I'm getting back into the hobby and I've re-read Moldvay's red book and Cook's Blue book and it's all come back to me.   I've read the question ""  What I need is a list of equivalents from one edition to the other.     Most everything is the same; race, class, HP, ability scores, etc.     Saving throws seem to be replaced completely with ability checks? Or have they become something else with ability modifiers added in?   THACO is out and d20 rolls are in.   There is something called BAB?    AC flipped and higher is better.   Is there a link that lists all the factors and their equivalents?    I need just these two but if there is a place with a table for all of the editions that I can cross reference that would help.
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I've been out of the loop for a while, and I used to play AD&amp;D 2nd ed, but today I find there are a lot of different versions that have fairly different gameplay.   Can anyone summarize the really big differences, the ones (maybe top three?) that are the 'killer features' of the different editions? What makes each edition play differently than the others?
49539
I'm trying to fill out the skills section on my first character, but when I look at the character sheets in the Starter Set as examples of how to make a character, the skills that are circled have higher modifiers than their Dexterity or Strength or whatever should make them.  I've filled out all skills but those. What do I add to the ability modifier to get those numbers?   My abilities are Strength 13, Dexterity 14, Constitution 11, Intelligence 15, Wisdom 8, and Charisma 8. Proficiencies are Arcana, Athletics, History, Investigation and Stealth. My saving throws are Strength and Dexterity.   I just started D&amp;D and have the Player's Handbook, DM's Guide, Monster Manual, and the Starter Set.
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.
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I play in Adventurers League and have a character that has a +1 Ring of Protection, which gives +1 to AC and saves. I also have a Stone of Good Luck which gives a +1 to saves and ability checks.  If I equip both items and my base Dex save is +4, would it become +6 due to receiving both bonuses, or +5 with just one? I can't find much in the PHB or Google to answer this.
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Instead of a “Spell Slots for Spell Level” table, the warlock just has two columns: one for number of slots and one for slot level, because all of their slots are the same level.   However, the table on PHB p. 106 only goes up to the 5th slot level. It looks like the higher levels are misprinted as they should go up to 9th level slots (as the warlock's spell list has spells of 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th levels). What is the correct progression? Is a warlock’s slot level the same as the maximum slot level of a wizard of the same class level?
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Overview:  Lots of games with RPG-like statistics allow for character "buffs", ranging from simple "Deal 25% extra damage" to more complicated things like "Deal 15 damage back to attackers when hit."  The specifics of each type of buff aren't really relevant.  I'm looking for a (presumably object-oriented) way to handle arbitrary buffs.  Details:  In my particular case, I have multiple characters in a turn-based battle environment, so I envisioned buffs being tied to events like "OnTurnStart", "OnReceiveDamage", etc.  Perhaps each buff is a subclass of a main Buff abstract class, where only the relevant events are overloaded.  Then each character could have a vector of buffs currently applied.  Does this solution make sense?  I can certainly see dozens of event types being necessary, it feels like making a new subclass for each buff is overkill, and it doesn't seem to allow for any buff "interactions".  That is, if I wanted to implement a cap on damage boosts so that even if you had 10 different buffs which all give 25% extra damage, you only do 100% extra instead of 250% extra.  And there's more complicated situations that ideally I could control.  I'm sure everyone can come up with examples of how more sophisticated buffs can potentially interact with each other in a way that as a game developer I may not want.  As a relatively inexperienced C++ programmer (I generally have used C in embedded systems), I feel like my solution is simplistic and probably doesn't take full advantage of the object-oriented language.  Thoughts?  Has anyone here designed a fairly robust buff system before?  Edit: Regarding Answer(s):  I selected an answer primarily based on good detail and a solid answer to the question I asked, but reading the responses gave me some more insight.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the different systems or tweaked systems seem to apply better to certain situations.  What system works best for my game will depend on the types, variance, and number of buffs I intend to be able to apply.  For a game like Diablo 3 (mentioned below), where nearly any bit of equipment can change a buff's strength, the buffs are just character stats system seems like a good idea whenever possible.  For the turn-based situation I'm in, the event-based approach may be more suitable.  In any case, I'm still hoping someone comes along with a fancy "OO" magic bullet which will allow for me to apply a +2 move distance per turn buff, a deal 50% of damage taken back to the attacker buff, and a automatically teleport to a nearby tile when attacked from 3 or more tiles away buff in a single system without turning a +5 strength buff into its own subclass.  I think the closest thing is the answer I marked, but the floor is still open.  Thanks to everyone for the input.
36122
I'm a pretty new player, and I'm building a bard in D&amp;D 5e. I understand how saving throws work in general, but I am a little confused about one thing. Say I cast Blindness/Deafness on a humanoid. They must then make a Constitution saving throw. My question is: what value do they have to roll in order to make the save? Does their roll (plus their constitution modifier) have to beat my constitution (plus my modifier)? This is more of a general player question than one specific to the Bard or that spell.
110664
Recently I played a game of D&amp;D 5th Edition. While we liked the simplicity and made characters quickly, there was one big bottleneck: the Wizard (and to a lesser extent, the Cleric) kept having analysis paralysis over the spell choices!  Most of my players were more familiar with 4th Edition in which a Wizard or Cleric had only a handful of spells to choose at first level (without supplement books). We really didn't have analysis paralysis because it was generally "here's four powers, pick one of them". We've also played some systems with moderately more complicated spell systems (e.g. Savage Worlds), but didn't really have analysis paralysis there either.  However in D&amp;D 5th Edition, there are many more spells (about a dozen cantrips and another dozen first level spells). It seems that we've come across analysis paralysis with spell selection pretty hard. This has exhibited itself in several ways:   After reading the dozen cantrips &amp; dozen 1st level spells, picking which ones should be purchased as players were constantly waffling between each one. They kept wondering if they would regret not taking a certain spell because it would be expensive to purchase later. Out of all those we purchased, picking which spells to prepare for the day. They kept wondering if they would regret it if they needed a spell if they came across a situation.   After about 15 minutes of waffling back and forth with their spell selection in what felt like  (to the annoyance of the Fighter and Rogue who had been ready to go for a while), we threatened to just make them randomly choose spells if they couldn't decide (they finally did pick, but kept feeling like they might have made the wrong choice).  The only difference I see between this system and others is the amount of spells, but perhaps there are other aspects too, like complexity of spells. At any rate,  what can we do in the future? How can we prevent choosing spells from leading to analysis paralysis?
62913
So I was filling out the character sheet and suddenly I saw an "ability modifier". I'm confused, and am asking these questions for clarification:   Where do you put your "Standard Array" number. In score? Abil Mod? Mod + 1/2 Lvl? What is MOD? (As my concern, Abil Mod is the table of chart from -5 to +5) In Fort, Ref, Will, do I put my total of score, abil mod, or mod + 1/2 lvl How many healing surges do I have? It says Ability Modifier, but in the score table, abil mod or mod + 1/2 lvl? Finally. In skill, what do I write in the Abil Mod + 1/2 lvl?   (Yes, you can tell me that I'm confused :p )  Follow up question:   I'm human. I can add +2 to one ability. Where should I put it, will it modify the score and the ability modifier? Since I'm human, my healing surge is 6 + constitution modifier. My Cons abil mod is 1, will it means that I got 7?
36207
I am somewhat new to D&amp;D 5e and had a question about attack bonuses of the pre-gen characters in the Starter Set. I was under the impression that attack bonus for a sword is strength bonus plus proficiency bonus (if the character is proficient with that weapon) and for something like a crossbow it would be dexterity bonus plus proficiency bonus.  What I am struggling with are the attack bonuses listed for the pre-gen characters. They don't seem to make sense all of the time.  For instance, the wizard has a +4 attack bonus for the shortsword even though their strength bonus is +0. Should it not be only +2 for proficiency (they are proficient in short sword)?  Or take one of the fighter's longbow bonus. They have +3 dexterity and +2 proficiency bonus, yet their attack bonus is listed as +7.  I feel like there is a simple explanation. What is it?
5194
My friends and I are very new to D&amp;D, played like 3 times. In a monster's stats next to weapon damage it says stuff like "+11 to hit" and "Hit: 5 (1d8+1)". For the premade characters it just says things like "+4, 2d6 + 2 slashing", though. Why are there two "hit" numbers for monsters? Which do I use for the d20 roll to hit against a target's AC?  I mean for example like in the Ogre entry in the "" article on monsters.
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I am reading the 5e rules, and I keep seeing how you can add proficiency bonus to attack rolls checks with weapons you are proficient in and skill checks in skills you are proficient in, but I can't find anything on what this bonus actually is. How do you determine what the numerical actual bonus you add to your roll is? And at what times is it used?
112458
When I played 1E and 2E, racial level limits was one of the first rules we decided to ignore.  We decided that it would prevent us from playing (say) an Elven fighter for as long as the party might last and that we couldn't figure out a reason for the rule to exist.  Now I'm thinking about teaching some young relatives to play D&amp;D, and I'm pretty sure that I want to go with 2E, which I know best and learned at their age.  I might use 2E itself, or maybe OSRIC.  I'm re-evaluating a lot of the rules that I used to ignore, and that's one that I'm curious about. What is the purpose of that rule?  Is it for balance, or flavor, or something else?  A well-explained opinion is welcome, but I'd love to see historical evidence from the designers.
26332
What are some of the rule changes that Pathfinder brings in comparison to D&amp;D 3.5?  I am curious what changes were made so I can explain to my group what it has to offer.
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The 's  feature states (PHB, p. 116; emphasis mine):  You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls. You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn.  In the introduction to the PHB (p. 7) and basic rules, the 3rd paragraph under  describes saving throws, attack rolls, and ability checks as (emphasis mine):  [...] the three main kinds of d20 rolls, forming the core of the rules of the game.  All three of them consist of a d20 roll and then modifiers are applied to this die roll. The description of Portent is quite foggy. The first sentence suggests that it allows to replace the final result (d20 + modifiers); however, the second part of the description mentions the roll, without specifying if it just refers to the d20 roll or to d20 + modifiers. Does the Portent feature allow the Divination wizard to replace just the d20 roll? Or does it replace the final result?  This topic is covered in several answers and questions related to Portent working with other rules/aspects of the game, but I believe that this aspect of Portent needs a dedicated question. Some of these answers cite tweets by rules designer Jeremy Crawford. On one hand, the  (&quot;Official Ruling&quot; section) states that ; on the other hand, in the very same section it also states that Crawford's tweets could be a preview of rulings that will appear in the SAC. Crawford's tweets about this issue  and  have not been still included in any version of the Sage Advice Compendium, to the best of my knowledge.
51493
I've asked several questions about 4th Edition D&amp;D because I may be able to start a game. However, I'd need to purchase (some) materials. I am aware of the 4 book set (core) and the expected Essentials Red Box.  So now I need to know: presumably buying either the 4 book set or essentials will be enough to get my game on. Would there be something 'lacking' though? Would I be missing character types, for instance, as I've seen that the splatbook strategy is still in effect?  I'm an experienced player and GM and plenty creative, so many holes I'd be able to fill in myself. I just don't want to get sucked into too much financial impact.
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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.