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Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2014-present), or "5e", is the 5th-ish edition of the Tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons. Developed under the title "D&D Next", Fifth Edition was an attempt by Wizards of the Coast to recapture and unite some of the fractured fanbase after the divisiveness of 4th Edition. The basic mechanics resemble a mixture of the second and third editions, with smaller 4e influences.

The overall power levels have been reduced: the max level cap is 20 period, magic items are much rarer and do not scale with you, and bonuses/penalties to a dice roll seldom, if ever, break double digits. Stacking modifiers have been replaced with a simple advantage/disadvantage system where you roll two dice for the action and use the higher/lower number. Many non-instantaneous magic spells now require 'concentration', meaning a caster can only have one such spell active at a time. Major, world-altering magics are often rituals that take minutes if not hours to cast. Each class is now firmly wedded to a single character concept, with subclasses and backgrounds being used to diversify characters.

Most post-creation exclusives are gone, but multiclassing has returned to 3rd edition standards and feats are completely optional, fewer in number but more powerful and robust than before. Roleplaying and flavor have been increased in importance, with the old 2nd edition alignment system restored and canonical D&D characters from related media being used as examples of their respective classes, alignments and backgrounds. Pinning down the primary world for Fifth Edition is a bit dodgy: while the core books are mostly written in a multiverse view and adaptable to any setting, most of the official adventures are set in the Forgotten Realms.

Overall fan response has been positive, with some praising the return to a more roleplaying-based system based on in-universe-justified abilities, as well as the reduction of overly-complex rules, and the number of character options no longer being "choice-paralysis-inducingly huge". However, complaints exist about an excessively small amount of character options (mostly in the early years), an alleged return to Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards, poor and slow post-launch support compared to prior editions, Ranger and Sorcerer fans complaining that those classes are relatively less powerful, and less intricate character building compared to 3rd edition. In recent years, some DMs have also complained of too little DM-facing material/campaign aids. Despite all this, 5th Edition has been very successful and a major reason for D&D's resurgence in the 2010s and beyond.

In an effort to get the game in as many hands as possible, Wizards has released free "Basic Rules" PDFs on their website, containing a fully functional subset of the rules. The idea is that one can use them to play games with the four archetypal races (Dwarf, Elf, Halfling and Human) and classes (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard), as well as a handful of monsters and treasure, and will eventually buy books to get the rest of the stuff.

Unearthed Arcana made a return in February 2015 as a monthly (at first) web publication instead of a supplement book. Unearthed Arcana articles are also free on the Wizards website. The articles are stated to be "written in pencil, not ink", meaning that the contents are still work-in-progress until they're officially released in sourcebooks. Due to a reputation for unbalanced-ness, many DMs refuse to allow UA content at their tables.

As a show of good faith to the digital distribution market and the Open-Gaming License, WotC started their own storefront, the Dungeon Masters Guild, which allows fans to self-publish their own material and WotC to publish PDFs of both all the D&D material from past editions, and new Adventurers League content. As of November 2016, they've started a print-on-demand service so people can get physical copies of select TSR products.

In August 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced that they're working on "the next evolution" of Dungeons & Dragons, updating the Fifth Edition ruleset while still being backwards compatible with Fifth Edition content. The project is code-named "One D&D" and is set to release in late 2024, with various public playtests running in 2022 and '23.

    open/close all folders 
    Official Splatbooks and Campaign Guides 
  • Player's Handbook (2014)
  • Monster Manual (2014)
  • Dungeon Master's Guide (2014)
  • Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (2015)
  • Volo's Guide to Monsters (2016)
  • Xanathar's Guide to Everything (2017)
  • Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018)
  • Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica (2018)
  • Acquisitions Incorporated (2019)
  • Eberron: Rising from the Last War (2019)
  • Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)
  • Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020)
  • Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (2020)
  • Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (2021)
  • Fizban's Treasury of Dragons (2021)
  • Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (2021)
  • Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse (2022)
  • Astral Adventurer's Guide (2022, part of the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space set)
  • Boo's Astral Menagerie (2022, part of the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space set)
  • Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants (2023)
  • Sigil and the Outlands (2023, part of the Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse set)
  • Morte's Planar Parade (2023, part of the Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse set)
  • The Book of Many Things (2023)

    Playtest Adventures (D&D Next) 
  • Vault of the Dracolich (2013)
  • Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle (2013)
  • Confrontation at Candlekeep (2013)
  • Murder in Baldur's Gate (2013)
  • Legacy of the Crystal Shard (2013)
  • Scourge of the Sword Coast (2014)
  • Dead in Thay (2014, later updated as part of Tales from the Yawning Portal)

    Official Adventures 

    Official Dungeon Master's Guild material 
Supplements
  • Elemental Evil Player's Companion (2015, also available as a print-on-demand book)
  • The Tortle Package (2017)
  • One Grung Above (2017)
  • Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron (2018)
  • Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio Volume 1: Monsters Malevolent and Benign (2019)
  • Domains of Delight (2021)
  • Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy (2021, also available as a print-on-demand book)
Adventures
  • The Lost Kenku (2017)
  • Lost Laboratory of Kwalish (2018, also available as a print-on-demand book)
  • Winter's Splendor (2018)
  • A Zib For Your Thoughts (2019)
  • The Barber of Silverymoon (2019)
  • Six Faces of Death (2019)
  • Locathah Rising (2019)
  • Infernal Machine Rebuild (2019)
  • Adventure with Muk (2019, also available as a print-on-demand book)
  • Return to the Glory (2020)
  • Muk's Guide to Everything He Learned From Tasha (2020)
  • Chains of Asmodeus (2023, also available as a print-on-demand book)

    Adaptations 

Tropes in this game include:

