Rules Glossary

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Glossary Conventions

The glossary uses the following conventions:

Tags in Brackets. Some entries have a tag in brackets after the entry’s name, as in “Attack [Action].” A tag—Action, Area of Effect, Attitude, Condition, or Hazard—indicates that a rule is part of a family of rules. The tags also have glossary entries.

“You.” The game’s rules—in this glossary and elsewhere—often talk about something happening to you in the game world. That “you” refers to the creature or object that the rule applies to in a particular moment of play. For example, the “you” in the Prone condition is a creature that currently has that condition.

“See Also.” Some glossary entries include a See also section that points to other entries in the glossary, to other parts of this document, or both.

No Obsolete Terms. The glossary contains definitions of current rules terms only. If you’re looking for a term from an earlier version of the fifth edition rules, consult the index.

Abbreviations. The abbreviations listed below appear in this glossary and elsewhere in the rules.

AC	Armor Class	M	Material component
C	Concentration	N	Neutral
CE	Chaotic Evil	NE	Neutral Evil
CG	Chaotic Good	NG	Neutral Good
Cha.	Charisma	NPC	Nonplayer character
CN	Chaotic Neutral	PB	Proficiency Bonus
Con.	Constitution	PP	Platinum Piece(s)
CP	Copper Piece(s)	R	Ritual
CR	Challenge Rating	S	Somatic component
DC	Difficulty Class	SP	Silver Piece(s)
Dex.	Dexterity	Str.	Strength
EP	Electrum Piece(s)	V	Verbal component
GM	Game Master	Wis.	Wisdom
GP	Gold Piece(s)	XP	Experience Point(s)
HP	Hit Point(s)
Int.	Intelligence
LE	Lawful Evil
LG	Lawful Good
LN	Lawful Neutral

Rules Definitions

Ability Check

An ability check is a D20 Test that represents using one of the six abilities—or a specific skill associated with an ability—to overcome a challenge. See also “Playing the Game” (“D20 Tests” and “Proficiency”).

Ability Score and Modifier

A creature has six ability scores—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma—each of which has a corresponding modifier. Add the modifier when you make a D20 Test with the corresponding ability or when a rule asks you to do so. See also “Playing the Game” (“The Six Abilities”).

Action

On your turn, you can take one action. Choose which action to take from those below or from the special actions provided by your features. See also “Playing the Game” (“Actions”). These actions are defined elsewhere in this glossary:

Attack
Dash
Disengage
Dodge
Help
Hide
Influence
Magic
Ready
Search
Study
Utilize

Advantage

If you have Advantage on a D20 Test, roll two d20s, and use the higher roll. A roll can’t be affected by more than one Advantage, and Advantage and Disadvantage on the same roll cancel each other. See also “Playing the Game” (“D20 Tests”).

Adventure

An adventure is a series of encounters. A story emerges through playing them. See also “Encounter.”

Alignment

A creature’s alignment broadly describes its ethical attitudes and ideals. Alignment is a combination of two factors: one identifies morality (good, evil, or neutral), and the other describes attitudes toward order (lawful, chaotic, or neutral). These factors allow for nine possible combinations, such as Lawful Good and Neutral Evil. See also “Character Creation” (“Create Your Character”).

Ally

A creature is your ally if it is a member of your adventuring party, your friend, on your side in combat, or a creature that the rules or the GM designates as your ally.

Area of Effect

The descriptions of many spells and other features specify that they have an area of effect, which typically has one of six shapes. These shapes are defined elsewhere in this glossary:

Cone
Cube
Cylinder
Emanation
Line
Sphere

An area of effect has a point of origin, a location from which the effect’s energy erupts. The rules for each shape specify how to position its point of origin. If all straight lines extending from the point of origin to a location in the area of effect are blocked, that location isn’t included in the area of effect. To block a line, an obstruction must provide Total Cover. See also “Cover.”

If the creator of an area of effect places it at an unseen point and an obstruction—such as a wall— is between the creator and that point, the point of origin comes into being on the near side of the obstruction.

Armor Class

An Armor Class (AC) is the target number for an attack roll. AC represents how difficult it is to hit a target.

Your base AC calculation is 10 plus your Dexterity modifier. If a rule gives you another base AC calculation, you choose which calculation to use; you can’t use more than one. See also “Attack Roll.”

Armor Training

Armor training allows you to use armor of a certain category without the following drawbacks. If you wear Light, Medium, or Heavy armor and lack training with it, you have Disadvantage on any D20 Test that involves Strength or Dexterity, and you can’t cast spells. If you use a Shield and lack training with it, you don’t gain its AC bonus. See also “Disadvantage” and “Equipment” (“Armor”).

Attack (Action)

When you take the Attack action, you can make one attack roll with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike.

Equipping and Unequipping Weapons. You can either equip or unequip one weapon when you make an attack as part of this action. You do so either before or after the attack. If you equip a weapon before an attack, you don’t need to use it for that attack. Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from a sheath or picking it up. Unequipping a weapon includes sheathing, stowing, or dropping it.

Moving between Attacks. If you move on your turn and have a feature, such as Extra Attack, that gives you more than one attack as part of the Attack action, you can use some or all of that movement to move between those attacks.

Attack Roll

An attack roll is a D20 Test that represents making an attack with a weapon, an Unarmed Strike, or a spell. See also “Playing the Game” (“D20 Tests”).

Attitude

A monster has a starting attitude toward a player character: Friendly, Hostile, or Indifferent. See also “Friendly,” “Hostile,” “Indifferent,” and “Influence.”

Attunement

Some magic items require a creature to form a bond—called Attunement—with them before the creature can use an item’s magical properties. A creature can have Attunement with no more than three magic items at a time. See also “Equipment” (“Magic Items”).

