PP takes horrible notes. He'll write out a couple words on a spell that he can't decipher later or straight up write the wrong spell down. He does the same with his ability scores and stats. We've had to reroll his health before because he was not tracking max health. He is so inconsistent and disorganized that we have to recalculate his stats for every relevant action he takes. This also annoys the other players because he is constantly losing items. I give him unlimited crossbow ammo as a courtesy and match his xp to the average of the other players. I've asked PP repeatedly to print out all his spells from the wiki or something but he forgets every time. I would do this for him but then I'd have to do it for everyone (I have far too many players) and I don't want to set a precedent of being a nanny. Also I'm afraid that if I give him any more help he'll expect me to track everything for him. So, I keep holding up the game to look up spells and ask him to do something about this. He understands the problem but does not deal with it. PP does not understand the larger meaning behind any of the numbers. All of the other players understand that difficult actions require higher rolls and they have a feel for when their health is low. PP doesn't get this and won't do anything (including self preservation) but fire his crossbow unless the other players ask him to. I encourage him to read the PHB. I've sent him links, I've put the book in front of him, he'll open to a page to humor me but won't actually read. I don't want to lend him my PHB to read on his own because he has a history of forgetting things at home.   I don't want to kick him out. He really shines during the RP segments (he even uses spells outside of combat very effectively) and he's a fun player but he is such an impediment during combat that I need help dealing with him. Other players will occasionally memorize spells for him or look things up while I'm doing other things but we're all new and the table gets easily frustrated.  What should I do?
96778
In D&amp;D 3.5, does taking levels in a prestige class cause the XP penalty like multiclassing does? Please provide the source of the answer so I can show it to my players.
103271
I'm pretty new to DM'ing and was just wondering if there would be a way to start the hoard of the dragon queen adventure with a group of 4th level characters?  There don't really seem to be any modules for that level range yet.  We just finished a short module that took our party to level 4, but id really like to play through this adventure because it seems awesome. Also I couldn't really find any other ones that start around that level so rather than re-roll characters we'll just start a little of the way in.
93753
So, after a few sessions, the new player I'd invited has been a bit of a disaster. He doesn't get on well with any of the other players, laughed when someone's character died (in our campaign that's permanent at the moment), and generally has been a nuisance. However, he doesn't seem to notice this. I've talked to him about his behaviour, but it hasn't helped. Several other players have also approached me on their own to register concerns.  The long and short of it is, he's not a good fit for our game or social group, due to his abrasive personality/playstyle (as I and the other players perceive it). He's also not interested in roleplaying (something my group does heavily, at the moment) and continually pushes to place himself in the limelight - which he does by instigating combat and trying to skip over what he sees as 'boring' scenes. His character is a Minotaur barbarian, and the most exotic race in the game, but he only uses it for the stat bonuses, and doesn't even have a backstory - he simply says he doesn't need one. However, I don't want to be rude or otherwise unkind to him, as I will still see him around after he leaves the group, and so will the other players.  How can I politely ask him to leave the group, without being dishonest but avoiding embarrassment for anyone? I also want to avoid seeming to 'abandon' him, or 'go behind his back'.  Note: There are few/no in-game problems with adding or removing characters, and I don't need advice for that. This is strictly about handling the player. The system (not that it's all that relevant to the problem) is
14352
The Barbarian's Rage ability gives advantage on Strength checks and saving throws.  Does this mean that the Barbarian gets advantage to attack rolls as well? Is an attack a check, or since saving throws are mentioned, that means it does not apply to attacks?
33797
As a fairly new DM, one thing that has commonly occurred in my sessions so far is my PC's starting combat outside of initiative.  For example after a telepathic conversation with a Nothic was going south, my Rogue said 'I shoot him with my shortbow'. At the time I wasn't sure of the correct ruling for this situation so I allowed him to attack and then rolled initiative to start the combat proper. I ensured that the Nothic wasn't surprised though as it was clear that these were two hostile forces trying to work each other out.   Coming away from the session I knew this wasn't right and wanted to get the official answer before next time. I came across this question . The accepted answer here as per RAW is that after the Rogue announced his attack, everyone should roll initiative and if anyone of the party go before the Rogue, then they will just move and ready an action. However I don't like the sound of this as I believe it takes a bit away from the players agency of quick-drawing an attack before the other side has a chance to respond.  Therefore my idea is as follows. In this situation again, the Rogue attacks and then everyone rolls initiative. Then in the turn order, the Rogue skips this 'turn' in the first round as they have already taken it at the top of the 'round'. After the first round the Rogue's turn then falls back into place depending on their initiative roll.   My question. Is this balanced and practical? I know that as DM I have the authority to have this as a house rule. But I wanted to make sure that this is not over-powered and that it is not in conflict with any spells/feats/abilities etc. Will it work?
90627
Forgive me for not being good at game terminology, but there is one concept that I simply have been unable to fully grasp after reading the core rulebook.  In the book, there are mentions of Character Level, Class Level and Level (just being mentioned as level or "your" level).  Are we talking character level or class level when I'm asked "What's your level?"  Could anyone make a solid explanation that I can remember? The rest of my party are rules- and character-building nuts, and they often get sidetracked with potential combinations when trying to explain even simple things.
38721
How can I help combat be more diverse? I'm a player, but I'm open to suggesting things to my DM.  We are a party of 5th-level PCs. What we run into is the classic tactical situation every time: the barbarian and cleric tank, and the ranger (me) and wizard sit back and plink away or get in melee and are, well, making death saves. Another thing that happens is the wizard spell-shaping and just fireballing everything, unless he's in melee combat and trying to just kite and run.  Do I just try and get the DM to throw in more opposing mages and such? I wanna use my ranger kit but still have threats/challenges.  Another way to phrase my problem would be: how to engage more classes in combat?