  • Ability Depletion Penalty: Many Magic Wands' and staffs' powers rely on a set of charges that regenerate over time. However, whenever the charges are completely emptied, there's a small chance that the item will be permanently ruined. This is a change from previous editions of D&D, where charges were usually unable to be recovered at all and the item was guaranteed ruined when out of charges.
  • Absurdly High Level Cap: Like many other editions of D&D, the maximum level for a player character is 20. For most of Fifth Edition's official adventure modules, a character starts at level 1 and will end up at around level 15 if they make it to the end without dying. The expectation after that is that the party will want to start another module with new characters; official published material for characters above level 15 is practically nonexistent. The power level of monsters tends to be very erratic at higher levels, given that high-level monsters have increasing numbers of abilities that simply kill the target outright and can't be defended against, on top of having very high HP, armor, and damage outputs. For all these reasons, getting a character to level 20 is vanishingly uncommon.
  • Acceptable Breaks from Reality: For spells that require material components, spellcasters can either replace them with a spellcasting focus (a wand, a crystal ball, a spellbook, etc.) or a component pouch, which is assumed to contain all the components necessary. With components that are rarer and valuable, the books suggest that players can just remove the amount of money it costs, rather than having to spend time seeking them out.
  • Action Initiative: Similarly to previous editions, turn order is determined by an Initiative roll. Players and monsters alike roll a d20 each, and add their Initiative bonus, with the highest number going first, then second-highest, and so on. A creature's Initiative bonus is the same as Dexterity when the game starts, but can be increased with certain class features or spells.
  • All-Accessible Magic: Spells with the "ritual" tag can be cast without using spell slots if a character spends ten minutes performing an elaborate ritual. A character does not need to be a member of a spellcasting class to learn ritual spells if they take the Ritual Caster feat, which only requires an Intelligence or Wisdom score of 13 and allows a character to learn any ritual spell of a specified class in the same manner as wizards, but only to cast them as rituals.
  • All or Nothing:
    • All but a handful of cantrips have no effect if the target succeeds on the saving throw against them. This is done for the sake of game balance, since cantrips can be cast an infinite number of times a day; if they did damage on a successful saving throw, players could just resort to Cherry Tapping. Higher-level spells can only be cast a finite number of times, but usually still inflict half damage if the target succeeds on the saving throw.
    • The Disintegrate spell. If the target fails the saving throw, they take a large amount of force damage, which not many enemies have resistance or immunity to. In addition, if this damage is enough to reduce the target's HP to zero, their body disintegrates into a pile of ash, rendering them Killed Off for Real and preventing regeneration. Disintegrate is also notable in 5e because it only does damage on a failed saving throw — this allows it to ignore the Evasion ability, since Evasion only prevents damage from a Dexterity saving throw if the ability does half damage on a miss, and Disintegrate always causes full damage. However, the 'nothing' comes in if the target succeeds on the saving throw; if the check is passed, then Disintegrate does nothing at all.
    • The "Power Word" spells have No Saving Throw because they're dependent on how much HP the target has left. If they have below a certain threshold of HP (which depends on the spell), the spell works to its full effect; if the target's HP is at or above the threshold, then it does nothing at all. These can result in disadvantage on saving throws, making the target lose turns, or instantly killing them. But the HP threshold means keeping careful track of the target's status for them to be useful. (The only exception to this is power word heal; it doesn't depend on how much HP the target has, but that's because it completely restores a target's health and cures most negative status effects.)
    • As in previous editions, the AC system works this way. Armor increases the chance of an attack failing entirely, but if it does land a successful hit, the target will take the same amount of damage whether they're naked or wearing full plate.
  • All Swords Are the Same: Fifth Edition encourages this as a way to incorporate unlisted weapons, with the Dungeon Master's Guide using an example of implementing a katana as a reflavoured longsword.
  • Alternate Continuity: Zigzagged. Fifth Edition has largely reverted to the traditional Great Wheel cosmology, seen in the first three editions of the game. However, it has altered the layout of the Wheel with the incorporation of the Feywild, Shadowfell and Elemental Chaos planes from the World Axis cosmology, and many more subtle lore details have also been changed.
  • And I Must Scream: While Imprisonment in previous editions explictly rendered the target unconcious, in 5th edition that detail's been removed, implying that now the victim is fully concious while trapped, unaging and with no biological needs, in a tiny sphere miles beneath the earth.
  • Anchored Teleportation: The Teleportation Circle spell opens a brief portal to a permanent teleportation circle that the caster knows and has permission to use. One can create a new permanent circle by casting the spell in the same location every day for a year.
  • Animalistic Abilities: Barbarians who choose to follow the Path of the Totem gain a spirit animal that they can commune with, and which grants them various abilities:
    • The Bear grants strength and endurance, making the barbarian resistant to most forms of damage and granting extra strength when carrying, pushing, pulling or lifting. It also grants protection for the barbarian's allies, by allowing the barbarian to impose disadvantage on an enemy's attack rolls, making their attacks less likely to hit.
    • The Eagle grants swiftness and perception. Barbarians who follow this path can dash as a bonus action and are harder to hit with attacks of opportunity, have improved eyesight at long range, and can mimic an eagle's flight for short periods of time.
    • The Elk grants mobility. Barbarians who follow this path gain a bonus to movement speed when their Barbarian Rage ability is used, the ability to cover more ground when traveling long distance on foot, and a charging attack that can knock enemies prone.
    • The Tiger grants survival, and abilities that mimic the pounce of a hunting cat. Barbarians following the path of the tiger have increased jumping distance, proficiency in extra skills, and can make extra attacks if they move in a straight line towards an enemy as part of their turn.
    • The Wolf grants tactical combat and hunting abilities. Barbarians of this path can use pack tactics to increase the chance of their allies' attacks being successful, travel at greater speed while tracking prey or moving stealthily, and knock their opponents off their feet as part of an attack.
  • Answer to Prayers: The cleric can use the Divine Intervention ability to have their deity literally intervene in whatever situation the cleric is in. The GM determines exactly what the deity does (the handbook recommends the casting of a thematically appropriate spell), and to ensure it's not a win button, it has a 10 to 19% chance to succeed (except at level 20, where it automatically succeeds), and can only be attempted once per day (and if successful, can't be used again for a week).
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • Resurrection mechanics mean Death Is a Slap on the Wrist for a Player Character that's been around long enough to get attached to. Fifth Edition downgraded the Resurrection Sickness side effect from previous editions from a Level Drain to a temporary penalty on dice rolls. Fifth Edition also has the revivify spell, which avoids most penalties as long as it's cast within one minute of the target dying. Being Reduced to Dust or having one's head cut off still needs the higher level resurrection spells to bring back, but at least it's possible to bring people back with relatively little fuss.
    • Earlier editions' Vancian Magic limited low-level spellcasters to a handful of spells per day, after which they became a Squishy Wizard that was all Squishy and no Wizard. Fifth Edition mitigates this by putting the most basic of spells into their own "Level 0" tier of spells called cantrips. These cantrip spells can be cast an infinite number of times per day, and often have effects that scale with character level to prevent them from being Useless Useful Spells.
  • Anti-Hoarding: The game has encumbrance determined by a character's Strength score — the higher said Strength score, the more they can carry. Certain factors such as size and form alter this number. Then, when the character exceeds this encumbrance, they start suffering penalties the more they carry over the limit. Eventually, if the total weight they're carrying is too high, they just can't lift their pack anymore.
  • Arbitrary Weapon Range: In Fifth Edition, a ranged attack has no minimum range. However, if it is performed within 5 ft of any enemy, then the attack is made with disadvantage, meaning that you roll to hit twice and take the lowest score, so the effective minimum range is 5 ft.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: In Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, a number of occupations that a dragon might have are listed, with Noble being one of them. The description of a Noble dragon is notably the only one that's wholly negative, as opposed to something like crime boss or monarch, which could be interpreted positively.
  • Armor and Magic Don't Mix: 5th Edition retains the "no arcane spell failure" ruling from 4th Edition and the mechanic has been simplified to "if you're not proficient in the armor you're wearing, you can't cast magic while wearing it". Druids are still restricted to using "natural"/nonmetal armors and shields, but the Player's Handbook doesn't give a reason. The March 2016 Sage Advice column finally said that it's taboo, but that the player and DM can discuss how flexible said taboo is to the point of breaking it. That said, DMs can also house rule a number of the esoteric materials from the 3.x Edition supplement books as well.
  • Artificial Insolence:
    • The spells conjure celestial and conjure fey summon powerful magical NPCs that bow all of your orders to a letter unless those orders violate their In-Universe Character Alignment. For example, a good-aligned unicorn will use its healing touch whenever you tell it to, but it won't burn down an orphanage full of terminally ill puppies, because that'd be evil.
    • Conjure elemental is a concentration spell that summons a strong elemental, but if you lose concentration on the spell the elemental does not disappear. Instead, it becomes hostile to you and takes whatever actions it chooses.
    • Summon greater demon and infernal calling summon powerful fiends, but you need to make repeated charisma checks versus their insight (infernal calling) or the fiend will make charisma saves at the end of each of its turns (summon greater demon). If the fiend succeeds, it no longer has to obey you and can do whatever it wishes for a certain number of rounds before it disappears.
    • Depending on the DM, this might be the justification for why Necromancy magic spells that raise the dead are classed as morally evil. If a skeleton doesn't receive constant instructions from whoever raised it, it will just go off and murder things of its own accord.
  • Ascended Meme:
    • The "green flame" Running Gag from Acquisitions Incorporated has become popular enough that the adventures "Out of the Abyss" and "Curse of Strahd" have a mace that emits green flame and a gateway filled with green flame, respectively.
    • After years of fans joking about making a "human" PC or NPC that's actually three kobolds in a trench coat, the "Rime of the Frostmaiden" module actually canonized kobolds doing just that, taking advantage of a frigid region's need for heavy coats.
  • As Lethal as It Needs to Be: A melee attack can be declared beforehand as lethal or nonlethal. The latter just knocks the target unconscious rather than outright killing them if it reduces the enemy to zero HP, as if they were a player character that had gone down to zero HP instead.
  • Attack Failure Chance: Attacks are represented by rolling a twenty-sided dice and adding the character's attack bonus to the result, hitting if the total exceeds the target's Armor Class. However, if the dice lands on "1" before attack bonus is added the attack is a Critical Failure, conversely a "natural 20" is an automatic hit and a Critical Hit if it would have hit anyways in some editions.
  • Attack Speed Buff: The spell Haste grants the recipient an extra action per turn that can only be used for specific purposes, including attacking. It lasts up to a minute, after which the recipient loses their next turn to a wave of lethargy.
  • Awesome, but Impractical:
