DM Screen
The rules that get looked up in the middle of a session, on one page: every condition in full, the typical difficulty classes, cover, what a creature can do with its action, travel pace, light, the rulings that come up every week, and challenge rating to XP. Untick what you know by heart, then print it.
Conditions
Blinded
- A blinded creature can't see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.
- Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
Charmed
- A charmed creature can't attack the charmer or target the charmer with harmful abilities or magical effects.
- The charmer has advantage on any ability check to interact socially with the creature.
Deafened
- A deafened creature can't hear and automatically fails any ability check that requires hearing.
Exhaustion
Some special abilities and environmental hazards, such as starvation and the long-term effects of freezing or scorching temperatures, can lead to a special condition called exhaustion. Exhaustion is measured in six levels. An effect can give a creature one or more levels of exhaustion, as specified in the effect's description.
| Level | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Disadvantage on ability checks |
| 2 | Speed halved |
| 3 | Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws |
| 4 | Hit point maximum halved |
| 5 | Speed reduced to 0 |
| 6 | Death |
If an already exhausted creature suffers another effect that causes exhaustion, its current level of exhaustion increases by the amount specified in the effect's description.
A creature suffers the effect of its current level of exhaustion as well as all lower levels. For example, a creature suffering level 2 exhaustion has its speed halved and has disadvantage on ability checks.
An effect that removes exhaustion reduces its level as specified in the effect's description, with all exhaustion effects ending if a creature's exhaustion level is reduced below 1.
Finishing a long rest reduces a creature's exhaustion level by 1, provided that the creature has also ingested some food and drink. Also, being raised from the dead reduces a creature's exhaustion level by 1.
Frightened
- A frightened creature has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight.
- The creature can't willingly move closer to the source of its fear.
Grappled
- A grappled creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.
- The condition ends if the grappler is incapacitated.
- The condition also ends if an effect removes the grappled creature from the reach of the grappler or grappling effect, such as when a creature is hurled away by the thunderwave spell.
Incapacitated
- An incapacitated creature can't take actions or reactions.
Invisible
- An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid of magic or a special sense. For the purpose of hiding, the creature is heavily obscured. The creature's location can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves.
- Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage, and the creature's attack rolls have advantage.
Paralyzed
- A paralyzed creature is incapacitated and can't move or speak.
- The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
- Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
- Any attack that hits the creature is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature.
Petrified
- A petrified creature is transformed, along with any nonmagical object it is wearing or carrying, into a solid inanimate substance (usually stone). Its weight increases by a factor of ten, and it ceases aging.
- The creature is incapacitated, can't move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings.
- Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
- The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
- The creature has resistance to all damage.
- The creature is immune to poison and disease, although a poison or disease already in its system is suspended, not neutralized.
Poisoned
- A poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
Prone
- A prone creature's only movement option is to crawl, unless it stands up and thereby ends the condition.
- The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls.
- An attack roll against the creature has advantage if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature. Otherwise, the attack roll has disadvantage.
Restrained
- A restrained creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.
- Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
- The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.
Stunned
- A stunned creature is incapacitated, can't move, and can speak only falteringly.
- The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
- Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
Unconscious
- An unconscious creature is incapacitated, can't move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings.
- The creature drops whatever it's holding and falls prone.
- The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
- Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
- Any attack that hits the creature is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature.
Difficulty classes
| Task | DC |
|---|---|
| Very easy | 5 |
| Easy | 10 |
| Medium | 15 |
| Hard | 20 |
| Very hard | 25 |
| Nearly impossible | 30 |
Cover
| Cover | Effect | For example |
|---|---|---|
| Half | +2 to AC and Dexterity saves | An obstacle blocks at least half of the target: a low wall, furniture, another creature. |
| Three-quarters | +5 to AC and Dexterity saves | About three-quarters is blocked: a portcullis, an arrow slit, a thick tree trunk. |
| Total | Cannot be targeted directly | Completely concealed. An area effect can still reach it. |
Actions in combat
- Attack
- Make one melee or ranged attack (more with Extra Attack).
- Cast a Spell
- Cast a spell with a casting time of 1 action.
- Dash
- Gain extra movement equal to your speed.
- Disengage
- Your movement does not provoke opportunity attacks this turn.
- Dodge
- Attacks against you have disadvantage and you make Dex saves with advantage, until your next turn.
- Help
- Give an ally advantage on their next check, or on their next attack against a creature within 5 feet of you.
- Hide
- Make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide.