Blinded (Condition)

While you have the Blinded condition, you experience the following effects.

Can’t See. You can’t see and automatically fail any ability check that requires sight.

Attacks Affected. Attack rolls against you have Advantage, and your attack rolls have Disadvantage.

Blindsight

If you have Blindsight, you can see within a specific range without relying on physical sight. Within that range, you can see anything that isn’t behind Total Cover even if you have the Blinded condition or are in Darkness. Moreover, in that range, you can see something that has the Invisible condition.

Bloodied

A creature is Bloodied while it has half its Hit Points or fewer remaining.

Bonus Action

A Bonus Action is a special action that you can take on the same turn that you take an action. You can’t take more than one Bonus Action on a turn, and you have a Bonus Action to take only if a rule explicitly says so. See also “Playing the Game” (“Actions”).

Breaking Objects

Objects can be harmed by attacks and by some spells, using the rules below. If an object is exceedingly fragile, the GM may allow a creature to break it automatically with the Attack or Utilize action.

Armor Class. The Object Armor Class table suggests ACs for various substances.

Object Armor Class

AC	Substance		AC	Substance
11	Cloth, paper, rope		19	Iron, steel
13	Crystal, glass, ice 21		Mithral
15	Wood		23	Adamantine
17	Stone

Hit Points. An object is destroyed when it has 0 Hit Points. The Object Hit Points table suggests Hit Points for fragile and resilient objects that are Large or smaller. To track Hit Points for a Huge or Gargantuan object, divide it into Large or smaller sections, and track each section’s Hit Points separately. The GM determines whether destroying part of an object causes the whole thing to collapse.

Object Hit Points

Size	Fragile	Resilient
Tiny (bottle, lock)	2  (1d4)	5 (2d4)
Small (chest, lute)	3 (1d6)	10 (3d6)
Medium (barrel, chandelier)	4 (1d8)	18 (4d8)
Large (cart, dining table)	5 1d10)	27 (5d10)

Damage Types and Objects. Objects have Immunity to Poison and Psychic damage. The GM might decide that some damage types are more or less effective against an object. For example, Bludgeoning damage works well for smashing things but not for cutting. Paper or cloth objects might have Vulnerability to Fire damage.

Damage Threshold. Big objects, such as castle walls, often have extra resilience represented by a damage threshold. See also “Damage Threshold.”

No Ability Scores. An object lacks ability scores unless a rule assigns scores to the object. Without ability scores, an object can’t make ability checks, and it fails all saving throws.

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Creature

Any being in the game, including a player’s character, is a creature. See also “Creature Type.”

Creature Type

Every creature, including every player character, has a tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature it is. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. These are the game’s creature types:

Aberration
Beast
Celestial
Construct
Dragon
Elemental
Fey
Fiend
Giant
Humanoid
Monstrosity
Ooze
Plant
Undead

The types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways.

Critical Hit

If you roll a 20 on the d20 for an attack roll, you score a Critical Hit, and the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. A Critical Hit lets you roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers. See also “Playing the Game” (“Damage and Healing”).

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Damage Types

Attacks and other harmful effects deal different types of damage. Damage types have no rules of their own, but other rules, such as Resistance, rely on the types. The Damage Types table offers examples to help a GM assign a type to a new effect.

Damage Types

Type	Examples
Acid	Corrosive liquids, digestive enzymes
Bludgeoning	Blunt objects, constriction, falling
Cold	Freezing water, icy blasts
Fire	Flames, unbearable heat
Force	Pure magical energy
Lightning	Electricity
Necrotic	Life-draining energy
Piercing	Fangs, puncturing objects
Poison	Toxic gas, venom
Psychic	Mind-rending energy
Radiant	Holy energy, searing radiation
Slashing	Claws, cutting objects
Thunder	Concussive sound

Darkness

An area of Darkness is Heavily Obscured. See also “Heavily Obscured” and “Playing the Game” (“Exploration”).

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Exhaustion (Condition)

While you have the Exhaustion condition, you experience the following effects.

Exhaustion Levels. This condition is cumulative. Each time you receive it, you gain 1 Exhaustion level. You die if your Exhaustion level is 6.

D20 Tests Affected. When you make a D20 Test, the roll is reduced by 2 times your Exhaustion level.

Speed Reduced. Your Speed is reduced by a number of feet equal to 5 times your Exhaustion level.

Removing Exhaustion Levels. Finishing a Long Rest removes 1 of your Exhaustion levels. When your Exhaustion level reaches 0, the condition ends.

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Improvised Weapons

An improvised weapon is an object wielded as a makeshift weapon, such as broken glass, a table leg, or a frying pan. A Simple or Martial weapon also counts as an improvised weapon if it’s wielded in a way contrary to its design; if you use a Ranged weapon to make a melee attack or throw a Melee weapon that lacks the Thrown property, the weapon counts as an improvised weapon. An improvised weapon follows the rules below.

Proficiency. Don’t add your Proficiency Bonus to attack rolls with an improvised weapon.

Damage. On a hit, the weapon deals 1d4 damage of a type the GM thinks is appropriate for the object.

Range. If you throw the weapon, it has a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet.

Weapon Equivalents. If an improvised weapon resembles a Simple or Martial weapon, the GM may say it functions as that weapon and uses that weapon’s rules. For example, the GM could treat a table leg as a Club.

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Vulnerability

If you have Vulnerability to a damage type, damage of that type is doubled against you. Vulnerability is applied only once to an instance of damage. See also “Playing the Game” (“Damage and Healing”).

Weapon

A weapon is an object that is in the Simple or Martial weapon category. See also “Equipment” (“Weapons”).

Weapon Attack

A weapon attack is an attack roll made with a weapon. See also “Weapon.”