    • Fireball becomes this after a time. Yes, the spell does obscene damage over a big blast radius, but when you first get it, you have few spell slots to use it when you also have the more ubiquitously useful counterspell and dispel magic. After Level 10, many monsters have fire resistances and immunities which cut into the poorly scaling damage. Also, Fifth Edition doesn't have Friendly Fireproof when it comes to spell damage, which could potentially mean a Total Party Kill in the wrong situation. So while fireball is a Disc-One Nuke, it's not really worth using at higher levels.
    • True strike is a cantrip that allows casters to make an attack against a creature with Advantage (so you roll your to-hit dice twice and take the higher number). But true strike requires an Action to cast, and requires Concentration to maintain. And if the enemy targeted is killed by another player, moves out of range or line of sight, or your Concentration is broken (usually by an enemy hitting you while you're too busy thinking about how you're going to wallop your enemy) then it fails. All of this means it's more effecient to just attack twice instead of casting the spell.
    • The Deck of Many Things. Ostensibly, drawing the right card can be a Game-Breaker; drawing the Sun card grants fifty thousand experience points and a free Wondrous Item, the Moon card grants one to three wishes, and the Star card increases any one of your ability scores by two. At the same time, you might also pull cards that summon an Avatar of Death which you have to fight alone, destroy all your magic items, permanently lower your Intelligence, or trap your soul in some random gem somewhere in the world. Pulling a card from the Deck almost certainly makes a campaign go Off the Rails, for better or for worse. For this reason, it's almost never worth it to try a draw unless you're really desperate.invoked
    • Some Feats suffer from being really cool on paper, but not very helpful in practice due to being overly specific. For example: Keen Mind on paper sounds really strong (+1 Intelligence, always know which direction north is, easier ability to remember time, and the ability to accurately recall anything seen/heard up to a month ago), but most of the abilities are so specific in use, that a player would rarely find a chance to use them. Having the ability to know these facts is certainly neat, and can help give a character more personality, but other Feats can provide more utility, or just take the base Ability Score Improvement instead.
  • Balking Summoned Spirit: The spells conjure celestial and conjure fey summon a powerful magical creature that obeys the summoner by default, but refuses any instructions that conflict with its Character Alignmentinvoked.
  • Begin with a Finisher: The Recharge system incentivizes this by giving certain powerful attacks (such as a dragon's Breath Weapon) a single use, followed by a chance each round for it to recharge. Using it immediately maximizes the chance to use it again in the same fight. Additionally, challenge ratings are calculated with the assumption that a creature will always use the most damaging attack it has.
  • Boring, but Practical:
    • 5e has a few feats that don't do anything flashy but will save your bacon when it counts.
      • Alert, which gives you a much higher chance of going first in combat (a massive advantage for most classes) and also prevents you from being hit with sneak attacks, even if you get ambushed.
      • Observant gives a big bonus to passive Perception and Investigation so you'll hardly ever miss any important clues while dungeon crawling.
      • Tough gives +2 HP for every level you have when you take it, as well as increasing HP by an additional two points every level up. These feats are especially good at low levels when it is quite easy to die, and while it does eventually start not providing much later, it still remains a helpful boon should one level their Consitution stat over time to get more HP.
      • Resilient gives the user +1 to a single stat, and gives them proficiency in that Saving Throw. Nothing flashy, but getting an additional bonus to a Saving Throw can be a life saving choice in some fights, plus the +1 to a stat can help bump up awkward stats to better levels. Give a Wizard Resilient and chose Constitution for example, and you've increase the chances of them holding concentration on a spell.
    • Most Wizards and Sorcerers swear by magic missile. The damage is low, but it's an Always Accurate Attack that ignores damage resistance. Plus it's a 1st level spell, so you have plenty of slots for it. There are a few spells that can block magic missile, but they tend to only block ''magic missile'' and nothing else.
    • Many "utility" spells, like water breathing and transmute rock, have no use against enemies in battles but are absolutely useful in solving problems the party faces outside combat. Very basic spells like light and detect magic are vital even at high level play.
    • Humans. "Why play a human in a fantasy game?" is a question you will hear a lot, and humans don't get any cool racial powers or flavour. What they do get in Fifth Edition is either a +1 to all core stats (standard human) or +1 to any two core stats of your choice, a free skill proficiency and a free feat (variant human). Really, the free feat alone makes the race a top tier choice for any class.
      • According to semi-official statistics, Human Fighter is the most popular character to play because it combines the already hugely practical human race, with the exceedingly simple but awesome fighter. Sure, you won't blow up legions with fireballs, but you will deal reliable damage, have the best bonuses out of any character in your party, and most of the time you won't fight more than a few opponents at a time anyway, so no foul done.
    • The Druid-exclusive spell goodberry summons ten magical berries into the hand that each recover 1HP when consumed, and satiates one person for an entire day. It has a very low resource cost being a 1st Level spell, lets the party save some money that would otherwise be spent on rations, and all it takes is 1HP recovered to prevent a dying character from bleeding out. It's like having the ability to make Senzu beans. Zee Bashew of Animated Spellbook recommends introducing a "goodberry consumes its material component" house-rule to prevent the spell becoming an utter Game-Breaker in survival-focused campaigns. And better still, goodberry benefits from the Life Cleric's "Disciple of Life" subclass feature so your magic berries now recover 4HP each - a character can heal 40HP by gulping down all ten berries in one handful like Smarties, incredible healing economy from just a 1st level spell slot.
    • Hold person can't kill anyone on its own and only targets humanoids, but most humanoids lack the high Wisdom that makes it difficult for the higher-level version hold monster to work on actual monsters. It also lacks a weakness of Tasha's hideous laughter, which does the same thing but gives the target a saving throw every time it takes damage; hold person simply paralyzes someone with no chance to break out if they're hit. At 2nd level, it's a cheap spell to use, but it paralyzes an enemy, meaning that any physical attacks against it are an automatic crit, allowing everyone else to tear them apart while the enemy can do nothing about it.
    • Going more into combat utility spells, fog cloud, sleet storm, and most of the various Wall spells don't directly do damage, but utterly change the battlefield, mostly to the caster's favor. Simply obscuring an enemy's sight goes a long way towards stopping them from attacking you and as fog cloud and sleet storm produce 'heavily obscured terrain,' enemies who taunt you with Darkvision or Truesight suddenly find themselves completely clueless as to what to do. Other good battle utility spells include erupting earth for the difficult terrain produced, reverse gravity for the fact it sticks enemies in specific spots, and Maelstrom, which pulls enemies towards a whirlpool.
    • Force damage. Very few creatures across the entire cosmology resist force damage, and some spells like magic missile are designed to be an Armor-Piercing Attack that hits no matter what. However, nothing is weak to force damage, you can't get critical hits with it, and there tends to be some sort of caveat to spells that use it — magic missile does very little damage, and Disintegrate will do absolutely nothing if the target passes the saving throw. The result is an element that gives casters spells which provide unremarkable but consistent damage.
    • Among cantrips, there is eldritch blast, a staple spell of many a Warlock. Eldritch blast is a simple force-elemental spell where the caster sends out a bolt of magic to damage the enemy, and yet it's one of the most powerful and useful cantrips in the entire game. Eldritch Blast scales well with level — at its strongest, it's 4d10 damage at no cost with an element that practically nothing is immune to. And with Warlocks having so many ways of buffing their spells with Eldritch Invocations, you can basically make a Warlock who has this cantrip as a go-to spell, even if other spells have stronger effects or more utility.
    • Also among cantrips, the Bard has vicious mockery. Its damage is quite weak — at its strongest, vicious mockery only does 4d4 psychic damage, and there's quite a few high-level monsters that are immune to psychic damage for one reason or another. However, the target doesn't have to understand the Bard for vicious mockery to work, and it causes the target to have disadvantage on its next attack roll. And since giving an enemy a very good chance at missing with its attack is useful at any level, expect a Bard to always have it in their back pocket.
    • Healing Word is a frequently used low leveling healing spell for the sheer practicality of having a low level ranged heal when most tend to be Touch focused. Yes, Cure Wounds heals more, and there are better spells to use for healing, but the sheer power having a cheap ranged healing spell provides is a lot to ignore, since it can be used as a way to save allies from dying when they are unconscious, and can stabilize people without need to get closer to them. A well timed Healing Word can be a quick way to save someone's life in the heat of battle, all at the cost of a single first level spell slot, and not needing to get within melee range and risk damage.
    • Some character subclasses new to 5E are arguably uninspiring to play compared to other options, but undeniably handy:
      • Champion Fighter, which is a Homage to "classic" fighter characters of previous editions. No magic or fiddly skills to speak of, just a big block of high physical stats and passive bonuses to make an exceptional athlete and physical combatant. Champions receive an expanded crit range, an additional fighting style over other Fighter subtypes, and Regenerating Health when below 50% HP. Playing a Champion Fighter isn't an especially interesting experience (which is why most players recommend it as a multiclass dip rather than an exclusive 1-to-20 standby) but their very solid damage output and high defense is a huge asset for any party.
      • Circle of Land Druids lack the fancy abilities of other Druid subclasses - their chief competitor from the PHB, the Circle of Moon Druid, can turn into more powerful animals making them a Disc-One Nuke. Land Druids instead get eight free spell preparations to keep in their back pocket, ready to cast whenever needed (and many of these spells are not on the normal Druid spell list and are quite potent - Mountain Druids can nick passwall spell from the Wizard spell list, as just one example), the ability to regain spells on short rests like Wizards do, and a bunch of passive defensive features to boot. At the capstone level, Land Druids can move through difficult terrain, are immune to poisons (one of the most common damage types in the game), diseases and the Charmed and Frightened effects, and gain advantage on ignoring movement-limiting effects like entangle. All this doesn't have quite the same "wow" factor at the table as turning into a dinosaur or a flaming entity, but you could do much worse.
      • Draconic Bloodline Sorcerers get one extra HP point per level as part of their subclass feature, and a built-in AC boost equivalent to permanent mage armor. Given that mage armor is pretty much a must-take for Sorcerers, freeing up a valuable spell choice (and spell slot) to become the toughest of your ilk has got to be the definition of Boring, but Practical. There's also the Divine Soul Sorcerer, which hasn't really got any special class features... except being able to learn spells from the Cleric spell list, and improve their healing spells with Metamagic to make them some of the best in the game. In another way, Sorcerers have a boring but crucial advantage over other spellcasters in that they get Constitution saving throw proficiency as standard - Wizards may mock Sorcerers for lacking the same spell options and sheer versatility, but keep that in mind when you fail a Concentration check while soaring 100 feet in the air with fly or guarding with stoneskin when you really cannot afford to take any more damage.
      • Order of Scribes Wizards can turn their Spell Book into a sentient Familiar. That's their thing, they have a pet book. It's not as impressive as some other wizards, but this is a big deal. This pet book can be replaced for free along with all the spells inside if ever lost or destroyed, instantly taking away one the big worries about being a Wizard. You can alter the damage type of your spells temporarily to suit enemy elemental weaknesses, cast ritual spells without the 10-minute setup time, summon a magical quill, create enhanced spell scrolls for your own use as well as regular scrolls for others using spells from your book, and summon your spellbook's sentience as a floating spectral mind you share a telepathic link with, so you can see and cast spells through it.