- Ready
- Choose a trigger and a response; use your reaction when it happens.
- Search
- Make a Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check to find something.
- Use an Object
- Interact with a second object, or use one that needs an action.
Travel pace
| Pace | Minute | Hour | Day | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast | 400 ft | 4 miles | 30 miles | -5 to passive Wisdom (Perception) |
| Normal | 300 ft | 3 miles | 24 miles | None |
| Slow | 200 ft | 2 miles | 18 miles | Can move stealthily |
Light and vision
- Lightly obscured
- Dim light, patchy fog, moderate foliage. Disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
- Heavily obscured
- Darkness, opaque fog, dense foliage. A creature trying to see into it is effectively blinded.
- Darkvision
- Treats darkness within range as dim light, and dim light as bright. No colour, only shades of grey.
Quick rulings
- Falling
- 1d6 bludgeoning per 10 feet fallen, to a maximum of 20d6. Land prone unless you avoid the damage.
- Forced march
- Past 8 hours of travel in a day, each extra hour needs a Constitution save, DC 10 + 1 per extra hour, or gain a level of exhaustion.
- Holding breath
- 1 + Constitution modifier minutes (at least 30 seconds). Then Constitution modifier rounds (at least 1) before dropping to 0 hit points.
- Concentration
- Taking damage: Constitution save, DC 10 or half the damage, whichever is higher. Fail and the spell ends.
- Short rest
- At least 1 hour. Spend Hit Dice to recover hit points.
- Long rest
- At least 8 hours. Regain all hit points and half your total Hit Dice (at least one).
CR, XP and proficiency
| CR | XP | Prof. |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 10 | +2 |
| 1/8 | 25 | +2 |
| 1/4 | 50 | +2 |
| 1/2 | 100 | +2 |
| 1 | 200 | +2 |
| 2 | 450 | +2 |
| 3 | 700 | +2 |
| 4 | 1,100 | +2 |
| 5 | 1,800 | +3 |
| 6 | 2,300 | +3 |
| 7 | 2,900 | +3 |
| 8 | 3,900 | +3 |
| 9 | 5,000 | +4 |
| 10 | 5,900 | +4 |
| 11 | 7,200 | +4 |
| 12 | 8,400 | +4 |
| 13 | 10,000 | +5 |
| 14 | 11,500 | +5 |
| 15 | 13,000 | +5 |
| 16 | 15,000 | +5 |
| 17 | 18,000 | +6 |
| 18 | 20,000 | +6 |
| 19 | 22,000 | +6 |
| 20 | 25,000 | +6 |
| 21 | 33,000 | +7 |
| 22 | 41,000 | +7 |
| 23 | 50,000 | +7 |
| 24 | 62,000 | +7 |
| 25 | 75,000 | +8 |
| 26 | 90,000 | +8 |
| 27 | 105,000 | +8 |
| 28 | 120,000 | +8 |
| 29 | 135,000 | +9 |
| 30 | 155,000 | +9 |
Encounter XP thresholds
Per character, by level. Add up the party, then compare the monsters' adjusted XP (the Encounter Builder does the multiplier).
| Level | Easy | Medium | Hard | Deadly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 |
| 2 | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 |
| 3 | 75 | 150 | 225 | 400 |
| 4 | 125 | 250 | 375 | 500 |
| 5 | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1,100 |
| 6 | 300 | 600 | 900 | 1,400 |
| 7 | 350 | 750 | 1,100 | 1,700 |
| 8 | 450 | 900 | 1,400 | 2,100 |
| 9 | 550 | 1,100 | 1,600 | 2,400 |
| 10 | 600 | 1,200 | 1,900 | 2,800 |
| 11 | 800 | 1,600 | 2,400 | 3,600 |
| 12 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 3,000 | 4,500 |
| 13 | 1,100 | 2,200 | 3,400 | 5,100 |
| 14 | 1,250 | 2,500 | 3,800 | 5,700 |
| 15 | 1,400 | 2,800 | 4,300 | 6,400 |
| 16 | 1,600 | 3,200 | 4,800 | 7,200 |
| 17 | 2,000 | 3,900 | 5,900 | 8,800 |
| 18 | 2,100 | 4,200 | 6,300 | 9,500 |
| 19 | 2,400 | 4,900 | 7,300 | 10,900 |
| 20 | 2,800 | 5,700 | 8,500 | 12,700 |
Rules text from the System Reference Document 5.1 by Wizards of the Coast, used under CC-BY-4.0.