Player Quick Reference

Order of Combat Help

The creature you aid gains advantage on the next ability
Surprise check it makes to perform the task you are helping with,
Compare DEX (Stealth) of those hiding with the passive provided that it makes the check before the start of your
WIS (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing next turn.
side. Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is Alternatively you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a
surprised at the start of the encounter. creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or
If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more
your first turn of the combat, and you can’t take a reaction effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next
until that turn ends. turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.
Your Turn Hide
On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed You make a Dexterity (Stealth) check in an attempt to hide.
and take one action. You give away your location when you make an attack while
You can forgo moving, taking an action, or doing anything hidden.
at all on your turn. If you can’t decide what to do on your
turn, consider taking the Dodge or Ready action. Ready
Decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your
reaction. The choose the action you will take in response to
Movement and Position the trigger.
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction
Breaking Up Your Move right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger. Limited
You can break up your movement on your turn, using some to one reaction per round.
of your speed before and after your action. For example, if
you have a speed of 30 feet, you can move 10 feet, take your Search
action, and then move 20 feet. You devote your attention to finding something.
Difficult Terrain Use an Object
Reduces your speed to half. For when an object requires your action for its use.
Being Prone Improvise!
You use half your speed to stand up. The above are just some of the possible actions you can take
during combat. If something makes sense you can probably
do it.
Actions in Combat
Attack Making an Attack
With this action, you make one melee or ranged attack.
Attack Rolls
Cast a Spell Roll a d20 and add the appropriate modifiers. For melee
While casting a spell is not necessarily an action, most attacks add Strength, for ranged attacks add Dexterity.
spells do have a casting time of 1 action, so a spellcaster Finesse and thrown weapons reverse those. If you’re
often uses their action in combat to cast such a spell. proficient in the weapon add your proficiency bonus.
Dash Rolling 1 or 20
When you take the Dash action, you gain extra movement If the d20 shows 20, the attack hits regardless of the target’s
on your current turn. The increase equals your speed, after Armor Class (AC). The hit is critical.
applying any modifiers. If the d20 shows 1, the attack always misses.

Disengage Ranged Attacks

If you take the Disengage action, your movement doesn’t The target must be within the specified range of the chosen
provoke opportunity attacks for the rest of the turn. weapon. You have disadvantage if an enemy is within 5 feet.

Dodge Melee Attacks

Until the start of your next turn, any attack roll made The target must be 5 feet.
against you has disadvantage if you can see the attacker, Opportunity Attacks
and you make Dexterity saving throws with advantage.
You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature
that you can see moves out of your reach.
Two-Weapon Fighting relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll
You can use a bonus action to attack with a different light all the damage dice at once.
melee weapon you’re holding in the other hand. No ability For example, if you score a critical hit with a dagger, roll
modifier to damage on the bonus attack (unless it’s 2d4 for the damage, rather than 1d4, and then add your
negative). relevant ability modifier. If the attack involves other damage
dice, such as from the rogue’s Sneak Attack feature, you roll
Grappliing those dice twice as well.
The target of your grapple must be no more than one size Healing
larger than you, and must be within your reach. Using at
least one free hand, you try to seize the target by making a When a creature receives healing of any kind, hit points
grapple check, a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the regained are added to its current hit points. A creature’s hit
target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check points can’t exceed its hit point maximum.
(the target chooses). A creature that has died can’t regain hit points until magic
Escaping a Grapple. Must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) such as the revivify spell has restored it to life.
or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by your Strength
(Athletics) check.
Dropping to 0 Hit Points
Moving a Grappled Creature. You move at half speed unless When you drop to 0 hit points, you either die outright or
the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you. fall unconscious.
Shoving a Creature Instant Death
The target of your shove must be no more than one size When damage reduces you to 0 hit points and there is
larger than you, and it must be within your reach. You make damage remaining, you die if the remaining damage equals
a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s or exceeds your hit point maximum!
Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the
Falling Unconscious
target chooses). If you win the contest, you either knock the
target prone or push it 5 feet away. If you’re at 0 hit points and don’t die you fall unconscious. It
ends if you regain any hit points (via healing for example).
Death Saving Throws
Cover
There are three degrees of cover. Cover is determined by Whenever you start your turn with 0 hit points, you must
how much an obstacle obscures a target’s body. make a death saving throw.
A target with half cover has +2 bonus to AC and Dexterity Roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed.
saving throws. Otherwise you fail. On your third success, you become
A target with three-quarters cover has +5 bonus to AC and stable. On your third failure, you die. Keep track of both
Dexterity saving throws. until you have 3 of a kind. The number of both is reset to
A target with total cover can’t be targeted directly by an zero when you regain any hit points or become stable.
attack or a spell. Temporary Hit Points
Some spells and special abilities confer temporary hit
Damage and Healing points to a creature. Temporary hit points aren’t actual hit
points; they are a buffer against damage and are depleted
Hit Points before your normal hit points.
A creature’s current hit points can be any number from the
creature’s hit point maximum down to 0. This number
changes frequently as a creature takes damage or receives Ability Checks
healing. Active Checks
Whenever a creature takes damage, that damage is
subtracted from its hit points. The loss of hit points has no To make an ability check, roll a d20 and add the relevant
effect on a creature’s capabilities until the creature drops to ability modifier. Apply bonuses (skill, proficiency,
0 hit points. advantage etc) and penalties (disadvantage) and compare
the total to the DC. If the total equals or exceeds the DC the
Damage Rolls check is a success.
When attacking with a weapon, you add your ability Passive Checks
modifier–the same modifier used for the attack roll–to the
damage. A spell tells you which dice to roll for damage and Such a check can represent the average result for a task
whether to add any modifiers. done repeatedly, such as searching for hidden doors over
If a spell or other effect deals damage to more than one and over again, or can be used when the DM wants to
target at the same time, roll the damage once for all of secretly determine whether the characters succeed at
them. something without rolling dice.
To determine a character’s total for a passive check:
Critical Hits
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for 10 + all modifiers that normally apply to the check
the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s
damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any
If the character has advantage on the check, add 5. For effect ending in a creature’s exhaustion level is reduced
disadvantage, subtract 5. The result is called a score. below 1.
Finishing a long rest reduces a creature’s exhaustion level
Group Checks by 1, provided the creature has also ingested some food and
To make a group ability check, everyone in the group makes drink.
the ability check. If at least half the group succeeds, the
whole group succeeds. Otherwise, the group fails. This can
be used for both active and passive ability checks.