    • Mules cost only 8 Gold each to hire, but have a carrying capacity of 420lbs with all the bags and harnesses. For a low-level or particularly cash-strapped party who is looking to change that, a mule or even two is a really cost-effective way to haul tons of loot and valuables back to town for sale.
    • More generally, having a character carry an Emergency Weapon is highly recommended. Even though Wizards rely primarily on their spells to do the work, a dagger can function as a handy tool for numerous applications, and more importantly, still function in an Anti-Magic field. Rogues might want to keep a club or light hammer on hand to lay the smackdown on unbackstabbable undead creatures. And a Fighter is practically expected to carry multiple sidearms in addition to their firm favourite, usually ones with the Thrown property. If absolutely nothing else is at hand, a bottle or a stool leg used as an Improvised Weapon is still better than fighting with your fists (and the Tavern Brawler feat amongst other bonuses grants your character proficiency in improvised weapons, encouraging you to pick up and pulp baddies with whatever you can get your hands on).
    • Sometimes, Dungeon Masters get useful aids too. Maybe you would like a well-trained town guard Mauve Shirt to guide a 1st Level party of newbies or children through their first quest, or maybe you'd like the Mascot Mook to have a moment in the limelight helping the party in their climactic encounter with the Big Bad. Whatever the case, Sidekick classes from Tasha's allow you to quickly and easily beef up a low CR creature to make a stronger ally for a low-level party, or give a low-level party a credible threat.
  • Cannot Cross Running Water: Fifth Edition vampires are similar to 1st and 2nd Edition vampires: they can cross running water but take a flat 20 hit points of acid damage if they end their turn in it.
  • Cap Raiser:
    • Most powers that don't use spell slots are limited to a few uses a day. The only way to increase the amount of uses is to gain character levels (or sometimes, increasing a stat).
    • Each stat normally has a cap of 20. The capstone ability for the Barbarian, Primal Champion, increases the Barbarian's Strength and Constitution scores by four points each, while also raising their cap to 24. Rare magic items can make it go even higher, but there's a "hard cap" of 30; under the rules, a stat cannot go beyond 30, no matter what.
  • Carry a Big Stick: The Maul deals the most damage of any single weapon (tied with the Greatsword, which is identical mechanics-wise aside from damage type). It's the heaviest weapon in the game aside from the Pike.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Having 20 in a stat is implicitly superhuman. You can easily train two stats to 20 through ASIs (especially if you min-max).
  • Cold Flames: The continual flame spell creates a permanent fire that doesn't burn or use oxygen and is used to make Everlasting Torches.
  • Compelling Voice: The spell suggestion enables the caster to influence the mind of their target towards a given action. It has to be a reasonable action, thus a "suggestion".
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: Subverted big time. Any player or DM should be familiar with the Action Economy, which dictates that in any match between roughly equal opponents, whichever side can take more turns are going to win easily. It can be played straight by monsters or players who can dish out more than one attack on their turn, but, as a rule of thumb, the side with the numerical advantage tends to have a big advantage.
  • Contractual Boss Immunity: Many powerful monsters get a special trait called Legendary Resistance, which lets them No-Sell between one and five saving throws a day. This is intended as a counter against the memetic solution of "polymorph the dragon into a frog" and similar save-or-suck spells. This makes boss enemies harder to take down, but also means a party fighting it will be gradually weakening it; a monster using all its Legendary Resistances usually means the party is likely to win.
  • Counterspell:
    • While technically not a spell, bards in 5th Edition have the countercharm ability that grants the bard and any allies within a 30 foot radius advantage on saving throws against becoming charmed or frightened.
    • And there's the literal spell counterspell, which requires a check based on the level of the spell being countered. Noteworthy is that you can use counterspell on another caster's counterspell, saving the original spell from being countered. Dispel magic is similar, but only for continuous magical effects and can't be used as a reaction.
    • For spellcasters on a budget, there's silence, which conjures up a 20ft magical sphere on a point of your choosing within 120ft. It shuts down any spells that rely on a verbal component for casting - handy for fighting Liches because all of their spells need verbal components to cast.
    • 5e also has the spell antimagic field, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Spells can't be cast in the field, all magic stops working in the field, any magic that tries to enter it instantly vanishes, teleportation to and from the field is impossible, and magic-summoned creatures briefly wink out of existence while they're within the field. Of course, this also prevents the caster from using anything else, since the field is focused on them. And since it can only be cast by a Wizard or a Cleric, this means depriving yourself of black magic and white magic until the field goes away. But if you're up against an enemy who's throwing out magic left and right, it's startlingly effective.
  • Critical Hit: Rolling a nat 20 on a d20 dice is considered a critical hit, causing the attack to have twice as many damage rolls. For instance, if a sword dealt 1d8 damage a normal attack, a critical hit would change that to 2d8 damage. Also, a nat 20 on an attack roll always hits, regardless of the target's armor class. This was a popular house rule for a while before Fifth Edition made it into an actual mechanic. (This only applies to physical strikes, though; spells can't get critical hits if they don't use an attack roll.)
  • Critical Hit Class:
    • The Fighter's Champion subclass deals a critical hit with a natural 19 on their attack rolls in addition to the normal natural 20. Later levels include a natural 18 in this ability as well, making the Champion Fighter thrice as likely to land critical hits as everyone else.
    • The Rogue's Assassin subclass deals a critical hit every time they hit an enemy that's surprised. Combined with Sneak Attack dice, this allows the Assassin Rogue to have some of the highest burst damage in the game.
    • Barbarians can use Reckless Attack to gain advantage on attack rolls, increasing their chances of dealing a critical hit. Also, a Barbarian's Brutal Critical feature adds extra damage dice to each critical hit that they land.
  • Damage-Increasing Debuff:
    • The hunter's mark and hex spells both make an afflicted creature take extra damage from the caster's attacks for the duration of the spell. If the victim dies before the spell wears off, the caster can transfer the effect to a new victim.
    • Orcus can use a legendary action to create a column of negative energy. Any creature within the column's area gains vulnerability to necrotic damage.
    • Monster Slayer Rangers can designate one enemy as their Slayer's Prey. This makes the Prey take extra damage from one of the Ranger's weapon attacks each turn.
    • The elemental bane spell makes the target more vulnerable to a damage type of the caster's choice. It does this in two ways: it makes the target take an extra 2d6 damage of the chosen type the first time it takes such damage on a turn, and it negates the target's resistance (if any) to that damage type.
  • Damage Over Time: The heat metal spell, which is damage every turn that a creature is in contact with whatever's been super-heated by magic.
  • Dangerous Phlebotinum Interaction: 5th Edition includes a variant rule based on the 1st Edition Potion Miscibility Table. Worst case scenarios being the previously mentioned explosion and various poisonings, with the "best" case scenario being either one of the potions having their effect and duration doubled or one of the potions becoming a permanent effect. Although said permanent effect can be removed at the DM's discretion.
  • Death as Game Mechanic: In high-level games where Death Is Cheap and players often have relationships with the gods, dying can simply be a useful (and possibly economical) means to reach divine planes and chat with gods and their dead worshipers. Books for high-level games or high-magic settings, like the Mythic Odyssey of Theros, make this explicit.
    "Whatever a character learns during their temporary death, they can carry with them back into the mortal world. Such might make dying one of the most helpful things to happen in a character's greater heroic career."
  • Death of Personality: Several artifacts can have this effect, most infamously the hand and eye of Vecna. The Sword of Zariel from the 5th Edition adventure Descent into Avernus is notable for being absolutely bonkers powerful, but also changing your personality permanently to one fitting a Celestial without a save. At the very least, you do have to choose to attune to it.
  • Deadly Force Field: A Scroll of Protection against creatures plays with this. It acts as a force field, preventing certain types of creatures from entering the protected area. If the user of the Scroll tries to use it to push the creature(s) around or trap them, the protection immediately fails (precisely to prevent players from invoking this trope with those spells).
  • Dead Man Writing: One of the standard starting items for the Sage background is "a letter from a deceased colleague posing a question you have not been able to answer." One of the most common ways to flavor this is saying that your colleague was investigating something plot-relevant and either succumbed to the perils of adventuring, or was killed by someone because they knew too much.
  • Discard and Draw: A pyromancy-focused character may have to chose between the two most powerful 3rd level damage spells, fireball and minute meteors, for their 3rd level spellslot. Fireball deals massive damage in an area, making it the most efficient damage spell in the game. Minute meteors deals a bit more damage, and can be aimed more accurately to avoid hitting allies, but can only do half the damage of Fireball on each round, requiring three rounds to take full effect. Additionally, whereas fireball deals damage all at once, with only one chance for a saving throw, minute meteors deals damage in six smaller bursts, each requiring a saving throw that the enemy may succeed on.
  • Disc-One Nuke:
    • The common saying goes in regards to the Sleep spell that when it puts 28 hit points worth of monster to sleep, that 28 HP can mean five kobolds, or zero trolls. Sleep is incredibly useful in the very early game, but its usefulness drops off quickly when monsters start getting into double-digit health.
    • Fireball. 8d6 damage in an area is amazing for a while, able to clear out a lot of mobs of mooks with a single cast. As time goes on, that damage starts scaling pretty badly compared to a lot of other spells, and many enemies have fire resistance (or even immunity) at higher levels, causing the utility of fireball to fall off around the mid-point of a campaign.
    • A Variant Human character can take the Heavy Armour Master feat at creation, which reduces all nonmagical physical damage taken by 3 points while wearing heavy armour. 3 points also just happens to be the average damage dealt by the enemies you will likely be facing in the first level of your character's adventuring career. By the time Level 4 rolls around (where you can normally take a feat), Heavy Armour Master is merely good, and falls off in effectiveness as enemies begin to deal double-digit amounts of damage with each attack (and get to make multiple attacks in their turn too).
    • Circle of the Moon Druids focus on enhancing their Wildshape feature to become powerful combatants using it instead of being a supporting spellcaster, by raising the CR of creatures you can turn into (as long as your druid has seen the creatures). When first unlocked in Level 2, Moon Druids can transform into brown bears, lions and dire wolves, all CR 1 creatures that completely outclass martial PCs at that same level (for example a druid in bear form will have 30 HP and attacks twice in their turn, compared to a Fighter who might have 20 HP and one attack per turn). The disparity tapers off around Level 5, as martials catch up and become more powerful than most high-CR animals, and Druids start to unlock their really good spells so staying in humanoid form for fights and using Wildshape for emergency escape/utility makes more sense.
  • Difficult, but Awesome:
    • Wizards. You're far and away the most fragile and vulnerable characters in the whole game, with the widest spell selection and greatest versatility. A novice Wizard will stick to Magic Missile and Fireball and act as glorified artillery. A great Wizard will conjure up walls to split a difficult fight into two smaller and easier ones, or tip the wall over and crush the enemies on the other side, or funnel them into an oil slick, watch the enemies be riddled with arrows while they slip around uselessly and use their bonus action to laugh. Speaking of Grease, why not cast it on an ogre's club so it slips out of his hand when he swings it? Or combine with a pit trap and a lit torch to cook an enemy patrol? If you play a Divination Wizard then you can be a massive benefit to your party without even being physically there. With good knowledge of the environment, co-operation with the party and a little imagination, the Wizard will practically never fail to be the MVP.
    • In the same way, Druids present a conundrum because most of their spells are for battlefield control. They haven't quite the same generalist utility as Wizards, they do not have the same options for dealing direct damage as Sorcerers, and their support spell list pales in comparison to that of Bards and Clerics. Once mastered however, a Druid can completely lock down almost any encounter the party can run into and turn a challenging fight into a cakewalk.
    • As a general rule, spellcasters like Wizards and Bards are more challenging to play than martial characters like Fighters and Barbarians. Spellcasters have more abilities to consider and resources to manage, and tend to be more frail than martials as well (they have less HP and cannot wear heavy armour, not counting certain Cleric domains and multiclass builds who can). But spells offer a lot of versatility in puzzle-solving and social interactions that martials cannot hope to match, and spellcasters tend to be far more powerful than martials at higher levels.
    • Downplayed but present for the Battle Master subclass for Fighter. While still not as complex as a full caster, a Battle Master has quite a complex toolkit for a martial class. They have access to 15 or so different maneuvers, the best of which tend to add a potent short-term debuff or disable plus some extra damage to their regular attacks. An expert Battle Master can exert a lot of control over the battlefield, making their most dangerous opponents a lot less dangerous or much more vulnerable temporarily.
  • Doppelmerger: Accoriding to the sourcebook Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, true dragons have "echoes", alternate versions of themselves across the various iterations of the Material Plane who may be identical to them or vary in some characteristics. After reaching the apex of their natural growth, the only way for a dragon's power to increase further is to locate their echo and either fuse with or consume them. Dragons who successfully subsume multiple echoes in this manner grow to become great wyrms, beings of incredible power and the closest that most mortals will get to being gods.
  • Earth/Wind Juxtaposition: The Monster Manual mentions a rivalry between the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, and Ogremoch, Prince of Elemental Earth. It is said that Ogremoch's footsteps splinter the rocks he walks on, and his hatred infuses into the rock fragments and transforms them into gargoyles, creatures whose existence mocks the elemental air since they are capable of flight in spite of being made of stone. He sometimes hurls motes of gargoyles into Aaqa, where they take pleasure in battling and tormenting the Aaracokra, a race of Bird People whom the Wind Dukes employ as servants.
  • Elixir of Life: Drinking a Potion of Longevity reduces the drinker's age by seven to twelve years. However, each time one is drunk there's a 10% cumulative chance that the effect will be reversed, causing the drinker to age seven to twelve years.
  • Exact Words: Spells are worded very specifically so that their effects are clearly outlined and can't do anything beyond what's written.
    • Zone of Truth is a magical Truth Serum that will make anyone who fails a Charisma save have to tell the truth when speaking. But it does not compel anyone to speak, it allows things that are Metaphorically True to be said, and the person who's talking might still be wrong by saying what they believe is the truth but is unknowingly incorrect.
    • When a spell effects all creatures in an area, it means all creatures in an area, averting Friendly Fireproof. There are ways to get around damaging your allies through automatic saves and Exploited Immunity to elements or status effects, but there's very few ways to not target allies with an AOE spell if they're caught in the blast raidus.
  • Exploited Immunity:
    • Intelligent, spell-using undead (such as liches) can use spells that produce persistent effects over a large area (such as Cloudkill, Sleep, Stinking Cloud, etc) without worrying about being caught in the area of effect, as undead are immune to these effects.
    • Elven forces with mages can use Sleep spells with impunity, as elves and half-elves can't be put to sleep by magic.
    • Dragons who use the spellcasting variant in the Monster Manual can freely cast spells that inflict damage the same type as their breath weapon over large areas, as they are immune to it, such as a Red Dragon casting a point-blank fireball centered on itself to roast the pesky adventurers swarming it.
  • Extradimensional Emergency Exit:
    • The gate spell opens a magical portal to another plane of existence where a powerful entity waits. A person who acts quickly can pass through the Gate to the other plane. Problem: when you get to the other plane you're in the presence of the powerful entity, who may not be pleased by your arrival.
    • The spell plane shift allows the caster or a targeted creature to journey to another plane of existence.
    • The spell rope trick allows anyone to climb a rope and enter into an extradimensional space, where they can hide in safety.
  • Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: The dimension door spell is a teleportation spell whose name suggests that it works this way. And one version of the fluff text for teleportation in general states that all such spells work by jumping in and out of the Astral Plane.
  • Flaming Meteor: Played with by the meteor swarm spell, which conjures small "meteors" that deal bludgeoning damage on impact and then explode for fire damage.
  • Flashy Teleportation: The Cape of the Mountebank lets you teleport once a day. When used, it makes you disappear and reappear within two separate clouds of smoke.
  • Fooled by the Sound: Spellcasters can use minor illusion to create illusory sounds. Subjects of the spell don't get a save unless they're actively scrutinizing what they hear.
  • Force-Field Door: The prismatic wall spell creates one of these. While it's technically possible to pass through the wall, it's ill-advised; the wall causes all kinds of damage while attempting to pass through it, and it could potentially kill a hostile entity who tries by turning them to stone. It's also immune to the effects of anti-magic.
  • Fragile Speedster:
    • A Monk who isn't wearing any armour gains a fairly substantial boost to their movement speed while also enjoying a reasonable AC thanks to their "Unarmoured Defense" feature. At 9th level they can even move up and along vertical surfaces and even across the surface of liquids. Monks are also one of the few classes that can attack four times a turn by using "Flurry of Blows". They can even deflect projectiles! That said, their HP is quite low compared to other frontline fighters like Fighters and Barbarians of equal level, so if their special defenses fail them then they'll get walloped.
    • When a Bladesinger Wizard has their "Bladesong" active, they gain a speed boost, proficiency in acrobatics, the ability to add their Intelligence modifier to their weapon attacks and AC (which, when combined with the Shield and Mage Armor spells can make the bladesinger ridiculously hard to hit), and the ability to reduce the damage they take when they do get hit. But at the end of the day, they're still just Wizards - the class with the lowest hit die in the game, and they have no natural armour proficiency either.
  • Friendly Fireproof: Averted. If you use an area-of-effect spell or ability that damages creatures in an area, it means every creature in the area, friend or foe. However, the Sorcerer class has a metamagic option called "Careful Spell" which makes some targets automatically pass a saving throw on spells that require one, but it still affects them. Also, the Evocation Wizard gets an ability which excludes their allies completely, and it's the only one of its kind.
  • Geas: The geas spell forces the target to fulfill a certain condition or take 5d10 psychic damage. There's also a divine equivalent named 'quest', which pretty much functions the same way.
  • Genericist Government: Complex political intrigue is seldom a priority in this game, although 5th Edition does include an entry for political intrigue campaigns with the Ravnica setting book.
  • Glass Cannon:
    • Rogues are generally very fragile because they are limited to the lightest armour types, but a well-placed Sneak Attack will inflict truly eye-watering amounts of damage. Swashbucklers emphasize this by being the only Rogue subclass dedicated to fighting enemies head-on.
    • Sorcerers can be devastating fonts of magical firepower with powerful spells that can be further enhanced using Metamagic. However, Sorcerers have no armour proficiency and the lowest hit die of any class in the game along with Wizards.
  • Gold–Silver–Copper Standard: D&D is one of the early trope codifiers, with the addition of electrumnote  between gold and silver . Prices are usually listed in g.p., unless they're small prices, in which case they're listed in s.p. or c.p.. The exchange rates are as follows:
    • 10 c.p. = 1 s.p.
    • 5 s.p. = 1 e.p.
    • 2 e.p. = 1 g.p.
    • 10 g.p. = 1 p.p.
  • Grappling with Grappling Rules: 5e settles into a middle ground between previous editions — grappling becomes a simple opposed check, and there are a few maneuvers that can be done on a success.
  • Hammer Hilt: The Polearm Master feat lets a character who's armed with a spear, quarterstaff, pike, glaive, or halberd make an extra attack with the opposite end of their weapon as a bonus action when they take the attack action, dealing 1d4 bludgeoning damage.
  • Healing Potion:
    • A Potion of Healing is the most basic kind, refilling your hit points by a variable amount — the rarer the potion, the more it heals.
    • A Potion of Heroism gives you ten temporary hit points and makes you more resistant to damage for a set time.
    • A Potion of Vitality cures physical exhaustion, disease and poison, and maxes out your hit points as well.
  • Highly Specific Counterplay: In Fifth Edition, shield is a spell that increases the caster's armor class by five for the rest of the round. It also specifically blocks magic missile (which is otherwise an Always Accurate Attack).
  • Hijacking Cthulhu:
    • A character may attempt to control a Sphere of Annihilation with her intellect (an Intelligence check). Doing so successfully results in them temporarily controlling a tear in the reality that is capable of destroying pretty much anything in the universe on contact, No Saving Throw allowed.
    • The spell dominate monster. Provided you succeed, you now have complete control over whatever's in front of you, which can be anything from a true dragon to a Hekatonkheires.
    • There is also the magic jar spell, which can be used to takeover the body of a mighty beast, while its soul is sealed in a jar. Doing so can result in a deadly situation if the caster succeeds, as they maintain their intelligence and thought, but gain the physical powers of whatever the being was they took control over.
  • Hypnosis-Proof Dogs: Charm or Hold spells that only work on humanoids are lower level than those which affect other creature-types.
  • Immune to Mind Control:
    • Plants, slimes, insects, Golems and The Undead are immune to hypnosis and all other mind-effecting magic for various reasons.
    • In 5th Edition, certain classes have features that enable them to block charm, fear, mind reading, etc.
      • The Barbarian's Rage ability may also prevent them from being charmed or frightened, since they're too angry for such mind alteration to work.
      • Paladins gain the Aura of Courage ability at level 10, which prevents nearby allies from being frightened as long as the Paladin is conscious. Oath of Devotion Paladins also gain the Aura of Devotion at level 7, which does the same thing against being charmed.
  • "Instant Death" Radius: 5e altered the rules of attacks of opportunity, and they now only trigger on leaving an enemy's threatened space, and the Disengage action allows you to leave their area without triggering an opportunity attack, but at the cost of taking an action (although rogues can use their cunning action ability to do so as a bonus action instead). However, the "Sentinel" feat allows you to make opportunity attacks even if the target uses Disengage to get away from you.
  • Invisibility with Drawbacks: Most forms of invisibility available to PCs have some drawbacks to prevent abuse. The basic invisibility spell ends right after you make an attack or target someone with a spell, and items you pick up remain visible unless you can fit them in a pocket or bag. Greater invisibility turns everything you're holding invisible and keeps you that way for a while, but anything that can be used to See the Invisible will still work. Plus, creatures with truesight can just outright ignore invisibility and see you anyways.
  • Laughing Mad: The Tasha's hideous laughter spell inflicts a temporary form of this, as it prevents the target from doing anything but laughing. It ends if they succeed on a saving throw, which triggers when the creature is either attacked or reaches the end of its turn.
  • Lightning Bruiser:
    • Barbarians who don't bother with armour are still ludicrously difficult to bring down with direct damage. Not only do they have the highest hit die of any class in the game, but they also gain resistance to physical damage types (and Bear Totemists get resistance on all damage types except Psychic), and they get Relentless Rage later on ensuring that they No-Sell what would otherwise be a killing blow provided they pass a paltry DC 10 Constitution saving throw. Their "Unarmoured Defense" also means they can manage an AC just as high or even higher than if they were wearing something. Not to mention they're Barbarians, so they can use martial weapons and can really smack a poor sod with big attacks. But they're light on their feet too - Barbarians get extra movement speed at 5th level, a bonus to Initiative at 7th level, and Eagle Totemists can be even more absurd about this by hurtling around the battlefield with bonus action Dash moves while they are raging. If they could cast spells, Barbarians would be unstoppable.
    • Vengeance Paladins defy the usual expectation of heavily-armoured divine avengers by getting Haste, Misty Step, movement during opportunity attacks, and at 20th level, a whopping hour of 60ft Fly speed. Paladins of all stripes also get the unique Find Steed spell, so they can summon a horse to augment their otherwise poor mobility.
    • Certain Ranger archetypes fit this mould. Take the basic Hunter, which already has strong damage output at both melee and range, but Unearthed Arcana revises the class to give it increased movement and Advantage on Initiative rolls on top of that. Throw in some defensive tricks on top of the classes' Fighter-peer HP and armour and "Multiattack Defense" giving the class some protection against creatures with high attack volume, and you're onto a natural-born winner. Don't get us started on Horizon Walkers, with their Teleport Spam.
  • Loads and Loads of Rules: 5th Edition subverts this, with nearly all setting-agnostic information is contained in three books: Player's Handbook, Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide. There's two expansions called Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Xanathar's Guide to Everything, which provide updates and new options for monsters and player characters without really changing the rules of the game. Compared to the dozens upon dozens of splatbooks from 3rd edition, this is a vanishingly small amount of books.
  • Logical Weakness: A few classes and abilities gained these features.
    • Generally speaking, most spells have a Verbal or Somatic Component that must be performed to cast it. Preventing a spellcaster from speaking loudly and clearly removes the verbal component, and binding a spellcaster's hands prevents the somatic component. And if a spell also requires a Material component (either a channeling focus or a consumable item), then this can be blocked by simply removing the item(s) from the caster's possession. For all her incredible powers, a witch can be easily subdued by gagging her mouth, tying her hands up in rope, and taking away her precious magic wand.
    • A Druid's Wild Shape can only transform them into animals, beasts, and creatures that the Druid has seen with their own eyes. So you can't make a Druid turn into a whale if they've never so much as seen the ocean before, and good luck getting them to transform into a dinosaur unless they're time travelers or native of the jungles of Chult.
    • Telekinesis requires there to be an object to lift or throw in the first place. If there isn't, the spell can't be cast.
    • The silence spell makes a small area magically silent. Spells that require a verbal component can't be cast in that area, and it also makes anything inside it immune to thunder damage since thunder is based on damage through loud noise.
    • Several spells and abilities based on sound or speech (such as Bardic Inspiration or vicious mockery for a bard) require the target to be able to hear the caster in order for them to work.
    • Zone of truth makes anyone inside the zone unable to lie. However, the spell doesn't compel anyone to speak. Also, one can use something that's Metaphorically True or hinges on Exact Words to technically be telling the truth while still being vague.
  • Luck Manipulation Mechanic: In 5th edition, halflings can reroll any 1 on a d20 roll, wild magic sorcerers have a Bend Luck ability to add or subtract to others' rolls, while fighters and paladins have access to a weapon ability that lets them reroll any 1 or 2 when calculating damage. There's also the "Lucky" feat, which lets you reroll a d20 three times a day.
  • Mage Tower: The spell Galder's tower from Lost Library of Kwalish, only usable by wizards, conjures a small such tower out of thin air. The tower disappears after 24 hours, but can be maintained for another day by recasting the spell, and if you keep the tower in place for a whole year it becomes permanent.
  • Magic Knight: Three subclasses are based around this archetype. The Eldritch Knight is a Fighter who uses a limited array of Evocation and Abjuration spells to augment their combat abilities, whilst the Bladesinger is a wizard who has learned to use a sword when enemies draw close. Hexblade Warlocks get their power through a bond with a powerful magical weapon, making them brutal with both spells and weapons.
  • Magic Staff: Staffs allow their wielders to cast a selection of spells without drawing from their personal magic reserves — although each staff only has a set a set number of uses and will need time to recharge when these are used up — and typically require attunement by a magic-user such as a wizard, sorcerer or warlock before being usable.
    • A Staff of Charming is good at Mind Controling opponents and helping you resist Mind Control.
    • The Staff of Power and Staff of the Magi allow you to cast a very broad variety of spells, and the Staff of the Magi can absorb enemy spells to recharge its own powers on the fly. They also share the Retributive Strike power: when deliberately broken, the staff explodes like a bomb, almost certainly killing all nearby opponents. The wielder has a 50% chance of traveling to another plane and a 50% chance of being annihilated.
    • A Staff of the Python/Adder turns into a snake to attack your enemies. It comes in python (constriction) and adder (poisonous bite) versions.
    • A Staff of Swarming Insects can summon swarms of flying insects or individual giant ones.
    • A Staff of Thunder and Lightning can be used to throw lightning bolts or create peals of thunder.
    • A Staff of Withering can cause the victim to age ten years and suffer a withered arm or leg.
    • A Staff of the Woodlands can cast a number of plant- and animal-related spells, and can be planted into the ground to turn into a tree that can be turned back into the staff on command.
    • A Voyager Staff can cast a number of teleportation and travel-related spells.
  • Make Some Noise: The Boring, but Practical silence spell suppresses all sound in an area. It serves as the poor man's Anti-Magic, since it makes Magical Incantations impossible. In Fifth Edition, it has the extra benefit of making the area immune to thunder damage, since thunder damage is based on sound, which naturally wouldn't work in an area that's been made to be magically silent. And of course, it helps out if you're taking the stealthy approach too.
  • Man on Fire: The searing smite and immolation spells both set their targets on fire. The victim takes fire damage at the start of each of its turns until the spell ends.
  • Maximum HP Reduction:
    • In previous editions, ability damage or ability drain to your Con ability was essentially this trope, because a character's maximum hitpoints are calculated from it. In 5e, however, these effects typically now reduce your maximum HP directly. While they no longer damage your Constitution itself, having your maximum HP reduced to 0 is just as deadly as having Con reduced to zero used to be. These effects usually wear off over time, but stronger ones may require magical healing (or even wish) to undo them.
      • Note that in particular, this means that this trope is averted for character resurrected from the dead, contrasting with previous editions; they instead takes a temporary penalty on all d20 die rolls.
    • The Vargouille monster can do this. If the victim of its attack fails a saving throw vs. poison, the Hit Points of damage inflicted are lost permanently and can only be recovered by using a Wish spell. No form of healing magic will bring them back.
  • Medicinal Cuisine:
    • The humble Druid spell goodberry creates or enchants a few berries so that each one can heal a point of damage and provide a day's nourishment.
    • The mid-level heroes' feast spell creates a magnificent banquet that cures all poisons and diseases in the people who eat it, among other ongoing benefits.
    • The Chef feat, from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, allows the character to cook special food which makes some of their party members recover more HP from Hit Dice on a short rest. Alternatively, they can cook a number of treats which give anyone who eats them a small amount of temporary hit points.
  • invoked Moment of Awesome: Invoked with the "inspiration" mechanic, which is intended as something the DM can give a PC who does something particularly noteworthy. The player can then use this inspiration token to give themselves advantage on any check, save, or attack. Alternatively, a player can use their inspiration token to reroll something after it's been rolled. However, any player can only have inspiration once, and it's gone as soon as it's used (regardless of the result).
  • Mighty Glacier:
    • Paladins can equip all the best armour types and can deal out some really impressive damage with their Smites, but almost nothing in their class chassis offers anything to improve their movement, and they'll usually stay amidst the party where their powerful protective auras can be of the most benefit.
    • Certain Cleric domains can wear the heaviest armour types along with shields and get special Damage Reduction perks, and a good number of them also have martial weapon proficiency on top and the "Divine Strike" feature to enhance their weapon attacks and let them compete with the Fighters and Barbarians in the realm of physical combat - impressive given their wheelhouse is versatile and powerful divine magic. But without many mobility-enhancing features, Clerics aren't much threat at long distance, and their magic toolkit being geared towards supporting their allies means they rarely stray far from the party anyway.
    • Mountain Dwarves have a base movement speed of 25, much less than most other races, but they have bonuses to Strength and Constitution allowing them hit a bit harder and have a little more HP. They also get natural racial proficiency with light and medium armour, as well as with battleaxes, handaxes, light hammers and warhammers - so even a Dwarf Wizard can be a fairly considerable threat in close combat. Provided they ever get there.
  • Minmaxer's Delight:
    • Level 3 College of Valor Bards are considered good to dip into because it gives you access to medium armor, shields, martial weapons, and Combat Inspiration, which can turn classes like Sorcerers and Warlocks into a better Magic Knight, without losing your stats focus on Charisma.
    • Life Cleric 1 is a popular dip for other healer classes. Proficiency with all armor and shields while keeping spell slot progression is already good enough, but the icing on the cake is the extra healing that is applied to every healing spell. Having a Druid X/Life Cleric 1 often means the party can enter every single fight fully healed.
    • A mere 3 level dip into Fighter gives you access to two incredibly good once per rest abilities (Second Wind, which allows bonus action healing, and Action Surge, which borders on Game Breaking for certain builds) and access to the Fighter’s diverse array of subclasses. Champion is an especially common multiclass due to its very simple flavoring being easy to justify the dip, and its Boring, but Practical level 3 benefit of increasing critical range to 19-20, thus providing major benefits to critical-heavy classes like Barbarians and Rogues.
    • Paladins and Sorcerers often dip a level or two into Warlock to gain access to the class's regenerating "pact spell slots," since having a supply of spells that regenerates on a short rest fixes many of their design issues.
    • The Warlock class's signature eldritch blast cantrip is a popular poach for other classes like Sorcerers or Bard. Unlike other cantrips, eldritch blast offers additional attacks instead of additional damage dice, and the Warlock has a number of potent and useful Invocations to upgrade it further.
    • Hexblade Warlock is an extremely powerful 1-2 level dip for granting proficiency towards medium armor and shields, the ability to use Charisma for attack and damage rolls, and more importantly its 1st-level ability of substituting Charisma in place of Strength or Dexterity for the attack of any one weapon (and the only class to get to use their main stat for attacking since Fourth Edition), amongst other neat benefits. While it compares pretty powerfully to the other Patrons, it also destroys any of the Bard subclasses intended for melee like College of Swords or Valor. At the cost of being one level behind in the aforementioned subclasses, it's almost always better for Bards to multiclass into a single one for Warlock here to get the same beneficial effects (better weapons and armor) and the ability to attack with their highest stat instead of having to spend lots of points into Strength and/or Dexterity to actually be decent combatants. They also now get the ability to pick a different Bard college (such as Eloquence or Lore) that will grant them other buffs as well as picking up a 1st-level spell slot that recharges on a short rest and several cantrips that will greatly increase the Bard's martial capabilities. As a result, the Bard will be great at both melee and spellcasting.
  • Multiple Persuasion Modes: The Persuasion and Intimidation skills. Although they have to be role-played very differently, they are quite similar mechanically: both skills are Charisma-based and their main difference is that the former can improve the NPCs' attitude to the speaker on a successful check, while the latter worsens it. There is also the Deception skill, which lets characters tell convincing lies or hide what they are really meaning when they say something, but unlike the other two social skills, its checks are always opposed by the target's Insight skill.
  • Mystical City Planning: Present in the module FR6: Dreams of the Red Wizards. The city of Eltabbar in Thay is built in the shape of a huge glyph to confine a demon prince called Eltab. Making maps of Eltabbar is forbidden, because if the city is accurately mapped and the map is then destroyed, it reduces the power of the restraining glyph. If this occurs enough times Eltab could be freed, which would be a disaster.
  • Mythology Gag: The Talisman of the Sphere item found inside the 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide has the titular talisman looking almost exactly like the infamous large engraved face and mouth◊ containing a Sphere of Annihilation Death Trap from the Tomb of Horrors.
  • No Campaign for the Wicked: Fifth Edition lists the good and neutral deities up front in the character creation section, while setting the evil gods firmly in the 'know your enemy' part of the book. This, of course, has no effect on some players and DMs, who create all-evil campaigns frequently and with panache.
  • No-Gear Level: Stripping gear tends to occur if you get captured or contained. The Out of the Abyss module starts this way, as the party are prisoners and need to break out before they can get their gear. The monk class tend to shine here.
  • Noiseless Walker: Boots of Elvenkind allow the wearer to walk silently. The Boots also give advantage on Stealth checks that require moving quietly.
  • Non-Combat EXP: The game has various rules for DMs to give out experience points for completing tasks outside combat, such as talking one's way out of a fight or for superb roleplaying. Long before there were official rules for it, this was a very popular house rule; come Fifth Edition, various guidebooks made it into a core mechanic by giving suggestions for the amount of non-combat experience that players should get for thinking outside the box. A few adventure modules give suggestions for things like getting a hostile NPC to back off without killing them, saving someone from a grisly fate even at expense to the party, or using stealth to find out important information without being detected.
  • Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack:
    • A character can replace one of their attacks with a special melee attack that does no damage but inflicts a hindering status affect. These are Grapple, which if successful reduces the target's speed to zero for as long as you're holding onto them, and Shove, which knocks the enemy prone and means all melee attacks against them have advantage.
    • The optional 'Disarm' rule in the Dungeon Master's Guide allows a player to make an attack that does no damage but can knock the target's weapon out of their hands.
  • Non-Health Damage: Shadows are infamous for being far more deadly than their challenge rating would suggest because of this. When they land a hit, in addition to dealing damage they also reduce the target's Strength score by 1d4... and if their Strength is reduced to 0, the target drops dead of Stat Death, with no saving throw. This is especially brutal given that A) ability-draining attacks are otherwise unheard of in 5th Edition so there aren't many defenses against it, and B) Strength is a Dump Stat for almost every class so most player characters will only have an eight or ten.
  • Not Completely Useless: In 99% of cases, the cantrip true strike is worse than worthless to cast, since the one thing it's meant to do, give advantage on your next attack, could be done better by just attacking twice, not to mention that it takes concentration that can easily be broken. However, if the battle rests and falls on a single attack connecting, having True Strike can be indispensable to get an easy advantage where you usually would have to rely on a normal roll.
  • Only Killable at Home:
    • Outsiders have a home plane; if killed anywhere else, they'll reincorporate there. If they're killed on their home plane, they stay dead and even resurrecting them is tricky because they don't have a soul as much as they are simply composed of their home plane's essence.
      • Outsiders native to the material plane (mainly Half-Mortal Hybrids of many different sorts) avert this trope as they do have souls, and this soul prevents their entrance to the plane they are otherwise associated with. As such, once killed, they remain dead, and the normal rules of resurrection apply.
    • Vampires slain outside their coffin will turn to mist and return to it to regenerate. Only inside their coffins can they be slain.
  • Out-of-Turn Interaction:
    • Reactions are things that creatures can do in response to a certain trigger, even if it isn't their turn. The most common ones are Attacks of Opportunity (allowing a single melee attack against a creature that leaves your reach) or casting a reactionary spell like shield or counterspell.
    • Some monsters have Legendary Actions, which are special actions they can take when it's not their turn. Some of these are abilities or attacks that the monster can't use on their normal turn.
  • Percent-Based Values: In Fifth Edition, creatures take half the usual Hit Point damage from a damage type they have Resistance against. Previous editions use a fixed amount of Damage Reduction instead.
  • Phlebotinum-Handling Requirements: Spell scrolls can usually only be activated by characters who can also access the spell through their class spell list (e.g. only a wizard or sorcerer can use a scroll of magic missile, only a cleric or druid can use one of flame strike, et cetera). This restriction can be overcome by a high-level Thief Rogue with the Use Magic Device ability. Use Magic Device also lets Thieves overcome several other restrictions on magical items, most of which fall under Level-Locked Loot.
  • Playing with Fire: Fire damage is one of the most common damage types in the game, with plenty of spells that deal it or has the potential to deal it. The drawback is that there are also plenty of monsters who are resistant or outright immune to it.
  • Psychic Powers: 5th edition has a different take on psionics than previous editions. Spellcasting enemies from the 5E Monster Manual labeled as psionic don't require spell components in order to cast spells. While a version of a class centered around psionic powers, the Mystic, was playtested, it was eventually scrapped for being both too powerful and too versatile. Instead, psionics are implemented as subclasses of Rogue (Soulknife), Fighter (Psi Warrior) and Sorcerer (Aberrant Mind) classes, with feats available to all classes that grant limited telepathic and telekinetic powers.
  • Purposely Overpowered:
    • Fireball was left intentionally slightly above the powercurve as a Homage to its iconic place in D&D history. For comparison, fireball deals 8d6 damage at once, or half that if the target succeeds their one save. Compare that to the same level spell minute meteors, which deals 12d6, but only over three rounds, and requires the targets to fail six separate saves to deal full damage.
    • The Sword of Zariel, as mentioned above, is bonkers powerful, beating out even the Hand and Eye of Vecna in terms of power. The wielder becomes an angel in everything but name, gaining Celestial as a language, a massive boost to charisma, resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, wings, advantage on insight checks and Truesight. The sword itself, among other things, sheds light that weakens fiends around it and grants massive damage boosts, with no mechanical downsides aside from an alignment change and new personality. By the time the players get their hands on it, pretty much only the final boss remain, who's either an archdevil or demon lord. Even with the sword, the battle will be tough.
  • Quicksand Sucks: It's considered difficult terrain, which slows your movement down. And if you get stuck there too long without help, you start to drown.
  • Reduced to Dust: This is the result of a disintegrate spell if the target is killed by the damage. It turns them into dust and prevents regeneration, making it much harder to bring them back to life.
  • Relationship Values: Introduced as a rule in Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos. Players get a special sheet to note down their character's friends and rivals, with a +2 Relationship with friends, and a -2 with rivals. A friend can also turn into a Beloved, which includes romantic partners, best friends, platonic lifemates, and any other person the character is closer with than anyone else. There are also no limits on how many Beloved a character can have.
  • Ritual Magic: Spells with the "ritual" tag can be cast without expending spell slots by taking ten minutes to perform a ritualized version of the spell that draws magic from the ambient environment instead of the caster's normal spell source. Artificers, Bards, Clerics, Druids, and Wizards can perform rituals of any spell they know/prepared from 1st level, while the Ritual Caster feat allows a non-caster to learn how to perform rituals from one class spell list of their choice (but does not give them spell slots), and Warlocks can take an invocation that allows them to learn rituals from any spell list.
  • Rule Zero: Discussed in Chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. The DM has final say on anything that happens in the campaign; they determine what the players roll, how often they roll, and resolve any disputes between the players and the rules. While it's a meme in D&D circles that one player always insists on following the rules-as-written only when it benefits him, the DM is the ultimate authority for their world. The advice in the Dungeon Master's Guide also makes it clear that a rule serves the DM's role as the arbiter of their campaign, but they're free to bend or even break the rules-as-written if it means that it will give their players a better experience.
    Before you add a new rule to your campaign, ask yourself two questions: "Will the rule improve the game?" (and) "Will my players like it?" If you're confident that the answer to both questions is "yes", then you have nothing to lose by giving it a try. Urge your players to provide feedback. If the rule or game element isn't functioning as intended or isn't adding much to your game, you can refine it or ditch it. No matter what a rule's source, a rule serves you, not the other way around.
  • Sacred Flames:
    • The Cleric spell flame strike calls down a bolt of fire from the heavens that does half fire damage and half divine damage. The divine half is not subject to damage resistance to fire-based attacks.
    • There is also a cantrip for Clerics literally called sacred flame, which deals radiant damage as part of the magic priest's arsenal.
  • Set Bonus: The Hammer of Thunderbolts is nominally a +3 weapon. But if the wielder is also wearing Gauntlets of Ogre Power and a Girdle of Giant Strength, the Hammer of Thunderbolts becomes a +5 weapon, automatically kills any giant it hits, and (in early editions) was the only case in which the to-hit and damage bonuses from the Gauntlets and Girdle would stack.
  • Shadow Walker: The plane shift spell lets you travel to another dimension, where you can't target or be targeted unless you're also on the same plane.
  • Shape Dies, Shifter Survives: Fifth Edition Polymorph spells give the target the Hit Points of their new form; they revert if dropped to zero HP, but any extra damage is transferred to their original form. A few effects that can cause instant death, like the Disintegrate spell, still kill a polymorphed target outright.
  • Shapeshifting Heals Wounds: In 5th edition, a druid can shapeshift into an animal form with full hit points (some can even heal themselves once per transformation), but any damage that reduces the animal form's HP to below zero reverts the druid and is carried over to the druid's regular form, and while the druid can shapeshift again to a form for more hit points, the damage to the druid's body isn't healed. The strategy is known as "the onion" by some since each form must be defeated individually to beat the druid once and for all. For most of the game, a druid is limited to two transformations a day, but at the highest levels the druid can transform as often as they want.
  • Spell Blade: Many spells exist solely to power up other items.
    • The shillelagh spell causes a club to become (temporarily) magical, allowing the wielder to attack using their Wisdom instead of Strength.
    • Flame arrow, a Ranger-exclusive spell, can set a quiver of arrows on fire.
    • Green-flame blade wreathes a melee weapon in green fire, dealing additional fire damage if you land a hit with it.
    • Booming blade puts an enchantment on a melee weapon that causes the next thing it hits to be surrounded by a shell of energy that deals Thunder damage if it moves from its spot.
    • Magic weapon slightly increases a weapon's damage and allows non-magical weapons to harm creatures that otherwise are immune to conventional weapons. Elemental Weapon does the same thing, but also causes the weapon to deal a small amount of addition damage of an elemental type.
  • Spell Levels: Wizards, sorcerers, clerics, bards, and druids still have ten spell levels (cantrips and 1-9). The eldritch knight and arcane trickster archetypes have cantrips and spell levels 1-4. Artificers, paladins, and rangers have five spell levels (1-5). Warlocks are the strange one in this edition: while they have access to all 10 spell levels, their 6-9 level "Mystic Arcanum" spells are only limited to one spell for each spell level and can only be cast once per long rest.
  • Sphere of Destruction: Several area of effect spells create powerful damaging effects in the shape of spheres, including fireball, circle of death, dark star, hunger of hadar, maddening darkness, meteor swarm, and ravenous void.
  • Square Race, Round Class: 5th Edition brought back attribute penalties from 3rd Edition, but only for kobolds (-2 strength) and orcs (-2 intelligence) as playable monster races from Volo's Guide to Monsters. However, outcry from fans soon followed, arguing that the use of these penalties was bizarre. The backlash drove Wizards of the Coast to remove the negative modifiers on the races when they were republished in later books; nowadays, a player character's race only adds increases to certain stats, with no race getting any penalties.
  • Summon Binding: Zig-zagged as a general limitation of Summon Magic in this edition:
    • Planar Binding targets a single Outsider and - if it fails a saving throw - forces it to follow the caster's instructions to the best of its ability for the spell's duration. It only has to obey to the letter, though, and can still engage in malicious compliance if angry. If it passes the saving throw, it is under no such obligation.
    • In contrast, Planar Ally summons a non-hostile Outsider entity with whom the caster may then bargain for aid. The entity isn't under any compulsion to agree, but is kept in place until either it and the caster manage to work out a trade, or they fail to do so (in which case it will leave).
    • Conjure Animals, Conjure Minor Elementals, and Conjure Woodland Beings all summon relatively weak creatures that must obey the spellcaster.
    • Conjure Elemental and Conjure Fey summon more powerful entities under the spellcaster's verbal control. However, they become free-willed and hostile if the spellcaster ever loses concentration on the spell.
    • Infernal Calling and Summon Greater Demon summon an obedient but unfriendly devil or demon. It will constantly fight against the spellcaster's control via saving throws over the course of the spell; succeeding frees it to act however a monster that's Made of Evil wants.
    • Conjure Celestial summons a powerful angelic being that's friendly and cooperative, so long as the summoner's instructions don't conflict with its alignment, presumably because the summoner is usually a powerful divine spellcaster themself.
  • Supernatural Fear Inducer:
    • Various spells such as fear and cause fear can temporarily frighten an opponent or group of people. Phantasmal killer takes this to an extemre by forcing the target to save, or start taking actual damage due to fear.
    • All adult dragons have access to an aura of fear that can send characters within 120 feet of them into a panic.
    • Demons:
      • The demon princes Demogorgon and Yeenoghu can cast the spell fear as one of their innate abilities, as can the lesser demons Babau and Bar-Igura.
      • When three or more rutterkin are within 30 of someone, they can induce fear in them that renders them completely unable to move- the more rutterkin there are, the harder it is for the target to resist the effect.
    • Many devils have the ability to engender fear in living things. The exact details are different for each devil.
      • Bael can make himself appear terrifying and force everyone within 10 feet of him to become frightened.
      • Titivilus can speak something so horrible that a person within 10 feet of him becomes frightened and has to spend their turns running as far from him as they can.
      • When Hutijin takes damage, he can utter a word of power that can frighten all non-devils within 30 feet of him.
      • Moloch uses a Breath Weapon that inflicts psychic damage on everyone it hits and forces them to become frightened, drop whatever they're holding, and run as far from him as they can.
      • Pit fiends shed fear in a 20 foot radius to all creatures they're hostile towards.
    • Liches can fix their gaze on any creature within 10 feet of it and force them to become frightened.
    • Mummys can star at any creature with 60 feet and cause them to become frightened. If the creature fails the saving throw to resist the effect by 5 or more, they're outright paralyzed with terror and can take no actions.
    • A satyr can play music with its pipes to inflict fear on any opponent that hears it.
    • The first roar of an androsphinx can create fright in any creature within 500 feet.
  • Technician vs. Performer:
    • Wizards (Technician) vs. Sorcerers (Performer). In Fifth Edition, Wizards have more versatility in regards to having many more spells to choose from, but they can only cast them in static and consistent ways. Sorcerers have fewer spells but they also use a separate Metamagic system to alter their spells in various ways, like increasing the range or duration of effect. As Wizards use Intelligence as their spellcasting attribute, they tend to fit the role of The Smart Guy in the party, having extensive knowledge of multiple fields; Sorcerers use Charisma as their attribute and so are better suited to being The Face and using illusion magics.
    • Fighters (Technician) vs. Barbarians (Performer). Fighters enjoy access to heavy armour, a fighting style, extra feats and ability score increases, an Action Surge that allows them to make an addition action in a turn, and depending on the archetype chosen, an additional fighting style and enhanced crit range (Champion), battle manoeuvres (Battle Master) or rudimentary spellcasting (Eldritch Knight). Barbarians have more HP (the only class to use d12 as hit die), Rage and all the benefits with it, Reckless Attack, bonuses to saving throws from enhanced senses, extra movement and the bonuses of their chosen primal path. Barbarians fight harder, but Fighters fight smarter.
  • Teleport Spam:
    • The blink dog, a monster who teleport spams as a free action, makes a triumphant return for this edition.
    • 5e Conjuration School Wizards live off this and Summon Magic. At 6th level, they get an ability called Benign Transposition, the only economical and easy way to swap places with a party member in the game, that costs an action to use. It can also be used as a straight teleport. Here's the kicker, though; it recharges on a long rest or whenever you cast a conjuration spell of 1st level or higher. This can be combined with the 2nd level spell misty step to teleport all around a given area with near impunity, especially because misty step is a bonus action. This becomes truly spammable once you hit 18th level, if you choose to make misty step one of the spells you've Mastered; since Benign Transposition is one of very few abilities to recharge on the use of a type of spell but not specifically when a slot is expended, you can cast misty step an infinite amount of times to recharge Benign Transposition an infinite amount of times.
    • The 5e spell far step works on this principle. You teleport once 60 feet as a bonus action, and then for the next minute you can use another bonus action to teleport again.
  • Teleporter's Visualization Clause: The teleportation spell can work with places the caster hasn't been, but the risk of failure decreases with the level of familiarity with the place. Only a magic circle and having an object associated with the target location are completely safe.
    "Permanent circle" means a permanent teleportation circle whose sigil sequence you know.
    "Associated object" means that you possess an object taken from the desired destination within the last six months, such as a book from a wizard's library, bed linen from a royal suite, or a chunk of marble from a lich's secret tomb.
    "Very familiar" is a place you have been very often, a place you have carefully studied, or a place you can see when you cast the spell.
    "Seen casually" is someplace you have seen more than once but with which you aren't very familiar.
    "Viewed once" is a place you have seen once, possibly using magic.
    "Description" is a place whose location and appearance you know through someone else's description, perhaps from a map.
    "False destination" is a place that doesn't exist. Perhaps you tried to scry an enemy's sanctum but instead viewed an illusion, or you are attempting to teleport to a familiar location that no longer exists.
  • Truth Serums: The zone of truth spell for the Cleric and the Paladin. Within it, anyone who's talking can only tell the truth when speaking if they fail a charisma saving throw. However, while everyone might have to tell the truth in this area, there's nothing that compels them to speak.
  • Uniqueness Rule: In order to limit the power of player characters compared to previous editions, 5e characters can only be attuned (linked to; a character can only attune to three magic items at a time) to one copy of a magical item to prevent things like attuning to three copies of the best ones that the character can afford in order to stack their benefits.
  • Unknown Item Identification: The game has a number of options depending on the item to be identified:
    • Detect magic is a common, low-level spell that tells you if an item is magic or under the effect of a spell, and if it is under the effect of a spell what school of magic that spell is.
    • Identify is a 1st-level spell usable by wizards, artificers, bards, and some subclasses. It identifies all properties of a single magic item, excluding any curses placed on the item. You can scribe a scroll of the spell with the proper item creation feat. Another option is to use a Knowledge skill check to deduce the item's properties.
    • A character who frequently uses potions can learn to identify them by sampling the contents; just enough to taste but not enough to activate the magic.
    • 5th Edition follows from 4th Edition in allowing characters to identify magic items over a short rest. There is also a variant rule to make magic item identification more difficult by forbidding the "short rest examination" and requiring the use of either the identify spell, experimentation, or both to find out a magic item's properties.
  • Weak, but Skilled:
    • Wizards. Pathetic in personal combat, cannot use armour or heavy weapons, meagre d6 hit die... but the magical powers they command can turn the tide of a battle, if used intelligently.
    • College of Lore Bards exemplify this. Their d8 hit die and inability to wear armour make them poor combatants in direct fights, but they have the most skill proficiencies of any class in the entire game. They can gain Expertise (double proficiency) in four of them, and gain the "Jack of All Trades" feature to add half their proficiency bonus to any skill rolls they aren't proficient in - this includes Initiative. Did we also mention they can use spells and cantrips from other classes' spell lists?
    • Monks can use their "Martial Arts" class feature to attach their dexterity bonus to their melee attack rolls and damage rolls. Feel free to use Strength as your Dump Stat and remain effective on the frontline. They're also lightning fast, especially if they are elves or Tabaxi.
  • Weapon Specialization: In 5th Edition, this comes into play with "fighting styles", granting bonuses with either ranged weapons, two-handed weapons, one-handed weapons with a free hand, shields or dual-wielding. The primary classes to get them are Paladins, Rangers, and Fighters, who can only pick one of these styles, though the Fighter's Champion archetype can pick another style to make it two. Other classes can obtain them via Feats, or by certain subclasses like the College of Swords for Bards.
  • Weaponized Stench:
    • The stinking cloud spell conjures a horrible-smelling fog that nauseates anybody who fails the save.
    • The ghast is a more dangerous form of ghoul whose rotting stench can nauseate all living beings who get too close to it.
  • Weapons-Grade Vocabulary: Vicious mockery is a Bard cantrip that inflicts a small amount of damage and imposes a debuff on the target. The target doesn't even need to speak the same language as the Bard for this to work.

 
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Video Example(s):

Weaponizing the Bag of Holding

YouTuber throb-goblin explains ways to abuse the fact that bags of holding do not react well with extradimensional spaces such as portable holes or other bags of holding, or even being punctured from the outside by a sharp object.

Example of:
Dangerous Phlebotinum Interaction

Alternative Title(s): Dungeons And Dragons Next

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Weaponizing the Bag of Holding

YouTuber throb-goblin explains ways to abuse the fact that bags of holding do not react well with extradimensional spaces such as portable holes or other bags of holding, or even being punctured from the outside by a sharp object.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (14 votes)

Example of:

Main / DangerousPhlebotinumInteraction

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