Resting
Short Rest
A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long,
during which a character does nothing more strenuous
than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
A character can spend one ore more Hit Dice at the end of
a short rest. up to the character’s maximum number of Hit
Dice. For each Hit Die spent this way, the player rolls the
die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The
character regains hit points equal to the total. A character
regains some spent Hit Dice at the end of a long rest.
Long Rest
A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8
hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs
light activity: readin, talking, or standing watch for no more
than 2 hours. If the rest is interrupted by a period of
strenuous activity the characters must begin the rest again.
At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit
points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a
number of dice equal to half of the character’s total number
of them.
Limited to one long rest every 24 hours.

Exhaustion
Some special abilities and environmental hazards, such as
starvation and the long-term effects of freezing or scorching
temperatures, can lead to a special condition called
exhaustion. Exhaustion is measured in six levels. An effect
can give a creature one or more levels of exhaustion, as
specified in the effect’s description.

Level Effect
1 Disadvantage on ability checks
2 Speed halved
3 Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws
4 Hit point maximum halved
5 Speed reduced to 0
6 Death

If an already exhausted creature suffers another effect that

causes exhaustion, its current level of exhaustion increases
by the amount specified in the effect’s description.
A creature suffer’s the effect of its current level of
exhaustion as well as all lower levels.
An effect that removes exhaustion reduces its level as
specified in the effect’s description, with all exhaustion
Conditions • Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
• The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity
Blinded saving throws.
• The creature has resistance to all damage.
• A blinded creature can’t see and automatically fails any • The creature is immune to poison and disease, although
ability check that requires sight. a poison or disease already in its system is suspended,
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the not neutralized.
creature’s attack rolls have disadvantage.
Poisoned
Charmed
• A poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and
• A charmed creature can’t attack the charmer or target the ability checks.
charmer with harmful abilities or magical effects.
• The charmer has advantage on any ability check to Prone
interact socially with the creature.
• A prone creature’s only movement option is to crawl
Deafened unless it stands up and thereby ends the condition.
• The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls.
• A deafened creature can’t hear and automatically fails • An attack roll against the creature has advantage if the
any ability check that requires hearing. attacker is within 5 feet of the creature. Otherwise, the
Frightened attack roll has disadvantage.

• A frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks Restrained

and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line
• A restrained creature’s speed becomes 0, and it can’t
of sight. benefit from any bonus to its speed.
• The creature can’t willingly move closer to the source of • Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the
its fear. creature’s attack rolls have disadvantage.
Grappled • The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving
throws.
• A grappled creature’s speed becomes 0, and it can’t
benefit from any bonus to its speed. Stunned
• The condition ends if the grappler is incapacitated (see • A stunned creature is incapacitated (see the condition),
the condition). can’t move, and can speak only falteringly.
• The condition also ends if an effect removes the grappled • The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity
creature from the reach of the grappler or grappling saving throws.
effect, such as when a creature is hurled away by the
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
thunderwave spell.
Unconscious
Incapacitated
• An unconscious creature is incapacitated (see the
• An incapacitated creature can’t take actions or reactions. condition), can’t move or speak and is unaware of its
Invisible surroundings.
• The creature drops whatever it’s holding and falls prone.
• An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid • The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity
of magic or a special sense. For the purposes of hiding, saving throws.
the creature is heavily obscured. the creature’s location • Attack rolls agains the creature have advantage.
can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it • Any attack that hits the creature is a critical hit if the
leaves. attacker is within 5 feet.
• Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage and
the creature’s attack rolls have advantage.
Paralyzed
• A paralyzed creature is incapacitated (see the condition)
and can’t move or speak.
• The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity
saving throws.
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
• Any attack that hits the creature is a critical hit if the
attacker is within 5 feet of the creature.
Petrified
• A petrified creature is transformed, along with
nonmagical object it is wearing or carrying, into a solid
inanimate substance (usually stone). Its weight increases
by a factor of ten, and it ceases aging.
• The creature is incapacitated (see the condition), can’t
move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings.